[RAYMOND] PRE-LOYALIST SETTLEMENTS OF NOVA SCOTIA 211 
Massachusetts in local military service. From the 28th of April to the 
30th of November he was Captain of a company of Provincials and 
received £69.15.0. in payment of his services. The officers and privates 
of the company were nearly all residents of Londonderry, N.H. The 
company belonged to a regiment raised by Colonel Osgood “for the 
total reduction of Canada.” It is to be noted that McNutt is not 
referred to in any document or memorial as Colonel McNutt until after 
his visit to England in 1761. Previous to that he is mentioned as Captain 
McNutt, or more commonly as Mr. McNutt. This in a measure con- 
firms the tradition that he received the honorary title of Colonel when 
in England in recognition of his public services! His military duties 
did not prevent him from devoting considerable attention to the settle- 
ment of the Nova Scotia townships. The diary of Matthew Patten? of 
Bedford, New Hampshire, throws some light upon his efforts in that 
direction. His attention was at first devoted to the repeopling of the 
lands from which the Acadians had been removed. A little later we 
find him concerned in the establishment of a township on the River 
St. John. Mr. Patten writes in his diary, under the dates specified, 
as follows :— 
“January 29, 1760.—I spent the afternoon and evening with Mr. 
Alex’r. McNutt at John Bell Jun’rs. concerning his Township and 
monies. 
“March 2, 1760.—I attended on a meeting of Mr. Macnutts signers 
and was chose clerk and one of their committee to go to Hallifax to 
get the Grand and survey the Land. 
“May 24, 1760.—I.writ 9 advertisement for Mr. MacNutt for the 
men to go to Andover to pass muster, and I went to Litchfield to see the 
Provincial soldiers mustered. 
“June 20, 1760.—I went in the forenoon to Hugh Riddels and 
notified his sons to go to Halifax, as they were enlisted. 
“July 24, 1760.—I set out to go to Sunbrook and Nottingham 
East pr. Capt. MacNutts order to bring in some deserters, but my 
Mare was lame in her off for leg or shoulder that I went no farther than 
Thomas Halls and returned home again. 
1 In the Massachusetts archives there is a paper, dated at Boston 6th December, 
1760, which is endorsed by Alexander McNutt and contains the following among 
other items:— 
“The Province of Massachusetts Bay to Alexander McNutt, Dr. 
To Horse hire and Expences in travelling two Journeys from Boston to Ports- 
mouth in quest of deserters by order of Gov’r. Hutchinson.” 
? Matthew Patten was born in Ireland, May 19, 1719, and came to America in 
1728. He was a representative of Bedford and Merrimack in 1776 and 1777; a 
member of Council in 1778, and a justice of the Peace from about 1751 to his death 
on August 27, 1795. For the extracts from his diary, quoted above, the author is 
indebted to Dr. A. W. H. Eaton. 
Sec. II., 1912. 14 
