212 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
“July 25, 1760.—Went over to Londonderry and took Sam’l. 
Rankins Deposition for Capt. MacNutt against James Mathies. 
“July 26, 1760.—I got my bro’r Robt. Macmurphy’s mare and 
went to Swann’s Ferry to see Capt. MacNutt and came back to my 
mother Macmurphys. 
“September 23, 1760.—I rec’d a letter from Capt. MacNutt and I 
wrote one to him. 
“January 12, 1761.—I went to Londonderry to a meeting of Nova 
Scotia subscribers. 
“May 1, 1761. I went to Londonderry and sent a letter to Capt. 
Francis Peabody concerning Capt. MacNutt drawing wages for me out 
of the Treasury. ” 
The matters dealt with in these extracts are not of great importance 
in themselves but they are of interest as shedding light on the trans- 
actions in which Alexander McNutt was at this time concerned. Matthew 
Patton was doubtless one of the many agents he employed to promote 
the formation of companies of settlers for the vacant lands in Nova 
Scotia. The reference to the muster at Andover and the subsequent 
mention of Captain Francis Peabody are of special interest when read 
in conjunction with an advertisement printed in the Boston Gazette and 
News-Letter notifying the signers under Captain Francis Peabody for a 
township at St. John’s River in Nova Scotia that they are to meet at 
the house of Mr. Daniel Ingalls, innholder in Andover, to draw their 
lots, which are already laid out, and to choose an agent to go to Halifax 
on their behalf. 
The reference under May 24th to the muster of the recruits enlisted 
for the provincial companies is also of interest. Alexander McNutt was 
quite actively concerned in raising these troops. Letters written at 
the time to Governor Lawrence by General Amherst and by Governor 
Pownall and Governor Hutchinson’, show that the newly enlisted troops 
were raised to replenish the garrisons of Nova Scotia, and that 300 of 
them were sent to Louisbourg to replace the British regulars ordered to 
proceed from that place to Quebec. All this is illuminating in view of 
McNutt’s memorial to the Lords of Trade (read Jan’y 19, 1763) in which 
he claims to have been instrumental in raising three hundred men for 
his Majestys’ service at Louisbourg at the time it was necessary to draw 
the regular troops from thence for the relief of Quebec which was then 
invested by the enemy. 
It is not unlikely that Colonel McNutt was in Halifax when Gov- 
ernor Lawrence died on the 11th of October, 1760. At any rate he 
drew up a memorial not many days afterwards which was considered in 
Council on the 3rd November, and reads as follows:— 
1 See Nova Scotia published archives, pp. 480, 481, 483, 484. 
