[RAYMOND] PRE-LOYALIST SETTLEMENTS OF NOVA SCOTIA 215 
The Colonel seems to have lived in or about Boston for several years. 
In 1781 he was in Philadelphia posing before the Continental Congress 
as an agent for those who were disappointed to British rule in Nova 
Scotia. He is said to have been back in Shelburne in 1791, perhaps 
with the hope of saving something out of the wreck of his fortunes. 
If so his stay was not prolonged. We have documentary evidence that 
he was living in Rockbridge County in Virginia in 1796, at which time a 
proposal was made by him to give as an endowment of the Academy of 
Liberty Hall, Rockbridge County, one hundred thousand acres of land 
“lying in the Province of Nova Scotia along St. John’s River, which 
runs into the Bay of Fundy.” In the deed of conveyance to the trustees 
of the Academy, dated March 20, 1797, McNutt uses the following words: 
“Farther to make things more definite and as much as possible to prevent 
disputes arising at any time hereafter, said 100,000 acres shall be laid off 
on the West side of St. John’s River between the village called St. Anns, 
at or near the head of Navigation, and the falls of the said River into 
he Bay of Fundy.” 
If Colonel McNutt spent any considerable time in Nova Scotia 
after the close of the Revolution it is impossible to understand how 
he could have drawn up such a document as this. Certainly if he 
were in Shelburne in 1791 his stay must have been brief or he would 
have realized that the River St. John was no longer in Nova Scotia 
and also that the ‘“ Village of St. Anns” had been long since transformed 
into the capital of New Brunswick and called Fredericton. 
As stated in the previous paper, any rights that Colonel MeNutt 
may have had on the St. John river had long since lapsed, consequently 
the deed was not worth the paper on which it was written. 
Another document, previously quoted in this paper, proves that 
McNutt was living in Rockbridge County, Virginia in 1802. As he was 
then probably more than seventy-five years of age there seems no good 
reason to doubt the statement made by his relatives that he died there 
in 1811, at a very advanced age, and was buried in the family lot in the 
cemetery at Lexington. 

1 About the 16th of October, 1781, Major Studholme received, at Fort Howe, 
a letter concerning Colonel McNutt’s doings in Philadelphia. ‘I am to inform you,” 
said the writer, “that there is a certain Colonel McNutt who is well known in Nova 
Scotia, that he has pawned himself upon the Congress at Philadelphia for some time 
sae as an agent to transact business with that body for the inhabitants of Nova 
cotia, by virtue of certain powers invested in him for that purpose. As he is a 
subtle, designing fellow, and has endeavoured to circulate several letters and dan- 
gerous pamphlets throughout the province, I wish to acquaint Government of it, in 
order that such necessary steps should be taken, as may be thought proper, to sup- 
press such unwarrantable proceedings and prevent the ill consequence that may 
attend it.’ Major Studholme enclosed the extract quoted to Colonel Michael 
Francklin with the observation, “ As the last part isan undeniable fact, and so much 
concerns the province in particular, after you have read it please to enclose it to 
Mr. Bulkeley.” 
