[EATON] THE SETTLING OF COLCHESTER COUNTY 229 
came from Massachusetts towns like Brookfield, Dudley, Spencer, 
Western (now Warren), and perhaps Worcester,! in Worcester County; 
Brimfield and Palmer in Hampden County; Medfield in Norfolk; 
Malden, Reading, and Woburn in Middlesex; and North Bridgewater 
in Plymouth. A certain number like William Blair, William McNutt, 
Isaac Farrell or Ferrell, and James Tackles, were of Ulster-Scottish 
descent; but most were members of English Puritan families that had 
been in New England since before the middle of the 17th century. So 
far as we know, John Barnhill alone was directly from the North of 
Ireland. In his “ First Settlers of Colchester,’”’ Mr. Thomas Miller says 
that Barnhill came out with the McNutt company in 1761, but since 
his name appears among these New England Onslow grantees we are 
suspicious that though his parents and sisters did come with McNutt, 
he himself may have come to New England at an earlier date. 
A few, as we have seen, but exactly how many we do not know, 
had been at the first capture of Louisburg, in 1745. William Blair had 
been captain of a company; Edward Brooks had perhaps been first 
lieutenant of the sloop Abigail in the pay of New Hampshire; Daniel 
Knowlton had been an ensign in Colonel Preble’s regiment; Samuel 
Nichols had probably been a private in the 7th company of the 
3rd Massachusetts Regiment; Joseph Scott had been a lieutenant in 
Colonel William’s regiment; Jacob Stevens had doubtless been a 
captain in the 6th company of the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment; Rich- 
ard Upham had also served in the siege, and it is very likely that others 
of the grantees, as well, had been there. 
Of the grantees who became proprietors in the township, William 
Blair, who, as we have said, had been at Louisburg in command of a 
company, in 1745, was the fourth son and sixth child of Robert and 
Isabella (Rankin) Blair, who came from County Antrim, Ireland, and 
settled in Worcester County, Massachusetts, perhaps in 1718, but cer- 
tainly before 1720. He married in Leicester, Mass., February 21, 
1744-5, Jane Barnes, and between 1745 and 1768 had nine children 
born. After Louisburg he returned to Worcester County, but in the 
fall of 1759 came to Colchester, where he founded one of the most im- 
portant families in Nova Scotia. He died in Onslow, August 4, 1791. 

+“Soon after its organization as a town, Palmer was called upon to furnish 
its proportion of men to meet the emergencies of another war between the mother 
country and France [The last French and Indian war, 1754-1763]. The citizens 
responded with alacrity, and out of its sparse population furnished no less than 76 
men during the continuance of the war.” Copeland’s “ Hampshire County, Mass, ” 
Vol. 3, pp. 134, 135. Then follows in this work a list of the men furnished as soldiers, 
among them being several of the Onslow grantees and their relatives. Among 
the names given are: Isaac Farrell, James MeNitt, Hugh Tackels, and Captain John 
Thomson. 
