[Raymond] PRE-LOYALIST SETTLEMENTS OF NOVA SCOTIA 43 
third more in twenty years, and the remainder within thirty years of 
the date of the grant. Each grantee to plant, within ten years, two 
acres with hemp.! One share to be set apart for the first minister, 600 
acres for the Glebe land, and for a school 400 acres. It was further 
provided that unless fifty of the grantees with their families should 
remove into the Province and settle themselves in the township accord- 
ing to their shares and allotments, on or before the first day of Septem- 
ber, that the grant would be null and void. The grant was dated at 
Halifax, May 22d, 1759, and the township received the name of Horton. 
It was agreed that two block houses ? should be built for the common 
defence and that arms and ammunition should be furnished by govern- 
ment; also that fifty of the poorer families should be allowed corn at the 
rate of one bushel a month for each person. The settlers with their 
moveables and stock were to be transported from New England at the 
government’s expense. 
The district of Canard, on the shores of Minas Basin directly north 
of Horton, was established as a township and named Cornwallis. It 
was settled at the same time with Horton and by persons who came 
from the same colony, Connecticut. 
Lawrence discovered that 50,000 acres of land at Minas and an 
equal quantity at Chignecto had been granted in 1736 by the Lieutenant 
Governor and Council of Nova Scotia to themselves and other persons.* 
Not more than one or two of the grantees remained in the province. 
None of the conditions of the grants had been performed, and there was 
no prospect of improvement of the lands or of the payment of £8,000 
quit rents due the Crown. Industrious farmers having lately made 
application for the lands, the Governor took proceedings to have them 
escheated that he might be at liberty to grant them to the persons 
who had applied for them. In his letter to the Lords of Trade of 
September 20, 1759, he estimates the expense of transportation of the 
settlers from Connecticut and Rhode Island, with their stock and 
effects, and furnishing them with a quantity of corn at £1,500. He was 
rather apprehensive (and, as the event proved, with good reason) that 
this expenditure might be criticised in England, and he writes in an 
apologetic tone, “I am sensible your Lordships will esteem the Lands 
! The production of hemp for cordage for the Royal Navy was deemed an object 
of importance, and its cultivation made a condition of the grants in the North 
American colonies. Its production in Nova Scotia speedily declined until in the 
days of Haliburton the quantity was “hardly sufficient for criminal purposes.” 
* The site of one of the block-houses is shown in Charles Morris’ plan of Minas 
Basin. The block-house is marked “ Fort Montague’’ and stood on the north side 
of the Gaspereau river about two miles from its mouth. See accompanying plan. 
# For location of these grants and names of grantees, see Murdoch's History 
of Nova Scotia, Vol. 1, pp. 519, 520, 
