[RAYMOND] PRE-LOYALIST SETTLEMENTS OF NOVA SCOTIA 83 
Cornwallis and Falmouth. Their Committee had viewed several tracts 
of land at their expense and advised them to settle upon the River St. 
John, seventy miles from its mouth. This they had done, having 
transported their families and effects thither at a cost of near a thousand 
pounds sterling. They were settled to the number of one hundred 
persons, and a large number of disbanded officers and soldiers had sold 
all their possessions in Massachusetts and were hiring vessels to join 
them. 
The representation in the memorial, combined with the advocacy 
of Morris and Newton and the influence of Joshua Mauger, saved the 
situation. It was ordered by the King in Council that possession of the 
lands on which the people had settled should be confirmed to them. 
For months they had remained in a state of suspense and anxiety.! 
They were naturally greatly relieved when they learned that they were 
not to be disturbed. The generosity of Mauger, who bore the expense 
of their appeal and exerted himself in their behalf, was fully appreciated, 
and in token of their gratitude the settlers called their township “ Mauger- 
ville.? It was at that time regarded as the “extreme part and frontier 
of Nova Scotia two hundred miles from the nearest settlement.”’ 
Nearly all the townships, especially those in the western part of the 
peninsula, were able to report a considerable increase of population in 
the year 1762, and being at length free from fear of the savages the 
people were busily engaged in improving their lands. They were 
greatly disappointed in their harvest by the drought of the spring and 
the swarms of grasshoppers and insects which later on destroyed mueh 
of their grain, roots and herbage. 
IX.—Pennsylvania Immigration. McNutt versus Governor Wilmot. 
Townships on the Petitcodiac. 
From the time of Colonel McNutt’s return to England in 1762, he 
did not again come to Nova Scotia till the year 1765. Meanwhile he 
had agents in ten different provinces in America in connection with his 
1 In the letter to Governor Ellis of Nov. 13, 1762, already quoted in part of 
these pages, John Collier, Charles Morris, Henry Newton and Michael Francklin 
criticise Belcher’s action. They state that 400 families, who had been settled in 
Massachusetts for more than seven years, upon the encouragement given them by 
Col. McNutt, had entered into covenant with him to settle on the River St. John, 
where thirty families had already arrived and the rest had disposed of their effects 
and were embarking with all expedition till prevented. This was a matter of regret 
as they were people of substance and would have brought into the country upwards 
of £100,000 in stock and other effects. 
2 The story of the township of Maugerville will be found in Raymond’s History 
of the River St. John, Chapters XIII and XVI. 
