[RayMoND] PRE-LOYALIST SETTLEMENTS OF NOVA SCOTIA 95 
ing the progress made, during the first six years, of Lawrence’s policy 
for the development of Nova Scotia. Had the late governor lived he 
would have enjoyed the satisfaction of beholding the province rapidly 
becoming a strong British colony. 
Francklin’s census makes no mention of Port Roseway, or New 
Jerusalem—as McNutt called it. The number of people settled there 
in 1776 was manifestly inconsiderable. Surveyor-General Morris in 
his comprehensive “ Description of the several towns in the Province 
of Nova Scotia, with the Lands comprehended in and bordering upon 
said Towns,” says that “Port Roseway and circumjacent Lands were 
promised by the late Governor Lawrence to Mr. McNutt and associates 
upon his procuring settlers therefor in a limited time. This large tract 
has at present no Inhabitants.” This was in 1761. 
The year 1766 witnessed the decline of Alexander McNutt’s fortunes 
in Nova Scotia. His plans for the promotion of Irish immigration, 
which at one time looked so promising, had been frustrated by the 
action of the ministry in England. He had ceased to be a middleman 
between the German immigrants of Pennsylvania and the Nova Scotia 
government. He had quarrelled with Governor Wilmot and his council 
at Halifax. In consequence he seems to have concluded it best to 
retire to Port Roseway and do what he could to promote his settlement 
there. 
In one of his later memorials to the Lords of Trade and Plantation, 
McNutt speaks of having laid outa tractof land at Port Roseway 
near Cape Sable, on which he proposed to build a city, a plan of which 
he submits, and prays their Lordships to obtain for him a charter for 
establishing and confirming the said city in its rights and privileges. He 
proposed to call the city New Jerusalem. A township had been reserved 
here for McNutt in 1760, and a few settlers introduced in 1764, 
who improved a small part of the island at the harbor’s entrance 
and other inconsiderable spots. It was here that the Loyalists landed 
at the close of the Revolutionary Warand builtthetownof Shelburne. It 
was at one time larger than Halifax—equalled the combined population 
of Montreal, Quebec and Three Rivers, and was only surpassed in size in 
North America by New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Shelburne’s 
growth was, however, of the mushroom variety. Whether it would 
have flourished better as New Jerusalem we cannot tell, but as Shelbunre 
it very soon began rapidly to decline and ere long sank to a mere hamlet. 
Within recent years, however, it has begun to revive. Alexander 
McNutt is thought to have lived some little time on McNutt’s Island 
at the mouth of Shelburne Harbour The island in some of the early 
