100 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
of this paper. The document states that the tract he desired to convey 
to the trustees was a part of the lands surveyed for him by General 
Anthony Wayne and Messrs. Jacobs and Caton in the year 1765, and “to 
make things more definite, and as much as possible to prevent disputes at 
any time hereafter, said 100,000 acres are to be laid off on the west side of 
St. John’s River between the village called St. Ann’s [now Fredericton] 
at or near the head of navigation, and the Falls of said river into the 
Bay of Fundy, in such part along the river between the specified places as 
may be deemed advantageous for promoting the ends proposed in said 
Academy, that it may always be able to give to youths a complete 
liberal education, especially in all branches of human literature necessary 
to qualify for the ministry of the Gospel, also to obtain necessary addi- 
tions to its library and apparatus, and to support in said Academy lec- 
tures annually on human depravity by the fall of Adam and by men’s 
actual sins, also on their recovery by unmerited grace in Jesus Christ, 
and against the opposite errors.” The date of the deed of conveyance 
is the 20th day of March, 1797. McNutt’s signature is here 
reproduced. 
This quaint old document calls for some remarks. In the first 
place it clearly establishes the fact that Colonel McNutt was living at 
Lexington, Virginia, in 1797 and was interested in its chief Educational 
institution. But why should he have made a legal conveyance that, as 
the event proved, was not worth the paper on which it was written? 
His memorial to the Lords of Trade in 1766 was accompanied by a plan 
on which the tract on the River St. John, in the situation described in this 
deed, is distinctly marked “Lands reserved for Col. Alex’r. McNutt 
and surveyed by him but afterwards granted to others.” The dates at 
which the lands were granted and the persons to whom they were 
granted are well known, ! and, with one exception, McNutt had no share 
in them. The exception referred to was the township called “ Franck- 
fort,” more commonly known as “ MecNutt’s.’”’ Its situation was a few 
miles above St. Anns on the Keswick Stream on the east side of the river. 
This does not at all agree with the location indicated in Colonel McNutt’s 
deed of conveyance. The most natural explanation seems to be that 
as McNutt had now passed his three score years and ten, his mind and 
memory may have been confused as to the location of the grants 
on the St. John river—possibly he may even have forgotten about 
! See Collections of the New Brunswick Historical Society, No. 6, pp. 287, 302; 
also Ganong's Historic Sites in New Brunswick, Transactions of the Royal Society 
for 1899, pp. 331, 333. The townships of Sunbury, Newtown, Burton, Maugerville, 
Gagetown and Conway were granted in 1765, and MeNutt had no rights in them 
whatever. 
