[RAVMoxn] THE FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW BRUNSWICK 427 



ability and integrity. The committee was directed "to collect the 

 best information that was possible respecting the titles, claims, char- 

 acter, principles and deserts of those people settled on the lands 

 commonly known by the appellation of Amesbury Tract, the Town- 

 ships of Gage, Burton, Sunbury, New-Town, Conway and the lands 

 formerly granted to one McNutt." The committee was appointed 

 June 15, 1783, and the report which they shortly afterwards submitted 

 to Studholme is a very interesting document." 



The families mentioned in the report who lived on the river 

 below Saint Anne were English; those settled above were Acadians. 

 In nearly all cases the settlers had no title to their lands save that of 

 occupation; in other words they were "squatters." When tracts 

 of ungranted lands were set apart for the Loyalists it was found that 

 a good many lots in the tracts were in possession of "old inhabitants" 

 and Acadians. The Loyalists on attempting to take possession were 

 stoutly opposed by those who lived on the lots. Parr and his Council, 

 after due consideration agreed that the Loyalist grantees must pay 

 the occupants for the improvements that had been made before de- 

 manding possession. This stipulation was a source of dissatisfaction 

 to the Loyalists. It was notorious that the majority of the old New 

 England settlers on the Saint John were disaffected to the British 

 cause at the time of the Revolution. Some of them had even taken 

 up arms on the side of the Americans. In the opinion of at least 

 one vigorous old Loyalist, who came to live amongst them, "they 

 deserved halters to a man." This observation is not likely to be en- 

 dorsed by any fair-minded historian, yet great allowance must be 

 made for the heated utterances of men who had suffered so much 

 at the hands of their adversaries as had this self-same Loyalist. They 

 had been persecuted and banished, their lands seized and confiscated 

 and they were not disposed to extend much consideration to any 

 settlers on the Saint John who had sided with the Americans. I 

 am satisfied, after careful investigation, that the irritation displayed 

 by the Loyalists because of the consideration shown by government 

 to the disloyal settlers from New England, was far greater than any 

 that was felt towards the Acadians. For more than a generation 

 there was strife and ill will between the old New England settlers 

 and the Loyalists in Sunbury County. The name of "Blue-nose" 

 had its origin as a scornful epithet applied to the older inhabitants by 

 the Loyalists. The designation is now accepted with equanimity 

 by all classes of people in the maritime provinces, but it was not always 

 so. For years the line of demarcation was clearly defined between 



1 The report of Studholme's Committee of exploration will be found in the 

 Collections of the New Brunswick Historical Society Vol. I, pp. 100-118. 



