Emigrant Labor. 53 



matter into its own hands. Accordingly, Colonel Dunbar en- 

 tered upon his task, and named the new fort " Fredericks- 

 burg."^ Shortly after his arrival, a number of English and Irish 

 families, some of whom had just come over, others of whom 

 had been long settled in the neighborhood, on hearing of the 

 erection of a new province under Colonel Dunbar's government, 

 applied to him for grants of land.^ He offered lots of from 50 

 to 100 acres per head, to each family, on payment of one penny 

 per acre quit-rent to the king after ten years, subject to another 

 penny, on demand of the king, for expenses of government. 

 Dunbar was an energetic worker, and, having laid out three 

 townships — Townsend (Boothbay), Harrington (Bristol), and 

 Walpole (Nobleboro), — soon had 150 families settled.^ He had 

 been made surveyor of the woods in 1728, and was interested 

 in the production of naval stores. After having ordered sev- 

 eral acres to be prepared for hemp, he wrote home enthusiastic 

 assurances that he should soon be able to send over good sam- 

 ples of hemp ; and he informed the Board of Trade of the 

 abundance of timber, especially of large white pines, in the new 

 province.* Owing to the fact that there had been no surveyor 

 there to look after the woods, many of the finest mast trees 

 had been wantonly destroyed to make shingles or canoes. 

 There w'ere said to be line forests on the east side of the Ken- 

 nebec which would be sulScient to supply the royal navy 

 forever, if cared for ; and Dunbar suggested to the Board 

 of Trade, that 10,000 acres of the best tracts near navigable 

 rivers should be set apart in the new province as a nursery for 

 the royal navy, until the resources of Maine and New Hamp- 

 shire should be exhausted. 



The Board of Trade adopted this suggestion and wrote back 

 to Dunbar to lose no time in setting apart 300,000 acres, since 



^Johnston, " History of the Towns Bristol and Bremen, including 

 the settlement at Pemaquid." 



^Colonel Dunbar was an Irishman. 



sPaper by William Willis on "Scotch-Irish Immigration to Maine," 

 Collections of Maine Hist. Soc, Vol. VI. 



*B. T. New Eng., Z: 91. David Dunbar to the Board of Trade, 

 America and West Indies, No. i: 16S. 



