1897-8. TRANSACTIONS. 45 



In 1765 the Nova Scotian Council divided the county of 

 Cumberland, leaving the north shore as far as Bay Chaleur 

 to its former local connection and constituting the River St. 

 John region and all west of it another county to which was 

 given the name of Sunbury, The origin of the name is lost. 

 The townships created in Sunbury at that date were Burton, 

 Conway, Francfort, Gagetown, Maugersville, and New Town. 



Button was named after Brigadier-General Ralph Burton 

 who had a good deal to do with Quebec after Wolfe had con- 

 quered on the Plains of Abraham as our good friend Dr. 

 Brymner has shown. Conivay after Henry S. Conway, he 

 and the Duke of Grafton being Secrateries of State in the 

 Rockingham Administration formed in 1765; Francfort^ 

 probably so named from the French fort ; Gagetown after 

 General Thomas Gage, who was the principal land-owner 

 there. Maugersville after Joshua Mauger, whose name is 

 first on the list of grantees of land in that township. New 

 Tozvn is, of course, descriptive. 



There are, then, of the men influential enough to have their 

 names given to their respective townships — Burton, Conway, 

 Gage and Mauger. Of these four, Mauger would be the 

 most influential. He was wealthy, had a distillery in Halifax, 

 where Mauger's Beach still perpetuates his memory, and was 

 engaged in large financial transactions with the Government. 

 Thus in the Dominion Archivist's report for 1894, mention is 

 made of the fact that the Lords of Trade writing to Acting- 

 Governor Belcher in 1763 inform him that, when money is 

 required, he is to apply to Mauger or his agent in Halifax, 

 drawing on the Treasury in his favor. In 1764 Mauger was 

 wrothy with the Lords of Trade and all the officials, and de- 

 clared that, if he "does not get back the money, he will petition 

 Parliament," " one good effect of which, " he says, " if there 

 is no other, will be to warn people against advancing money 

 on account of Government." His complaint appears to have 

 secured the support of Chief Justice Belcher ; for in February, 

 1765, that functionary states Mauger's case to the Lords of 

 Trade. In the same year (Oct. 28th) the Governor (Wilmot) 

 advises the Lords of Trade that he has drawn on them in 

 favor of Mauger for ;^i,504. Evidently Mauger had influence 

 and had a great interest in the new county formed on the 

 banks of the St, John River. What more natural than that 

 he should have suggested to Montagu Wilmot that Sunbury 

 would be a good place-name, taking it frorn the village of 

 3unbury, near London ? 



