g,
and he conducted the correspondence of Hazen & Jarvis with Simonds &
White in a manner that would do no discredit to a modern business
house. In a letter of the 3rd April, 1765, Mr. Jarvis informs James
Simonds that "Mr. Peaslie has determined to settle down in Haverhill
and to leave this concern, and as by this means and the death of your
Brother, in which we sincerely condole with you, one-eighth part of
the concern becomes vacant, we propose to let Mr. White have
one-eighth and to take three-eighths ourselves--this you will please
consult Mr. White upon and advice us. * * * We must beg you will send
all the accts. both you and Mr. White have against the Company, and
put us in a way to settle with Mr. Peaslie."

James White, the fifth signer of the articles of partnership, was born
in Haverhill in 1738, and was a lineal descendant of the Worshipful
William White, one of the well-known founders of the place. He served
as Ensign or Lieutenant in a Massachusetts regiment, but after the
fall of Quebec retired from active service and entered the employ of
William Tailer and Samuel Blodget, merchants of Boston, at a very
modest salary, as appears from the following:--

"Memorandum of an agreement made this day between William Tailer &
Co., with James White, that we, the said Tailer & Co., do allow
him the said James White twenty dollars pr. month as long as the
said White is in their service at Crown Point as Clark.

"William Tailer & Co.

"Test: Geo. Willmot.
"Crown Point, July 1st, 1762."

James White's papers, now in possession of a gentleman in St. John,
show that he was engaged in the business of Tailer and Blodget at
Crown Point continuously from September, 1761, to July, 1763;
consequently the statement, commonly made, that he came to St. John
with Francis Peabody, James Simonds, Hugh Quinton and their party in
1762 is a mistake.

In the early part of 1764 James White was employed by Samuel Blodget
in business transactions in Haverhill, New Salem and Bradford. The
first occasion on which he set foot on the shores of St. John was
when he landed there with James Simonds and the party that established
themselves at Portland Point in the month of April, 1764. The
important part he played in the early affairs of St. John will
abundantly appear in these pages. He was one of the most active and
energetic men of his generation and filled several offices in the old
county of Sunbury, of which cou