er for
erecting mills then "as settlements can't be carried on without, the
memorialists pray for any river that may be found fit for the purpose
by their committee, with a tract of 20,000 acres of timber land as
near the mills to be erected as possible." Application was made at the
same time for a Point or Neck of land three-quarters of a mile from
Fort Frederick with 60 acres adjoining to it "for the making and
curing fish." It was ordered by the governor and council that the
lands on the river should be reserved for the applicants, but that the
point and sixty acres adjoining, situate near Fort Frederick, should
be a matter for further consideration. It is not improbable the point
referred to was the peninsula on the east side of St. John harbor, on
which the principal part of the city stands today. Had it been granted
to the applicants at this time it is hard to say what might have been
the effect on the future, but very likely St. John, as the "City of
the Loyalists," would have had no existence.

Capt. Beamsley Glasier and Capt. Thomas Falconer were the active
agents of an association or society, composed of more than sixty
individuals, who designed to secure and settle half a million acres of
land on the River St. John. The association included Governor Thomas
Hutchinson of Massachusetts, General Frederick Haldimand (afterwards
governor of Quebec), Sir William Johnson of New York, Capt. Isaac
Caton, Capt. William Spry, Capt. Moses Hazen, William Hazen, James
Simonds, Rev. John Ogilvie, Rev. Philip Hughes, Rev. Curryl Smith,
Richard Shorne, Daniel Claus, Philip John Livingston, Samuel Holland
and Charles Morris. The membership of the association represented a
very wide area for among its members were residents of Quebec,
Halifax, Boston, New York and the Kingdom of Ireland. A little later
the association was termed the Canada Company probably because General
Haldimand and some of its most influential members lived in Quebec.

The company obtained in October, 1765, a grant of five townships on
the River St. John known as the townships of Conway, Gage, Burton,
Sunbury and New-Town, of which all but the last were on the west side
of the river. The first three were named in honor of Gen. Henry S.
Conway, Secretary of State; Gen. Thomas Gage, who was one of the
grantees; and Brig. Gen. Ralph Burton, who was stationed in Canada at
the time. The location and extent of the townships may be generally
stated as follows: