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in the days of Danielou. It may be well, whilst speaking of the remarkable continuity of the French occupation of the country in the vicinity of St. Anns, to state that after Chapter VII. of this history had been printed the author chanced to obtain, through the kindness of Placide P. Gaudet, some further information relating to the brothers d'Amours, the pioneer settlers of this region. The brothers d'Amours, Louis, Mathieu and Rene, were residents on the St. John as early at least as the year 1686, when we find their names in the census of M. de Meulles. A document of the year 1695[94] shows that their claims to land on the St. John river were rather extravagant and hardly in accord with the terms of their concessions. Louis d'Amours, sieur de Chauffours, claimed as his seigniory at Jemseg a tract of land extending two leagues along the St. John, including both sides of the river two leagues in depth. He also claimed another and larger seigniory, extending from a point one league below Villebon's fort at the Nashwaak four leagues up the river with a depth of three leagues on each side. His brother Rene d'Amours, sieur de Chignancourt, lived on this seigniory a league or so above the fort. [94] This document is entitled "Memoire sur les concessions que les sieurs d'Amours freres pretendent dans la Riviere St. Jean et Richibouctou." A copy is in the Legislative Library at Fredericton. The statement made in a previous chapter that Rene d'Amours was unmarried and lived the life of a typical "coureur de bois" is incorrect. The census of 1698 shows that he had a wife and four children. His wife was Charlotte Le Gardeur of Quebec. The names of the children, as they appear in the census, are Rene aged 7, Joseph 5, Marie Judith 2, and Marie Angelique 1. While fixing his residence in the vicinity of Fort Nashwaak, Rene d'Amours was the seignior of a large tract of land on the upper St. John extending "from the Falls of Medoctek to the Grand Falls," a distance of more than ninety miles. After the expiration of eleven years from the date of his grant, Rene d'Amours seems to have done nothing more towards its improvement than building a house upon it and clearing 15 acres of land. Even in the indulgent eyes of the Council at Quebec, of which his father was a member, this must have appeared insufficient to warrant possession by one man of a million acres of the choicest lands on the St. John ri
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