a visit to her sister, the wife of Samuel Peabody. There being no
clergyman at hand the ceremony was performed by Gervas Say, a Justice
of the Peace for the county of Sunbury, who then lived on the west
side of the Harbor in the Township of Conway.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE OLD COUNTY OF SUNBURY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS.

A great impetus was given to the settlement of the wilderness parts of
Nova Scotia by the proclamations issued by Governor Lawrence in 1758
and 1759 offering free grants of lands to those who would become
settlers. In consequence of these proclamations attention was directed
to the St. John river. The fertile lands along its borders greatly
pleased the men of Massachusetts who explored it, and led to their
founding the Township of Maugerville, while, almost simultaneously,
Messrs. Simonds and White established their little colony at Portland
Point.

The Royal proclamation, issued at the Court of St. James in October,
1763, offering grants of lands to officers, non-commissioned officers
and soldiers that had served in the late French war, in token of his
majesty's appreciation of their conduct and bravery, had the effect of
creating a species of land-hunger which ere long led to a general
scramble for the possession of all lands that were of value and were
not already appropriated. However, up to the year 1765, only three
land grants on the St. John river were recorded at Halifax. Then came
the deluge! In the course of the month of October some twenty grants
were issued, comprising nearly 750,000 acres of the best land on the
River St. John, and immense tracts were granted in other parts of Nova
Scotia. Charles Morris, the surveyor general at this time, explains
that the vast number of applicants for land and their importunity were
due to the fact that the obnoxious "stamp act" was about coming into
operation and those desirous of securing lands were pressing hard for
their grants in order to avoid the stamp duties.

This land boom, if we may so term it, had the effect at first of
stimulating the settlement of the country, but it is, to say the
least, very doubtful whether subsequent growth and development were
not retarded by the rashness of Governor Wilmot and his council in
giving away the unsettled lands from the power of the crown and the
people in so prodigal a fashion.

The land grants of this period were usually made under the following
conditions:

First--The payment of a yearly quit rent o