As I rode the bus home, I was smiling from ear to ear. I cooked supper, anxiously waiting for my husband to arrive. When I heard his car in the driveway, I rushed to meet him, with the exciting information of his great-grandfather's brothers. During supper we discussed the possibilities of what important positions they had held to be given this great honour. As the weeks progressed, we told and retold the relatives about their three prestigious ancestors being made freemen of the City of Saint John.
Facts have a way of breaking our bubbles.
Imagine my surprise, when I found out that William Cusack had paid money to obtain a freeman's certificate that classified him as a cartman in the City of Saint John. James and Timothy paid for a certificate to be draymen. It went far beyond ownership of property. The freedom was a way of protecting the political and economic interests that citizens possessed by virtue of their family's long tenure in the community. Throughout the colonial period, the Common Council maintained a schedule of fees for this purpose.