Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-02-29

Four years afterwards Governor Law
renee issued proclamation which was dis
persed through the British colonies on tbe
Atlantic seaboard, offering to receive pro-
posals for the settlement of these lands. In
response many applications were made
| from individuals and companies to take up
townships or smaller tracts of land.
With these proposals Mr.. McNutt, who
in the records is spoken of generally as
| Colonel McNutt, had a great deal to do
Within two or three years next following
the proclamation various townships from
Annapolis in the West all up the Bay of
Fundy to Truro on the East, were settled.
Mr.. McNutt, was one of the principal per-
sons connected with the introduction of
these settlers. He selected the lands for
his immigrants, negotiated with the Gov
ernor of Nova Scotia, about the terms and
conditions of the grant and was in effect a
middle man between the immigrants and
the local Government, and was probably
compensated for his trouble by both par
ties. He received large grants of land in
different parts of the Province which were
made to him personally and under terms
more favorable than were accorded to the
general run of grantees. In those days
minerals were reserved out of the grants,
but in some of his grants no such reserva-
tion was made. In some large tracts grant
ed to him at Londonderry, in the county of
Colchester, there were discovered many
years ago valuable deposits of iron-ore
which have been worked ever since the dis
covery, and which from the absence of res
ervations in the conveyance pay no royalty
to the Grown. On behalf of others he
made many applications for wilderness
lands with view to settling them. In one
case he asked for 200, 900 acres for COM
pany at Philadelphia, of which Benjamin
Franklin was member. This was in 1862
The same year he applied for a tract at
Port Roseway, now Shelburne, and asked
for a charter for a city to be built there
which he proposed to call New Jerusalem.
This was the same site which after the
Revolutionary War was selected by the
refugees from the United States as their
principal settlement. They seem not to
have respected the baptismal name proposed
by our Colonel, but built on the barren
rocks of the southern coast, a town which
they named Shelburne, in honor of one of
the English ministers of the day. Whether
the town would have hourished as New
jerusalem we cannot say, but as Shell
first it contained some %, 900 people who,
however, gradually dispersed over the
Province, and the place sunk to q hamlet,
till within few years last past when it
began to revive. There are many descend
ants of Alexander McNutt's sister still in
the Province. She married Mr.. Weir,
and Col. McNutt presented her son, John
McNutt Weir, with valuable property at
Londonderry, on which he lived and died.
Mr.. Weir represented his township in the
General Assembly for many years, and was
a man of good intelligence and good stand
ing. He died some years ago leaving
family of several children, one of them,
Arthur McNutt Cochrane, of Maitland,
who was a member for many years of the
Assembly, and afterwards a member of the
Legislative Council of that Province. He
was an excellent man, and great personal
friend of the writer. He died few years
ago. leaving large family.
"Col. Mr.. McNutt seems to have had grants
of very many tracts of lands in different
parts of Nova Scotia, and to have claimed
peculiar privileges in dealing with the For
est lands.
"The last notice of him which appears in
the archives, is in 1859, when Attorney
General Nesbit, brought to the notice OF
the council that Alexander McNutt had
parcelled out lands to several persons pre-
tending to haYe authority under the Kings
sign manual, to settle all ungranted lands
in the Province. On this it was ordered
that the Attorney General should prosecute
Mr.. McNutt, and that proclamation should
issue forbidding unauthorized occupation
of land and cutting timber, under penalties.
What became of the threatened prosecu-
tioD, does not appear by the record, and, in
deed, this is the last mention of Mr.. Nc
Nutt's name that the writer has discovered
in the archives.
"His connection with the settlement of
Nova Scotia, was unquest1onably great
advantage to the Province, not one Of the
settlements that be founded (barring his
New Jersalem'') but at oncs entered ON
career of prosperity which has continued to
this day. Alexander McNutt probably liv-
ed for some time on an Island still known
as 'MeNutt's Island, near Shelburne.'
''On looking at these grants and count
ing the acreage, do not so much wonder
at Col. McNutt considering himself the OWL
er of all the Forest lands of Nava Scotia.
But there was an awkward condition in the
grants, which required the lands to be cul-
tivSted at the rate of third for every ton
years till the whole was brought under culti-
vation, the effect of which was that a great
part of the land became liable to escheat
and was escheated, and the title revested in
the Crown"
1t appears from the public records that
there were grants to Alexander McNutt
from Oct. 25th, 1904, to Oct. 31st, 1865, of
lands, in Nova Scotia in tracts varying
from 90, 900 to 200, 900 acres, an aggregate of
2, 4S5, 900 acres, of which, up to Nov. 2Sth,
1911, there had been escheated to the crown
1, ,020, ,S33 acres, and that during the same
period there had been granted to Alexander
in part with Joseph, Benjamin, John and
Patrick McNutt in tracts varying from
1000 to 200, 900 acres, an aggregate of $780,
750 acres.
And that from June 18th, 1884, to Aug,
1889 there had been granted to James, Jo-
seph, John, Francis, Martin, Arthur and
Agnus McNutt in town lots at Shelburne
and tracts varying from 500 to A, 500 acres,
aggrsgating 50, 100 acres.
(EGhibI y Friday, October 9th, 1851,
Alexander MoNutt arrived from Ireland
with upwards of 800 settlers. His people
were landed on Cornwallis Island, now
called 'McNabb's' Murdock's Nopa Scotia,
rol. II, p. 40D."
"Halifax, Nova Scotia, October 18th.
Last Friday, October 9th,) arrived here
the ship Hopewell, of Londonderry, by
which came upwards of 200 persons for the
settlement of this Province with Col. Alex
ander McNutt, who, we are informed, has
contracted for 10, 900 tons of shipping, 5000
bushels of wheat, 5000 bushels of barley;
5 900 bushels of potatoes, 5000 bushels of
flax seed, 800 bushels of hemp seed, and 9TH
er seeds in proportion for the use of the
Irish settlers in Nova Scotia for the ensu-
ing spring. The passengers arrived here in
good health, and considerable number of
them will proceed to morrow with Colonel
McNutt to view and examine the country.
Boston Gazette of October 26th, 1851, and
Boston NeUslctter of Oct. 29th, 1861.
"1762, November 9Th. Col. McNutt hav-
ing arrived with 10 settlers from Ireland,
who go to the township of Dublin, and 100
of them being in distress, provisions for
four months were voted them by Fl. NJ.
Council" (Murdock's Nova Scotia, vol. II,
p. 423.)
"April 30th, 1865, Governor Wilmot rep
resents McNutt as very active and Jealous
in promoting settlement, and the people he
has introduced here are very useful and
valuable settlers" p. 449.
Among McNutt's kindred are noticed
the names of persons in high positions in
the Councils of the Province, and also In
the army and naval service, among them
Admiral Cochrans of the British navy min
listers of Protestant churches, physicians,