1783-1883 Foot-Prints: or Incidents in Early History of New Brunswick (by Download)

$9.00

Cat No.:   CA0432-DL: File Size 28.5 MB:

The author J. A. Lawrence, a New Brunswick business owner, and President of the New Brunswick Historical Society, set out in this book* to bring to life the events directly responsible for the founding of the city of Saint John and the coincident creation of New Brunswick as an independent province in Canada.

* This book was published, at the request of the New Brunswick Historical Society, to mark the first Centennial of the landing of Loyalists at the mouth of the St. John river in 1783.

Following the victory of the US independence forces all those still living, who had fought for the British Crown or showed any British allegiance, were exiled. The British Government, in response, allowed that exiled “Loyalists” could apply for, and take up, residence in the colonies to the north in British North America (Canada). So it was that the bulk of the King’s American Dragoons, together with their commanders and some other noted loyalist families, elected to travel from New York to the area of the mouth of the Saint John river, then in Nova Scotia, and build a new home for themselves. This book provides a detailed examination of the process whereby some 5,000 individuals were transported to this site of military strategic importance, together with such possessions and live stock as they still had, and were supported there by the British Government for up to three years. They were supplied not only with raw materials but also weapons with which to defend their new domicile. All this was accomplished using some 20 (identified) passenger craft, and an unknown number of freight carriers, in a period of less then one year.

An obvious result of this settlement was: the rapid growth of the towns of “Parr Town” and “Carleton” on either side of the mouth of the Saint John river which were later (1785) to combine to become the Incorporated city of Saint John, quickly following the separation of a part of Nova Scotia to form the independent Province of New Brunswick in 1784.

The author, an experience historian and writer of many books, elected to retell this particular history through the stories of its leading participants. This makes the book a boon to genealogists, especially those who are lucky enough to find an ancestor playing one of these leading roles. To make sure that ALL the participants are recognized there are complete listings of all the Land Grantees of the two towns identifying the lots granted. After all this is the story of all 5,000 or so loyalists in this party, even if their activities were not seen as noteworthy. Also included in the book are numerous listings of the officials undertaking public office, accounts of the origins of “days” of significance, and summaries of the major businesses and institutions which have inhabited the area over the century since the original landing on the site of the St. John Market Square at the end of King Street.

The original publication had neither a Contents List nor an Index, which makes tracking down a single individual, or specific event or fact, somewhat tedious. In this digital edition we have provided both a hyperlinked set of bookmarks AND a complete index to any word or phrase in the book through its computer search-ability.

We have extracted the Land Grantee lists (for Parr Town and Carleton) and reformatted them into fully alphabetized listings and made them available as Downloads on our Free Downloads, New Brunswick, CA0432, page.

You can also reach the Sampler by clicking on the following link Parr Town Grantee Names List Download(48KB) Carleton Grantee Names List Download(34KB)
You can return to this page by closing the Sampler Page when you are ready to purchase.

- Sorry, due to taxation issues, we cannot DOWNLOAD digital products to European Community (EU) Countries.
Delivery of physical products (CDs) IS STILL AVAILABLE see CA0432 for the CD version of this product.

No. of CDs is:  0 ;   Format is:  PDF ;   Searchable?:  YES;

FastFind:  No;  ISBN No.:   978-1-927503-43-0 ;