Well before the influx of Loyalists to what would become New Brunswick, New Englanders decided to leave their home in Massachusetts to set up a new settlement in the Colony of Nova Scotia along the Saint John River. The governor and council of Nova Scotia were working to procure loyal citizens to take up settlement for the areas from which the Acadians had been expelled most cruelly. New England was an excellent source of such settlers, as they were seeing increasingly less land available for settlement and they were from hardy settler stock themselves. They would be somewhat familiar with the climate and prepared to take on the work necessary to create a community.
After welcoming these newcomers for more than a century, the First Nations were beginning the see how continuing with a friendly greeting was not serving them well – so they objected to this plan. The British colonial government therefore took steps to dispossess Wəlastəkwiyik indigenous peoples[1] from their territory, inconsistent with previous Treaties and Royal Proclamations. The indigenous First Nations objected to the first survey party’s efforts, so the surveyors, led by Captain Peabody, moved downriver and surveyed an area of 100,000 acres, 12 miles further along the Saint John River. The Wəlastəkwiyik peoples were unaware of the activity, so the survey was completed and the land registered for settlers from New England.
 |
| Riverboat Landing Maugerville 1915 New Brunswick Archives |
The surveyors were looking for larger lots of land for farming, land that was becoming more difficult to come by in their homeland. The settlers were looking to create a new livelihood just as their forebears had done in the wilderness of New England. In 1763, 200 families travelled in four vessels to establish a new township named Maugerville. These 800 people made up the first full settlement on east bank of the Saint John River after the defeat of the French at the hands of the English. When these New England settlers first arrived they were threatened by the Wəlastəkwiyik peoples – but an amicable arrangement was reached two years later in 1765. From this point onward, the First Nations of the area saw their way of life diminished as the settlers made their imprint on the land.
The settlers were descendants of the Puritans, members of the Congregational Church, and considered “Protestant Dissenters.” They settled in a wilderness: no roads, no established trade routes, no town centres, no schools. The families were each allotted land with river frontage, and were required to clear it for agriculture, build schools and churches, and make their homes. They remade their lives and established their values in what was then Nova Scotia, at a time when the colony was on the brink of the massive change that would come with the Loyalists.
Among those who first settled in Maugerville was the Estey family. Richard Estey (1706-1791) was a well respected member of the community, and one of the first elders of the Puritan church. The church, in fact, was one of the first community buildings constructed by the settlers, finished in the first year of their arrival. The church covenant read, in part:
And respecting Church discipline it is our purpose to adhere to the method contained in the platform for the substance of it agreed upon by the synod at Cambridge in New England Ano. Dom. 1648 as thinking these methods of Church Discipline the nearest the Scripture and most likely to maintain and promote Purity, order and peace of any.
Among the signatories of this covenant was Richard Estey, dedicated, along with his Puritan brethren, to watch over the community to ensure maintenance of these values and ideals. The church members took seriously their need to discipline their members for breaches of the church doctrine, and a number of records point to Richard Estey being among those who witnessed sins being committed by community members.
Zebulon Estey (1742-1806), Richard’s son, was a deacon in the Baptist Church in Maugerville. He also received one of the land grants for the Maugerville settlement. A 1783 report on his claims for land described him as “a good man, his character very loyal”. He had a wife and eight children.
 |
| Joshua Mauger |
The New England settlers had to fight for their land in Maugerville three times. The first, their original settlement in the lands surveyed by Captain Francis Peabody at the behest of the colonial government. Then they found that their settlement had been allocated to former British soldiers. As a result, they petitioned Joshua Mauger, an agent of the colony who had been ten years in Nova Scotia as a merchant. Mauger worked on their behalf in London and succeeded in having their original claims confirmed – and the settlement was thereafter named in his honour. This was the year 1764, and the order confirming their allocation reads:
At the Court of St. James the 10th day of February 1764. Whereas the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantation have represented to his Majesty at this Board that a memorial has been presented to him on behalf of several disbanded officers of his Majesty's provincial forces in North America, setting forth that induced by several encouragements they have sold their lands in New England and settled themselves and families upon the St. John River in his Majesty's province of Nova Scotia, at the distance of 200 miles from any other settlement belonging to his Majesty's subjects, and praying that the possessions of the lands upon which they have settled themselves at a very great expense may be confirmed to them by his Majesty.
The Governor of Nova Scotia is ordered to cause the land upon which they are settled to be laid out in a Township consisting of 100,000 acres 12 miles square, one side to front the river. Also to reserve a site for a town with a sufficient number of lots with reservations for a church, town house, public quays and wharves and other public uses; the grants to be made in proportion to their ability and the number of persons in their families, but not to exceed 1,000 acres to one person.
That a competent quantity of land be alloted for the maintenance of a minister and school master and also one town lot to each of them in perpetuity.
Upon the arrival of the Loyalists, the settlers had to defend their titles, and their religion, once again. As the next chapter will show, the population boom that ensued meant that what was once a generally homogeneous settlement had become crowded with members of other churches and new values. The influx meant the creation of a new colony of New Brunswick, in which the Maugerville residents were an out-of-place minority.
In 1802, Maugerville residents, including one Zebulon Estey, had to petition the Legislature for the right of their duly elected Ministers to solemnize marriages. They also had to individually prove their claims to land in order to maintain their original allocation. The fight for Puritan values, however, was already lost when their population was overwhelmed by other denominations.
Among the children of Zebulon Estey and Molly Brown were two daughters: Elizabeth Brown Estey and Dorothy Dolly Estey. Elizabeth married Samuel Upton, and Dorothy married David Currey. Their children (first cousins) Ann Upton and John Currey respectively would marry, bringing together these branches of the family tree. Their child, David Samuel Curry (1825-1896) married Martha Elizabeth Hay, daughter of William and Eliza Hay[2].
NOTES:
[1] Also known as the Maliseet First Nations: the people of the Wəlastəkw (Saint John River) from its mouth to its sources.
[2] After much searching about the Hay ancestry, the facts are inconclusive as to the origin of the Hays. Even the birth and death dates of William and Eliza are conjecture. There is a well-known Hay family with a Loyalist heritage, however the facts don’t fit our Hay connection. For example, the William Hay in that Loyalist family was a baker in Saint John, whereas we are confident that our William was a farmer. A marriage record shows that William Hay married Eliza Hayh. It seems odd that they would have a similar surname, however marriages between cousins were not uncommon. It is also possible that the wrong surname was recorded. Without additional facts the ancestry of Martha Elizabeth Hay, beyond the fact that we know her father’s name is William Hay, will remain a mystery.
