two hundred thousand acres of land there, and intending to found a colony, proceeded to lay out the town of Monckton on the Petitcoodiac river and Frankfort on the St. Johns river. In the language of the agreement each adventurer should receive one of four town lots, sixty by two hundred and twenty-five feet in dimensions, one hundred and fifty acres in the outlying tract for himself and wife, and fifty acres additional for every Protestant person or child he took with him. The other three lots remained the property of the company; but, until that time in the future when they were to be sold at great profit, they could be used by the adventurers as gardens. Houses were to be erected, sixteen feet square and one-and-a-half-stories high. Two vessels filled with emigrants who accepted these terms and loaded with hoes, spades and implements of husbandry sailed from Philadelphia. When they arrived in Nova Scotia, however, the ungrateful settlers finding that lands were plentiful and occupants few, scattered whither they chose throughout the country and the scheme ended in a failure. It seems strange that while the forests were still standing along the Schuylkill it should ever have been attempted. The will of Franklin contains one devise to his son William, who had been a loyalist. It is for his interest in these lands; and he explains the gift by saying with caustic severity, that it was the only part of his estate remaining within the sovereignty of the King of Great Britain.[1]
In 1771, Richardson made arrangements for a visit to England. For several years previously, the people of Pennsylvania and New Jersey had been much annoyed
- ↑ Franklin selected Anthony Wayne as the surveyor of these lands for the company. A printed copy of the agreement with the adventurers, accompanied by a rough draft of the site, the original French deeds for the tract and many of Richardson's MSS. are in my possession.
