In May 1784, two Loyalists; William Schurman and Thomas Hooper came to the Island of St. John and examined various lands including those available on Lots 25 and 26. They asked for land to be reserved for them and sometime in 1785 Schurman brought twenty-seven familes to the area known today as Bedeque.

On a map dated 22 May 1784, Walter Patterson is shown as the proprietor of the south half of Lot 25 and he granted to the settlers approximately 10 lots of fifty acres each at the mouth of the Dunk River. On another map dated 1790 some land at what is today Freetown is shown as being distributed to the Loyalists. This land was located between the main Freetown Road and the North Freetown Road and referred to in the early land deeds as “The LoyaIist Land”with the two roads referred to above called the “Loyalist Linesi’

The Loyalist Land on Lot 25 in Freetown was originally granted to:

John MacDonald 500 acres, granted 1 June 1786 John Murray Junior 250 acres, granted 1 April 1786 Richard Price 50 acres, granted 1 April 1786 Richard Moorfield 160 acres, granted 1 January 1789 Samuel Jamieson 450 acres, granted 1 June 1786

TOTAL 1410 acres

By 1800, David Murray a Loyalist from North Bedeque, had purchased 1000 of the total 1410 acres granted and thus became one of the first land speculators in Freetown.

Another parcel of 450 acres between the Campbell and Whalen Roads in Upper Freetown was not granted, although it was included in the Loyalist land and is described as such in the deeds to land in the north and south. A grandson of a Loyalist, John Campbell, was occupying 250 acres of this land by 1861 but there is no record of how he obtained it. It is possible that this land had not been granted prior to Governor Patterson’s dismissal in 1786 and that John Campbell established squatters rights.

The Loyalist land on Lot 25 totalled 1860 acres. This land was free from quit‘rent although, according to some of the land grants from Governor Patterson a token rent was required. An example of this is the grant to Richard Price. He was responsible for a rent of 1 peppercorn, if demanded, payable annually on 29th September.

Land was also made available to the Loyalists in the Lot 26 portion of Freetown. A map dated 1784 records seven American refugees as obtaining a grant of land on Lot 26. This land was on the Gordon-Thomson Estate, whose proprietors had made land available at the urging of Governor Patterson. The first settlers here included:

Thomas Hooper 250 acres, granted on 1 April 1786 Dudley Wells 100 acres, date of grant unknown Robert Elman 250 acres, granted on 3 March 1786 Jacob Silliker 250 acres, granted on 1 June 1786 George Mabey 100 acres, granted on 1 April 1786 Robert Hancock 150 acres, granted on 16 August 1796 Nathaniel Wright 150 acres, granted on 1 April 1786

TOTAL 1250 acres

These parcels all ran from the Lot 25—26 boundary south 125 chains (8250 feet) across the Dunk River into Newton. The Nathaniel Wright land was the most easterly and was bordered on the east by the Dunk River Road. The Lot 26 Loyalist land extended westward 88 chains (5808 feet) to a western boundary 660 feet west of the Kinkora Road. The grant to Dudley Wells was not found in the land record office. Based on land and map records, the Loyalist land in the Freetown portion of Lot 26 totalled approximately 950 acres with the remaining 300 acres located in Newton.

The Loyalists who had obtained land in the Freetown portion of Lot 26 also received an equal portion of land in Lower Bedeque.

Prior to the Loyalists, settlement in the region had been slow to develop. In 1768 Samuel Holland had settled some discharged soldiers in Tryon, on Lot 28. In the early 17705 Robert Clark and Robert Campbell started a large settlement on Lot 21, in the New London Bay area. Also in the early seventies Robert Stewart had brought settlers from Argyleshire, Scotland, to the Princetown area of Lot 18.

With the arrival of the Loyalists the land began to fill up. These settlers were skilled in house-building trades like carpentry, masonry, glazing and pointing. They could also manufacture their own shoes, ploughs, harrows, carts, sledges, clothing and food. As a result, their settlements prospered. They were business-minded and established stores in their communities and trade with other areas like the Miramichi in New Brunswick.

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