PROPERTIES AND PEOPLE

INTRODUCTION

This section of A Grand Legacy provides information on the properties that comprise Marshfield and the people associated with those properties. The properties described are numbered and named in a way that reflects the historic association of people with the land. Where possible farm names were used.

The map Marshfield Historical Properties at the back of this book allows the reader to find any individual property. Small land holdings unless they predate 1900 are not described in detail. However, current property owners are mentioned in the section dealing with the historic farm property of which they now own a portion. The historic properties have been numbered from west to east. They have been assigned either an N or S to show location north or south of the St. Peters Road.

As you read this section, you will see that many properties have retained their original boundaries. In addition, several properties have been in the control of the same family for a century or longer. However, only one property, Rosevale Farm, has remained in the name of a single family, the MacBeaths, since the date of first settlement in 1808.

At the end of the Seven Years War, the British government directed that a survey take place of all of British North America, north of the Potomac River. As so many claims were put forward for awards of land on St. John’s Island, it became one of the first places surveyed.

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In October of 1764 Captain Samuel Holland commenced his survey of the Island. The survey was finished by 1766, with the Island being divided into 66 townships or lots of roughly 20,000 acres each. In his surveyl Holland used as his cardinal line magnetic north, then 15.50 west off true north. Today most of the north/south property boundaries in Marshfield still conform to this line.

With the completion of the survey the Board of Trade and Plantations was directed to get on with the selection of grantees and the assignment of Lots. In 1767, Lot 34, Queens County was awarded to John Dickson Esq. MP, however, he died very shortly afterward and his heirs sold Lot 34 to Sir James Montgomery. The Montgomery family retained much of the land in Lot 34 until 1866 when they sold 6,100 acres to an Island resident Charles Palmer. The Montgomery family was not averse to selling land as opposed to renting it. Some early settlers purchased their land when they arrived on the Island.

Lands still in the control of large landlords were subject to compulsory sale by the Land Purchase Act of 1875. Unless, otherwise stated all properties reported in this chapter were originally owned as part of the Dickson/Montgomery land grant of 1767.

Peter Boswall

1 Clark, A. H., Three Centuries and the Island, 1959, University of Toronto Press, p.45.