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Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

Pioneers, Ploughs, and Politics: New Brunswick Planned Settlements

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The Settlement Scheme is Developed Back in Scotland

The Settlement Scheme is Finalized
In July 1872 Captain Brown returned to New Brunswick with Robert Stewart, his business partner, to select a site for New Stonehaven, the proposed principal settlement of New Kincardineshire. They first visited the shores of Grand Lake, but rejected this area and several others due to poor soil quality and inadequate railway and water links to commercial markets. The promoters next turned their attention to Victoria County, where large tracts of agricultural land were still available for colonization. They chose a block of land in Perth Parish, situated east of the St. John River and bordered by the Carleton County line on the south and the Tobique River on the north. Riverboats regularly travelled this section of the river. The fact that the New Brunswick Railway Co. was negotiating with government officials to construct a line linking that area with Fredericton and Saint John made the location even more attractive.
A colonization agreement was soon reached with provincial government officials, which was approved by order-in-council on 16 August. Captain Brown promised to bring out 100 Scottish families, to handle all administrative work, and to arrange for the settlers' transport to Saint John. The government, for its part, agreed to survey a total of 100 lots, 200-acre free lots for married men with families and 100-acre free lots for married men with less than two children and for single men over age 17. As well, the government undertook to clear two or four acres on each lot, to build roads, to construct 90 log homes, to transport the settlers and their luggage from Saint John to the colony, and to have land prepared for planting the first spring.
Moreover settlers could negotiate alternate arrangements. Colonists who needed or wanted help in paying their steamship ticket could agree to build their own homes, instead of having a log one constructed for them. They could receive up to ₤3 per head for each family member over age 12 (two children under age 12 counting as one). Settlers who agreed to build their own homes could receive ₤12 or ₤18 when they were completed, the amount paid being dependent on the size of the lots. In addition, immigrants who were short of cash on arrival would be given work on the roads or the railway being built between Saint John and Québec.


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