David Wetmore BROWN, afterwards Judge WETMORE, who was born in 1764, came to St. John with his parents and other Loyalists from New York in 1783, and they had several tracts of land allotted to them at Clifton (Kings Co.), which are now owned and occupied by their descendants. Justus WETMORE, his son, as a youth displayed remarkable energy and decision of character. In the early days all rafts were towed through the river by 'man power' and it is told of him that while a mere boy he worked as a raftsman in the spring and fall, with the aid of ropes towing joints of logs along the rocky shore, often in his bare feet while the ground was covered with snow. All the schooling he ever enjoyed was crowded into three months under the tutelage of his grandfather, yet in his long business career, he kept his own accounts. He began shipbuilding in 1808 or 1810 and commenced the erection of the Wetmore homestead which is still standing, occupied by his daughter, Miss Mary A. WETMORE in Dec. 1813. It is a great rambling structure only a short distance from All Saints, its garden sloping down to the shore of the river... Mr. Wetmore built more than fifty vessels, many of them of a large size and mostly for English firms. (signed) H.L.S. (see original)