CARRUTHERS, MATTHEW (1807-1876)

CARRUTHERS, MATTHEW, teacher and land surveyor; b. Dumfriesshire, Scotland, c1807; d. Lower Newcastle, 5 Mar 1876.

Matthew Carruthers applied for a license to open a school in Newcastle parish in 1827, and he taught in the lower district until 1836. Like a number of other male teachers of that period, however, he left the classroom to become a land surveyor. In 1836-37 he was the "duly commissioned assistant" to the land surveyor Charles J. Peters. He was himself a deputy provincial surveyor in the early 1840s but was dismissed from office after being accused of favoring Gilmour, Rankin & Co. over the Cunard firm. When he was later reinstated he was transferred to Gloucester County. In the 1850s and early 60s he was the senior deputy surveyor and crown land commissioner at Bathurst, as well as an officer and paymaster with the 1st Battalion of Gloucester County militia.

Carruthers returned to the Miramichi around 1865, when he became paymaster of the 4th Battalion of militia. In 1871 he was living at Lower Newcastle in the home of Francis Elliott, whose wife, Margaret Carruthers, was also a native of Dumfriesshire. In 1872 he received an appointment as seizing officer of timber cut on crown lands and as labor act commissioner for the parishes of Hardwicke and Glenelg. No family connections were mentioned in his death notice in 1876.