JULIAN, JOHN (17??-1805)

JULIAN, JOHN, Micmac Indian chief, b. 1720s or 1730s, s/o John Julian Sr; brother of Francis Julian; m. Bridget François; d. c1805.

Following the outbreak of the American Revolution, agents of the rebels won the sympathies of many of the Micmac people residing on the Miramichi and encouraged them to plunder and pillage, commit acts of arson, and otherwise indulge in riotous behavior. Foremost among the Micmac leaders who resisted the entreaties of the Americans, and remained loyal to the British crown, was the family of John Julian of the Northwest Miramichi. British authorities reciprocated this trust in 1779 by recognizing Julian as head chief or 'king' of the Micmac Indians on the Northwest, Little Southwest, and Southwest branches of the river, this being a position distinct from that of band chief.

In 1783 Gov. John Parr of Nova Scotia rewarded Julian and his tribe further by issuing them a license of occupation for a 20,000-acre tract lying along either side of the Northwest Miramichi in the vicinity of Red Bank. In 1786 Israel Perley surveyed a second tract which the tribe claimed at Eel Ground, and in 1789 a license for this was also issued to "John Julian, Chief of the Miramichi Indians, and his tribe." The licenses concerned were the basis of the Indian reserves later set up west of Newcastle, but a serious problem at the start was that much of the block of land licensed to the Indians by Governor Parr overlapped Davidson & Cort's grant on both the Northwest and Little Southwest branches. The conflicts to which this gave rise were made more acute by the competition for land which attended the arrival of the Loyalists and the formation of the new province of New Brunswick in 1784. Fredericton officials were not happy to learn about land claims based on licenses or promises given by the government of Nova Scotia and did not commit themselves to respecting them.

The confusion in the Red Bank area was cleared away in part after Davidson & Cort's grant was revoked and the Little Southwest (Red Bank), Indian Point (Sunny Corner), and Big Hole (Sevogle) tracts were surveyed for the Indians as a substitute for the 20,000-acre tract described in the Parr license. An interim certificate for the tracts concerned was issued in John Julian's name in 1805, although they were not formally licensed until after his death. The existence of the interim certificate indicates that he was still living in 1805, but he was not present at the marriage of his son Nicholas Julian in 1806, and his son Andrew Julian was commissioned as his successor in 1807.

Julian and his wife, Bridget François, had at least seven children, in all. No descendants bearing the Julian surname remain on the Miramichi at the close of the 20th century, but Mount Julian, on the Chiefs Plateau, near the northern border of Northumberland County, bears mute witness to the family's place of honor in Miramichi history.