Survey of the Northwest Branch of the Miramichi

Map of the Northwest Branch of the Miramichi

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Survey of the Northwest Branch of the Miramichi
Arthur Nicholson, District Surveyor
5 February, 23 March, and 1 June 1790
UNB Archives & Special Collections. Indian Affairs Documents, MG H54.
University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick

Like many early public officials in New Brunswick, Arthur Nicholson served with the British Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). At war’s end, he decided to settle in New Brunswick rather than return home to Ireland. In 1788, he received a tri-appointment as the collector of customs, land surveyor, and magistrate of Northumberland County. The maps he produced while fulfilling his duties as surveyor determined the boundaries of the modern-day city of Miramichi. He stayed in this position until summoned by the army to serve as adjutant in the King’s New Brunswick Regiment in 1794. Leaving the service a few years later, Nicholson and his wife retired to Carleton County, where he became a school teacher.

Biographies

Read biographies of several individuals who featured prominently in the land debate in New Brunswick.

Gabriel Acquin

Considered to be the founder of the St. Mary’s First Nation, Gabriel Acquin travelled to England several times forming friendships with royalty, but continued to serve as a hunter, guide, and interpreter in New Brunswick.

Jared Tozer, Jr.

Born into an influential family in 1798, Jared Tozer Jr. was a lumber contractor and public figure on the Miramichi. His father, Jared Tozer Sr., was a native of Connecticut, who had fought as a Patriot in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) before being drawn to New Brunswick in 1789 by the economic opportunities of the new province.

John Julian

John Julian and his family successfully petitioned the colonial government to continue living on their traditional homeland along New Brunswick’s Miramichi River.

Moses Perley

As Commissioner of Indian Affairs for New Brunswick in the 1840s Moses Perley advanced the cause of Aboriginal rights in the province.

Noel Bear

Like all members of the Wabanaki Confederacy, Noel Bear inherited a vast hunting range, stretching from New Brunswick southward to Maine and westward to the St. Lawrence River. By the time of his death, his inheritance had shrunk to a few acres of land.

Noel John (Gohn)

Noel John, chief of the Buctouche-Richibucto Mi’kmaq, petitioned the New Brunswick government to maintain his people’s land. He later sold some of that land to non-Aboriginal settlers.