Thanks to the landowners for permission to establish a cache
here. Please respect this gift to us cachers and do not disturb
anything. Cache is a tobacco can with the usual trinkets, log book
and pencil. The name of the cache, inside the log book is not the
same as the name here. I made a wee mistake and put Corporal on the
title but this guy was a Captain. In my research I found many
titles for him, but I averaged it out to Captain and stand to be
corrected.
The 42nd Highlanders were a rough and rowdy bunch. After winning
many battles in the Revolutionary War between 1776 and 1783 they
arrived in Saint John. Saint John was becoming quite civilized.
They didn't want this regiment of rough men settling with them and
the 42nders were sent up to the Nashwaak area to take over alloted
land grants.
Who were these guys?
The 42nd Royal Highland Regiment often referred to as the Black
Watch grew from independent companies formed to police the Scottish
highlands. Policing was necessary since there was much discontent
in Scotland after the Union of the Parliaments of England and
Scotland, 1704. The Highlanders were members of clans ruled by clan
chiefs and were considered savage barbarians.
In 1730 the independent companies were formed and given the name
The Black Watch. In 1776, The Black Watch left Scotland along with
the Fraser Highlanders, heading for America. On the high seas of
the Atlantic, the convoy was attacked. One of the ships, The
Oxford, became separated and landed in Jamestown, Virgina. The
Revolutionary War was on, at that time and the Highlanders were
offered land if they would join the rebel cause. They refused,
remaining loyal to the King. They were taken prisoners and held for
two years.. Later they were released and rejoined the regiment.
From here, the Black Watch were victorious in many battles;
Bloomingdale 1776, White Plains, Brooklyn, Fort Washington,
pisquata, Brandywine and Paoli. It was at Paoli where they won the
battle using bayonet alone. They won the battle of Germantown which
gave the British control of the capital of Philadelphia.....and so
on.
At the end of the Revolutionary War, 100 men elected to take
discharge. They arrived in New Brunswick in 1783. They spent the
winter in Saint John in the towns of Parr and Carleton. They drew
lots for land approximately 50' by 100'. The land was covered with
dense forest. The Highlanders cut down the trees and cleared the
land, building log houses however a fire destroyed Parrtown and the
42nders were forced to move to their grants on the Nashwaak. Later,
those in Carleton also went to the Nashwaak.
When the 42nders went to settle along the Nashwaak, it was one
of their own officers, Captain Dugald Campbell who planned their
settlement and surveyed the land. Eleven thousand, three hundred
forty-three acres were divided into one hundred and eighty-five
lots. The majority of the 42nders who did settle here were very
capable of turning forest into buildings, pastures and farmland. It
was reported by a visitor in 1792, "Here I was told that the
highlanders settled up the river were in many respects not a whit
better than real Indians, that they would set out in the dead of
winter with their guns and dogs, travel into the deep recesses of
distant forests; continue there two or three weeks at a time,
sleeping at night in the snow, and in the open air; and return with
sled loaded with venison, yet withal were acknowledged to be the
more prudent and industrious farmers in all of the province of New
Brunswick and lived most easily and independent."
This cache site is situated on the original Dugald Campbell land
grant. It consisted of approximately 600 acres which he allotted
himself. (Well he could take a good chunk. He was the surveyor)
Here in the little graveyard, it is presumed, as told to me by the
land owner, that Dugald is buried here. The present-day land
owner's house sits on the same spot that Dugald Campbell's house
sat on back in 1790. There is one headstone here, that of Henry
Bell, owner of the Bell Hotel which is a distinctive name to this
day to reference this property. The hotel operated during the mid
1800s. Years later, this property retains it's heritage through the
name Campbell, original owner and on to Bell, through it's present
day owners. There are a couple of misplaced flat rocks which mark
graves of Dugald Campbell and family. A grand view of Taymouth can
be seen stepping away from the grave site towards the river.
FTF = stickman756 Congrats!
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