The story begins with the two huge grants to Amherst Township and Captain Adam Gmelin. In 1772, Gmelin's grant was sold to Col. JFW DesBarres and Lt. Governor Michael Francklin to cover a debt Gmelin owed DesBarres. A perpetual conflict between DesBarres and Amherst Township over their shared boundary runs through the entire story. DesBarres left his mistress Mary Canon in charge of his numerous properties and disappeared for a few decades to make incredible maps of the North Atlantic coast, start a second family in England, and serve as the governor of Cape Breton.
The first DesBarres tenants were returning Acadians, British Loyalists who came north during the American Revolution, and settlers who arrived from Yorkshire in the Yorkshire Emigration. Following a general introduction on the settlers, I go into more detail about the particular families and homesteads on the west bank of the Maccan, the east bank of the Maccan, and south of the Nappan River. And since I'm particularly obsessed with the Gmelin Line, I plan to go really overboard on the Gould and Keiver properties.
In 1812, DesBarres moved to Amherst and, for the first time, at the age of 91, began to take a personal interest in managing his own properties. What could possibly go wrong?