Coming of the Loyalists

When the American Revolution ended, the St. Croix was confirmed as the eastern end of the boundary between Canada and the United States. The boundary immediately beyond the headwaters of the river was in dispute.

In 1783 many thousands of American colonists who had remained loyal to Britain in the war migrated to Nova Scotia. About 12,000 came to the area north of the Bay of Fundy. They established Parrtown (later Saint John) at the mouth of the St. John River, colonized the valleys of the river system, and settled also on the east side of Passamaquoddy Bay and on the Chignecto Isthmus.

The Loyalists were disturbed by the sympathies of Nova Scotians on the peninsula for the American cause in the Revolutionary War, and they urged the Colonial Office in London to partition Nova Scotia.

In 1784 the separate province of New Brunswick was created. Colonel Thomas Carleton, brother of Sir Guy Carleton, the governor-in-chief of British North America, became the province's first governor. He established the capital at Fredericton.