While the brothers Simonds were endeavoring to establish themselves at St. John, a settlement upon a more extensive scale was being projected by a number of people in the County of Essex in Massachusetts. An advertisement appeared in the "Boston Gazette and News-Letter" of September 20, 1762, notifying all of the signers under Captain Francis Peabody for a township at St. John's River in Nova Scotia, to meet at the house of Daniel Ingalls, inn-holder in Andover, on Wednesday, the 6th day of October at 10 o'clock a. m., in order to draw their lots, which were already laid out, and to choose an agent to go to Halifax on their behalf and to attend to any matters that should be thought proper. The advertisement continues: "And whereas it was voted at the meeting on April 6th, 1762, that each signer should pay by April 20th, twelve shillings for laying out their land and six shillings for building a mill thereon, and some signers have neglected payment, they must pay the amount at the next meeting or be excluded and others admitted in their place." The agent chosen at this meeting was Captain Francis Peabody.[53] [53] Beamish Murdoch in his History of Nova Scotia, Vol. II, p. 428, refers to the settlement made at this time at Maugerville and observes, "A Mr. Peabody was the principal inhabitant and agent for the English settlers." According to the late Moses H. Perley, whose well known and popular lectures on New Brunswick history were delivered at the Mechanics Institute in 1841, the government of Massachusetts sent a small party to explore the country east of Machias in 1761. "The leader of that party," says Mr. Perley, "was Israel Perley, my grandfather, who was accompanied by 12 men in the pay of Massachusetts. They proceeded to Machias by water, and there shouldering their knapsacks, they took a course through the woods, and succeeded in reaching the head waters of the River Oromocto, which they descended to the St. John. They found the country a wide waste, and no obstacles, save what might be afforded by the Indians, to its being at once occupied and settled, and with this report they returned to Boston." The result of this report is seen in the organization of a company of would be settlers shortly afterwards. There is in the possession of the Perley family at Fredericton an old document that contains a brief account of the subsequent proceedings:--