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* * * * The increase of the French Inhabitants calls for some fresh instructions how to dispose of them. They have divided and subdivided amongst their children the lands they were in possession of, and which his Majesty was graciously pleased to allow to them on their taking the oaths of allegiance, and now they apply for new grants, which the Governor and late Lieutenant Governor did not think themselves authorized to favor them with, as His Majesty's instructions on that head prescribe the grant of unappropriated
* Paul Mascarene was born at Castras, in the South of France, in the year 1684. His parents were Jean Mascarene and Margaret deSalavy. His father, who was a Huguenot, having been compelled to fly from France at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, young Mascarene fell to the charge of his grandmother. At the age of twelve he made his way to Geneva, where he was educated, and afterwards went to England, where he was naturalized in 1706. Two years after he received the appointment of second lieutenant in Lord Montague's regiment, then doing duty at Portsmouth. In 1710 he obtained his commission as captain from Queen Anne, and was ordered by the Secretary of War to proceed to America, where he joined the regiment raised in New England for the taking of Port Royal. He there commanded the Grenadiers of Col. Walter's regiment, and was the officer who took formal possession of the fort in mounting the first guard. Shortly after he received the rank of brevet major from General Nicholson, the commander-in-chief of the expedition. — (Mascarene's Letter to Duke of Bedford, 1740; also New England Gen. and Hist. Regr., ix., 229, quoted by Editor New York Colonial Documents.)
He for some time commanded the garrison stationed at Placentia, in Newfoundland. On the death of Colonel Armstrong in 1739, he was appointed regimental major, and on the death of Colonel Cosby he became lieut.-colonel of Philipps' regiment. Colonel Mascarene was nominated third on the list of Councillors at the first establishment of that board under Governor Philipps in 1720, and was for many years senior Councillor. In 1740 he was appointed Lieut. Governor of Annapolis, and became Administrator of the Government (Philipps, the Governor, residing in England), which offices he held until the arrival of Governor Cornwallis in 1749, when he came down to Chebucto, with several members of the Council, to meet the new Governor, and was
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