Ball's "service to the King" refers to his military involvement in the French & Indian and Revolutionary war in what is now the USA. He was a British Loyalist during the latter. This means he was not supporting of the American cause. He was a grenadier in his regiment (an esteemed rank). The loyalists were not among the first to settle NS for the Brits. The first who were not Germans were the New England Planter settlers in ca. 1763 (they came voluntarily for free land). Ball's arrival to OI dates to the early 1780s. He acquired land that had previously been vacated on OI. Many of the pro-USA Planters chose to return to America after the Revolution. This is why Ball was able to acquire land so easily on OI in the years following his arrival. By showing a desire to farm the land anyone could petition the crown to be given lands vacated by settling any taxes owed on them. Ball became land rich this way, and he also had access to markets that provisioned the garrison at Halifax. Casper Wollenhaupt, owner of lot 18, and the man who sold Smith that lot in 1795, had a government contract to provision the native population that was then starving on reserves post the 1760 Treaty of Peace. Farming was the most common occupation at this time in this region.
"For services to the King" is self explanatory. He served the interest of the crown in some way, It could still have been for his outstanding military service if he had petitioned the crown for vacated lands. Wollenhaupt served the crown too for his role as a politician in the colonial government. Prior excellence in service to the crown may have been enough to grant land that was petitioned for. We know that a pledge to farm it was enough of a condition to have the crown grant it prior to this date. It is not atypical for Rev. war era Loyalist soldiers to have been given land by the crown. Entire townships had been given away to British soldiers. It was also a fact that all along this period there were hostilities and animosity between Planter settlers and Loyalists. Many Planters relocated, leaving lands empty that were in the vicinity of existing lands held by Loyalists who would have acquired them. The crown did not want these lands to be unproductive. Lot 32 is adjacent to land Ball already owned. That makes him likely to be someone who would have petitioned for it had it been abandoned. What we do know is that Ball was close to men who did serve the crown in the colonial government. He may have had an active role in feeding the starving natives (a crown concern at that time), or of provisioning the garrison at Halifax and the Royal Navy . It is likely that Smith and Ball worked for Wollenhaupt prior to 1795 on the land that Smith purchased. Wollenhaupt was a very rich Lunenburg merchant who owned the business end of the island. If anything, all this shows is how unrealistic the money pit origin stories we have today are. They don't speak to us as if there had been considerable preexisting activity on lot 18. That end of the island had had commercial interests since ca. 1757. 1795 gets treated like the beginning of the history in some pristine remote wilderness. It's not.
There is no known Dr. Simeon Lynds. He's a mystery. People have tried to account for this person without success. It was suggested by some that the name is another invented detail to adorn the story. Simeon (from Wikipedia):
Interestingly, Simeon Lynds is an anagram of "mossy linden".
