In this issue:

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2025 UELAC Conference
July 10-13, 2025 at Saint John, New Brunswick
The 2025 UELAC Conference Committee is pleased to announce that the 2025 UELAC CONFERENCE will be held in Saint John NB, July 10th-13th,2025. The conference will be hosted at the Delta Hotel in downtown Saint John beside the harbour.
Some of the highlights will be guest speakers Dr. Leah Grandy and Loyalist Trails contributor Stephen Davidson. There will be tours of Trinity Anglican Loyalist church, the Old Loyalist cemetery, The Black Loyalist History Centre, and the Loyalist House. The Gala Dinner will feature speaker and newly appointed honorary fellow Dr. Bonnie Hoskins. We will cap off the Conference with a Drumhead church service at Trinity Church with DeLancey’s Brigade.
There will be free time to tour downtown Saint John to take in the stores, restaurants, markets, the container village of artisans on the newly renovated harbour front. Details concerning registration will be announced soon, so mark your calendars now and join us for a great summer conference!

Some American Dust in British Soil: Part Three of Three
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
In September 1778, Massachusetts drew up an act of banishment, denouncing former citizens as traitors to the new United States and vowing to have them executed should they return to the state. Many of the Loyalists named in the act found sanctuary in England and died there, becoming – as one refugee phrased it – “American dust” interred in graveyards across the realm.
Arthur Savage was the comptroller of the customs at Falmouth (today’s Portland, Maine). Such men became increasingly unpopular due to Britain’s efforts to tax its American colonies. On November 12, 1771, a dozen men of the town donned disguises, dragged Savage from his home at gunpoint and tried to force him to identify an informant. Threatened with death if he should later identify his attackers, Savage promptly returned to Boston.
Seven years later, Patriots condemned him as a traitor and banished him from Massachusetts. He was one of many civil servants who fled Boston for London via Halifax in 1776. He is remembered for passing on a rather bizarre memento of the revolution.
In the late 1780s, Savage encountered the Rev. William Montague, who had once been the rector at Boston’s Christ Church. He gave the clergyman a leaden ball and its story. ” On the morning of the 18th of June, 1775, I, with a number of other Royalists and British officers, among whom was General Burgoyne, went over from Boston to Charlestown to view the battle-field {of the Battle of Bunker Hill}. Among the fallen, we found the body of Dr. Joseph Warren, with whom I had been personally acquainted. When he fell, he fell across a rail. This ball I took from his body; and as I never shall visit Boston again, I will give it to you to take to America, where it will be valuable as a relic of your Revolution.”
In the mid-19th century, Savage’s musket ball could be viewed in the Library of the New England Genealogical and Historical Society. He seems to have been a frank individual. During his 1783 appearance before the board that compensation loyal Americans for their wartime losses, Savage is reported to have stated that he committed “no particular acts of loyalty, but says he did his duty as a customs house officer“. Arthur Savage died in England of a stroke at the age of 70 in 1801.
A graduate of Harvard University (class of 1747), Francis Waldo must have felt that he was set for life in a lucrative profession when he was appointed the collector at the customhouse in Falmouth, Maine in 1758. Five years into the job, Waldo demonstrated that he would not overlook any violations of the trade laws. He issued a proclamation “against smuggling rum, sugar, and molasses“. Waldo also became involved in colonial politics, serving as a representative to Massachusetts’ general court in the early 1760s.
But his good fortune began to unravel in 1768 when – in the words of an earlier era— he was “disappointed in an affair of the heart“. So crushed was he by this rejection that Waldo remained a bachelor for the rest of his life.
Two years later, George Lyde took Waldo’s position at the customs house, serving until the beginning of the revolution. When Lyde took a strong loyal stance in supporting the royalist Governor Hutchinson, in June of 1775, he suffered the consequences, being “proscribed and banished” by Massachusetts three years later. Like many a New England Loyalist, Lyde eventually sought refuge in England.
In 1775, British naval ships bombarded Falmouth, setting much of the town on fire – including Waldo’s former customhouse. Rebels sent to defend Falmouth plundered and looted many of the local Loyalists’ homes, prompting Waldo to seek sanctuary in England, never to return to New England. Like his successor, George Lyde, Waldo was banished by the state of Massachusetts in 1778 and threatened with execution if he returned. The state seized his property and sold it in 1782.
However by this time, Waldo had long since found refuge in England, and had sought out the company of fellow loyal New Englanders, including that of his sister Hannah and her husband, Thomas Flucker. Waldo’s name appears a number of times in the diary of Samuel Curwen, a fellow refugee from Salem, Massachusetts. At least 18 New Englanders – including Waldo– had made Bristol their place of refuge by 1777, and the number more than doubled over the years. These displaced Loyalists spent their time exploring the English countryside, attending the theatre, coffee houses and church as well as playing cards and dining in one another’s homes.
By 1780, Waldo had lodgings in London at the “Gentleman’s Hotel” in Pall Mall. His name appears in the records of the Royal Commission on the Losses and Services of American Loyalists when he testified on behalf of Arthur Savage (mentioned earlier in this article). After testifying for Savage, Francis Waldo lived for only one more year. He died in Kent on May 9, 1784.
John Vassall Jr., like Waldo, was a Harvard graduate, a native of Massachusetts, and an “addresser” of Governor Hutchinson. His father had become a very wealthy man due to his sugar plantations in Jamaica that exploited the labour of over a thousand enslaved Africans. When he inherited his father’s vast fortune, John had a large mansion –the “largest and most elegant estate” in Cambridge– built on 90 acres of land. The “princely style” that he afforded his wife, Elizabeth Oliver, included the use of 7 household slaves.
Rebels drove Vassall from his home in 1774, and used the hay grown on his estate to feed horses belonging to Patriots. Vassall’s mansion became headquarters for General George Washington in July of 1775, serving as the base of operations during the siege of Boston. In the 19th century, it was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s home for 50 years.
By the summer of 1776, 38 year-old Vassall had joined the community of New England exiles in London. With him were his wife Elizabeth (Oliver) and their children: John, Spencer Thomas, Thomas Oliver, Elizabeth, Robert Oliver, and Leonard. A daughter Mary was born in 1777 after the family found sanctuary in England. All but one of the Vassall children lived the rest of their lives in their land of refuge. The Vassall family’s seven slaves remained in Cambridge.
At first Vassall “designed to take a house at the Court end of the metropolis, and enjoy the comforts of a plentiful fortune.” Within 4 years’ time, he was in Bristol, but then moved to Wiltshire, and Bath before finally settling in Clifton, an affluent suburb of Bristol.
When encouraged to seek compensation for all of his losses during the revolution, Vassall said, “It shall never be said that I emigrated from my own country to become a charge on this one“.
John Vassall died in Clifton on September 24, 1797 — almost instantaneously– after eating a hearty dinner. He was 59 years old when he was buried in St. Paul’s Churchyard. His wife, Elizabeth was a widow for the next 10 years, dying in Clifton in 1807, in her 63rd year.
Like so many other New England Loyalists, the Vassalls and their children contributed “American dust” to the soil of Britain’s graveyards. But they were not the only ones to die in England. Future issues of Loyalist Trails will recount the stories of more American refugees who died in Great Britain, never to see their land of birth again.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

New Directions in Loyalist History Mini-Conference and History Now! Speaker Series at Huron University
UELAC members, and anyone interested in Revolutionary-era history, are invited to attend a Loyalist History mini-conference at Huron University in partnership with Museum London on Friday October 11, from 1:00-4:00 EST. This will be a hybrid event, so UELAC members are invited to attend in-person or remotely via Zoom.
Schedule:

1:00: Introductions
1:10: Tim Compeau, Huron University, “The Loyalist Migrations in Myth and Memory”
2:00: Graham Nickerson, University of New Brunswick (UELAC Graduate Scholarship Recipient)
2:25: Erin Isaac, Western University UELAC Graduate Scholarship Recipient)
3:00: Keynote (Part of the History Now! Speaker Series in partnership with Museum London)

Keynote: Harvey Amani Whitfield, Centennial Carnegie Chair in the History of Slavery in Canada, (Dalhousie University). “From Slavery to Slavery: A Black Woman Navigates the Chaos of Revolution and Loyalism”
Professor Whitfield’s paper explores the life of Statia, an enslaved Black woman from New York who emigrated with her owner to New Brunswick after the American Revolution. Once in New Brunswick, she gained her freedom and spent several years as a free person, but then suffered re-enslavement before unsuccessfully petitioning for the freedom of her son in 1805. This is a story that traverses the histories and historiographies of the Loyalists, the American Revolution, and African American Internationalism.

The Huron History Department hopes you will join us for an interesting afternoon exploring new Loyalist research.
Check Loyalist Trails next Sunday for the registration link.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Tim Compeau at tcompeau@uwo.ca

Treadwell Loyalists from Connecticut to New Brunswick
By Donna (Brockway) Neilson, Sept 2024
My great-great-great-great grandparents were Ephraim and Meriam (Treadwell) Treadwell.
According to Loyalist Petitions, and other documents, I found at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, in Fredericton, they were loyalists. This is their story.
Ephraim and Meriam married in February of 1759 in Connecticut. In 1772 they purchased a thirty-three-acre farm in North Fairfield, Conn. The property had a chore house and good acreage, half of it was considered plough land suitable for growing crops, and the other half was meadow. Meriam had twenty well-fatted sheep.
Following the years of marriage, the couple went on to have at least 9 children whose names (in undetermined birth order) were Matthew, Nathaniel, Samuel, Ruth, Mary, Ephraim Jr., Abel, Rebecca and Reuben.
When the Revolutionary War broke out Ephraim and Meriam were Loyalists. Because of that, in 1778 Ephraim became a wanted man and an arrest warrant was put out on him. As a result, he and his eldest son (believed to be Matthew) went to Danbury, Connecticut and joined the British forces there.
Meriam was left behind on the family farm with the rest of the children, some of whom were still quite young. When the rebel army drafted her second son Nathaniel into their militia, he refused to join them and went into the British lines too. So, she had three members of her family away at war. Then came the news that her oldest son had died or been killed.
In 1780 Meriam petitioned the rebels for permission to leave Connecticut, which was granted. She left her sheep with a neighbour and vacated the family farm. She went into the lines with a white flag and made her way to Long Island, New York. Read more…

Freedom Seekers: Stories of Black Liberation in the American Revolutionary Era and Beyond
By Antonio T. Bly, Simon P. Newman, Billy G. Smith, and Gloria McCahon Whiting, Sept 2024 in Common Place
Freedom Seekers will show how all kinds of men, women, and children who escaped were important actors in the challenge not just to their own enslavement but to slavery more broadly.
The name she chose for herself said it all. Against the backdrop of the American Revolution and at the risk of her own life, Free Poll declared her freedom, discarded her slavery name Sue, strategized to live with her husband, found paying work, and fashioned a life in a growing community of Black Philadelphians, both enslaved and free. Like many enslaved people in Maryland, Free Poll had lived on a large plantation. She was forced to work in the tobacco fields located on a point of land on the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis. Spread over eight hundred acres, the plantation contained a brick mansion with thirteen rooms, two kitchens, a chapel, a granary, a farmhouse, and several barns for drying tobacco leaves. There were also rudimentary wooden shacks, almost certainly constructed by enslaved people, where Free Poll and other bound people lived.
Escaping from slavery was almost always more hazardous for women than it was for men, but the revolutionary era provided greater opportunities, especially for women, to seize their freedom. In July 1780, Free Poll surreptitiously fled to the nearest large town, Baltimore. She made the 35-mile journey, perhaps at night, either on foot or in a small boat across the Chesapeake Bay. At the age of 45, she was considerably older than the great majority of escapees, most of whom were young adults. But she shared other characteristics of female fugitives. Many headed for urban centers where they might earn money by doing the sort of work commonly undertaken by enslaved women: cooking, baking pies, and washing clothes. As David Kerr, her enslaver, noted in an advertisement he published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, Free Poll was “a good cook” and could “wash and iron well.” Women freedom seekers also hoped to conceal themselves among other Black people, since many White people did not look closely at nor well remember Black faces. Many escapees also no doubt sought to find assistance and camaraderie, and friends and lovers among other Black residents. Free Poll specifically wanted to join Mark Stubbs, her husband.
Stubbs was a mixed-race free man. At the time of Free Poll’s escape he was working as a sailor on the Enterprize, a privately-owned ship with a commission from the American government to capture British merchant vessels during the Revolutionary War. According to newspaper reports, the Enterprize successfully apprehended several “prizes,” Read more…

“We are still here.”
Today we celebrate the rich heritage and ongoing contributions of Indigenous peoples in the United States. Indigenous populations are often referred to as a closed chapter of history.
Today, Virginia is home to eleven state-recognized tribes: The Pamunkey, Mattaponi, Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Rappahannock, Upper Mattaponi, Nansemond, Monacan, Nottoway, Cheroenhaka and Patawomeck. These vibrant and resilient communities have persevered

German Soldier, American Rebel: Christopher Ludwick’s Pursuits of Happiness in Revolutionary Pennsylvania
by Shawn David McGhee 24 Sept 2024 Journal of the American Revolutionary
Popular narratives of the American Revolution rank Christopher Ludwick, at best, among the extras in the imperial dramatis personae, a bit player who performed as honest gingerbread baker or amusingly spoke of himself in the third person. Fortunately, his limited historiographical presence more seriously depicts him as superintendent of bakers for the Continental Army and develops his critical role feeding soldiers during the war or risking his life coercing Hessian soldiers to defect to the American side. Yet historians have left unmined a vital element of his story that spells out the universality of the American struggle for liberty. Christopher Ludwick left the Old World to settle in Philadelphia and, during the imperial crisis, became a fierce supporter of the Whig position. The broad objectives that motivated Ludwick to commit his personal blood and treasure to American resistance and, ultimately revolution, lie less in his embrace of colonial identity and more in his opposition to general oppression and hierarchical privilege. Ludwick remained grateful that Pennsylvania had welcomed him, foreigner though he was, and provided space where his personal industriousness and amicability made social mobility possible. In return, he dedicated his life to helping strangers realize their potential while jealously guarding against what he considered political despotism and economic predestination.

******

Shortly after Christopher Ludwick died in 1801, his friend, Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush, wrote the baker’s first biography. Rush opened his short treatise lamenting how history had once been limited to studying “men who occupied the first ranks of society.” But now, and “Happily for the world,” he continued, scholars had expanded their investigative scope to include “successful talents and virtue . . . [in] those classes of people who constitute the majority of mankind.” Rush designed his biographical sketch partly to unveil the positive impact religious instruction had on moral character, a microstudy using Christopher Ludwick to tell a wider story. Rush also aimed to inform contemporary middling men that personal work ethic, frugality and honesty could result in private wealth, independence and happiness. Yet the physician had at least one other motive for writing his account. He hoped “to rescue from the rapid oblivion of the grave, the name of a venerable and excellent citizen.” Benjamin Rush’s work remains the foundation to any modern exploration into Christopher Ludwick.
Heinrich and Catherine (nee Hiffle) Ludwick welcomed a son, Christopher, into their home on October 17, 1720, at Giessen in Hesse-Darmstadt. Heinrich was a prosperous baker and Christopher likely began learning that trade when he became old enough to labor. Sadly, Christopher’s mother died when he was twelve, but his father still managed to send the boy to a free school when he turned fourteen. This suggests Heinrich’s business was profitable enough for the baker to lose much (perhaps even all) of his son’s labor while possibly hiring a journeyman to replace him. At school, two overworked teachers presided over about 300 students to at least a modicum of success: Ludwick advanced his reading, writing and arithmetic under their tutelage. Historian William Ward Condit suggested that Ludwick’s chaotic scholastic experience likely contributed to his future support for educating poor children. Scholars should equally consider that Ludwick recognized the value of his education and appreciated the effort put forth by his grossly outnumbered teachers; this might equally have been the impetus behind his later investment in educating the disadvantaged. Read more…

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: New York – A Soldier’s Life April 1781
From a Hessian Diary of the American Revolution.
This excerpt from the diary of Johan Conrad Dohla (170 pages).

Major Moves during Johan’s deployment:

  • March 1777: Depart Germany
  • 3 June 1777: Arrive New York, then Amboy NJ
  • November 1777: To Philadelphia
  • June 1778: to Long Island
  • July 1778: To Newport RI
  • October 1779: to New York

April 1781: At New York (page 95)

Continuation of Occurences in North America During the Fifth Year, 1781

IN THE MONTH OF APRIL [1781]
1 April. We learned today that First Lieutenant von Diemar, serving with our Jaeger Corps, had fallen from his horse not far from Jericho and Brooklyn, on Long Island, and broke his neck. [Waldenfels notes that this was not true and may have been only a bad April Fool’s joke.]
20 April. We conducted punishment. Corporal M†ller was demoted and had to run the gauntlet ten times; Drummer Hechinger, of the Major’s Company, eight times; and Cannoneer M†ller, also eight times; all for drunkenness on duty and on watch.
21 April. I was on duty making cartridges.
23 April. I went on watch at the naval stores as lance corporal. [The watch at the naval stores consisted of one subaltern, one sergeant, one drummer, and thirty-seven rank and file.]
27 April. I went on watch at the hay storage as lance corporal. At night our two regiments received orders from General Clinton to march away from here. [General Clinton’s orders were in preparation of the movement to Virginia. Baurmeister added a postscript to his letter to Germany, dated 26 April to the effect that the Ansbach-Bayreuth regiments were among units ordered to embark and sail to Charleston.]
28 April. Between seven and eight o’clock tonight we made a bonfire at Fort Saint George because Lord Cornwallis won an important victory against the rebel General Greene in South Carolina. Today a sea battle at Martinique, in the West Indies, took place between the English Admiral Howe and the French Admiral [Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de] Rochambeau. The first had thirty-six ships, and the latter forty-two. After a three-hour, hard-fought engagement, Lord Howe lost the battle and four ships, which were captured.
30 April. Our two regiments were embarked at nine o’clock in the morning. [The Moravian’s entry for Monday, 30 April 1781, was that the Ansbach and two other regiments embarked that day: „We are thus rid of the oppressive and disagreeable billet of the former. The conduct of the Major [Seitz] and his servants has been rude, and the rooms they occupied have been ruined.” „Occupation of New York,” p. 436.] Everything that was in the warehouse, the sick and unserviceable, and the wives, except two for each company, remained in New York. The Bayreuth and Ansbach regiments received six transport ships. I went aboard the ship Wisk and went immediately on ship’s watch. [The 617 men of the Ansbach Regiment were embarked on the Alicia, Providence, and Ocean. The 598 men of the Bayreuth Regiment on the Alexander, Wisk, and Caledonia. These, plus the English regiments, made a total force of about 1,850 rank and file, commanded by Colonel von Voit.]

A History and a Query: Christian Ortlip/Artlip and Eva Ostrander
I was wondering if you have access to any historical info on Hessian soldiers?
My 5th Great Grandfather was a Hessian soldier named Christian Ortlip (or very similar}. He may have been from Hessen-Nassau, Preussen but can’t confirm. We know he was with Burgouyne’s Army at Saratoga. He deserted, was captured and stood before The New York “Commissioners for detecting and defeating Conspiracies” in Albany on 29th June 1778. He was given a pass and “permitted to go at large in this country” Our Beginnings.
Later, he married a Dutch girl named Eva Ostrander. Eva’s father was Antonius Ostrander, a Loyalist soldier also with Burgoyne in 1777. He was KIA at Bennington.
My branch of the Ostrander’s remained in New York after Antonius was killed because his wife, Elizabeth Proper, grew up as a child on the Livingston Estate. She and her children fled there and they were given sanctuary by the Livingston family.
So bottom line, Christian Ortlip and Eva Ostrander went on to procreate 10 children beginning in 1788. Christian died in 1832 and Eva in 1835 both in Livingston County.
I have been trying to find info about Christian Ortlip for some time, but not very successfully.
The Ortlip’s became the Artlip’s after the 1790 Hoosick, NY Census and we have been Artlip ever since.

Antonius Ostrander, my 6th Great grandfather, was a Loyalist serving with Burgoyne’s Army in New York in 1777. “He was sent with a detachment from the main British force to acquire horses, wagons and provisions in the Hoosick valley, Antonius and his compatriots were overwhelmed by unexpected opposition in the Battle of Bennington”. British documents listed Antonius as “Thunis Ostrander” with the notation “Killed at Bennington”
My 5th Great grandmother, Eva Ostrander, was his 4th child bpt 13 Dec 1769.
This information is from “OSTRANDER: A GENEALOGICAL RECORD 1660 – 1995 by EMMETT, VINTON and COLLIN OSTRANDER – Page 118

The anecdote I love. In 1777 New York the Dutch ladies really admired the German conscripts so they encouraged them to desert. They did this especially at night in the woods around their camps.
Many of the German men did exactly that.

Question: Concerning CHRISTIAN (CHRISTOPHER) ORTLIP aka ARTLIP AFTER THE 1790 Census. I would really like to know if indeed he was at Saratoga and if so which German Command he served with.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts and direction
Ken (Ortlip) Artlip, kartlip@gmail.com from Wisconsin

Guilty as Charged: Convicting Vermont’s First Governor
by Gary Shattuck 26 sept 2024 Journal of tyhe American Revolution
Transitioning from a complicated war footing to an organized civil society at the close of the Revolution proved every bit as difficult as the nation’s early leaders feared. Thirteen proud colonies surrendering aspects of their hard-fought independence in exchange for a new form of federal government generated significant hesitancy after the guns silenced. The placeholder Articles of Confederation (1781-1789) provided some assurance of order at first, but hardly as well as the Constitution did when it took center stage.
As a result, the entire rule of law practiced throughout the new-found states changed virtually overnight, including the state admitted into the fold in 1791, Vermont. In the rush to accommodate the demands made by fledgling federalism in this historically tumultuous region, one of its first leaders, Gov. Thomas Chittenden (1730-1797), soon fell victim to the changed legal landscape. Upon suffering the indignity of being compelled to appear in a newly created federal courtroom in 1797 to go before a jury of his peers, charged with committing a federal offense, he faced immediate imprisonment upon their finding of guilt, only to escape that fate by dying soon after; the only governor among eighty-two others in state history to experience such an ignoble end. His offense? Selling alcohol without a license and allowing its consumption in an unlicensed establishment.
That Chittenden ran afoul of the law in such a seemingly innocent way could not have surprised anyone who knew him. Greatly admired, his solid, pragmatic political reputation preceded him for more than two decades of public service, including as governor overseeing the region’s coalescence and admission into the Union as the fourteenth state. At the same time, Chittenden was also well-known among his peers for his hail-fellow-well-met, bon vivant bearing. Read more…

The Battle of Ridgefield: Book and Presentation
The Battle of Ridgefield was a Revolutionary War battle that took place in town on April 27th, 1777. Patriot General David Wooster and General Benedict Arnold attempted to hold off British troops in the only land skirmish on Connecticut soil during the Revolutionary War. Today, there are several landmarks and markers throughout the town that tell the story of this 1777 battle. Ridgefield’s Main Street not only has a monument that honors those who died, but also it features a few historic homes and churches that played major roles in the battle. Also, Keeler Tavern will forever serve as a reminder of the struggle during the Battle of Ridgefield as a British fired cannonball is permanently lodged in one of their corner posts.
In November 2019, the Battle of Ridgefield became the subject of intense interest with the finding of human remains under the basement of a historic house, which sits not far from the main engagement. This battle was the only inland engagement of the Revolutionary War fought in Connecticut.
The Ridgefield Historical Society received a multi-year grant in 2020 from the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program, followed by another grant in 2023 to convert this enthusiasm into preservation action and long-term stewardship of this important site through research, archaeology, and community-based dialogue.
On September 18, 2024, Historian Keith Marshall Jones III, discussed his latest book, The Battle of Ridgefield: Benedict Arnold, the Patriot Militia and the Surprising 1777 Battle that Galvanized Revolutionary Connecticut, at a sold-out event hosted by the Ridgefield Historical Society. This work offers the most comprehensive account to date of the April 27, 1777, Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut’s only inland Revolutionary War engagement. Jones, the Founding President of the Ridgefield Historical Society and an esteemed author, presented new findings that challenge long-held beliefs about the battle’s significance and its role in shaping the Revolutionary War.
Learn more at Ridgefield Historical Society

Thanks to Ken MacCallum.

Book Review: The Battles of Fort Watson and Fort Motte
Author: Steven D. Smith (Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2024)
Review by Patrick H. Hannum 22 Sept 2024 Journal of the American Revolution
Steven provides an interesting perspective on a brief but important period of the Revolutionary War in the south. The author focuses on a four-week period, April 12 to May 12, 1781, in South Carolina. The Battles of Fort Watson and Fort Mott highlight an often-undervalued part of warfare, small battles and skirmishes. These engagements may seem insignificant when compared to major battles, but their impact on the greater operational and strategic environment influenced things in ways the participants never fully appreciated at the time or even years later, as they reflected on their service.
Both of these forts supported British regular and provincial units who advanced inland after the fall of Charlestown, South Carolina (today Charleston) in order to reestablish royal colonial rule in South Carolina. Fort Motte was located about fifteen miles northwest of Eutaw Springs on the north bank of the Santee River. It was built on site of an old Indian mound referred to as the Santee Indian Mound, and constructed under the supervision of and named by Lt. Col John T. Watson, a provincial officer. Watson leveled portions of the mound and the shaped the sides to form an elevated position to dominate all approaches. Abattis surrounded the fort. A British camp and well were located outside the fort’s walls.
Fort Motte was located about twenty-five miles northwest of Fort Watson, on the south side of the Congaree River, about two miles west of the confluence of the Wateree River with the Congaree and near but not overlooking McCord’s Ferry. The fort was constructed on a bluff encompassing the recently constructed home of Mrs. Rebecca Mott, a recent widow and ardent Patriot. Read more…

Advertised on 27 September 1774: “HOME-SPUN, A Quantity wanted.”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

September 27

“HOME-SPUN, A Quantity wanted.”

In so many ways, James McCall’s advertisement appeared as a stark contrast compared to others in the September 27, 1774, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal. In just three lines, it proclaimed, “HOME-SPUN, A Quantity wanted. – Enquire of JAMES McCALL, at his Store in Tradd-street.” The word “HOME-SPUN” in all capitals in a significantly larger font occupied a line on its own, calling attention to the commodity that McCall sought. He referred to linen and wool textiles produced in the colonies as an alternative to imported fabrics. Spinning, a domestic chore undertaken by women, took on political significance when colonizers enacted nonimportation agreements in response to the duties imposed in the Townshend Acts in the late 1760s. The homespun cloth that resulted from their efforts became a visible symbol of support for the Patriot cause. McCall did not need to elaborate on the political principles associated with homespun when he placed his advertisement seeking a quantity of it. In other advertisements, he had previously demonstrated that how well he understood consumer politics.
Elsewhere in the same issue of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, merchants who imported “fashionable” textiles from London and other English ports ran lengthy advertisements that listed and described their merchandise. Read more…

Flax and the Diary of Matthew Patten, Bedford, New Hampshire
By Beth Gallucci, History and Museum Studies MA Program
Born in 1719 in Ulster, Ireland, Matthew Patten emigrated to America with his family in 1728. The Patten’s were among the many Scotch-Irish Presbyterian families who came to America to escape religious persecution in Northern Ireland.
Matthew and his brother Samuel moved to Souhegan-East in 1738 which is now known as Bedford, New Hampshire. Patten was a jack-of-all-trades like many New Hampshire settlers of the 18th century. He worked as a carpenter, joiner, farmer, surveyor, justice of the peace, and a probate judge in the town of Bedford. His diary was recorded from 1754 to 1788, written on individual, unbound pages, in the form of a daily account, documenting life in the second half of the 18thcentury. Though Patten’s narrative may not appear to be a colorful one, he certainly provides the reader a glimpse into the life of a farmer on the colonial frontier and enables historians like us to engage with his world of planting flax.
Patten intermittently records the planting and harvesting of flax by himself, his family members and a mixture of men and women who were hired as help. Though his accounts are more detailed regarding the planting of rye, corn and barley, Patten duly notes (most years) the seasonal process of sowing flax in May and harvesting and “swingling” flax in the fall. The crop seems to be a staple in his household, and he records the annual hiring of women (and it is always women) to come and live in his home for six to eight weeks “to spin.” ….
….He does mention that his son John joins the Continental Army, but never mentions the fact that he was shot in the arm at Bunker Hill in June of 1775. A diary entry from May 21, 1776, reveals John’s battle injury but also demonstrates Patten’s heartfelt emotions of loss and anger when he describes John’s death while he was stationed in Canada with the Continental Army. Read more…

18th century autumn pies
By Sarah Murden 23 sept 2024 in All Things Georgian
Now that it’s autumn we begin to think of cosy nights in, and there’s nothing better than some hearty pies. I recently came across a reference in this book to a Yorkshire Pie, which was being served at the Wykeham Arms, a lovely old pub in Winchester, Hampshire, which I know well. Maybe it’s one they could add to their menu.
According to the narrator of the book (Maureen Sayers, housekeeper to the wealthy eccentric gentleman, John Courtoy), she visited Winchester around Christmas 1820, having already been to see acquaintances, the Harris’s, who Sayers described as living near the Austen’s at Chawton (Jane Austen was mentioned in Sayers journal, but merely to say that she was already dead, but that she knew of her reputation as an author).

During our visit Michael decide to take me to the Wykeham Arms, which is a coaching inn located close to the cathedral. There we enjoyed local ale and festive food, including the most spectacular Yorkshire Pie with standing crust. It was filled with pigeon, turkey, game hen, chicken, goose and forcemeat. The result was a grand dish which when duly sliced provided a variety of tasty meals, each contained within the other. Oh, what joy to behold!

Armed with this information, I had to know more about the pie being served. Read more…

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions

Entries which have been added, or revised, this week, with thanks:

If you are willing to submit some information, send a note to loyalist.trails@uelac.org All help is appreciated. …doug

Events Upcoming

Governor Simcoe Branch: “A Loyalist Roblin Descendant Makes Legal History” Wed 2 Oct 7:30 ET

Lawyer and journalist Drew von Hasselbach brings us the story of Jehiel Roblin (1833-1870), a humble customs inspector who, in 1861, vouched for his friend’s bona fides on a marriage licence application. “Vouching” meant Jehiel promised to pay the Crown 200 pounds if it later turned out his friend’s marriage wasn’t legally proper. More details and registration…

Colonel John Butler (Niagara) Branch, “Loyalist Refugees” Lunch meeting Sat 5 Oct @11:45

Hanae Weber. Loyalist Refugees Before and After the American Revolution.
“‘…the Families who are, or call themselves Loyalists, continually coming in, in large Parties, naked and starving with Hunger & who must be received:’ Loyalist Refugee Experiences During and After the American Revolution.” This presentation will examine the catalysts which drove over 100,000 people from the United States, the impact of Loyalism on Black and Indigenous people, and the lasting repercussions of this 18th century refugee crisis. Hanae Weber is the Lead Civilian Interpreter and Clothing Program Co-ordinator at Old Fort Niagara in Youngstown, New York.
At Betty’s Restaurant, 8921 Sodom Road, Niagara Falls at 11:45 am. Cost of the lunch is $30 (members), $35 (non-members) in cash at the meeting. Please RSVP to 283corvette@gmail.com

American Revolution Institute: The Marquis de Lafayette Returns Wed 9 Oct 6:30

A Tour of America’s National Capital Region. Against the backdrop of a tumultuous election, a beloved hero of the American Revolution returned to America for the first time in forty years. He visited each state, but the majority of his time was spent in Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland. Public historian Elizabeth Reese traces his route through the Capital Region, highlighting locations and people. Details and register…

From the Social Media and Beyond

  • Townsends, and “anything food”

    • The Working Man’s Crawfish – “Found Food” isn’t something we think about in a lot of the world today. We wanted to celebrate one of the best found foods in the world with this Crawfish Soup! This is”The Working Man’s Crawfish” (9 min)
  • This week in History
    • Today in 1745, 2,300 British troops are outflanked and defeated in just 10 minutes by an army of Scottish Jacobites at Prestonpans. “I cannot reproach myself,” John Cope, the British commander, declares. “The manner in which the enemy came on was quicker than can be described” image
    • 28 Sep 1751 The 19-year-old George Washington sails for Barbados with his half-brother Lawrence, the only time George left North America. Lawrence had tuberculosis & spent the winter in the tropics. So George went & it left an indelible imprint on him. image
    • 24 Sep 1770, 150 North Carolina Regulators violently disrupted the Hillsborough District Superior Court in what was called the Hillsborough Riot. Regulators seized and began beating officials of the court in the street in front of the courthouse image
    • 28 Sep 1774 Philadelphia, PA Hoping to head off armed conflict, PA delegate & Loyalist leader Joseph Galloway proposes a union of the colonies with Britain via a Grand Council & Gov- Gen appointed by the king. It narrowly fails. image
    • 23 Sep 1775 Col Benedict Arnold’s army leaves Gardiner, MA (today’s Maine) in three brigades and begins its long, hard struggle through rugged wilderness. Their objective: Quebec and a junction with Gen Sullivan’s expedition moving on Montreal. image
    • 5 Sep 1775 Montreal, Canada. Col Ethan Allen was captured after his attack on Chambly is routed by a sortie by Capt Walter Butler’s Canadian Volunteers. Allen was taken prisoner & sent to England to be executed. image
    • 26 Sep 1775 Boston, MA Gen Thomas Gage recalled to London for consultation. He would not return but be replaced by Gen William Howe. image
    • 22 September 1776, Nathan Hale is executed for spying. Before he was hung, he quoted from the play Cato. “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” The line in the play is “What a pity it is That we can die but once to serve our country.” image
    • 24 Sep 1776 Continental Congress prepares instructions for agents to negotiate a treaty with France. Also instructed to request immediate assistance in securing arms. Covert French aid began filtering into the colonies soon after the outbreak of #RevWar in 1775. image
    • 28 Sep 1776 Philadelphia, PA Pennsylvania adopts a new constitution that includes a unicameral (one house) legislature & a Bill of Rights. image
    • 21 Sep 1777 British Gen John Burgoyne received a disappointing letter from Gen Henry Clinton informing him that the awaited move north would be limited in troops and distance. The planned junction at Albany of Burgoyne’s would not be. image
    • 22 Sep 1777 Hoping to stave off a British outflanking attempt, Gen. Washington moves the Continental Army to Pott’s Grove, PA. image
    • 26 Sep 1777 The American capital of Philadelphia was occupied by Gen William Howe’s army and garrisoned by the British for nine months, with Independence Hall serving as a prison for American prisoners-of-war. image
    • 27 Sep 1777 Lancaster Court House became the Capitol of the United States for one day. The Continental Congress was fleeing from the recently captured capitol of Philadelphia, but the Court House proved too small, and they moved again after one day. image
    • 22 Sep 1778 Gen Charles Cornwallis leads some 5K troops across the North (Hudson) River to forage and disrupt American outposts in NJ. image
    • 27 Sep 1778 “Baylor Massacre”- dozens of Virginia militiamen killed or wounded in a surprise attack as they sleep, River Vale, NJ. British Gen Charles Grey (of Paoli fame) once more ordered “no flints” so any American who failed to escape was bayonetted. image 22 Sep 1779 Capt John Paul Jones, commanding Bonhomme Richard, takes a pair of British ships off Flamborough Head, England. He also spies a 40-ship convoy at anchor at the mouth of the harbor. image
    • 23 Sep 1779 Flamborough Head, England. Capt John Paul Jones, commanding Bonhomme Richard, exchanges broadsides with HMS Serapis. The ships collide &fight savagely at close quarters. When a grenade ignites her munitions, Serapis strikes & Jones takes her. image
    • 24 Sep 1779 British defending Savannah, GA launch a sortie vs French siegeworks, suffering some 20 casualties but inflicting 70. image
    • 23 Sep 1780 Dressed in civilian clothes, British Maj John Andre attempts to slip past American lines with West Point’s defense plans, obtained from his agent, Gen Benedict Arnold. He’s captured by militiamen who send word back to – Arnold! image
    • 25 Sep 1780 Gen Benedict Arnold’s treachery was discovered & he fled to the British ship, Vulture. When Washington was informed, he was reported to have said, “Arnold has betrayed us. Whom can we trust now?” image
    • 26 Sep 1780 Battle of Charlotte in 3 different charges the British suffered heavy casualties, including Maj Hanger, wounded. Gen Cornwallis finally sent the light infantry. US commander Col Davie ordered his men to retreat. But #RevWar in the South wasn’t over. image
    • 24 Sep 1783 Princeton University’s (College of New Jersey) commencement. On the stage: 7 signers of the Declaration & 11 future signers of the Constitution. Including Gen Washington. Congress relocated the capital to Princeton after the soldiers’ revolt in Phila. image
    • 24 Sep 1789, #Congress passed 12 amendments to the #Constitution, defining our rights in relationship with government. 10 were ratified: the #BillofRights. “Extending the ground of public confidence” in government, Congress said, “will best ensure [its] beneficent ends” image
  • Clothing and Related:

    • A fall #footcandyfriday: early 18thc buckle shoes w/ autumnal hues & bright palette. Bargello or flame stitch embroidery was popular in 17thc & 18thc Frequently associated w/ accessories —pocketbooks and purses— flame stitch provides a geometric burst of color.
    • A glowing triangle of embellishment, bright florals overlaid with gold lace and a criss cross of silk cord. This 1730s stomacher retains its small silk tabs at the side ready for it to be pinned into place amongst the folds of the larger gown
    • It is banyan weather today, pouring with rain, from a heavy sky so the loose mid #c18th brocade robe is perfect. This is a rare example of a woman’s banyan, the Spitalfields silk designed by Anna Maria Garthwaite @V_and_A. Painting by John Copley
  • Miscellaneous
    • A walk to Custom House yesterday to check on some foreshore features. 18thC wooden gridirons for vessels to rest on at low tide & for goods to be unloaded. There’s been a Custom House here since the 14thC where Geoffrey Chaucer himself worked collecting excise duties
      The current Custom House building (entered via Lower Thames Street) has been rebuilt many times, the current building designed by David Laing in 1813 & still in use by HMRC until 2020. Plans were then proposed to turn it into a boutique hotel which were eventually overturned after a big public campaign. Flanked by the old Billingsgate fish market on one side & Sugar Quay on the other, this area bears the scars – good, bad & ugly – of England’s global trade history in its very bones, once being the very centre of the sugar trade
    • Some mudlark’d September Thames Treasures from the foreshore. From top, left to right:
      • 18thC lead token issued by unknown trader with the initials ‘RI’
      • Victorian/Edwardian fly buttons from TAYLOR & GARDINER. NEW BOND ST
      • & BLACKETT. WEST SMITHFIELD
      • Vulcanite bottle stopper with initial ‘M’
      • small Victorian-era green poison bottle with wonky lip & big bubbles in glass
      • cobalt blue (paste) gem stone from a Georgian Gent’s cufflink
      • sherd from an Express Dairies tea cup (the flower is an aster)
      • sherd from a Simpson’s Chop House, Cornhill plate. Reputed to be the oldest chop house in London, Dickens was a customer
      • sherd of blue on white 18thC tin glaze
    • September 26, 1774, Nathaniel & Elizabeth Chapman of Leominster had a baby boy they named Johnathan. That boy grew up in Leominster and Longmeadow during the Revolutionary War, moved west to Ohio, and later became famous as Johnny Appleseed.

 

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