In this issue:

 

Twitter: http:// twitter.com/uelac
Facebook: https:// www.facebook.com/groups/2303178326/?ref=share

2025 UELAC Conference: Drinking Establishments
The conference has lots to do — see Conference 2025 details.

Sat. 12 July 6:00 pm — Gala Banquet reception & dinner. Loyalist period clothing is encouraged. Dorchester Award and Sue Morris Hines Award winners will be honoured. With a speaker presentation by Dr. Bonnie Hoskins, a recently appointed UELAC Fellow:
‘Why Drinking Establishments are Important Sites of Loyalist history: the Exchange Coffee House and the Mallard Tavern in Saint John‘
Dr. Bonnie Huskins is an assistant Professor at the University of New Brunswick at Saint John, and an adjunct Professor, Loyalist Studies Coordinator and Honorary Research Associate at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick. She teaches courses on the American Revolution and Loyalist history; Canadian history; immigration history; gender and women’s history; British Atlantic World; and pirates and-piracy in. world history. Dr. Huskins is a well-published author of books, a passionate Loyalist researcher, producing detailed articles and has conducted many Loyalist-related podcasts and in-person presentations. Dr. Huskins’ research has received funding from many history research sources.
Bonnie possesses a unique blend of expertise, passion, and dedication that makes her an ideal ally for the United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada. Her extensive knowledge in Loyalist history aligns seamlessly with the historical context of the UELAC, fostering a deep understanding of the challenges faced by the Loyalists during the American Revolution.

Everyone will be welcomed in the Hospitality Room after Gala.

Hope to see you there…

Norfolk No More: Part Three of Three
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
The stories of most of the Black Loyalists who had once been enslaved in Virginia’s Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties are found in the all-too-brief entries in the Book of Negroes. For some, their names appear in a sentence’s worth of local history; for others, the impact of their lives can be traced from Virginia to Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone.
For example, James Young was a Black Loyalist who was recognized for his administrative skills after he settled in Birchtown. He was appointed along with Tobias Johnson to tend to the poor in the community. However, as there were two men by the name of James Young who had been enslaved in Virginia’s Norfolk County, there is no way of knowing whether it was the 30 year-old who had been enslaved by John Phillips or the 35 year-old considered to be the property of Willis Nickinson.
Not all stories ended well. Britton Murray had been a fellow passenger with James Young on the second voyage of L’Abondance when it sailed for Port Roseway in July of 1783. Murray had escaped from the plantation of Isaac Murray in Princess Anne County in 1778. But within eight years’ time, he was hanged for stealing a chest, clothes, and money from a servant of James Westley in Shelburne.
Britton Murray had escaped his master in 1778, a year in which 85 other enslaved Africans from Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties had successfully made a bid for freedom. No other year would see so many runaways for the two counties. According to the Book of Negroes, 2 escaped in 1775, 64 in 1776, 27 in 1777, 57 in 1779, 15 in 1780, and only 4 in 1781.
Another L’Abondance passenger who was aboard the evacuation vessel with Young and Murray was Nathaniel Snowball, the captain of a company of Black Loyalist settlers. Snowball was accompanied by his wife Violet and their children Nathaniel Jr. and Mary – who had also been enslaved in Norfolk, Virginia. Just as white Loyalists were organized into companies headed by captains before they left New York City, so too were the Black settlers of Birchtown and Shelburne. There were 21 Black Loyalist companies that eventually settled in the Shelburne area. Six of these companies had sailed on L’Abondance. Their captains were: Nathaniel Snowball (in charge of 109 blacks), Caesar Perth (85), York Lawrence (85), Francis Jones (57), Stephen Blucke (108) and Roger Nicholson (55) — men who were once described as the ‘Black gentry’.
On Saturday, August 30, the six Black Loyalist captains accompanied Benjamin Marston, the surveyor hired by the Nova Scotia government to distribute land to Loyalist refugees. The men took a seven-kilometer walk from Shelburne to gain an initial impression of the settlement site for the free Blacks.
Had Governor Parr known the condition of the land he had proposed for the Black Loyalists? The future settlement was even rockier than the land along Shelburne’s main harbour. A swamp formed its northern border while the two creeks that provided drinking water could not even be navigated by canoe. Covered in evergreen trees, the land was utterly unsuitable for farming. A later visitor characterized the site as ‘a valley with much stones and a little swampy‘.
Despite the town site’s location on a non-navigable inlet of Shelburne’s harbour, Marston noted that Blucke, the leader of the settler companies, was ‘well satisfied with it‘ when the men had completed their inspection of the site.
However, by 1791 the Black Loyalists who had settled in Birchtown no longer shared the satisfaction that their captains had felt in 1783. Nathaniel Snowball had fallen into debt – so much so that he faced the prospect of remaining in Nova Scotia while most of his fellow settlers were preparing to leave Birchtown to found the free Black colony of Sierra Leone in West Africa. No Black who was of poor character, an indentured servant, or saddled by debt was permitted to join the migrants heading for Sierra Leone.
Fortunately for Snowball, John Clarkson, the Englishman who oversaw the migration to Sierra Leone, covered the Black Loyalist’s debt, and he was able to leave Nova Scotia with his wife and three children.
Once described as being ‘factious, perverse, pestilent, disaffected and ignorant‘ by the white establishment in Sierra Leone, Nathaniel Snowball eventually led a group of Methodists to found another settlement outside of the capital, Freetown. After trying to make a living on the shores of Pirates’ Bay under Snowball’s leadership, the settlers were eventually compelled to return to Freetown within a year’s time. Nevertheless, his leadership was still appreciated, and he was elected as a representative of the Black Loyalists in the 1796 elections.
Nathaniel junior became the captain of a trading ship noted for having an African crew.
In 1859, 67 years after the Black Loyalists arrived in Sierra Leone, the descendants of the Nova Scotian settlers formed the Nova Scotian and Maroon Descendants Association. For the next century, this association held regular culture nights to celebrate their Nova Scotian heritage. Barbecues were accompanied by songs, dances, and the wearing of loyalist era costumes. Among the 82 signatories who had signed the papers of incorporation for this association were representatives of the Snowball family. Nathaniel and Violet Snowball, who had once been enslaved by masters in Virginia before the American Revolution, became the ancestors of Sierra Leone’s community leaders – descendants who took great pride in preserving their loyalist heritage.
When he was enslaved in Virginia, Nathaniel Snowball had been considered the property of Mrs. Shrewstin of Norfolk, Virginia. She is just one of two female enslavers listed among the 162 known masters in Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties. The only other was Mrs. Taylor, a widow based in Norfolk. Her slave Jack Taylor made his escape in 1779 when he was 23 years old. He, too, was among those aboard L’Abondance when it sailed for Port Roseway in July of 1783, joining 122 other passengers who had once been enslaved in Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties.
Because of the entries in the Book of Negroes, we know that 328 men, women and children had once been enslaved by no less than 162 Virginians in the state’s Princess Anne and Norfolk counties. Only a handful of the stories of these Black Loyalists have been discovered to date – stories that, nevertheless, shed valuable light on how lives once limited by slavery found freedom and sanctuary in various parts of the British Empire.
 To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.


The Loyal Queens County Troop of Horse
by David M. Griffin 11 March 2025 Journal of the Ameican Revolution
There is a coatee from the collection of the Bayville Historical Museum that is presently stored within the Oyster Bay Historical Society Archive that appears to be a genuine uniform from the American Revolution. It is speculated to have belonged to a soldier from the Loyalist militia of Queens County, New York and possibly that of a mounted cavalryman from its troop of light horse. The provenance of the relic is yet to be confirmed. This militia troop of horse acted successfully to bolster British defenses and to aid in policing Long Island in the difficult war years. The story of this cavalry unit is mostly unknown today, even on Long Island.
Long Island’s militia units were established in the New York region with rising tensions between opposing sides in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. The County of Queens in the northwestern portion of the island was situated close to New York City and had strong loyalist ties. Queens County was divided into districts and each district was assigned a militia captain that was active in that area. This captain kept a list of the men in each district that were able to bear arms. There were regular field days that everyone was required to attend; citizens who failed to attend were fined for non-compliance.
In 1775 and early 1776 the Queens County Militia was a made up of men fighting for liberty. When the island became occupied British territory in the fall of 1776 the militia was re-formed into a loyalist force and aided British army forces. The island was under British martial law, and policing and the courts were non-existent. The Queens County Militia were active in collecting, organizing, monitoring, and guarding supplies for the British army. They also aided in collecting requisitions from the inhabitants of Long Island. Read more…


Harriet Tubman’s Canadian Legacy
Throughout the 1850s, the legendary Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman planned her operations from a base in Upper Canada.
By Nancy Payne — 21 Feb 2025 in Canada’s History
Freedom seeker Joe Bailey, terrified by the slave catchers not far behind him and the roiling waters below, couldn’t take his eyes off his feet as he crossed the suspension bridge high above the Niagara River. ‘Joe, come look at the falls! Joe, you fool you, come see the falls! It’s your last chance,’ the small woman up ahead of him on the bridge chided, pointing to the majestic Horseshoe Falls thundering in the distance to the left of them.
When Bailey finally stepped off the bridge onto Canadian soil, he sang for joy and shouted that his next trip would be to heaven. His guide didn’t let up. ‘You might have looked at the falls first, and then gone to heaven afterwards.’
The woman in charge that November day in 1856 was Harriet Tubman, perhaps the greatest conductor on the Underground Railroad, a network of safe houses and routes for Black freedom seekers that led from the slave states of the American South to safety in Canada. A plaque near the former site of the Niagara suspension bridge memorializes the moment she led Joe Bailey to freedom, but he was far from her only passenger on the Underground Railroad. For the better part of a decade, she lived in St. Catharines, in the Niagara region of present-day Ontario, while journeying into danger again and again to free other enslaved people and guide them to a new life. This indomitable woman who couldn’t read or write was a towering force for justice — a shining light amidst the evil gloom of American slavery. Read more…

Man who burned down White House buried in Halifax
Craig Ferguson, a director of the Old Burying Ground Foundation, shares the story of Maj.-Gen. Robert Ross and how he ended up in Nova Scotia. Watch his interview with Amy Smith. (video 6 min). Watch now…

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: POW: in Winter Quarters – A Soldier’s Life December 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
  • May 1781: to Chesapeake Bay (Yorktown)
  • October 1781: to Williamsburg

October, 1781: POW: In Winter Quarters. (page 118)

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

IN THE MONTH OF DECEMBER [1781]
page 118

1 December. It began with beautiful, warm sunshine.
2 December. During the morning the Ansbach chaplain, Wagner, who lay in captivity at Winchester with us, held a prayer meeting in our barracks courtyard.
3 December. Again, men who had been left behind sick at Gloucester rejoined us here. From our Quesnoy’s Company, Private [Wilhelm] Kolb came with them. He brought the news that Corporal [Georg] Renner, of Quesnoy’s Company, had died on 7 November in the hospital at Gloucester. Also, two privates of Quesnoy’s Company, H‡mmerlein and Herterich, both of whom had been wounded during the siege, had died in the hospital because of lack of care, supervision, and medical necessities; the first on 14 November, and the latter on 20 November. Kolb told how he often had seen that these two wounded individuals were bandaged only once in two or three days and that maggots and worms grew in their wounds. Heaven have mercy! That the Americans show so little help and comfort for the sick and wounded whom we had left behind.
4 December. The field carpenter [Samuel] Hofmann, of the Grenadier Company of the Bayreuth Regiment, died here in our barracks and was buried in a small clearing in the woods behind our barracks.
7 December. Privates Schwab and Taubald, of Quesnoy’s Company, deserted from the barracks this morning. The issuing of rations is much behind schedule and we already were twenty days behind in our issue of flour, which was a bad situation.
8 December. The wife of musketeer [Georg] Meichel, of the Colonel’s Company, died here in the barracks.
12 December. During the evening Private Riedel, of Quesnoy’s Company, deserted.
13 December. We received some money in part payment of our long overdue pay. Each private received one-half a Spanish dollar; each corporal, one; and sergeants major, sergeants, quartermaster sergeants, and medics, two Spanish dollars.
This money was obtained by Major von Beust from a merchant at Winchester for interest, because the shortage of money was great among us and was the reason for many going into the countryside to seek work and nourishment, as we had not received any pay for more than two months.
15 December. During the afternoon Drummer [Georg] Schindelhauer, of Quesnoy’s Company, was missing. His brother, also a drummer in the regiment, who had been assigned to the Colonel’s Company and had deserted from a command at Yorktown on 12 October, now was assigned here as a corporal in the Virginia militia guarding us. Therefore, it was believed that this brother influenced him to desert.
16 December. As it was the third Sunday in Advent, Chaplain Wagner conducted a prayer meeting for us.
17 December. Private [Johann Georg] Korn, of Major Beust’s Company, died here in the barracks.
25 December. It was the holy Christmas Day, beautiful and warm.
28 December. Private B‡r, of Quesnoy’s Company, was missing.
29 December. Again, sick persons arrived from Gloucester. From our Quesnoy’s Company, three men came with them [Adam] Schindler I, F‡rrn, and Kiefhaber II. This past month was mostly beautiful weather, and there was still no snow. Now, God be praised, we have survived another year in America and closed it out with our lives and health. May the Lord be praised and thanked for His many blessings in this year. Praise the Lord, my soul.
(to be continued)

Podcast: Threads of Power: How Haudenosaunee Women & Fashion Shaped History
By Maeve Kane, March 2025 at Ben Franklin’s World
Maeve is an Associate Professor of History at the University at Albany. During our exploration of Haudenosaunee women and the trade they conducted, Maeve reveals information about Haudenosaunee communities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and women’s roles in those communities. Details about using cloth and clothing as historical sources and what these sources reveal to us about the political and economic prowess of Haudenosaunee women. And, the important role Haudenosaunee women played in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century trade with Europeans and the ways they used trade, cloth, and clothing to keep Haudenosaunee culture alive and vibrant. Listen in…


Newly Discovered Letters Illuminate the Life of a Female Printer Who Published Revolutionary Texts and Pushed the Colonies Toward Independence
By Alexandra Cox, 10 March 2025 Smithsonian Magazine
As Virginia’s first female newspaper publisher, Clementina Rind emphasized women’s viewpoints and collaborated with prominent politicians like Thomas Jefferson
The story of how Clementina Rind became a pivotal figure in early American journalism is one of resilience, intellect and fortitude. Navigating personal loss and political upheaval, this trailblazing female printer and newspaper publisher helped shape the ideological foundations of the American Revolution. Among other accomplishments, Rind published a fierce defense of the rights of the American Colonies by Thomas Jefferson—a pamphlet that is widely viewed as a predecessor to the Declaration of Independence. She also defended the role of the free press in a time of dramatic political conflict by showcasing independent voices and perspectives, including those of women.
Yet she has long been overlooked. As Edward C. Papenfuse, the former archivist for the State of Maryland and the author of an article about Rind, says, ‘She has not gotten the attention that she deserves … which I think is unfortunate, because she is truly a remarkable individual.’
In January 1756, Rind and her father, the Reverend John Grierson, embarked on a life-altering journey, traveling from England to Annapolis, Maryland, aboard the sloop Greyhound. Convicted in London for conducting clandestine marriages, Grierson was sentenced to 14 years of penal servitude in the American Colonies. The pair’s voyage was fraught with danger; cramped conditions, disease and other threats claimed the lives of around 11 percent of the estimated 50,000 convicts transported to the Colonies in the 18th century. For Rind, the journey was particularly harrowing, as she witnessed her father succumb to illness en route. Read more…

Advertised on 12 March 1775: ‘Her husband has absconded, to avoid the payment of his debts’
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
12 March 1775

‘Her husband has absconded, to avoid the payment of his debts.’

It began as a standard ‘runaway wife’ advertisement in the January 19, 1775, edition of the New-York Journal. ‘WHEREAS my Wife Mary has lately eloped from me, and my perhaps endeavour to run me into Debt,’ Morris Decamp proclaimed, ‘these are therefore to warn all Persons not to Trust or entertain her on my Account, as I will pay no Debts she may contract.’ That advertisement ran for four weeks, but not without going unnoticed or unanswered by Mary.
Most women who appeared in the public prints as the subject of such advertisements did not have the means or opportunity to respond. Mary, however, did, perhaps with assistance from some of her relations. Her own advertisement began its run in the March 2 edition of the New-York Journal, placing it before the eyes of the same readers who saw her husband’s missive. She acknowledged that ‘the public would naturally be led to conclude, that she had in some respect or other misbehaved to her said husband’ based on what they knew from his advertisement. On the contrary, she asserted, she ‘always behaved as a faithful and dutiful wife to him.’ Read more…

The Federalist Papers
by Jude M. Pfister 11 March 2025 Journal of the American Revolution
Aside from the commercially inspired Mount Vernon Compact of 1785, the first public acknowledgement of the enormous inability of Congress to govern the peace in the new United States was the calling of the Annapolis Convention for September 1786. William Grayson, writing to James Madison that May, sounded upon the grievances of an ineffective Congress, arguing a proposed Annapolis Convention should ‘comprehend all the grievances of the union, and to combine the commercial arrangements with them, and make them dependent on each other.’
As with the Constitutional Convention of 1787, James Madison was a primary mover of the Annapolis Convention of 1786. The most important outcome of the Annapolis Convention (less than half the states bothered to send delegates) was the appearance of two brilliant men (Madison and Alexander Hamilton) on the national stage and the agreement to hold another national meeting in May 1787 in Philadelphia. The Annapolis Convention propelled the issue of a weak nation onto the national scene in a formal way.
To arrive at the time of The Federalist papers (1787-1788) requires navigating the Constitutional Convention during the summer of 1787. As that event is well known there is no need to provide an overview other than to say the proposed Constitution was signed on September 17 and sent to the states for debate and, it was hoped, ratification. To enhance the chances of ratification in a pivotal state, New York, Alexander Hamilton devised a plan to promote the proposed Constitution through a series of essays to be published anonymously under the signature of ‘Publius.’ Hamilton reached out to several colleagues to be on the writing team to produce the essays. Eventually James Madison of Virginia and John Jay of New York agreed to be part of it. William Duer and Gouverneur Morris of New York declined to participate. While Hamilton would write the majority of the eighty-five essays (fifty-one), Madison would contribute to the southern perspective (twenty-six essays). Having Madison participate was a brilliant move on Hamilton’s part. The ‘Father of the Constitution’ was particularly well suited to argue on its behalf. Jay, due to illness, contributed just five; so closely were Hamilton’s and Madison’s thoughts aligned that there are three essays with disputed authorship, either Madison or Hamilton, and up to a dozen attributed to either Hamilton or Madison that cannot be firmly linked to either. Read more…

Book Review: The Scientist Turned: Andre Michaux, Thomas Jefferson, and the Conspiracy of 1793
Author: Patrick Spero (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2024
Review by Jeff Broadwater 10 March 2025 Journal of the American Revolution
Dreary as they may have been, the COVID lockdowns had a few positive consequences; they did give some historians, among them Patrick Spero, the Chief Executive Officer of the American Philosophical Society (APS), opportunities to pursue long-neglected projects. With the APS library closed, Spero began investigating one of the most intriguing documents in the society’s archives, the so-called Subscription List. Written by APS-member Thomas Jefferson and signed by George Washington and a host of eighteenth-century American luminaries, the list was intended to raise money for an APS-sponsored scientific expedition, led by the noted French botanist Andre Michaux, into the American West. Science, however, soon became a cover for a clandestine French plot to invade Spanish-held Louisiana and establish an independent but pro-French republic. Read more…

James Atkinson, Regency Perfumer
By Sarah Murden 10 Marchy 2025 at All Things Georgian
In the late 18th century there were many perfume outlets, probably the most famous reputedly being that of James Atkinson, which was believe to have opened its doors in 1799 on Gerrard Street, London.
Following several conversations with Etienne Daly, who has been researching Dido Elizabeth Belle for over 10 years, he felt sure that Dido would have been aware of Atkinsons and that she more than likely used their products and he asked if I could do some digging to find out more about Atkinsons.
With that suggestion, I disappeared down the proverbial rabbit hole, looking specifically at around 1799, when Atkinson reputedly opened his first store, feeling sure that based upon this that Atkinson would at least have advertised his new store, and that this would be really straightforward search. However, I found absolutely no sign of the store whatsoever in 1799, or the year after, or even the year after that. Read more…

Notorious Canadian Stage-coach Bandit
Adopting the alias Pearl Hart, Lillie Davy escaped from a hardscrabble childhood [in south-central Ontario] with determination and a six-shooter.
By John Boessenecker, 3 March 2025 in Canada’s History
In a warm spring afternoon in 1899 a four-horse stagecoach rattled its way down the rocky wagon road in the mountainous country south of Globe, Arizona Territory. As the stage crawled through Kane Spring Canyon, two masked, pistol-toting desperadoes appeared in the roadway and yelled, ‘Halt!’
The startled driver yanked back the reins, and one bandit ordered, ‘Climb out of there!’
The reinsman and his three passengers stepped down from the coach, hands in the air. The outlaws lined them up at gunpoint and searched their pockets, taking about $500 in cash plus a gold watch and two six-shooters. When a passenger was slow in handing over his money, one robber said in a threatening but surprisingly feminine voice, ‘Cough up, partner, or I’ll plug you!’
The bandits then ordered everyone back into the stage and waved it on. The passengers were convinced that, as they later told a reporter from the Los Angeles Times, ‘the smaller of the two robbers was a woman. Her figure had only been ill-concealed by the crude garb she wore of rough shirt and blue overalls, the latter tucked into coarse boots that were plainly far too large. Under the dirty cowboy hat … there showed a curl or two of dark hair.’ Read more…

Loyalist Certificates Issued
The publicly available list of certificates issued since 2012 is now updated to end of February 28, 2025.
When a certificate is added there, it is also recorded in the record for the Loyalist Ancestor in the Loyalist Directory.

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions

Entries which have been added, or revised, this week, with thanks to Jayne Mortenson,

  • Corporal Ephraim Clyburn from Brunswick Co, VA served under Captain Alexander Campbell Wylly’s Company of the Kings Carolina Rangers nt of 61,250 acres at a cove east of Country Harbour, Nova Scotia, for 329 officers and soldiers of the King’s Carolina Rangers, the South Carolina Regiment, and the Royal North Carolina Regiment. The Stormont Grant to Major Sir James Wright at County Harbour, Nova Scotia, was for 66,000 acres dated May 17, 1784.

    The King’s Carolina Rangers was one of the most active Provincial Corps to serve in the American Revolution. It was raised in June of 1776 as the East Florida Rangers, and commanded by Lt. Col. Thomas Brown. They were very active in Georgia and South Carolina throughout 1779, and took part in the defense of the city of Savannah during the French and American siege that year. In 1780 the corps was moved to Augusta, Georgia, and in September of that year was besieged by a Rebel Army under command of Colonel Clark. The Georgia Loyalists were merged with the KCR on February 24, 1782, making one stronger corps. With the evacuation of Savannah in July of 1782, the KCR embarked for Charleston, SC, where they remained until until October 1782. Then, with the Royal North Carolina Regiment, and the South Carolina Royalists, they departed for St Augustine, Florida to garrison East Florida. After spending much of 1783 there, they then sailed for Nova Scotia where the Regiment was disbanded. The majority of the men settled on the regimental land grant at Country Harbour.
    Ephraim and wife Sophie had nine children, the first one John born in Ashpole, Robeson Co, NC and the rest where they resettled in Country Harbour, Nova Scotia

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

Events Upcoming

Toronto Branch: UE Loyalists Who Settled in Quebec by Debis Fortier Tues 18 Mar 7:30 ET

A Virtual zoom meeting, Denis Fortier UE will speak about UE Loyalists who settled in Quebec: when they came and where they settled. Many only stayed in Quebec for a short period of time before moving on to what is now Ontario so you may have UE ancestors you didn’t realize had connections to Quebec.
Denis Fortier, Victoria UELAC Branch genealogist, was born in Quebec where he does most of his own family research. Branches of his family trace back to early settlers of New France, including Louis Hébert who is the very first settler to bring his family to New France (in 1617). He also has Acadian, Scottish, English and American Loyalist ancestors, all of whom settled in the Province of Quebec.
Register with torontouel@gmail.com; a link will be sent close to the event.

New Brunswick Branch: ‘The Castine Loyalists of New Brunswick’ by Barry Murray Wed 19 Mar @2:00AT

Historian Barry Murray will speak on ‘The Castine Loyalists of New Brunswick’ who settled in St Andrews NB. Hear about the loyal group who did the unthinkable: disassembled their houses, and loaded them on ships along with their livestock and worldly possessions, and set sail for more friendly shores.
Plus Annual General Meeting
Register with nbloyalistassoc@gmail.com – a zoom link will be returned before the meeting

From the Social Media and Beyond

  • Two Loyalists originally from Ireland on Sept. 10, 1784 applied to Provincial Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia for formation of first Masonic Lodge in Digby. The first Master was John Hill and Secretary of Lodge was Robert Timpany. Brian McConnell UE @brianm564
  • Food and Related
  • Event/Resource/Quote of the Day – Revolution 250
    • 8 March 1775, a Billerica farmer named Thomas Ditson, Jr., went into Boston to buy a musket. He bargained for a gun with Sgt. John Clancy of the 47th Regiment. When Ditson went to the sergeant’s barracks, soldiers detained him overnight.
    • March 9, 1775, the 47th Regiment, having detained Thomas Ditson of Billerica overnight, tarred and feathered him in Yankee fashion and paraded him around Boston with martial music. The soldiers stopped outside the shops of radical newspapers.
    • March 14, 1775, the Boston selectmen met with ‘A number of the Selectmen of Bilrica’ (Billerica) to hear about ‘the steps they were taking relative to the taring & feathering one [Thomas] Ditson of their Town, which was done by the Soldiery.’
    • ‘Head Quarters Short Hills, Sunday June 18th 1780. As it is at all times of great importance both for the sake of appearance and for the regularity of service that the different military ranks should be distinguished from each other and more especially at present.’
      ‘The Commander in Chief has thought proper to establish the following distinctions and strongly recommends it to all the Officers to endeavor to Conform to them as speedily as possible.’
  • This week in History
    • 14 Mar 1771 Thomas Hutchinson was appointed 12th Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He would be the last civilian governor of the disorderly Bay Colony. Gen Thomas Gage would replace him in May 1774. image
    • 12 Mar 1774 Williamsburg, VA. House of Burgesses authorizes a Committee of Correspondence with Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, & Richard Lee to open communication with other colonial legislatures. image
    • 9 Mar 1776 Gen. Washington ignored a dispatch sent by British Gen Howe, as it was not addressed to ‘General’ Washington. Howe could not acknowledge Washington as a General without acknowledging the authority & validity of the Continental Congress. image
    • 10 Mar 1776 Gen. Washington ordered guns to bombard Boston to cease fire as the British loaded ships for evacuation. British dumped guns & munitions they could not carry into the harbor. Loyalist gangs ransacked shops & homes & evacuated with their loot. image
    • 11 March 1776, Cambridge, Massachusetts. General Washington establishes his personal guard. Washington’s bodyguard was an elite corps of infantry and mounted men officially known as The Commander-in-Chief’s Guard, but more commonly referred to as The Life Guard. The threat to the commander-in-chief was genuine. The guard’s purpose was to protect General George Washington. However, they were also tasked with safeguarding the Continental Army’s official papers and the general’s baggage. They served alongside him throughout the Revolutionary War. Ironically, at least one plot against Washington involved members of the corps. image
    • 12 Mar 1776: A British expedition led by Gen Henry Clinton arrives off the coast of Cape Fear, NC. & awaits a squadron from Britain under Commodore Peter Parker, but with the Loyalist defeat at Moores Creek Bridge, his plans turn towards SC. image
    • 12 Mar 1776 Baltimore, MD A public notice appears in papers recognizing the sacrifice of women to the cause of the revolution. The notice urged others to recognize women’s contributions on the battlefield, in camps, on the march, in cities, towns & farms. image
    • 14 Mar 1776, Irish-born John Barry receives a captain’s commission in the fledgling Continental Navy. He would later rise to the rank of Commodore for his outstanding leadership & exploits. Barry is considered the father of the U.S. Navy. image
    • 8 Mar 1778 In response to the Franco-American alliance, Lord North directs Adm Richard Howe’s fleet to raid the New England coast and directs Gen Henry Clinton to initiate the ‘Southern strategy’ with a planned attack on Charleston, SC. image
    • 9 Mar 1778. West Indies. USS Alfred, a 30-gun frigate commanded by Capt. Elisha Hinman is captured. Alfred was the flagship for the Nassau Island invasion & 1st first ship to hoist the new Grand Union Flag. It was very successful before its capture. image
    • 13 Mar 1778 Continental Congress cancels plans for a new Canadian invasion and directs Gen Marquis de Lafayette & Gen Johann de Kalb to return to their previous posts. The seriousness of the planned invasion is very doubtful. image
    • 13 March 1778 London. The French ambassador informs Secretary of State Thomas Thynne that the Treaty of Commerce and Amity between France and the United States is nearly arranged. In response, Prime Minister Lord North recalled the British ambassador from Paris and notified General Henry Clinton, commander of British forces in North America. Britain will soon dispatch troops and ships to defend its possessions in the West Indies. The American insurrection, which evolved into the American War for Independence, is now beginning its transition to a world war. image
    • 11 Mar 1779 Congress establishes the Army Corps of Engineers to plan, design, & prepare defense works for the Continental Army. The engineers were pivotal in several critical #RevWar battles image
    • 14 Mar 1780 Mobile, AL. Spanish Gen Bernardo Galvez launched 1.4K men in an attack on Ft Charlotte, the capital of British West Florida. 2 days later, Lt Gov Elias Dunford’s garrison of 300 surrendered. image
    • 9 March 1781 Pensacola, West Florida. Spanish General Bernardo de Galvez, Governor of Louisiana, sailed from Cuba with a Spanish force of over 40 ships and 3,500 men. They arrived at Santa Rosa Island and began a two-month siege of the 1,600-strong British garrison led by General John Campbell. The British had strengthened the defenses of the Pensacola garrison before the siege. They constructed forts, stockades, and redoubts. Galvez would now launch a classic siege to capture the critical fort from the British and gain control over the northern Gulf of Mexico coast. Galvez was an aggressive, highly skilled general and admiral who had already seized New Orleans, Natchez, and Baton Rouge from the British. On his way to Pensacola, he also besieged and captured the British stronghold Fort Charlotte on Mobile Bay in Alabama. The British had taken control of Florida in 1763 as part of the settlement that concluded the French and Indian War. image
    • 14 March 1781 Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. American General Nathanael Greene decides to make a stand and positions his army of about 4,500 men in three lines, comprising militia and Virginia and Maryland Continental Line infantry, supported by two cavalry regiments trained by Colonel Henry Lee and Colonel William Washington. The following day, he clashes with General Charles Cornwallis’s redcoats in one of the major battles in the South. Greene cedes the field, but the British suffer significant losses in a pyrrhic victory, which leads Cornwallis to march north to Virginia and the road to Yorktown. image
    • 13 Mar 1783 Newburgh NY Continental Officers gather because Congress would not pay them for service. Pay was in arrears & feared pensions would be unpaid. Congress rejected their petitions. So they met to talk of an armed march on Congress & the States. image
    • 10 Mar 1792, John Stuart, 3rd earl of Bute and advisor to the British king, George III, dies in London. His advice turned George III down the path of confrontation with America and the British politicians seeking a conciliatory policy. image
  • Clothing and Related:
    • They are strange obiects, court gowns of the c18th, but also relics of great artisanship. Unusually we know the makers of this, a note pinned to the hem records Mme Leconte as embroiderer & Magdalene Giles the mantua maker. It is a rare glimpse of the labour behind the gown, V&A
  • Miscellaneous

Last Post: NICHOLSON UE,Ruth February 28, 1951 – March 7, 2025
Ruth Anne Nicholson UE, passed away due to complications of influenza on March 7, 2025, at the age of 74 while wintering in Texas. Beloved wife of David Nicholson, devoted mother to Paul (Alicia), Jon, and Sarah, and cherished grandmother to Owen and Claire. She was predeceased by her parents, Edwin and Alta Hutchins (née Ferriss), and her sister, Mary Hutchins. She is survived by her sister, Susan Hutchins (Robert McCloskey), brother-in-law, Scott Wilkins and many extended family members.
Ruth was a proud farm girl, raised on a century farm in Essex County, Ontario. Ruth earned a degree in Art History from McMaster University, where she met David, and later completed her Bachelor of Education at Queen’s University. She and David married in 1975 at the Hutchins farm and later settled in Waterdown, where they raised their family.
Ruth deeply enjoyed her teaching career with the Halton District School Board for over 35 years, inspiring generations of children’s love of art. Her passion for teaching extended beyond the classroom—she led summer arts programs, taught early Canadian heritage, and, in retirement, had the joy of volunteer teaching alongside her daughter, Sarah and daughter-in-law, Alicia.
Ruth was a whirlwind of positive energy who contributed joyfully to her community. She served the United Empire Loyalist Association of Canada as a branch President and at the national level. She was a board member and Sunday School teacher at St. James United Church, supported Flamborough’s migrant worker outreach, and was recognized as a ‘Pandemic Hero’ for leading the ‘Mask Makers’ team in sewing facemasks. When a community need called to her heart, she never hesitated to roll up her sleeves.
A celebration of life will be held in Waterdown at a later date. The family would be grateful for any donations in Mom’s honour to a place she held dear, St. James United Church via Canada Helps.
More details at Hamilton Spectator.
At Hamilton and Bicentennial Branches UELAC, Ruth received a Loyalist Certificate as a descendant of Henry Wright in 2011, of Jacob Amer in 1999, John Cornwall in 2004 and Joseph Ferris in 2002,

For the past 25+ years Ruth contributed tirelessly to the Hamilton Branch, leading many projects through to successful outcomes, from educational programming to branch leadership. I know she cherished her friendship and collaboration with each of you. …Catharine Bingle-Gonnsen UE, Co-President with Ruth Nicholson of Hamilton Branch UELAC

Editor’s Note: Early on Saturday I am setting up this issue of Loyalist Trails for distribution as usual on Sunday morning. This afternoon we are leaving for some vacation. We are scheduled to return just before the April 6 issue. As a result the next three issues may well be shorter, perhaps much shorter, than usual. Publishing them – whatever length – is in the plan, for now. …doug

 

 

Published by the UELAC
If you do not now receive this free newsletter directly but would like to, you can subscribe here.