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Scholarship Challenge 2025: Update for 27 July
Progress: Donations this week took us to $2,150.
Will you help us achieve our goal of $5,000 by 1 Sept? At Challenge 2025 see the status, who has donated and how to donate.

About the Scholarship
The UELAC mandate includes the understanding of the role and impact of the Loyalists on the development of Canada. Providing Loyalist education resource materials and encouraging research through scholarship support is integral to our mission to preserve, promote and celebrate the history and traditions of the United Empire Loyalists.
To promote and reward such scholarship, the UELAC Loyalist Scholarship is available to Masters and PhD students who are undertaking a program in relevant research. This topic should further an understanding of the Loyalists – colonists in the Thirteen Colonies who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War and appreciation of their subsequent influence on Canada, or other places these political refugees settled.  Read more…

Katherine (Katie) Ritchie is a recipient of a 2025 Scholarship, an M.A. history candidate completing her thesis research under the supervision of Dr. Jerry Bannister at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. While continuing to explore the experiences and perspectives of Loyalists after the American Revolution, she became particularly interested in Nova Scotia Loyalists’ interactions with the institution of slavery at the turn of the 19th century. According to recent historiography, slavery throughout the Atlantic Provinces in the early 1800s requires further exploration by researchers – Katie hopes that her work can be a part of the body of knowledge which fills in this gap. New York Loyalist James DeLancey and those closest to him have become a focal point of Katie’s research.  Read more about Katie and her research...

Please help UELAC support the six Scholars currently in their research programs. At Scholarship Challenge 2025, make your donation today.

Black Pioneers, White Officers: Part Three of Three
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
While Captain George Martin’s company of Black Guides and Pioneers was the largest and best known group of Black Loyalist servicemen, another company of Black Pioneers, totaling 20 men, was created in 1777. Formed in Maryland in the summer of 1777, it would only last a year. Little is known about the free Blacks who formed this company, but its white commander can have his story traced from Ireland to the Middle Colonies, and finally to Nova Scotia.
By the end of August 26, 1777, 17,000 British troops had disembarked from 260 ships that had anchored at the head of the Elk River in Maryland. Their objective: the capture of Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love was, at this time, the largest metropolis in the rebellious colonies and the capital of the brand new United States of America.
Within 16 days, the British defeated Washington’s troops at the Battle of Brandywine, just 40 km outside of Philadelphia. On September 26, the royal army marched into Philadelphia. Having captured New York just a year earlier, the British were now in control of the two largest cities in the United States.  This was a significant victory for the British – and would have lasting repercussions for Loyalists throughout the region.
One of the most immediate consequences of the presence of so many British troops was the flight to freedom made by the area’s enslaved Africans. Records of the era indicate the names of two men of those who joined the British “at the Head of Elk“. Anxious to serve the crown that granted them their freedom, they and about 18 others were made into a new company of Black Pioneers under the command of Captain Richard Robert Crowe.
David Riddle was 22 years old when he ran away from his master in Pennsylvania’s Newcastle County and joined the British at the Head of Elk. He carried a one year-old boy named Ben with him. The two survived the revolution, and sailed for the mouth of the St. John River in present day New Brunswick.
Noted for being a short man, Edward Christie was 21 years old when he made his break for freedom at the Head of Elk. He, too, lived to board a loyalist evacuation ship for New Brunswick in September of 1783. Given the time of their escapes to freedom, it seems likely that they were among the men who joined a newly formed Black Pioneer Company.
The captain of this Black Pioneer Company was Richard Robert Crowe, a man who had seen a great deal of fighting. It is not clear why a soldier with so much experience of war was put in charge of men who would not be allowed to participate in combat.
Crowe was born in Ireland’s Galway County to a minister and his wife. At 17, his father bought him an ensign’s commission in Colonel James Cholmondeley’s Regiment of Foot. He would serve with this regiment for 18 years.
When he was 27, Crowe’s regiment was sent to the American colonies to strengthen British positions in the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes Region. Both he and and a young George Washington served under General Edward Braddock. Crowe was subsequently wounded at the Battle of Monongahela on July 9, 1755; “He was shot by an Indian below the knee and between the bone and cords“. General Braddock, his commanding officer, received a mortal wound, and on his death bed put Washington in charge of his burial.
Crowe went on to serve under Lord Jeffery Amherst at the Siege of Louisburg in 1758, and under General James Wolfe at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759. The 31 year-old Irish soldier was one of four who took Wolfe’s body off the field on a stretcher.
Three years later, Crowe fought in battles in the Caribbean. On August 14th – following a five-month siege– the British took Havana, the most important harbour in the Spanish West Indies. During the siege the British lost 2,764 killed, wounded, captured or deserted. By October 18th, they had also had lost 4,708 dead from sickness. At some point during the siege, Crowe was wounded and lost his health – perhaps succumbing to yellow fever.
With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, Crowe resigned his commission and purchased land in Amboy, New Jersey. Within four years, he had met and married Anna Wilson, a widow with three children. (Arthur eventually served on the crew of a man-of-war and died in Halifax. Mary settled in England with her husband. Frank went to Nova Scotia with his mother and step-father.) Richard and Anna’s son Eyre Evans Crowe was born on October 8, 1774.
Over time, in addition to a farm that included oxen, horses, and sheep Crowe built a kiln and sold stoneware pottery.
When the American Revolution broke out a year later,  Patriots offered Crowe the rank of general in the rebel army, but he refused. He was forced to flee to the woods with other Loyalists to avoid imprisonment. Rebels plundered the Crowe house several times and took their cattle. Eventually Patriots imprisoned Crowe in New Brunswick, New Jersey. When the British captured the town in January 1775, Crowe and other Loyalists escaped and traveled to Philadelphia.
After refusing the offer of the president of the provincial congress to serve with the Patriots, Crowe was once again made a prisoner and remained in confinement in the state prison in Philadelphia for nine months, seventeen weeks of which were in close confinement.
The New Jersey Legislature passed an Act to Punish Traitors and Disaffected Persons in October 1776 which stated that any resident of New Jersey who obeyed the King of England was guilty of treason. Richard Crowe, then 48 years old, was returned to New Jersey to stand trial as a traitor. Crowe was treated harshly and threatened with being hanged. (This was no idle threat as the New Jersey rebels executed at least twelve Loyalists during this period). However Crowe was eventually acquitted. He then returned to his home to recuperate from a serious illness that was a result of the harsh treatment that he received while imprisoned.
In early January 1777, Crowe joined the loyalist cause by going to New York where General Sir William Howe placed him in charge of all army supplies except ammunition and weapons. It was after he had accompanied Howe’s troops to the Head of Elk that he was made the captain of a new company of Black Pioneers. Given the evidence from the era, it would seem that he and his Black servicemen were present at both the Battle of Brandywine (September 11, 1777) and the Battle of Germantown (October 4, 1777).
The Black Pioneers remained in Philadelphia until the British evacuated the city, marching to New York in June of 1778. They were then disbanded. The last time that Richard Crowe was linked to his Black Loyalists is found in a September 16, 1778 newpaper notice that refers to him as “captain of the Black Company“.
A year later, the Patriots of Amboy, New Jersey published a newspaper notice announcing an auction to sell off Crowe’s land and worldly goods. His wife and family must have joined him in New York City by this time as another son, William Blascott Crowe was born in 1780.
The historian Michael S. Adelberg provides a clue as to what occupied Crowe in the final years of the revolution. He notes that Crowe was listed as a commander in a return of Black Pioneers made in August 1780 which listed “182 men, 74 women, and 73 children in the British service as porters and labourers.” (This may have been a company of Black Pioneers that included members from previous corps.)
At the age of 56, Richard Crowe was listed on a 1784 muster roll of disbanded loyalist soldiers living in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis County. His name is also found on the list of charter members for Digby’s Masonic Lodge. Despite having a 250-acre tract of land in Annapolis County’s Bear River, Crowe and ten other officers decided to settle further up the Bay of Fundy in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia where he was given a grant of 700 acres. Crowe also received half pay amounting to £96 per annum for his services in the Black Pioneers.
In the fall of 1788, Crowe stood before the loyalist compensation board when it convened for a second time in Halifax.  His command of a Black Pioneers company was listed among his wartime services to the crown.
Within three years’ time, Crowe and his family relocated across the Minas Basin to the Horton township, near present day Wolfville. In 1808, at the age of 80, Richard became the father-in-law to Penelope Murray, the wife of his son Eyre. The couple had three children: Rebecca, Richard, and Ezra.
Crowe’s son William married Margaret Murray in Horton in 1810. They would have two children: John Preston and William George.
Crowe became active in shipping goods from Minas Bay, Nova Scotia to Boston, New York, and the West Indies in the early 1800’s. In 1813, he wrote a letter in which he stated that he had six sons and one stepson.
Richard Robert Crowe died in June of 1821 at the age of 93. No doubt he had lived to be one of the oldest white officers who had commanded a company of Black Pioneers.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

UELAC Conference 2025 – Commemorating Loyalist Jasper Stymiest
The 2025 UELAC Conference was held in St. John NB on July 10-13.
As one of the events on Saturday 12 July, the group visited the Loyalist Burial Ground where a tour followed a commemorative service for Jasper Stymiest UEL, a brother of one of the ancestors of Carl Stymiest UE.
The service included:

  • Welcome: Bill Russell UE, President UELAC
  • Royal Anthem
  • Grave Site Blessing: Jayne and Jo-Ann Leake
  • Biography of Jasper Stymiest: Carl Stymiest UE
  • Wreath Laying
  • UELAC Poem We’re Still Standing, by Linda Jobe UE
  • Delancey’s Volley Salute, by Delancey Re-enactors’ Association
  • Benediction: Rev. J. Peter Gillies UE
  • National Anthem

Jasper Stymiest is listed in the Loyalist Directory where the following are noted.


Invading Canada: The First Scout of 1775
by Carol Foster-Breeze 24 July 2025 Journal of the American Revolution
A few weeks after the Lexington alarm on April 19, 1775 a team of four men set out with congressional approval on a spying expedition through the Maine wilderness, heading for Quebec. Their goal was to determine whether Maine was threatened by the French Canadians, or whether the French wished to cooperate with the Revolution. The men traversed hundreds of miles, were detained by French-Canadian bailiffs, escaped, and then successfully outran local Wabanaki tribal members. They made their way home a few weeks later with a report that would inspire Benedict Arnold to attack Canada, yet their account has been almost lost to history. This is their story.
The first shots at Lexington and Concord set off shock waves across the Maine settlements. On hearing the news, John Stinchfield of New Gloucester and his five sons left their plows in the field to march in support of Falmouth more than thirty miles away. These colonists felt uniquely vulnerable to invasion based on a long history of devastating attacks.
The French Catholic settlements in Quebec and their partners in the Wabanaki confederacy resented the intrusion of British American and Protestant colonists into the borderlands of Canada. While the American colonies grew and spread by extensive immigration, the French Canadians remained much less populous and relied on working with and proselytizing Indigenous peoples. Once the tribes were converted to Catholicism, they acted as trusted allies to hold back colonial intruders. This resulted in waves of fighting sweeping back and forth over the northern parts of New England, with violent depopulation of nascent American towns followed by slow rebuilding before the next assault. The Wabanaki nations occupying the area of central Maine were the Norridgewock, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscots. These nations had prevented the permanent establishment of colonies by periodically burning the settlements, capturing or killing residents and destroying cattle and crops. The Chaudiere and Kennebec Rivers provided a convenient Native route from Canada to the Maine frontier, at that time a province of Massachusetts.
A previous settlement at New Gloucester had been destroyed in 1737. A few men were sent to re-establish the town several years later. John Stinchfield arrived in 1753 and helped construct a fifty-by-fifty-foot blockhouse of pine with a solid oak door, furnished with two swivel cannons and firing slots in the walls.  It served as a home and refuge against Wabanaki attacks for the original twelve families of the town. They were attacked that same summer, with two men captured and one killed.  The start of the French and Indian war shortly thereafter meant the settlers were often confined to the blockhouse for the next six years. Read more…

Battle of Ridgefield Archaeology Project: The Search for Battle Engagements
by Stephen Bartkus 11 July 2025 at The Ridgefield Historical Society.
Noted by Kenneth MacCallum UE
With funding from the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program, the Ridgefield Historical Society and archeologists from Heritage Consultants use hi-tech archeological equipment to search for Battle engagements throughout Ridgefield.
In May, archaeologists from Heritage Consultants began a second round of work with the Ridgefield Historical Society to investigate the 1777 Battle of Ridgefield. When Heritage teams were here in 2021, they compiled an extensive account of the Battle from first person and historical accounts in both England and America. Now, armed with that information, Heritage will use hi-tech archaeological equipment to search for Battle engagements, troop movements and skirmish sites throughout Ridgefield. The Historical Society is funding the work with its second prestigious National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program grant.
Heritage metal detectorist
After Heritage metal detectorists spent weeks in a painstaking search for battle-related artifacts that could pin down the locations of what are known as the Battle’s First and Second Engagements, they had a breakthrough. They discovered several musket balls and uniform buttons in one concentrated area and realized that, almost 250 years after the Battle, they’d found the site of the Second Engagement.  Read more… 


The Complicated History of David Fanning’s Murderous 1782 Bloody Sabbath Raid
by Josh Wheeler 22 July 2025 Journal of the American Revolution
By March 1782 Loyalist Col. David Fanning had been a thorn in the side of Patriot forces for some time. Fanning’s perpetually violent methods were well known to Patriots throughout North Carolina, as was his desire to visit retribution upon previous foes. But the story of one of his most infamous raids for that revenge has yet to be accurately told. For three days in early March 1782, Colonel Fanning and his small group of Loyalists terrorized Randolph County, North Carolina, leaving several Patriots dead in their own homes and the property of others burned and destroyed. The narrative of the raid, examined and updated here, is a prime example of the open and lawless violence that both Patriots and Loyalists faced in the period after the British surrender at Yorktown in October 1781 and the final peace in 1783.
In the months after Yorktown, large swaths of America were in a de facto state of lawlessness, and though full-scale pitched battles between the British and Continental armies were over, civil war between Loyalists and Patriots remained active in some areas. The beleaguered Continental army offered no reliable protection, particularly in the interior. Local militia units charged with protecting the inhabitants of their districts were in most cases no better. Manpower and supply shortages, infighting among the officer corps, and battle fatigue among the rank and file had plagued and decimated the army and state militia units. None of these ailments had improved after Yorktown; if anything they had worsened.
Confrontations between Patriots and Loyalists persisted, and by March 1782 the situation was perfect for Fanning to strike a blow. Driven by a deep desire for retribution, his violent methods were often combined with the outright destruction of personal property. Patriot forces increasingly viewed him as an innately cruel and unusual military leader, someone modern society would perhaps label as a war criminal. Several overtures by Fanning to make peace had been rebuffed in late 1781 and early 1782. This was not a period of forgiveness, it was one of settling scores, and with his requests to negotiate a peace agreement ignored, and militias hunting him throughout North Carolina, Fanning was ready to begin settling his, and he had plenty. Read more…

Ship Warfare: Alert v Lexington – 19 September 1777
by Richard Hiscocks 23 Jan 2016 at More Than Nelson
On 27 June the Admiralty sent orders to 36 year-old Lieutenant John Bazely to report to Deptford and take command of the cutter Alert 10, which having been launched three days earlier was daily expected from Dover. Instructions were given for this vessel to be manned with sixty hands and laden with three months stores for a cruise in the Channel, and several weeks later Bazely received orders from the Admiralty to intercept a rebel vessel that was about to sail from France with despatches and private letters for members of the Congress.
So it was that in light winds some forty-five miles off Ushant at 5 a.m. on Friday 19 September, the Alert found herself in sight of a brig. This vessel was the Bermudan-built American privateer Lexington 16, Captain Henry Johnson, which was bound for her home port of Boston having departed Morlaix, France, two days before. She had previously been operating with some success off the Irish coast with two other rebel privateers, the Reprisal and Dolphin, making at least fourteen prizes, although according to contemporary newspaper reports she had taken, sunk, burned or destroyed up to fifty-two vessels. Her armament consisted of sixteen 4-pounder cannons and twelve swivel-guns, and she was crewed by eighty-four men.
When discovered by the Alert the Lexington was in the east, heading in a westerly direction away from the French coast. Bazely immediately hoisted topsails and royals, cleared for action, and set off in chase. At 6.45 the Alert was close enough to fire a swivel gun and bring the stranger too. A shouted enquiry elicited the response that she was from Guernsey, but then the American rebel colours were suddenly hoisted aloft and they were accompanied by the firing of a broadside into the Alert.  Read more…

Book Review: Winning the Ten Crucial Days 
Author: David Price (Brookline Books, 2025)
Review by Kelsey DeFord 21 July 2025
This book examines Gen. George Washington’s military campaign from December 25, 1776 to January 3, 1777. This short period was one of the most pivotal moments in American history. Washington crossing the Delaware, and the battles of Trenton and Princeton, boosted Patriot morale and demonstrated colonial resilience against the British government. Because of its significance, the campaign has been covered extensively in other works, including David Hackett Fischer’s 2004 Pulitzer Prize winning Washington’s Crossing and William Kidder’s 2019 book Ten Crucial Days. Rather than focus on chronology, David Price takes the thematic route. He outlines five themes: leadership, geography, weather, artillery, and contingency, that led to Patriot victory.
Price is no stranger to this topic or the Journal of the American Revolution, writing both “Ten Crucial Days, Five Factors,” and “Perspectives on the Ten Crucial Days” for the journal. This is also his third book on the subject, marking Price as one of the leading experts on this historical period. The included appendix quantifies other moving parts within each element. According to Price, this is another way to reinforce to readers each theme’s aggregated effect. It may also be of use to military schools like West Point or The Citadel, who frequently utilize quantitative analysis like this.
Price’s longest and strongest chapter is on the theme of leadership, particularly that of George Washington. …  ..Price then contrasts American leadership with that of the British. This framework runs throughout each chapter, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each theme as it applies to both sides. Read more…

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: Marching out of Captivity to Springfield, Long Island. May 1783
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
  • January 1782: to Frederick MD (about 40 km west of Baltimore)
  • May 1783: departed Frederick MD

1783: Continuation of the Notable Occurences in the North American Field Campaign; Marching out of Captivity from Frederick, In Maryland, in the Seventh and Last Year, Page 138

23 May. We were transported across the Delaware during  the  morning and  arrived  in  the beautiful,  fertile  province  of  New  Jersey.  The  first  place  was  Trenton  (where  Colonel  Rall with  three  regiments  of  Hessians  was  captured).  It  is  a  not  unimportant  place,  on  uneven ground,  with  a  brook  flowing  through.  A  stone  bridge  has  been  built  over  the  brook. From there our march was to Maidenhead — in German, „Jungfernschaft” — a  spot  consisting  of six houses, lying four miles from Trenton.
We continued  to  Princeton, where we halted  and  were  quartered  in  a  church.  During  the night I went on watch for the second time. Princeton is a beautiful place and a small country town. It has only one main street, and there are few houses on it, but its setting makes it most pleasant.  There  has  been  a  university  located  here  since  1746,  and  it  presently  has  sixty students. In the area much wheat is grown.
24 May.  Our  march  took  us  another  twenty  English  miles.  We  arrived  at  a  small  spot, Kingston, which consists of twenty-three houses, with a small church and a wooden steeple. From there, through one of the most pleasant and fertile regions, we reached Brunswick, or in German, „Braunschweig,” where we stopped and rested. Brunswick, on the Raritan River, has a pleasant and advantageous location.
This small city is well situated for trade; however, the buildings still lie very much in ruins, including  the  English  church,  the Quaker meetinghouse,  and  the  market  house,  because  this part of Jersey suffered greatly during the war, from the troops on both sides.

25 May. We reached Woodbridge and  from  there went to  Bridgetown,  a  small,  beautiful spot on the Raritan River. Next we went to Elizabethtown, which is a city of medium size, of about three hundred houses and a few churches. From there we marched along the Kills River, which separates New Jersey and Staten Island from one another. Here we were carried across in small, one-masted ships, and after a march of twenty-three miles, landed happily on Staten Island. Here for the first time, we again received English rations.
This  evening  also, Private  Seitz, of Quesnoy’s Company, arrived  here  from  Virginia  and reported to the company. Our march out of captivity, from Frederick here, was completed in thirteen  days,  in which time we covered  236  English  miles  (which  are  nearly  forty German miles).  God  be  praised  and  thanked  for  having  granted  me  strength  and  health  during  this time!
26 May. We had a day of rest on Staten Island and recovered from our march.

27 May.  In  the  morning  we  were  embarked  at  Staten  Island  and  transported  over  the Hudson River to Long Island, where we were debarked near Brooklyn Ferry on the Narrows River.  After  we  had  landed,  we  marched  through  Brooklyn  Ferry  toward  Jamaica,  in  the region called Springfield, where we were quartered in old barns, one company in each. [NOTE: The Ansbach-Bayreuth troops had 512 deserters between their departure from Frederick, Maryland, and their arrival in New York. Baurmeister, Revolution in America, p. 564.]
Four exchanged soldiers were already  here  from Quesnoy’s Company, namely, Drummer Schindelbauer  and  Privates  Hass-further,  Weiss,  and  Erlbacher. [NOTE: On 14 May 1783 a general pardon was offered to Ansbach-Bayreuth deserters if they returned to their unit before 1 August. Baurmeister, Revolution in America, p. 563. } This  last  individual,  as  a corporal, deserted from a detached picket near New Portsmouth, in Virginia, on 21 May 1781; went over to the Americans, with whom he took duty with the regular troops; and then again deserted, after having served one year and nine months with General Greene’s troops. When exchanged, he still had a complete uniform, which consisted of a blue coat with  yellow trim and a  yellow  vest and trousers. Drummer Schindelbauer  had  escaped  again  from  a  privateer on which he served as a sailor. Private Weiss deserted from the French, where he had served as a wagon servant; and Hassfurther had been exchanged from captivity. These four men were again  enrolled  in  Quesnoy’s  Company.  Also,  two  men,  Privates  [Johann  Sebastian] Stadtm†ller  and  [Friedrich]  Rollwenzel,  of  Quesnoy’s  Company,  were  at  New  York  in  the warehouse.
During our absence three men [Johann] Kofer, [Johann  Konrad] Lochner,  and  Steinmetz, of Quesnoy’s Company, had died in the English hospital at Vauxhall.
Corporal Wolfrum, of Quesnoy’s Company, was still on command in the warehouse.
Seven  men,  however,  who  had  remained  here  sick  when  we  departed  in  1781,  had  been transferred  to  the  Jaegers,  namely,  Privates  [Leonhard]  Himmler,  Aron  I,  H‡mpfling,  also [Johann] Schuh, Stephan, and [Andreas] Horneber.
30 May.  We  were  again  issued  muskets,  swords,  and  cartridge  pouches  from  the warehouse.
31 May. We received  gaiters  and  ribbons  for  tying  our  hair.  We  begin  again  to  become soldiers and again to be organized.
(to be continued)

Advertised on 20 July 1775: ‘SMALL SWORDS’

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

“SMALL SWORDS.”

Richard Sause resorted to a familiar image to adorn his advertisement in the July 20, 1775, edition of the New-York Journal.  It included his name and occupation, “RD. SAUSE. CUTLER,” and depictions of more than a dozen kinds of knives and other blades available at his “Jewlery, Hardware, and Cutlery Store.”  Some of the items, a table knife and a sword, even had his name on the blade, suggesting that Sause marked the items he made.  The image had periodically appeared in various newspapers published in New York since the early 1770s.  Personalized woodcuts, commissioned by advertisers, belonged to those advertisers to submit to printing offices as they saw fit.
In Sause’s previous advertisements, the woodcut accounted for a relatively small amount of space compared to the copy that Sause composed to promote his business.  This time, however, the image and the copy took up the same amount of space.  Sause noted that he sold “a General Assortment of the above articles,” perhaps referring to the “Jewelry, Hardware, and Cutlery” listed in the name of his store or perhaps referring to the many items in the woodcut.   Read more…  

18th century Perfume recipes
by Sarah Murden 18 March 2020 All Things Georgian
Today I thought we would take a look at some Georgian recipes for making perfume, most of them are still feasible to make at home today with some minor adjustments.

To perfume clothes
Take of oven-dried cloves, cedar and rhubarb wood, once ounce of each and beat them into a powder and sprinkle them in a box or chest where they will create a most beautiful scent and preserve the apparel against moths.

Perfumed bags for drawers
Cut, slice and mix well together into a rough powder the following ingredients

2oz. of yellow saunders, the same of coriander seeds, orris root, calamus aromatics (sweet flax), cloves, cinnamon bark, dried rose leaves, lavender, and 1lb. of oak shavings.

When properly mixed, stuff the above into small linen bags, which place in drawers, wardrobes, which are musty, or liable to become so.

Perfume for gloves
Take one drachm of ambergris and sieve; add quarter of an ounce of flour-butter and mix together well. Rub the gloves over gently with fine cotton wool and press the perfume into them.

Or…  Read more…

Borealia: Historical scholarship, pluralism, and the possibility of sharing wealth and power
E.A. Heaman 7 July 2025 at Borealia
A decade of invigorating conversation around the early history of Canada is the cause and content of my remarks. Borealia began to appear a decade ago, just as I began to make an argument for reconsidering early British North America as an exemplar of “civilization.” That project is done and dusted and so, it seems, is Borealia. We knew, the editors and I, that early Canada is more interesting and relevant for our current perplexities than non-specialists realize. They hoped to provoke vigorous conversation. That was optimistic. Canadian scholarly history, long deemed uniquely “boring,” has been a canary in the coalmine for hostility to academic history (and academe itself, according to David Runciman, who reports that the public loves informative podcasts, so long as they deny university associations). Scholarly history suffers from a right wing attack on “wokeness,” done in the name of a peculiarly white and supremacist version of civilization that Borealia and I both worked to debunk.
We all fought that battle in different ways. My way was to argue that, historically, “civilization” began as neither white nor supremacist. I was finishing a book on tax history from 1867 to 1917 that asked the question: what if Canadian history was really about the money? I showed, at some length, how claims about money and identity were turned into knowledge claims and put to political and constitutional purposes. But much of the formative work for that paradigm occurred before Confederation, with “civilization” as the key organizing concept for knowledge and identity, power and wealth. Now I took the story back to the constitution before the constitution and what I found surprised me. The earliest constitutionalism in British North America was remarkably plural, even anti-racist. It reflected a Francophile and Indigenizing slant within British constitutionalism that could be traced back to David Hume.
Hume popularized the term “civilization” in the mid-eighteenth century, concocting it from disparate constituents of early modern public opinion.  Read more…


The Way We Ate
From the ortolan pâté of New France to Alberta’s prairie oysters, Canadians have long enjoyed a rich culinary history
by Fiona Lucas 13 December 2016 at Canada’s History
A salad bowl may symbolize Canada’s multicultural society, but a bowl of greens doesn’t go far when describing this country’s culinary history.
From the imported haute cuisine favoured by the upper crust of New France to the throw-it-on-the-fire chuckwagon cookery of the lonesome prairie cowboy, there’s a lot on the menu when it comes to Canada’s food heritage.
The way we ate says much about who we were, where we came from, and how we adapted to new circumstances. In early Canada, food was central to building and maintaining community.
In the stories on the following pages, we touch down on four culinary moments in the vast tapestry of Canadian historical life: early New France, late eighteenth-century Nova Scotia, pre-Rebellion Ontario, and Alberta in the 1920s. The cast of characters in these diaries and letters may be mostly fictitious, but the contexts of their food-ways are real. Correspondents in genuine reports were similarly eager to provide information about food for the folks at home in the old countries.
Canadian women’s two prime daily activities, as seen in the fictional accounts by “Janet,” “Ellen,” and “Maude,” were raising children and ensuring sustenance. And the story of Claude—an actual soldier in early French Canada who describes a sumptuous Christmas feast—reminds us that early Canadian cookery sometimes went far beyond the basics.
The way we eat is central to understanding ourselves as members of distinct social cultures. Newcomers to Canada sought continuity as best they could by planting seeds carried from home, or baking favourite breads, as the “Fraser” family does with their oats, or making a common item such as jam with a newly met fruit like prairie saskatoon berries, or invoking famous cooks like Vatel, the renowned seventeenth-century French chef.
One way to understand Canada is to read about our foodways. These accounts from some of Canada’s historians of food give a glimpse into part of that culinary heritage.
Articles:


What does the fall of the Hudson’s Bay Company mean to the people of Waskaganish?
For community members in Waskaganish, Que., the place where Cree traders established first contact with company employees, it’s just a chapter in a longer history
by Mitch Bowmile 9 July 2025 Canadian Geographic
Despite a scattering of buildings, the shore of the Rupert River looks almost identical to what Médard Chouart Des Groseilliers would have seen when he arrived here for the first time in 1668 — and how it’s looked since time immemorial. It’s April, and the river is frozen. The band office, lodge, church and old Hudson’s Bay Company building mark the edge of Waskaganish, Que., the beginning of the Arctic Ocean and an iconic piece of Canada’s history. But it takes some imagining to place the Hudson’s Bay Company on these shores.
Before the company closed its doors for good on June 1 this year, the closest Hudson’s Bay store was more than 900 kilometres south of Waskaganish, in Gatineau, Que. Long separated from the company’s origins as a series of trading outposts, the department store stood in a shopping mall surrounded by streets named for a former governor general, religious leaders and the explorers who “discovered” Canada. It was far removed from Charles Fort, later renamed Rupert House, the company’s first outpost established on the shores of the Rupert River 357 years ago. It’s here, in sterile malls like these across the country, that Canada’s most iconic company closed its final chapter.
Now, after a 355-year history, the company that shaped Canada has fallen, with changing retail habits and a lack of financing leading to the liquidation of all its stores. While people across the country grapple with what that means for Canada, the community of Waskaganish remains far removed from the outcome despite their deep ties to the company. Read more…  


Resource Book: United Empire Loyalists, A Guide to Tracing Loyalist Ancestors in Upper Canada
By Brenda Dougall Merriman BA, CGRS, CGL.
Searching for Loyalists takes us back to the first days of this province, and does require an understanding of the conditions that produced the documentary evidence about them.
There has long been a need for descendants of the United Empire Loyalists to have a general guide to assist the tracing of Loyalist ancestors, not only for the beginner, but also for those who encounter stumbling blocks on their way. In this book we find a guide to the necessary sources; background information; selections from previous experience; and analytical interpretations of the records. Read more at Global Genealogy…

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions

    Entries which have been added, or revised, this week.

Thanks to Carl Stymiest UE, information has been added to the entry for Jasper Stymiest (see above), and to Rick Kirk who provided additional information for people in two families:

  • Cpl. Robert Parks settled in Cornwall ON, (eastern District. He was the son of
  • Nathan Parks Sr.  settled in     Eastern District: Cornwall Township, Concession 3, Lot 13. He fathered six children: Mary, Sarah, Abigail, Robert, Nathan Jr and Eleanor

and in Fredericksburgh ON three brothers are all buried in the Parks Cemetery where a plaque notes the three of them

  • Nathaniel Parks and spouse Rebecca had four children Jason, Sila (dau), Cyrenus and Elixzabeth
  • Sergeant James Parks served with James Rogers’ King’s Rangers, He m. 14 June 1789 to Susannah (widow of Joseph Marsh) and they has twelve chidlren
  • Cyrenius Parks born 22 Dec 1754 in Litchfield Connecticut also served with James Rogers’ King’s Rangers. He married twice  Elizabeth Carscallen (eight chidlren) and Elizabeth (twelve children)

  
Events Upcoming

Old Holy Trinity Church Concert, Middleton NS: Bach to The Beatles Sun 27 July @7:00 AT

Who: Trio KLM – 2  cellos + bass
When: Sunday 27 Jul 2025    7:00pm
Where: Old Holy Trinity Church
49 Main Street, Lower Middletonhttps://stalbanscentre.ca/store/ols/products/ july-25th-2025-annual-fish-fry-adult-ticket
For more on the Trio KLM
Posted by Brian McConnell UE

St. Alban’s Centre Annual Fish Fry Sunday 27 July 2025 @5:00pm

Join us for the Annual Fish Fry at St. Alban’s Centre on Sunday July 27th, 2025. Purchase your $25 adult ticket now, to enjoy a delicious meal at this fun community event. This event sells out every year, so get your tickets today and mark your calendar for a memorable time. Dinner starts at 5:00pm. Tickets…

From the Social Media and Beyond

  • Food and Related : Townsends

  • This week in History
    • 25 Jul 1750, Boston, MA.  Henry Knox born. Knox had his own bookstore, allowing him to read many works on military tactics & science. This would make him a key advisor to Washington and commander of the Continental Army artillery & future Secretary of War.  image
    • 24 July, 1766, Oswego, NY. Chief Pontiac concludes a peace treaty with Indian Superintendent Sir William Johnson. image
    • 20 July 1775, Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. This day was observed as a day of fasting and prayer by the 2nd Continental Congress with the following proclamation:  “As the great Governor of the World, by his supreme and universal Providence, not only conducts the course of nature with unerring wisdom and rectitude, but frequently influences the minds of men to serve the wise and gracious purposes of his providential government; and it being, at all times, our indispensible duty devoutly to acknowledge his superintending providence, especially in times of impending danger and public calamity, to reverence and adore his immutable justice as well as to implore his merciful interposition for our deliverance: – it is recommended to Christians, of all denominations, to assemble for public worship, and to abstain from servile labour and recreations on said day.” image
    • 20 Jul 1775 Turtle Bay, Island of New York Marinus Willet & Alexander McDougall capture stores from the Royal arsenal, which are sent to provide the troops besieging Boston. image
    • 21 July 1775, Nantasket Point or Little Brewster Island. The British controlled Boston Harbor & lighthouse—American troops under Maj. Joseph Vose landed at the lighthouse and took lamps, oil, and gunpowder, burning the wooden parts of the tower.  image
    • 22 July 1775, Cambridge, Mass. Gen Washington organized his army into three divisions under Gens. Charles Lee, Artemus Ward, and Israel Putnam. image
    • 25 July 1775, Philadelphia, PA, the Continental Congress assumed control and oversight of the Continental Army. Establishes the rule of civilian control of the military. image
    • 20 Jul 1776 Eaton’s Station, NC Chief Dragging Canoe’s Cherokee braves attack the station on the Holston River. They suffer 13 killed & retreat. They are also repulsed at Ft Caswell, TN, but inflict 40 casualties on the defenders. image
    • 21 July 1776 A British fleet led by Commodore Peter Parker and General Henry Clinton leaves Charleston, SC, and heads for NYC. The British sacrificed their position to focus on capturing New York. They do not return to the south for several years.  image  
    • 22 Jul 1776 The Declaration of Independence arrived in Halifax, North Carolina.  image
    • 23 Jul 1776 Occoquan Creek, VA. Prince William County militia drove off Potomac River plantation raiding parties directed by VA Gov Earl Murray (Lord Dunmore).  image
    • 24 Jul 1776, Philadelphia.  Congress’s President John Hancock accuses Gen. Philip Schuyler of tolerating discord among soldiers from different states under his command.  image
    • 20 Jul 1777 The Overhill Cherokee finally agreed to the Treaty of Long Island, ceding remaining territory in western North Carolina to the state. image
    • 23 Jul 1777 – British Gen Howe, with 15K troops, set sail from NYC for the Chesapeake Bay to capture Phila., vice sailing north to join Gen Burgoyne. This meant Burgoyne’s defeat at Saratoga, but also the capture of the American capital. Howe believed this would end the #RevWar  image  
    • 23 Jul 1777 Recognizing the threat posed by British Gen Howe’s army sailing south, Gen Washington redeploys divisions of Gens. John Sullivan, Benjamin Lincoln, Adam Stephan& William Alexander to protect the American capital, Philadelphia.  image
    • 20 July 1778, Vincennes, Indiana.  Col. George Rogers Clark’s volunteers occupy the town. Thanks to the support of a local priest, Father Pierre Gibault, their backing helped secure the support of the locals. image
    • 22 Jul 1778 White Plains, NY Gen Washington writes Adm Comte D’Estaing, lamenting the shallow waters around Sandy Hook and suggesting an attack on Newport, RI, with a reinforcing army under Gen John Sullivan marching to support it. image
    • 23 Jul 1778 Ushant Island, English Channel British ships under Adm Augustus Keppel & French vessels under Adm comte d’Orvilliers stalk each other in a series of maneuvers aimed at avoiding a decisive engagement. image
    • 19 Jul 1779 Minisink, NY Hoping to divert American forces under Gen James Clinton from attacking the Six Nations Territory, Chief Joseph Brant’s force of Loyalists & Mohawks stage a diversionary attack on the settlement & gather food & booty.  image  
    • 22 Jul 1779 Minisink, NY. Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) leads a mixed force of 90 Loyalists & Indians surrounding 120 colonial NY & NJ militia. Patriots were overwhelmed. About  50 others were killed. About 29 others escaped. image 
    • 24 Jul 1779 Penobscot Peninsula, MA (today’s ME) A 10-ship & 700-man naval/amphibious expedition under Commodore Dudley Saltonstall arrives and begins siege operations against the newly constructed British Ft George.  image
    • 21 July 1780 Richmond, VA British Gen Charles Cornwallis receives orders from Gen Henry Clinton to march to Williamsburg and establish a base from which he can be reinforced from the sea. image  
    • 19 Mar 1781 British Gen Charles Cornwallis’s NC campaign comes to an end, stymied by heavy losses and a persistent foe, Gen Nathanael Greene. The remnant of his army begins a 200-mile march to Wilmington, NC, to rest, refit & recover for the next campaign. image
    • 24 Jul 1781 Suffolk, VA. Lt Col Banastre Tarleton & his cavalry return to the main British army following a 400-mile raid deep into Virginia. The raid had little impact on the campaign & tired out many of their mounts.  image   
  • Clothing and Related:
    • Woman’s Dress (Open Robe à la française and Petticoat) —  Silk: 1760-1765; Dress: c. 1760-1765, with later alterations  —  Artist/maker unknown, American and French.  This dress is believed to have been worn by Ann Willing Francis (1733-1812), wife of prominent lawyer and Federalist Tench Francis, Jr. (1730-1800) of Philadelphia, whom she married in 1762. Ann was the daughter of Charles Willing, a successful Philadelphia merchant who traded in textiles and other items, a founder of the University of Pennsylvania, and mayor of Philadelphia in 1748 and 1754. This dress was altered several times, including for fancy-dress occasions, during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
    • Cotton Dress, British, 1796-98
    • Straw & silk hat with ribbon, France, 1787-97. At the ROM
    • Footwear Friday: A pair of paste- studded buckles from the late 18thc. Removeable buckles like these could be moved from one pair of shoes to another as needed, or simply replaced when a new fashion came in. A very versatile accessory!
  • Miscellaneous
    • More than a container for powdered tobacco, this exquisite 18th- century gold snuffbox was a marker of taste, wealth and diplomacy. Originally crafted between 1762-68 by the Parisian goldsmith Drais, panels of blue enamel and pink-toned scenes of playful putti were added later.

 

Published by the UELAC
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