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Another 250th Anniversary: Boston’s Evacuation Day. Part Five of Six
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
When 1,100 Loyalists arrived in Halifax in early April of 1776, they were still coming to grips with having left homes, possessions, friends, and family back in Massachusetts. They had endured weeks at sea in cramped cabins, only to learn that housing was in short supply, rents were high, and that a canvas tent might be their only shelter in Halifax.
Middle and working class Loyalists among the Massachusetts refugees had to make the best of their forced stay in Nova Scotia. Some returned to the rebelling colonies when the British forces occupied the environs of New York City in the fall of 1776. Others made the decision to resettle in New Brunswick at the end of the American Revolution. Had they not been part of the first mass exodus of Loyalists in March of 1776, they might never have contributed to the growth and development of a colony that was created by refugees.
The name Ward Chipman will be familiar to those who have studied New Brunswick’s loyalist history. One of the 1,100 who fled Boston in March of 1776, Chipman initially found sanctuary in England, but then joined the royal army in New York City where he served for the remainder of the revolution. He made the recently created colony of New Brunswick his new home where he served as a member of the House of Assembly, Advocate-General, Solicitor-General, Justice of the Supreme Court, Member of the Council, and President and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony. He died in Fredericton on February 9, 1824 at age 69.
Edward Winslow Junior was a close friend of Chipman’s who shared the experience of fleeing Boston in 1776. A descendant of a Mayflower passenger and a veteran of the Battle of Lexington, he worked at British headquarters in New York after arriving in Halifax, and then served as the agent for the settlement of loyalist troops in Nova Scotia.
After a short stay in Granville, Nova Scotia, he established himself in New Brunswick in July of 1785. Winslow had been instrumental in convincing the British government that the mainland portion of Nova Scotia north of the Bay of Fundy should be partitioned off from the colony’s peninsula and made into its own colony in 1784. Winslow became a member of the New Brunswick’s first Council formed in that Colony, Surrogate-General, Judge of the Supreme Court, and, finally, Administrator of the Government.
It was he who famously vowed that “we will be the envy of the American states … when the people of the neighbouring states shall observe our operations … and compare their state with ours, will they not envy us? Surely they will.”
Edward Winslow Junior died of a stroke in Fredericton, New Brunswick on May 13, 1815 at the age of 70.
William Campbell, a refugee from Worcester, Massachusetts, resettled in Saint John and served as its mayor for 20 years.
The Rev. Dr. Mather Byles had been the object of denominational scandal before he joined the evacuation fleet of 1776. After 11 years in the pulpit of New London, Connecticut’s Congregational Church, he abruptly accepted the invitation to become the rector of Christ Church, an Anglican congregation in Boston.
Byles served at Christ Church for the next 7 years, but once again upset a congregation by preaching “doctrines favourable to the government and his parishioners disliked him for it“. When rebel forces surrounded Boston in 1775, most of Byles’ congregation left the city. The only account of his involvement in the loyalist evacuation is his report that he had to leave all of his furniture in Boston “excepting two feather beds“. After he found sanctuary in Halifax with his wife Susanna and 3 daughters, he was appointed as the chaplain for the British garrison stationed there.
When King George III’s son, William Henry, visited Halifax during the war, Byles bluntly declined the invitation to attend a dinner in the prince’s honour. The loyalist clergyman was not an unsociable man; in fact, he was noted for keeping a “grand parlour” where he held salons and gave parties for his “refugee friends” which included “dancing assemblies”.
Byles’ frank evaluation of people, whether of noble or common birth, was evident in his appraisal of Nova Scotians. “I desire never to forget that the most irreligious People I ever knew were at the same time the most ignorant, the most stupid, & the most unhappy.”
Byles moved to Saint John, New Brunswick in 1789 where he assumed the pulpit of Trinity Church.  He would later write, “I am connected with as worthy a People as I ever knew.” He served his congregation of loyalist refugees “with distinction” for the next quarter century, dying at the age of 80 on March 12, 1814.
In 1774, the British government appointed Abijah Willard to Massachusetts’ mandamus council, a body that replaced the colony’s elected council. Two years before he fled Boston with over 1,000 other loyal Americans, Willard was seized by rebels in Connecticut and “confined”. In the morning, a crowd of 500 people took him to a prison six miles away. He managed to escape imprisonment by signing a declaration that included the promise that he would “maintain the Charter rights and liberties of this Province; and do hereby ask the forgiveness of all honest, worthy gentlemen that I have offended“.
Following his arrival in Halifax, the Loyalist who was described as a “large and portly” man of “stately presence and dignified manner” went to Long Island, New York where he served the British army as an assistant commissary until 1783.
Having earlier angered Patriots, Willard angered fellow Loyalists by joining with 54 other members of the colonial elite who petitioned Sir Guy Carleton for sizeable land grants in Nova Scotia. Although Carleton ignored the petition, Willard did receive both financial compensation and a pension when he settled in New Brunswick. He was also made a member of the colony’s executive council.
Despite his knack for raising hackles, Willard exonerated himself when he promised to become the guardian of four children whose loyalist parents had perished in a shipwreck on New Brunswick’s Fundy shore in March of 1787. Willard had been a friend of the children’s father during the revolution. How the four orphans fared goes unrecorded. Willard died just two years after assuming their care, passing away on May 28, 1789, aged sixty-seven.
James Putnam was another loyalist who had held a prominent position in Massachusetts, having been its last attorney general. After the division of Nova Scotia in 1784, he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, and a member of the Council. He died at Saint John on October 23, 1789.  Despite his political views, he was considered “the ablest lawyer in all America“. John Adams, the future second president of the United States had been his student at law and boarded in his family. Adams remembered that Putnam possessed “great acuteness of mind, had a very extensive and successful practice, and was eminent in his profession“.
William Sanford Oliver was the son of the last Massachusetts’ Lieutenant Governor to be appointed by the crown. After finding sanctuary in Halifax in 1776, he served with the Westchester Volunteers in New York. William, his wife Catherine and their two children settled in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1783 where he was appointed the first sheriff of the county.
In the colony’s first election, he gained notoriety by overseeing a recount of the vote that struck off enough votes for the opposition party to make the candidates for the government party the representatives for Saint John in the House of Assembly. In 1792 he held the office of Marshal of the Court of Vice-Admiralty of New Brunswick. At the time of his death, he was Sheriff of the county of St. John, and Treasurer of the Colony. He died in 1813, aged sixty-two.
As can be seen from this sampling of Loyalists who had fled Boston in 1776, men from Massachusetts had significant roles in the development of New Brunswick – so much so that it was believed the majority of the colony’s Loyalists came from that colony. It would take the research of Dr. E. C. Wright in the 1950s to demonstrate that New Brunswick was, in fact, chiefly settled by Loyalists from New York.
The impact that Evacuation Day’s Loyalists had on Nova Scotia will conclude this series in next week’s Loyalist Trails.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

The Loyal- List: Honouring 109th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge
By Mike Woodcock UE, Victoria Branch
Vimy Ridge Day is a day to commemorate the deaths and casualties of members of the Canadian Corps in the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which took place during the First World War. The non-statutory observance has been designated to occur annually on 9 April since 2003.
For the first time, all four Canadian divisions were assembled to operate in combat as a corps. On Easter morning of 1917, Canadian troops answered the call of duty and demonstrated exceptional courage in the battlefields of Vimy Ridge in northern France, where they fought side by side to secure a victory that would echo through the ages.
Their triumph was more than a military victory; it became a powerful symbol of Canada’s emerging identity and a testament to our strength, determination, and unity. This Loyal-List piece honors United Empire Loyalist descendants who were killed, the parents of those killed, and those who fought in the battle and survived. The short commemorative collection highlights notable UEL descendants—arranged chronologically by birth year—with brief summaries of their careers and contributions.

Rev. George Walter Dean (1854–1947), born Georgetown, Ontario, served Methodist congregations in Manitoba before moving to Victoria in 1901. A founding member and first chaplain of the Victoria UELAC branch, he endured the wartime loss of a son at Vimy Ridge (1917). Dean died on Salt Spring Island and is buried at Royal Oak, descendant of Loyalist James Young.
Frederic William Hill (1866–1954), born in Welland, was a lawyer and senior militia officer. He commanded the 1st Battalion, CEF (1914–16) and later the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade at Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, and Third Ypres. Honoured CB, CMG, DSO, VD, and QC, Hill continued service in the militia until 1930 and served as police commissioner.
Mary Riter Hamilton (1867–1954), born Culross, Ontario, became Canada’s first female battlefield artist. After earlier European and Western Canadian work, she produced over 320 battlefield paintings and drawings documenting trenches, ruins, and displaced civilians. Her plein-air, empathetic portrayals—including Vimy depictions—reshaped Canadian war art and advanced women’s artistic practice despite institutional exclusion.
William James Withrow (1868–1917), born Hamilton, Ontario, trained as an engineer and civil servant and served in the militia. Joining the 2nd Pioneer Battalion in 1915, he led the Topographical Section at Corps HQ, producing specialized maps used at Vimy Ridge. Appointed quartermaster in 1917, he died in France that year and is remembered for his cartographic wartime service.
Winton Earle Clark (1879–1954) earned an arts degree in 1908 and taught for fifty years, mainly at Victoria High School (1908–1945). As a sculptor he created the bronze memorial commemorating Vic High’s three teachers and eighty-two students lost in WWI. Clark was buried at Ross Bay Cemetery and traced descent from Loyalist Adam Green.
Charles Adams (1881–1917), born in Victoria, B.C., was the son of pioneer Daniel Fowler Adams. He served with Canadian forces in the Great War and was killed in France in 1917. Charles’s death epitomized local sacrifice and linked early settler families to the heavy cost of the conflict; he is memorialized among Victoria’s wartime losses at Ross Bay.
Charles Edgar Edgett (1881–1947), born Moncton, New Brunswick, trained as a veterinarian and served in the Royal Canadian Army Veterinary Corps during WWI. Awarded the DSO and twice Mentioned in Despatches for service at Vimy Ridge, Edgett later became BC Penitentiary warden and Vancouver Police Chief, then an influential anti-communist organizer in the 1930s.
Robert Branks Powell (1881–1917), born in Victoria, was a prominent tennis champion, Davis Cup leader and barrister who also served as private secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Serving with the 16th Battalion, he fought at Vimy Ridge and Arleux, where he was killed in 1917. His high-profile death drew international attention and deep local mourning.
Angus McGill Mowat (1892–1977), father of novelist Farley Mowat, was a librarian and WWI officer. Enlisting with the Canadian Military Engineers in 1914 and later commissioned in the 4th Battalion, he served in France and Belgium and was severely wounded in the right arm at Vimy Ridge, returning to Canada late in 1917 and later reforming library services.
William Avery “Billy” Bishop (1894–1956), born Owen Sound, Ontario, became the British Empire’s leading WWI flying ace, officially credited with 72 victories and awarded the Victoria Cross. Noted for aggressive tactics and a blue-nosed fighter, Bishop later helped establish the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in WWII and remained a prominent symbol of Canadian aviation.

Conclusion
Each week The Loyal-List remembers Loyalist-descended and connected individuals whose lives intersected public service, the arts, and military sacrifice. Their stories—spanning 1830 to 1956—recall local contributions to national history and the lasting legacy of those tied to Vimy Ridge. Help grow The Loyal-List! Know other United Empire Loyalists and descendants who should be recognized on Vimy Ridge Day? Please contribute information, suggest edits, or provide feedback via membership.vic.uelac@gmail.com or on the UELAC homepage.

Blog: About UE Loyalist History by Brian McConnell UE at UE Loyalist History

Happy Tartan Day – 6 April 2026
The United Empire Loyalists who settled in parts of Canada included many who were Scots and some who had previously fought for Scottish independence. Tartan Day was first established in Nova Scotia on April 6, 1987 to coincide with the day of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 which is widely regarded as Scotland’s declaration of independence.
Among the more noteable Scottish Highlanders was Brigadier General Donald McDonald who fought at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 against the English and later as a Loyalist during the American Revolution.  In 1775 he was in North Carolina and appointed by the Royal Governor to lead the Loyalist troops.  At the Battle of Moore’s Creek in 1776 he was captured and later exchanged. Another key figure present was Captain Alan MacDonald, husband of Flora MacDonald (saviour of Bonnie Prince Charlie after the Battle of Culloden).  He also fought for the Loyalists, was captured, exchanged, and later served with the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants). Read more…

Branches of the UELAC – 7 April 2026
When I made the decision to join the United Empire Loyalists’ Association, I became a member of a local branch. I did that, as at the time, in April 2014, branch meetings were all held in person, and I wished to attend and participate. However, the branch I joined, Nova Scotia, was not in the area settled by my United Empire Loyalist ancestor. Some members join the branch where their ancestor(s) settled.  It may be easier to work with a branch genealogist who is knowledgeable about local Loyalists in order to obtain a Certificate of Loyalist Descent.  Members can also join one branch as their main branch and others for a reduced fee as additional ones.
At this time there are active branches of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada in ten provinces.  The branches with the largest number of members are in Ontario.  Read more…

Admiral Digby’s Naval Order Book – 8 April 2026
On July 10, 2006, Lady Dione Digby, DBE, DL, visited the Admiral Digby Museum.  She made a presentation and gave to the Museum copies of Admiral Robert Digby’s Naval Order Books. These were books into which his secretary copied each official letter made by him.  Within these records is fascinating information related to the settlement and treatment of the Loyalists who were transported as refugees by ship from New York in 1783 to Nova Scotia.
In 1991, Lady Dione Digby was appointed a Dame Commander of the order of the British Empire (DBE) for her contributions to the arts and a Deputy Lieutenant (DL).
Admiral Robert Digby was a distant ancestor of Edward Kenholm Digby, the 12th Baron Digby, husband of Lady Dione Digby.  He joined the navy at the age of 13, commanded his first vessel at 23, and became Captain of the HMS Ramillies at 39 in 1779.
The Naval Order book demonstrates how he commanded his captains and officers to transport and provide support for the Loyalists.  Some interesting entries were: Read more…

250 Years Ago: The American Invasion of Canada for the week around 4 April 1776
The stalemate in Quebec City continued with the British under Sir Guy Carleton safely inside the walls of Quebec City. The Americans worked to maintain a siege but with difficulty due to illness (smallpox was a major disease), a lack of supplies and armaments suitable for an effective siege.

The British 
British officials engaged in propaganda efforts to boost Loyalist sentiment and demoralize the smallpox-stricken American forces.
The defenders, a mix of roughly 1,800 regular troops, sailors, and militia, maintained strict watch over the Saint Lawrence River, anticipating the arrival of the spring fleet from England.
The defenders, a mix of roughly 1,800 regular troops, sailors, and militia, maintained strict watch over the Saint Lawrence River, anticipating the arrival of the spring fleet from England.

On April 12, 1776, an advance squadron from Britain carrying 200 British regulars arrived at the ice-choked entrance of the St. Lawrence River, but was temporarily halted by a large, ten-foot-thick ice field, as reported by Captain Charles Douglas of the HMS Isis.

The Americans
General John Thomas arrived around this period to replace Benedict Arnold, who had continued the siege after the death of Richard Montgomery.
Decision to Retreat: Recognizing the impossibility of taking the city, Thomas began preparing to abandon the siege as British ships were expected in the St. Lawrence River soon.

Book Review: Major General Richard Montgomery: The Making of an American Hero 
Author: Michael P. Gabriel. (McFarland, 2026)
Review by Sam Short 5 April 2026 Journal of the American Revolution
Michael P. Gabriel has released the second edition of his biography of Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery, a British-born Patriot who sought a quiet life of farming only to take up arms once more against the empire he once fought for. In Major General Richard Montgomery: The Making of an American Hero, Gabriel tells his story through the early years of his military career until his last moments during the Battle of Quebec in December 1775.
Gabriel makes a convincing case in a relatively short work of just over 170 pages for Montgomery’s name belonging among the most courageous and selfless martyrs for the cause.
Montgomery’s story begins in Dublin, Ireland, when he was born on December 2, 1738. The youngest of three sons with one younger sister, at sixteen he attended Trinity College in Dublin, but left after two years. The outbreak of the French and Indian War presented the opportunity to pursue a career in the military as his father, grandfather, and oldest brother had done. His father Thomas Montgomery purchased his son’s commission as an ensign dated September 21, 1756. Leaving Cork, Ireland in May 1757, the young officer sailed with the 17th Regiment of Foot for Halifax, Nova Scotia, for what was his first military campaign.
Fighting not only in the North American theater but also in the West Indies, Montgomery to join in a siege of Havana, Cuba. He emerged from the war with the rank of captain. His disillusionment with military service came when he was passed over for promotion to major. He sold his captaincy on April 6, 1772. Read more…

Podcast: The American Revolution and the Fate of the World
Rick Bell is Professor of History at the University of Maryland and the author of several acclaimed books asks us to see the Revolution not as a contained colonial uprising, but as a genuinely global event with consequences still rippling outward today.

  • Why the Declaration of Independence was really a Declaration of Interdependence
  • How Haider Ali, the Muslim ruler of Mysore in southern India, became George Washington’s ally
  • Why the founding of Australia as a British penal colony is a direct consequence of American independence.

Listen in…  at Ben Franklin’s World

Colonel William Hill: Hero or Disgrace?
by Robert Ford 9 April 2026 Jpurnal of the American Revolution
In the story of the Revolutionary War in the south, William Hill has long enjoyed the reputation of a true hero of the backcountry. Very early in the southern conflict, Hill picked up the banner of revolution and led efforts to defeat the Loyalist and British forces in rural northwestern South Carolina. In a time when the British were ascendant, Hill was one of few daring to challenge Tory mastery of the backcountry. Hill commanded hundreds of soldiers in his wartime career, but his credentials as a hero received a body blow with the publication of a pension application from one of them. The pension application related a tale with enough cowardice and shame to ruin Hill’s reputation.
William Hill was born in northern Ireland in 1741 of Scots-Irish parentage. He emigrated to Pennsylvania, remaining there only briefly. He quickly moved to South Carolina, lured, as were many of his colleagues, by the availability of inexpensive land. He settled in the New Acquisition, present-day York County. In April 1762 he received a land grant of 100 acres on Bowers Mill Creek. He was twenty-one years old. Read more…

Disunion And The Right To Recede In The Founding Era
by David Otersen 7 April 2026  Journal of the American Revolution
On July 19, 1788, as Federalist and Anti-Federalist delegates at the sharply divided New York ratifying convention debated the relative merits of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton wrote to James Madison. The New York convention sought to include a series of conditions and amendments before ratifying, and Hamilton solicited Madison’s opinion as to whether New York could exercise the right to withdraw, or “recede,” from the union if, after a specified length of time, the recommended amendments were not adopted. Hamilton wrote:

You will understand that the only qualification will be the reservation of a right to recede in case our amendments have not been decided upon in one of the modes pointed out in the Constitution within a certain number of years, perhaps five or seven.

New York’s principal concern—which was shared by several of its sister states—was that in adopting the Constitution, it would be effecting its third political disaffiliation in a mere twelve years (the British Empire, the Revolutionary Government, and the Confederation) and entering into its fourth constitutional union. Given this demonstrable pattern of separation and disunion, their hesitation and skepticism were certainly prudent and justified. Accordingly, it was perfectly logical that convention delegates would seek to establish a definitive safeguard in the event the Constitution, upon a full trial, should prove to be as defective, tenuous, and dysfunctional as their three previous governments had been. Read more…

Book Review:  A Journey North: Jefferson, Madison, and the Forging of a Friendship
Author: Louis P. Masur Oxford University Press, 169 pp. June 2025
Review by Christopher Benfey, March 2026 The New York Review
Note: Interesting read, but free registration required (or a $1 paywall)
In a thirty-three-day ramble along the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers in 1791, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison encountered many of the issues that would end up plaguing the United States.
As though aware that their images might one day adorn our monuments and our money, the principal Founders assiduously cultivated their personal appearances. Intent on conferring awe on the new office of the presidency, George Washington rode in a cream-colored coach drawn by pairs of white horses. Benjamin Franklin, divining that the French would respond to a more homespun persona, ditched his wig for a coonskin cap.  On his way to New York in the spring of 1791 to meet his fellow Virginian James Madison for a holiday together, Thomas Jefferson stopped in Princeton to visit a barber. “He expects not to live above a Dozen years,” Abigail Adams wrote cattily, “and he shall lose one of those in hair dressing.”
Madison was the exception to such ostentatious display. A spindly five foot four, sickly, and weighing a hundred pounds, he didn’t strike much of a figure beside the six-foot-two Jefferson, with his carefully coiffed hair—”not red,” Madison corrected a biographer after Jefferson’s death, “but between yellow & red.” And yet it was Madison, gifted with the subtlest political mind and the shrewdest powers of persuasion among the Founders, who patiently shepherded the Constitution, via coaxing and compromise, through adoption and ratification. Maybe Madison’s inconspicuousness was itself a pose. “He seemed to lack a personal agenda because he seemed to lack a personality,” the historian Joseph J. Ellis has written, “yet when the votes were counted, his side almost always won.”
The Virginians planned their trip, as Madison put it, as one of “Health recreation & curiosity.” They envisaged a monthlong ramble up the Hudson River and down the Connecticut, with stops at the major battlefields of Saratoga and Ticonderoga in upstate New York and a foray into the newly admitted state of Vermont. Read more…

Advertised on 5 Apr.  “DICK (a Negro) … is now made free…”

“DICK (a Negro) … is now made free from Slavery by the Charity of the People.”

It was an unusual advertisement about an enslaved person that ran in the April 5, 1776, edition of the Connecticut Gazette.  In the decade prior to the colonies declaring independence from Great Britain, more than thirty thousand advertisements about enslaved men, women, and children ran in American newspapers.  Almost all of them belonged to one of two categories: buying and selling enslaved people or capturing and returning enslaved people who liberated themselves by running away from their enslavers.  In the first category, most notices offered enslaved people for sale, though some offered to hire them out by the month or year and others sought to purchase enslaved people.  In the second category, most advertisements described enslaved people who liberated themselves and offered rewards for their capture and return with a smaller number giving descriptions of Black people confined to jails and workhouses on suspicion of running away and asking their enslavers to claim them and pay expenses.  The April 5 edition of the Connecticut Gazette carried an advertisement about “a Melatto Fellow named SY” who liberated himself from Joshua Powers and another that offered to sell “A Negro Man Servant, at a very reasonable Price.”
It also featured a notice “to inform the Public, That … DICK (a Negro) was of late a Servant to Mr. Stephen Bacon, of Middletown, but is now made free from Slavery by the Charity of the People, and by virtue of his Freedom, has Liberty to procure the necessaries of Life by his own Industry, as other free born Subjects have.”  Read more…

Loyalist Quarterly Newsletter March 2026, by Paul J. Bunnell UE
Published since 2004, the March 2026 issue is now available. Sixteen pages, it features:

  • CURIOSITY BROUGHT HIM BACK, You Decide: Is It Benjamin? The Case of the Haunting Ancestor of Benjamin Bonnell, U.E.
  • List of Loyal or British American Regiments Serving in the Revolutionary War
  • Chief/Elder Paul Talks About Claremont, NH Loyalists
  • Key 1783 Loyalist Facts & Trivia

Vol. 23 Part 1 March 2026 Quarterly Issue “In Publication since 2004”
Editor: Paul J. Bunnell, UE, Author, Koasek Abenaki Chief;
BunnellLoyalist@aol.com; 978-337-9085, 49 Pleasant St., #106, Alstead, NH 03602
The Only U.S. Newsletter Devoted to The study of The American Loyalists
Subscription Rate: $23 U.S. $24 Can. $5 US or $7 Can each copy — (March, June, September, December issues)

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions
Entries which have been added, or revised, this week – much appreciation to those contributing:

By Lynton (Bill) Stewart

  • Maj. John Antill  a lawyer and a postmaster with his father in NJ, enlisted Nov. 1776 in the 2nd Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, resettled in Quebec where he died 20 Mar 1816. Married twice  1. Mary Margaret Colden (1749-1789), married 23 April 1770, Collegiate Church, Manhattan, New York (4 children) and 2. Jane Colden (1755-1827), married ca. 1793, Quebec, (1 child)
  • Capt. John Barbarie Sr.  born and lived at 1751 Perth Amboy, Middlesex County, NJ, enlisted Nov. 1776 New Jersey Volunteers, resettled Sussex Corner, King’s County, New Brunswick where he died 19 June 1818. Married 21 July 1784 to Mary Ann Stocton (1764-1832), born in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey (daughter of Major Richard Witham Stockton, UEL), 9 children.
  • Stephen Bedell  B. 25 Jan 1745, Staten Island, New York where he lived, served in the New Jersey Volunteers, resettled St. John, New Brunswick; then Stoney Creek, Upper Canadawhere he died. Married twice 1. Catherine Latourette (1754 – aft. 1788), married 25 Mar 1766, Staten Island (3 children) 2. Susannah Gallbraith (1763-1847), married ca. 1790, St. John, New Brunswick (3 children). Catherine Latourette was not a Loyalist, and she refused to go the Canada with her husband. She and her children remained on Staten Island. There is no record of a divorce or an annulment, but both parties remarried and had additional children.
  • Capt. Waldron Blaau b. 1735 New Amsterdan where he lived before the war, enlisted Nov. 1776 3rd Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, after the war to New Brunswick where he died Nov. 1783. With Eleanor/Netje Creson (1735-1775), married 21 March 1758, Manhattan, New York nine children, including Uriah.
  • Ens. Uriah Blaau  b. 12 October 1762 Manhattan, New York, in 1777 enlisted in the 4th Battalion, New Hersey Volunteers, resettled in Westmoreland County, New Brunswick but died Westmoreland County, New Brunswick where he is buried.  Wife Margaret Earle (1762-1827), married 19 March 1803 in New York, New York, no record of children. Son of Waldron Blau.
  • Maj. Daniel Isaac Browne  b. 1739/40 in Brooklyn, New York, lived in Hackensack, Bergen County, New Jersey where he was He was an attorney. He held several government appointments, joined the 4th Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers and resettled at Parrsborough Township, Kings County, Nova Scotia (now Parrsboro, Cumberland County, NS).   He was son of Son of Rev. Dr. Isaac Browne
  • Sgt.- Maj. Robert Douglas Campbell 18 May 1746, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, lived at  Little Britain, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, joined Butler’s Rangers in 1776, resettled at St. John, New Brunswick; then in 1784, St. Catherine’s, Upper Canada, d. 24 Jan 1824, St. Catherine’s, Niagara District, Ontario.  Married in 1783 to Mary Pricilla Smith (1765-1835), daughter of Frederick Smith, UEL, 14 children.
  • Pvt. William McDonnell   b. 1770, Kinbain, County Antrim, Ireland, about 1782 joined Butler’s Rangers as a drummer.     Son of Sgt. Randall Thomas McDonnell
  • Randall McDonnell Jr.  b. Parish of Stone Arabia in the Mohawk Valley in 1762, enlisted 22 May 1780 First Battalion of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York, discharged on December 24th 1783, resettled 2nd Concession, W [_?] Lot 17 Matilda, Royal Township 5, Ontatio.  On July 4th, 1785 Randy and Hester Proctor (d August 1849) were married in Montreal by Reverend David C. Delisle, minister of the Christ Church Anglican congregation. Hester was the daughter of loyalist refugees Joseph and Mary Proctor nee Fanning who came into Canada from Balstown, NY soon after cessation of hostilities. Seven children.
    Pvt. Christian McDonnell  15 Sep 1761, Stone Arabia, Tryon County, New York, Son of Sgt. Randall Thomas McDonnell,  joined Butler’s Rangers Oct. 1780, resettled Chippewa, Niagara District, Upper Canada where he died 5 July 1814. With Susannah Bowman (b. 1765), married 1787 had seven children, all bote the siurname “McDonald”
  • Sgt. John Peter McDonnell 5 b. 25 January, 1758, Kinbain, County Antrim, Ireland, Son of Sgt. Randall Thomas McDonnell, before war lived at Stone Arabia, Tryon County, New York, joined Butler’s Rangres in 1777, resettled Wainfleet, Niagara District, Upper Canada where he died in 1803. With Cristane/Cristina McDougal (b. 1757), married ca. 1783, Wainfleet three children.
  • Sgt. Randall Thomas McDonnell b. 1731, Glengarry, Inverness-Shire, Scotland, before the war at Stone Arabia, Tryon County, New York, in 1777 joined King’s Royal Regiment of New York, 84th Regiment of Foot, resettled at Niagara District, Upper Canada. With Elizabeth Ann ‘Annie’ McVeagh (1736-1783), married ca. 1755 in Kilbain, County Antrim, Ireland  five children born in Ireland and 1 in Stone Arabia.

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

Events Upcoming

Kawartha Branch: The War of 1812:  “Lest we forget”. Sunday 19 April 2026 2:00

By Glen McMullen, The War of 1812:  “Lest we forget” includes historical background  of some of the major participants of both sides whose lives intersected at that point in history, with major battles and conclusions.
Glen is a retired Science teacher, retired farmer, a traveller, and closet musician.
His maternal roots extend back to Mennonites whose migration northward from Pennsylvania was interrupted by the War of 1812.
As well, this is our Annual General Meeting.
Register with Grietje McBride <maplegrm@gmail.com>

Abegweit Branch:  “Unconquered Land: The Island of Saint John’s and the Provincial Military” by Todd Braisted Wed 22 Apr 7:00 ET

The Island of Saint John’s was garrisoned exclusively by Loyalist troops during the war. Tonight we examine their role, who they were, and what became of them afterwards.
Todd Braisted is an author and researcher of Loyalist military studies. His primary focus is on Loyalist military personnel, infrastructure and campaigns throughout North America. Since 1979, Braisted has amassed and transcribed over 40,000 pages of Loyalist and related material from archives and private collections around the world. He is a Fellow in the Company of Military Historians and a past-president of the Bergen County Historical Society.
Join Zoom Meeting.  Meeting ID: 816 5298 9307   Passcode: 981029

Kingston Branch: “Ballads by the Boundary” by Stephen Bruce Medd. Sat 25 Apr 1:00

Kingston and District Branch will meet at St. Paul’s Anglican Church Hall, 137 Queen Street (doors open at noon); or if you prefer on Zoom (starting 12:30 p.m.).  Stephen Bruce Medd brings us “Ballads by the Boundary”, joined by guitarist John McLurg.  Inspired by Canadian history and the beautiful Canadian landscapes he explored as a geologist, Stephen will cover fascinating pre-Confederation events and people through both storytelling and performing his own historical ballads.  We will hear of Indigenous connections, French explorers, Loyalist refugees of the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and more, including Kingston-Quinte focussed topics.  More and the Zoom link…  Everyone is welcome!

St. Lawrence Branch: Charter Luncheon; Matriarchs of the Hoople Creek Loyalists; AGM 24 May 12:15

The St. Lawrence Branch is holding a Charter Luncheon in combination with their Annual General Meeting on Sunday, May 24th at St. Matthew’s Presbyterian Church (15 Memorial Sq.) in Ingleside. Doors open at 12:15 pm, and a lunch of sandwiches and desserts will begin at 12:30 pm. Guest speaker John Sliter will present highlights from his new book, Matriarchs of the Hoople Creek Loyalists. The Annual General Meeting will follow and will include the election of the 2026-2028 Executive. There will also be a draw for a raffle basket full of goodies.
Tickets are $20 and must be purchased in advance of the event. Register with Secretary Darlene Fawcett at dmfawcett@ripnet.com by May 10th. All are welcome!

Fort Plain: American Revolutionary War Conference 250 on 28-31 May 2026

This annual conference will be held in Johnstown NY from  noon Friday until 1:00 pm Sunday
It is preceded by a bus tour on Thurs 28 May “A Day on the Lines: The 250th Anniversary of the Continental Army’s Siege of Boston – Led by Alexander Cain” visiting visit sites such as Prospect Hill, Washington’s Headquarters, Bunker Hill, and Fort Washington and more
Registration to open in early March. See Conference details for presentations, speakers, accommodations etc

From the Social Media and Beyond

  • Food and Related: Townsends
  • Things including apparel, but more
    • (nothing this week)
  • This week in History
    • 5 April 1764, London.5 April 1764, London. King George III gave royal approval to the Sugar Act (officially the American Revenue Act of 764). The law cut the duty on foreign molasses in half from six to three pence per gallon, added new taxes on sugar, coffee, wine, and certain textiles, and strengthened customs enforcement while moving trials to vice-admiralty courts. Aimed at raising revenue after the French and Indian War, it angered colonial merchants—especially in New England—who saw it as taxation without representation. In response, Boston and other ports started organizing boycotts of British luxury goods. image
    • 7 April 1766. London. General Guy Carleton was appointed acting Lieutenant Governor and Administrator of Quebec (Canada), with James Murray still nominally in charge. His long career proved uneven: he brilliantly defeated the American invasion of Canada in 1775–76, yet failed to pursue the retreating rebels decisively, and later served as the final British commander-in-chief in North America, overseeing the implementation of the 1783 Treaty of Paris. image
    • 9 April 1768, Hancock’s Wharf, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts. British customs officials attempted to board and search two of John Hancock’s ships in Boston Harbor, including the brigantine Lydia, without proper warrants or writs of assistance. Hancock, a prominent merchant and vocal opponent of the Townshend Acts, refused entry beyond the deck and demanded legal authorization. Read more…
    • 8 April 1775, Boston, Massachusetts. Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock quietly left the city after intelligence warned of British plans to arrest them. Paul Revere, using his Mechanics spy network, successfully gathered and relayed crucial information about British intentions to seize them and the colonial powder and weapons, helping the leaders avoid capture as tensions grew toward open conflict. image
    • 8 April 1775. New Bern, North Carolina. In the tense rooms of New Bern’s colonial assembly, Royal Governor Josiah Martin watched his authority fall apart. The defiant House of Burgesses openly supported the upcoming Continental Congress in Philadelphia, ignoring royal orders. In a final act of frustration, Martin and his Executive Council issued a proclamation dissolving the assembly Read more…
    • 4 April 1776, Charlestown, Massachusetts. The badly decomposed body of patriot leader Dr. Joseph Warren—who was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill) on June 17, 1775, and buried in a shallow mass grave by the British—was discovered by his brothers Ebenezer and Dr. John Warren, with help from Paul Revere. The remains were identified by the distinctive gold wire Revere had used to attach two ivory false teeth (replacing Warren’s upper left canine and premolar) shortly before the battle. This marked one of the earliest known uses of forensic dental identification in America. image
    • 4 April 1776, Block Island, Rhode Island. The Continental Navy’s 24-gun frigate USS Columbus, commanded by Captain Abraham Whipple, captured the 6-gun British armed schooner HMS Hawke. This marked the first British warship taken at sea by the emerging American navy during the Revolutionary War. The lightly armed vessel, part of the British squadron at Newport, surrendered without much resistance as Commodore Esek Hopkins’ squadron returned from their successful raid on Nassau, Bahamas. The prize was loaded with supplies valuable to the Patriots’ cause. image
    • 5 April 1776. While returning from a successful raid on Nassau in the Bahamas, Commodore Esek Hopkins’ Continental Navy squadron captured the British bomb ketch HMS Bolton, an 8- or 12-gun vessel sometimes described as a bomb brig. The prize was taken near Block Island, Rhode Island, the day after the squadron had seized the 6-gun schooner HMS Hawke. Hopkins commanded the 24-gun flagship Alfred during the operation, and Lieutenant Edward Sneyd (or Snead) commanded the Bolton. The lightly armed British vessel offered little resistance and was quickly taken as a prize, giving the young American navy its second British warship in two days. image
    • 6 April 1776, Southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island. British Captain Tyringham Howe, commanding the 20-gun frigate HMS Glasgow, encountered Commodore Esek Hopkins’ returning Continental squadron after its Nassau raid. During a fierce predawn battle that lasted hours, Glasgow damaged the sloop Cabot (commanded by Hopkins’ son) and Hopkins’ flagship USS Alfred, then skillfully evaded the disorganized American fleet and escaped to Newport. image
    • 6 April 1776, Philadelphia. The Second Continental Congress made a decisive move toward independence. It passed resolutions opening American ports to all foreign ships and trade—except those of Britain—directly challenging Parliament’s Prohibitory Act of December 1775, which had blockaded colonial commerce and treated Americans as enemies. This act proclaimed economic sovereignty, allowed merchants to pursue global markets, and showed the colonies’ increasing determination to break away from the Crown.  image
    • 7 April 1776, Virginia Capes. Captain John Barry’s 16-gun Continental brig USS Lexington engaged and captured the British sloop HMS Edward after a fierce two-hour battle. This bold victory marked the first time an American naval vessel took a Royal Navy ship in combat, delivering an early morale boost to the fledgling Continental Navy.  image
    • On 9 April 1776, in Philadelphia.  The Second Continental Congress passed a critical resolution authorizing the transfer of $200,000 to New York to support and pay Continental forces stationed there. With General George Washington’s army arriving in the city and a British invasion expected imminently, the funds were urgently needed to pay troops, procure supplies, and strengthen fortifications across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Hudson defenses.  Read more…
    • 9 April 1776, Wilmington, Delaware. In the narrow waters of Christina Creek (also called Christiana Creek), which flows into Delaware Bay, the American Continental Navy schooner USS Wasp (8 guns, commanded by Capt. Charles Alexander) seized the British brig HMS Betsey. Read more…
    • 10 Apr 1777 Paris. American envoy Silas Deane confronted the mounting consequences of his bold recruiting efforts from the previous winter. Having formally commissioned the idealistic 19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette and the seasoned Baron Johann de Kalb as major generals in December 1776, Deane now faced French royal displeasure and logistical hurdles as the pair prepared for their secret departure. read more…
    • 11 April 1777, Philadelphia. The Continental Congress unanimously appointed Dr. William Shippen Jr. Director General of the Military Hospitals of the Continental Army. A skilled Philadelphia physician trained in London and Edinburgh Read more…
    • 5 April 1778, York, Pennsylvania (temporary seat of the Continental Congress).  Delegates—still unhappy with the lenient Saratoga Convention signed by Gen. Horatio Gates in October 1777—allowed Gen. John Burgoyne and a small staff to leave Boston for Britain on parole. However, most of the roughly 5,000–6,000-man “Convention Army” (British and German troops) stayed prisoners of war. Congress had canceled the convention’s terms; the soldiers were later moved south from Massachusetts into captivity, mainly to Charlottesville, Virginia, and other southern and mid-Atlantic locations.   image
    • 8 April 1778. Paris, France, John Adams officially took over from Silas Deane on the American commission representing the United States. Deane, a Connecticut merchant and early secret agent, had secured crucial French arms and supplies for the Revolutionary War, often working with Pierre Beaumarchais.  Read more…
    • 10 Apr 1778 Brest, France. Captain John Paul Jones commanded the 18-gun sloop USS Ranger as she slipped her moorings and set sail for British home waters. With a crew of about 140 men, the sleek, freshly refitted American vessel headed into the North Atlantic on an extended raiding cruise targeting the Irish Sea and the coasts of England and Scotland. Read more…
    • 11 April 1778. Toulon, France.  Vice Admiral Charles-Hector, Comte d’Estaing, sailed with a powerful squadron of twelve ships of the line and several frigates, carrying about 4,000 troops. The secret departure—carefully prepared after the Franco-American alliance—marked France’s first major naval commitment to the American Revolutionary War. Read more…
    • 6 April 1779, Cape Henry, Virginia. Commodore John B. Hopkins, commanding the Continental frigates Warren (32 guns) and Queen of France (28 guns), along with the sloop Ranger, captured the 10-gun British privateer schooner Hibernia (from New York, 45 men) after a chase and ruse of flying British colors. The next day (April 7), they seized seven valuable prizes from a convoy bound for Georgia, including the 20-gun ship Jason, 16-gun letter-of-marque Mariah, and several laden brigs. Prizes reached Boston and Portsmouth safely, disrupting British supplies during the Revolutionary War. image
    • 18 April 1779. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. General Benedict Arnold married Peggy Shippen, the elegant 18-year-old daughter of prominent Loyalist judge Edward Shippen. The ceremony at the Shippen mansion united the battle-scarred Continental Army general with a young woman whose family and social circle strongly favored the British cause. During the British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777–1778, Peggy had formed a close relationship with Major John André, the charming British intelligence officer and aide to General William Howe.
      André, known for his artistic talents and social grace, often attended Loyalist gatherings and balls where he spent considerable time with Peggy. Their interactions deepened her sympathy for the British and established a personal connection that later proved consequential. After the marriage, Peggy’s ties to André facilitated secret communications. She played a key role in introducing Arnold to British agents, helping to initiate the espionage and treason that culminated in Arnold’s attempted betrayal of West Point in 1780. The outwardly joyful union thus concealed the start of one of the most infamous plots in the American Revolutionary War. image
    • 7 April 1780, Charleston, South Carolina. Approximately 750 Virginia Continentals under Brigadier General William Woodford completed an arduous approximately 800-mile march from the north and successfully entered the besieged city. They crossed the still-open Cooper River, landed at Gadsden’s Wharf amid cheers, and briefly boosted the garrison’s morale. The city surrendered to British forces on May 12, 1780, and Woodford’s men marched into captivity along with the rest of the American defenders. Woodford himself was later imprisoned and died aboard a British prison ship in November 1780. image
    • 8 April 1780. Charleston, South Carolina. Vice Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot led a daring naval operation during the ongoing British siege. Using favorable wind, tide, and hazy conditions, he commanded a squadron of about seven Royal Navy frigates and several transports to sail straight past the guns of Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island. …leading to the city’s surrender on May 12, 1780—America’s worst defeat of the Revolutionary War.  Read more…
    • 10 April 1780, Charleston, South Carolina. American Major General Benjamin Lincoln faced a grim choice as British forces under Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton tightened their noose around the city. The siege, which began in late March, saw British engineers complete their first parallel—a line of trenches and batteries—bringing artillery dangerously close to American defenses across the narrow neck of the Charleston peninsula. Read more…
    • 7 April 1781.Wilmington, North Carolina. A battered British army of about 1,500 men under General Charles Cornwallis marched into the port city. Fresh from the bloody fields of Guilford Courthouse, the exhausted redcoats sought shelter in the port town. There they rested, replenished their depleted ranks, and anxiously awaited resupply by the Royal Navy to revive their Southern campaign image
    • 11 April 1781, Fort Balfour (also called Pocotaligo Fort) in Beaufort District, South Carolina. Patriot partisan leader Col. William Harden led a daring raid with about 80 mounted militia from the Upper Granville County Regiment. Detached from Gen. Francis Marion’s brigade, Harden’s men surrounded the small British outpost, an earth-and-palisade fort that guarded the vital Pocotaligo River bridge on the Charleston-to-Savannah Road. Read more…

 

Published by the UELAC
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