“Loyalist Trails” 2018-16: April 22, 2018
In this issue:
– UELAC Conference 2018, Register Today
– UELAC AGM, Members’ Information, Voting
– Four Loyalists in a 1775 Newspaper (Part 1), by Stephen Davidson
– Week Three Update: Loyalist Scholarship — ‘Celebrate Twenty’
– Ontario Licence Plates Spring Sellout
– Atlantic Loyalist Connections: Benedict Arnold and a Slander Case
– Borealia: A House in New Orleans: The Le Moyne Family
– JAR: The Hessians Who Escaped Washington’s Trap at Trenton
– The Junto: Why We Doubt Capable Children: Constructing Childhood in the Revolutionary Era
– Ben Franklin’s World: The Great Awakening in New England
– How Impractical were Eighteenth-Century Soldiers’ Uniforms?
– Built Heritage: How Much Can we Save?
– The Battle of Oriskany
– Status of the Loyalist Gazette and Digital Version
– American Revolution Mohawk Valley Conference
– Where in the World?
– Region and Branch Bits
– From the Twittersphere and Beyond
Articles
UELAC Conference 2018, Register Today
Conference 2018: “Loyalist Ties Under Living Skies”
June 7-10, 2018
Temple Garden Hotel and Spa, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
Visit the conference pages for details and the registration form
UELAC AGM, Members’ Information, Voting
The Annual General Meeting of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada will be held Saturday 9 June 2018 in Moose Jaw SK.
Members of the Association may vote in person or by proxy.
Members: For information on your voting options and the Annual Reports package, click here for instructions about how to access them.
Four Loyalists in a 1775 Newspaper (Part 1), by Stephen Davidson
In the years immediately preceding the American Revolution, the New York Gazetteer was one of the newspapers that kept Manhatten’s citizens informed about the growing unrest in Britain’s North American colonies. The 1775 editions contain a number of colonists’ names who identified themselves as loyalists in the years preceding the Declaration of Independence. With the advantage of historical hindsight, modern readers can piece together what happened to these loyalists during the next eight years of revolution — as well as in their first years as refugee pioneers. Here are two of those stories.
In February of 1775, the Gazetteer reported that Dr Joseph Clarke “was ridden on a rail in Hartford, Conn.; he was badly injured, according to Dr. Tidmarsh who examined him”. The 41 year-old Clarke may have been rendered sterile for the rest of his life — the typical consequence of this particular form of torture. However, by this time, the doctor and his 33 year-old wife, the former Isabella Allyne, already had a very large family: one son and nine daughters. Humiliated and emasculated, what did the Connecticut loyalist do once he had recovered from his rebel-inflicted injuries?
Remaining in his hometown of Stratford, joining the rebel cause or pleading neutrality were not options for Clarke. He had been a surgeon in a provincial regiment in the Seven Years War and had made it clear that he was determined to support the British government. By October 1776, Clarke left Connecticut and found sanctuary in New York City. At a cost of £10, his family eventually joined him, staying in the British stronghold until they joined the loyalist evacuation in 1783.
Clarke did not set up private practice in New York, but instead joined the Prince of Wales Volunteers where he served as a captain for three months. During that time, he recruited 33 men for the regiment. Later in the war, Clarke “acted as surgeon to the loyalists in Lloyd’s Neck” at Fort Franklin, the largest British fortification on Long Island. While he was there, rebels twice plundered his home. By 1778, the patriots of Stratford had seized all of Clarke’s property and auctioned it off. Included in the loyalist doctor’s losses were “a good comfortable house”, furniture, land, orchards, and “a horse left behind which was rode to death by a rebel”.
With the defeat of the British army, the Clarke family joined thousands of other loyalist refugees who boarded ships for sanctuary in other parts of the British Empire. On June 13, 1783, the Clarkes and an African named Philip boarded the Bridgewater, bound for the mouth of the St. John River. The family spent its first winter in Parrtown, receiving rations from the British forces who manned Fort Howe. At some point in their first year in the future New Brunswick, the Clarkes acquired three more servants.
Joseph Clarke settled in Maugerville, a Planter settlement that predated the arrival of the loyalists. There he set up a medical practice and was later appointed a judge in the Court of Common Pleas for Sunbury County. Despite the ill-usage and suffering experienced at the hands of rebels, Clarke returned to visit friends in the United States in 1799. The man who had been forced to ride a rail in 1775 continued to serve the people of New Brunswick until his death at 79 on November 17, 1813. His widow died 22 days later at the age of 71.
Of the ten Clarke children, we only know the names of five: first born Joseph Jr., eldest daughter Sarah Hannah (wife of J.S. Boies), Jane (wife of Lt. Col. Samuel Smith), Margaret Ann (wife of Charles T. Vail) and the youngest daughter, Lucretia who died a spinster.
The New York Gazetteer recounted the story of another bold loyalist in its April 13, 1775 edition. On March 22nd, Philip John Livingston, the sheriff of Dutchess County, cut down a liberty pole that had been erected the day before outside the home of John Bailey near Poughkeepsie, New York. This was an incredibly brave move on Livingston’s part as the erection of a liberty pole was a flagrant act of rebellion on the part of American patriots. Did this loyalist live out the rest of the year, let alone the revolution?
The British authorities must have appreciated Livingston’s strong convictions for they appointed him as the superintendent of rebel estates within the British lines in New York. In other words, the former sheriff could sell or give abandoned and confiscated rebel homes to loyalist refugees during the occupation of New York. Livingstone issued a notice in 1780 encouraging New Yorkers who had petitioned for houses and land belonging to rebels to see him at Hell’s Gate and “receive answers to their petitions”.
Philip was not the only Livingston who served his king so ably. His brother, John William Livingston (1753-1798) was a Captain in the Kings American Regiment, a Loyalist regiment commanded by Colonel Edmund Fanning. Brother Henry Livingston was an ensign in Colonel Innes’ Regiment. Philip’s sister, Catherine, was the wife of Captain Abraham DePeyster, another captain in the Kings American Regiment.
Much as loyal refugees must have appreciated Livingston finding them houses in New York City, he was roundly condemned in 1783 when it was discovered that he was among fifty-five highly placed loyalists who had signed a petition asking Sir Guy Carleton to give each of the signatories 5,000 acres of land in Nova Scotia. Six hundred loyalists filed a memorial protesting the petition of the “Fifty-Five”, and nothing more came of the matter. It’s not every man who in one lifetime could raise the ire of both patriots and loyalists.
In next week’s Loyalist Trails, learn about the groom who boasted of having no rebels as guests at his wedding, and two loyalist doctors who became cellmates in a rebel prison.
Week Three Update: Loyalist Scholarship — ‘Celebrate Twenty’ (April 1 – July 1, 2018)
Abegweit Branch leads the way! This week the first donation to the 2018 Scholarship Challenge came from Abegweit Branch in PEI. It seems that Abegweit took the ‘launch’ to heart, jumping in with both feet. Message received from the east coast – “Come on in, the water’s fine”.
What are we celebrating? Here’s a quick look at the numbers …
• Twenty years of Loyalist Scholarship
• Fifty Thousand Dollars awarded to Graduate students since 1998
• Twelve Loyalist Scholarship recipients in thirteen years
• Twenty Thousand Dollars in donations to Scholarship in 2016 and 2017 (This is all you!)
• One UELAC Annual commitment of twelve thousand dollars to the Helen Huff Scholarship Seed Fund
Each year the excitement builds as we step up for scholarship. As United Empire Loyalist descendants, members, and friends who support the UELAC vision statement we are the champions of academic research in the field of Loyalist studies. The result? Everyone wins.
This year we are asking for a commitment of $200 per branch for the Scholarship Endowment Fund. Happily, past fundraisers have consistently exceeded our expectations. On a leap of faith, we are setting our 2018 celebration goal at $10,000.00.
How can you participate? A twenty-dollar ($20) individual donation puts your name on our list of generous donors. Or perhaps you’d like to add a zero and make it $200, or $2000! We are more than happy to receive your gift of any combination of twenty. Please mark your donations ‘Scholarship Endowment Fund.’
If you wish the Loyalist story to be recorded for generations to come, consider a bequest or an annual donation. Please give to the Scholarship Endowment Fund and join us in building a legacy.
Donations may be made to the UELAC Loyalist Scholarship Endowment Fund, UELAC, 50 Baldwin St., Suite 202, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5T 1L4.
Read more: 2018 Scholarship Challenge and the Endowment Fund.
Special thanks to those who started the year with donations to Scholarship — Colonel John Butler (Niagara) Branch and Vancouver Branch UELAC.
But Wait, There’s More — Logomania
You choose! UELAC is introducing a logo design dedicated to Loyalist Scholarship. In the next few weeks we will be rolling out three design options and we need your vote! This will be a cross-Canada selection process. The 2018 winning design will become the face of UELAC Loyalist Scholarship. Watch Loyalist Trails for details on the upcoming survey. Use your vote to ‘Celebrate Twenty’!
Scholars Update — Three’s Company
In March, we welcomed Kelly A. Grant, 2018 Loyalist Scholarship recipient and Scholar number twelve in an impressive list of academics. Kelly, from Saint-Hubert, Quebec, joins Sophie Jones (Liverpool UK) and Stephanie Seal Walters (Fairfax, Virginia) in receiving UELAC scholarship funding in 2018.
For Kelly, Loyalist material culture has been a life-long passion. At the beginning of her academic career, she studied extant garments of loyalist provenance at the New Brunswick Museum. It was that early exposure that helped guide her professional work with museums and living history programs. We look forward to Kelly’s research into the study of eighteenth-century clothing and material culture of Nova Scotia.
Follow Kelly —
For those active on social media, please follow Kelly Grant on Facebook for updates and photos. You can see her in action during the 2018 Patriots Day weekend at Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts. Spoiler alert — Kelly rocks a lovely eighteenth-century gown during a turn on the ballroom floor.
Welcome Kelly and best wishes for a productive and successful academic year!
…Bonnie Schepers, Scholarship Chair
Ontario Licence Plates Spring Sellout
This year, on May 27, UELAC will mark the 104th anniversary of its formation when an Act (Chapter 146, 4-5, Geo. V, 1914) was passed by the Parliament of Canada. If you are a new member of an Ontario branch of UELAC, you may not know of our special centenary Ontario Licence Plate project that kicked off the 2014 celebrations. How many of these special plates do you recognize in the parking lot when you attend your branch meetings?
With 19 plates beginning with 02UE, you still have a chance to get a plate that you will remember and cause comments wherever you drive. SAVE: until May 27 you can save 30 dollars off the original price when you place your order. That means we will also ship your request FREE!
Take these 2 steps now:
- Email education@uelac.org with your preferred number chosen from the following (some may just have been taken):
23, 26-28, 37, 42, 47, 52-54, 72, 73, 77, 90-92, 94, 97, 98. - Send your cheque for $80.00 and this Licence Plates order form to the George Brown House office.
If you have already shown your support of this UELAC Project, thank you.
…Fred H. Hayward, UELAC Education Committee
Atlantic Loyalist Connections: Benedict Arnold and a Slander Case
By Christine Lovelace on 18 April 2018
In May of 1779, Benedict Arnold informed the British of a planned American invasion of Canada, and from then, his name became synonymous with the word “traitor”.
Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) was a Major General in the Continental Army under George Washington during the American Revolutionary War. Some of the stories of Arnold’s wartime heroism and shenanigans have been told in the Major Andre, Vanderbeck and Jonathan Odell Atlantic Loyalist Connection blog posts.
At the end of the Revolutionary War, Arnold moved back to London for a brief period, and then sailed for Saint John, New Brunswick, sometime around 1786 (he would stay until 1791). There, Arnold was involved in a West Indian trading business with his son Richard, and Monson Hayt [also spelled as Munson Hoyt], a former Loyalist officer from New York who served in the Prince of Wales American Regiment.
While in Saint John, Arnold initiated a series of legal actions, not sparing his friends and fellow Loyalists such as Edward Winslow. Legal wrangling was dear to Arnold’s heart. According to Barry K. Wilson, author of Benedict Arnold: A Traitor in our Midst, the minute books of the New Brunswick Supreme Court show that, during his short stay in NB, Arnold was in court 50 times!
Borealia: A House in New Orleans: The Le Moyne Family
Michael J. Davis 9 April 2018
“We are at present working on the establishment of New Orleans, thirty leagues above the entry of the Mississippi,” wrote the newly-commissioned commandant-général of Louisiana, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on June 12, 1718 to the Council of the Marine at Versailles. Work on New Orleans, however, had been underway since the end of March, when Bienville had brought forty workers—three quarters of them convict labourers—to clear the swampland on behalf of the Company of the West, the new proprietary owners of the Louisiana colony, and found what would become the Crescent City. New Orleans’ foundation has been described by Shannon Lee Dawdy as the combination of Enlightenment rationality, metis (local knowledge) and what she has called “rogue colonialism”—colonial development driven by the pursuit of the vested interests of individuals on the ground, who acted with or without metropolitan consent. Scion of the Le Moyne family, one of New France’s most ambitious houses, Bienville looms particularly large in this equation. From Louisiana’s very inception he and his kin fused colonial and personal interests to forge a family empire in the Lower Mississippi Valley. With the New Orleans Tricentennial this spring, it is perhaps therefore fitting to explore the so-called “roguish” behaviour of Bienville and the wider Le Moyne clan and the lasting impact it has had on the city’s history.
Born in Montreal in 1680, Bienville was the tenth of fourteen children born to Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil et de Châteauguay and Catherine Primot. Coming to New France in 1641 as an innkeeper’s son from Normandy, Le Moyne had experienced a meteoric rise, working as an interpreter, fur trader, and militia captain to become Montreal’s richest merchant and an esteemed colonial nobleman.
JAR: The Hessians Who Escaped Washington’s Trap at Trenton
by Andrew A. Zellers-Frederick 18 April 2018
The year 1776 opened with the overall promises of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense pamphlet seemingly coming to fruition; however, the ensuing months were anything but militarily triumphant for General Washington’s army. Even before the ink was dry on the Declaration of Independence, American forces were on the defensive on all fronts and in a deplorable and miserable state. Paine had bravely enlisted with the Pennsylvania militia serving in New Jersey; as Washington and his troops retreated across the former British province, he correctly summarized the situation in a series of writings collectively entitled The American Crisis with the opening sentences: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot, will in this crisis, shrink man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have the consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
Although these magnificent words were meant to raise moral, the American army was short of everything vital to any type of military campaign, especially in soldiers whose enlistments were primarily up as the year quickly came to a close. Even the commander-in-chief concluded to his cousin Lund Washington, “I think the game will be pretty well up;” however, Washington, whose knew his army was the lifeblood of the American Revolution and had a great military axiom of keeping it together, gambled with the 1776 Battle of Trenton. He concluded that without an army, no matter the size, the American Revolution would only be remembered in history as another failed rebellion. Trenton was a famous victory, recognized as such by both friend and foe, which brought an infusion of new blood, spirit and most importantly reenlistments for the cause of America’s War for Independence. Although many historians have interpreted this Christmas day event as a complete triumph for American arms, a number of German troops (accompanied by a handful of British dragoons), decided to follow an adage of the Roman historian Tacitus, “He that fights and runs away, may turn and fight another day; but he that is in battle slain, will never rise to fight again.”
The Junto: Why We Doubt Capable Children: Constructing Childhood in the Revolutionary Era
By Julia M. Gossard 17 April 2018
“My friends and I might still be 11, and we might still be in elementary school, but we know … that we have seven short years until we too have the right to vote.” Speaking at the March for Our Lives event, 11-year old Naomi Wadler eloquently reminded us that childhood is ephemeral. Since they are future voters, she warned Capitol Hill to take the words, emotions, and pleas of children seriously. In many ways, she was also speaking to Florida State Representative Elizabeth Porter who recently exclaimed, “The adults make the law because we have the age, we has [sic] the wisdom, and we have the experience.” For many like Rep. Porter, there has been something disturbing in this moment of youth activism. It cuts to the core of social stability based on the patriarchal family order—that children are subordinate, passive members of society. We inherited this idea from the eighteenth-century revolutionary era, a point in time when age became a main determinant in who could be considered a citizen and an adult.
As a historian of childhood and youth, I’ve been asked over the past several weeks to weigh in on how people in the past understood and defined childhood. That question fits with one of my primary goals as a new Juntoist—to build awareness of, and create meaningful conversations around, the history of childhood and youth in the early modern Atlantic.
Colonial and European children were usually described according to their relationships to adults and parents.
Ben Franklin’s World: The Great Awakening in New England
Douglas Winiarski, a Professor of American Studies and Religious Studies at the University of Richmond and the author of the Bancroft prize-winning book, Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in Eighteenth-Century New England, helps us explore the religious landscape of New England during the 18th century and how New Englanders grappled with powerful questions about their spiritual lives during the extraordinary period known as the Great Awakening.
As we investigate the Great Awakening in New England, Doug reveals information about the Puritan faith in New England during the 1630s and 1640s; Details about the Great Awakening; And, how the events and ideas of the Great Awakening altered the religious landscape of New England and gave birth to American evangelicalism.
How Impractical were Eighteenth-Century Soldiers’ Uniforms?
Alex Burns 18 April 2018
When discussing the aesthetics of the eighteenth century, people often comment on the garish nature of military clothing. On the surface, it may seem that the wars of the eighteenth century were “wars in lace,” and the period was “a decorative interval.” Uniforms are often used as a piece of evidence to assert that eighteenth-century warfare was inefficient, formalized, and foppish. According to some historians: “In general, an ancien regime [eighteenth-century] army was a slow and unwieldy mass of disgruntled and terrorized soldiers led by untrained and unimaginative officers.” Were these conflicts “wars in lace,” with all of the baggage that term implies?
Once again, as I write this post, I am greatly indebted to other historians and researchers who have examined this subject. Individuals such as Mark Canady, Henry Cooke, Daniel Hohrath, Neal Hurst, Phillip Katcher, Tomasz Karpinksi, Matt Keagle, William Koker, Tim Logue, Joseph Malit, Steve Rayner, Hew Strachan, and Rob Welch, have spent much of their time researching and reconstructing eighteenth-century military garments. Though I have researched uniforms in a cursory way, I will never understand eighteenth-century military clothing in the painstaking way these individuals have.
So, how ostentatious and formal was eighteenth-century military clothing? Did soldiers truly fight bewigged in scarlet splendor? Did uniforms hamper the ability of European soldiers to effectively wage war? Did brightly colored uniforms make men targets? Did these uniforms restrict the range of motion enjoyed by the soldiers? Was the available clothing bad for soldier’s health, freezing or overheating them? Finally, did armies adapt their clothing to local needs and conditions?
Built Heritage: How Much Can we Save?
The piece in the Loyalist Trails newsletter about Andrew Ostrander UEL (see issue 2018-#15, April 15) took me on a path of exploration to seek out ‘built heritage” remembrance (if there is any) , of this family. I knew that Andrew’s widow, Jane Davis-Ostrander, is buried in an entirely different county of Ontario than her husband, that she had lived to age 104, and that she was an extremely strong, independent, woman of remarkable fortitude, but I wanted to know more.
What unfolded was a November 2012, City of Brampton Report, about a 8500 Mississauga Road property that had been owned by Horatio and Katherine Ostrander from 1934 to 1943. An interesting sketch of an 1877 dwelling known as “Evergreen” owned by the Fuller family from the illustrated Historical Atlas of Peel County, was part of that report, and caring for built heritage as I do, I found myself wondering whatever had happened to that particular interesting looking house. In point of fact it reminds me, in appearance, of more than one Main St. property we are blessed to still have standing in Grimsby today.
What I discovered was that this building was still actually standing at 8472 Mississauga Road, in the midst of a lot of development, right up until the fall of 2016, when it was demolished to make way for a plaza on the corner of Financial Drive and Mississauga Road. The developer incorporated an Italianate looking Tower into the plaza design as homage to the Grade B listed building demolished. It was actually a sensitive way of handling that development I believe. See drawing/photo (PDF).
I’m sorry to have to report herein to those of you concerned with the “Save the home at 314 Main St. East in Grimsby” on the Crown Land Grant of Captain John Moore UEL, that ship has sailed, and that building will be demolished. All is not lost. There is presently an effort being undertaken in Grimsby’ s downtown redevelopment, to preserve and respect as much of that cultural heritage landscape as possible, and I am hopeful the heritage streetscape we concern ourselves about will remain relatively intact.
…Catharine Bingle-Gonnsen, UE
fought on August 6, 1777, was one of the bloodiest battles in the North American theater of the American Revolutionary War and a significant engagement of the Saratoga campaign. An American party trying to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix was ambushed by a party of Loyalists and allies of several Native American tribes, primarily Iroquois. This was one of the few battles in the war in which almost all of the participants were North American: Loyalists and allied Indians fought against Patriots and allied Oneida in the absence of British regular soldiers.
Early in the siege of Fort Stanwix, an American relief force from the Mohawk Valley under General Nicholas Herkimer, numbering around 800 men of the Tryon County militia, and a party of Oneida warriors, approached in an attempt to raise the siege. British commander Barry St. Leger authorized an intercept force consisting of a Hanau Jäger (light infantry) detachment, Sir John Johnson’s King’s Royal Regiment of New York, Indian allies from the Six Nations, particularly Mohawk and Seneca; and other tribes to the north and west, and Indian Department Rangers, totaling at least 450 men.
The Loyalist and Indian force ambushed Herkimer’s force in a small valley about six miles (10 km) east of Fort Stanwix, near the present-day village of Oriskany, New York. During the battle, Herkimer was mortally wounded. The battle cost the Patriots approximately 450 casualties, while the Loyalists and Indians lost approximately 150 dead and wounded. The result of the battle remains ambiguous. The apparent Loyalist victory was significantly affected by a sortie from Fort Stanwix in which the Loyalist camps were sacked, spoiling morale among the allied Indians.
For the Iroquois nations, the battle marked the beginning of a civil war, as Oneida warriors under Colonel Louis and Han Yerry allied with the American cause. Most of the warriors of other Iroquois nations, especially the Mohawk and Seneca, allied with the British. Each nation was highly decentralized, and there were internal divisions among bands of the Oneida, some of whom also migrated to Canada as allies of the British. The site is known in oral histories of the Iroquois nations as “A Place of Great Sadness.” The site has been designated by the United States as a National Historic Landmark; it is marked by a battle monument at the Oriskany Battlefield State Historic Site.
Read more on Wikipedia.
Status of the Loyalist Gazette and Digital Version
…Publications Committee
American Revolution Mohawk Valley Conference
By The Fort Plain Museum, June 7-10, 2018.
The Fort Plain Museum’s American Revolution Mohawk Valley Conference is back for 2018 and registrations are now being accepted.
Eleven Author/Historian Presentations, a Panel Discussion, Bus Tour and a Genealogy Day including:
• Alexander Hamilton’s Revolutionary War Service;
• “Hessians” at the Battle of Bennington, 1777;
• Redcoats Along the Mohawk: British Soldiers in Western New York, 1777-1783;
• Traitors, Spies & Heroes: Loyalist Espionage in the American Revolution with UELAC Central East Region Councillor Jennifer DeBruin;
• Sir William Johnson, the Iroquois Confederacy and Lord Dunmore’s War;
• A fundraising dinner, and more …
Where is Toronto Branch member Michael Young?
To participate, submit a photo of yourself in UELAC promotional gear at a place of some note and tell us where it is (if you are a member of a branch, please indicate that as well). Send your submission to the editor at loyalist.trails@uelac.org.
From the UELAC branches, news and events of interest to others.
- “Henry Beekman Livingston, Black Sheep of The Livingston Clan” by Geoff Benton, Upper New York historian on Tuesday, May 8, 2018, 6:30 PM, at Siena College, Albany, NY organized by the American Revolution Round Table: Hudson/Mohawk Valleys and Siena College’s McCormick Center for the Study of the American Revolution. Henry Beekman Livingston was already well on his way to being the black sheep of the illustrious Livingston family before the Revolutionary War erupted. The war seemed to be his chance to make right, and he experienced a great deal of success on the battlefield eventually earning the rank of Colonel of the 4th New York Regiment. Unfortunately, personal problems led to his resignation from the army, a disastrous marriage and eventually complete isolation from his family. Admission free, $5 donation suggested. More details… Brian Mack, brianm248420@hotmail.com, 518-774-5669
From the Twittersphere and Beyond
- Boston 1775: Shedding Light on the Lanterns Debate. There are two big reasons I think the late-1870s debate over whether sexton Robert Newman or vestryman John Pulling hung the lanterns in the Old North Church steeple on 18 Apr 1775 didn’t amount to much. The first is that the two family traditions which finally saw print in that decade weren’t really contradictory. Read more…
- Today in History: Lars D.H. Hedbor @LarsDHHedbor (see his page for associated photos):
- 20 Apr 1777 Future American general and French nobleman Marquis de Lafayette sails for America, disguised as a woman. The young Lafayette left a wife and life of wealth and luxury for the Glorious Cause of American liberty.
- 20 Apr 1777 New-York adopts a new constitution, incorporating the Declaration of Independence and a strong Governor.
- 20 Apr 1776 Germany & Britain arrange to have more troops sent from Germany to America, including 670 infantrymen.
- Apr. 19, 1783 Washington brings the happy news of the end of hostilities to his troops.
- 19 April 1775 More timely historical signage – part of the wreckage the British regulars left here
- 19 Apr 1775 From Lexington, Massachusetts, British retreat under fire to Concord–the “shot heard around the world.”
- 18 Apr 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren dispatches Paul Revere and William Dawes to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams and the countryside to Concord that the British regulars are on the move. Revere crosses the Charles River to Charlestown. Dawes rides through Boston Neck.
- 18 Apr 1776 The Isabella, carrying British troops, is met by American militiamen at Cape Fear, North-Carolina.
- 17 Apr 1783 British Capt. James Colbert launches attack on Spanish Fort Carlos in Arkansas, unaware war was over.
- 16 Apr 1776 John Hancock writes the Maryland Council of Safety advising them to seize Royal Governor Robert Eden.
- 15 Apr 1783 Congress ratifies peace treaty with Britain, formally ending hostilities.
- Townsends
- Burn Down the Fort! A Story from a Forgotten War
- Smoked Bison: Meat Preservation by Smoking – The American Frontier
- Pale green shoes like a cool walk in the shade ‘An Agreeable Tyrant’ Late 18thc.
- A 1770s Dress Worn by One of the “Visitors to Versailles”. Last week I previewed a major new exhibition called Visitors at Versailles, 1682-1789, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through July 29, 2018. Created in partnership with the Château de Versailles along with loans from many other institutions, the exhibition brings together nearly two hundred paintings, drawings, tapestries, porcelains sculptures, furnishings, books, and costumes (and even a sedan chair) to recreate the era when the palace of Versailles and its gardens truly were the center not only of the France, but also the world of fashion, diplomacy, and sophistication. Read more…
- Congratulations to Angela and Peter Johnson. The Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration will be holding an award ceremony to recognize 150 Belleville residents with an Ontario Volunteer Service Award.
- George Washington had a library of roughly 900 volumes which were inventoried shortly after his death, but were scattered soon afterwards. Read more about what has ensued…
- How to be a 21st Century Colonial Bostonian. Have you ever wanted to experience a day in the life of an 18th-century Bostonian? We’ve got you covered! Read on to discover how you can spend the day in Boston living like a colonial American in the 21st century. The Old North Church
- Worcester mugs with lilac transfer-print portraits of King George III and Queen Charlotte, c1761 (Gardiner Museum)
- 18th Century quilted caraco & petticoat, 1770’s, via Musée Galliera
- Fabulous 18th Century men’s French court suit, 1780’s
- 18th Century dress, rear view of Robe a la Polonaise, 1780
- William and Joseph Cozzens House, Newport, Rhode Island, built circa 1760 by a hatter-wigmaker brotherly duo and reputed to be the first American duplex