Loyalist Trails Newsletter 2021-04 (January 24, 2021)

In this issue:

  • The Loyalist Postmaster of Newport, Rhode Island, Part Three of Four by Stephen Davidson
  • JAR: The Most Unlucky Man: Patrick Ferguson’s Early Years
  • JAR: Thou Shalt Not Steal: Plunder, Theft, and Sticky Fingers
  • Contested Elections – in New Brunswick!
  • History of the Old South Meeting House in Boston
  • The Loyalists of Massachusetts And the Other Side of the American Revolution
  • Francis Philip Fatio and New Switzerland: The Williams History
  • Ontario Heritage trust: Getting ready for Black History Month
  • Ben Franklin’s World: Jamaica Ladies: Female Slaveholding in Jamaica
  • Borealia: A Summer Paddle on a Popular Stream: A Review of Canoe and Canvas
  • Jamestown-Yoktown Museum: English Womens’ Clothing
  • Events:
    • Sir Guy Carleton Branch: Genealogy Workshop – The Loyalist Certificate Application Process
    • Fort Ticonderoga presents a Virtual Living History Event on January 30, 2021
    • Meeting by the Gov. Simcoe Branch, Wed. Feb. 3 at 7:30 – 9:00″How Canada Has Grown, and Provincial Government Houses”
    • Palatines to America: Spring German Genealogy Seminar on 13 March
  • Additions to the Loyalist Directory
  • From the Twittersphere and Beyond
  • Last Post: BUTTON UE, Betty Marie Genevieve
  • Last Post: FINK UE, Ronald Mernon
  • Last Post – GOMME UE, Maurice Albert (1929 –2021) Memories To Cherish

 

 

Connect with us:

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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UELAC

The Loyalist Postmaster of Newport, Rhode Island, Part Three of Four
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Ever the repository for small details, Thomas Vernon’s diary noted the days when he shaved, cleaned his shoes, bathed, and changed his shirts while the Loyalist was under house arrest in Glocester, Rhode Island. Initially, Mrs. Keach was responsible for cleaning the Loyalists’ “foul linen”, but in early August, Vernon noted that he and his three companions had their linens done in a nearby community. “The people are poor, with many children, and the woman is thankful for this job.” Later he would write that after collecting their clean linens, “The washerwoman roasted us some ears of corn, for which we paid her.”
Compared to the abuses other Loyalists of the era suffered while imprisoned, Vernon and his companions were incredibly fortunate. Their greatest torment was boredom. In July, Vernon wrote, “We lament greatly the want of books to amuse us, which we have neglected.” A month later he complained, “We tarried in the house till between five and six o’clock, and very dull it is to me, not having heard from home this ten days. Besides we have neither books nor company to divert our minds, which renders this life the more disagreeable.”
While books were read as entertainment, letters from home kept Vernon and his companions in touch with their families. Within about three weeks of their incarceration on the Keach farm, the Loyalists received a “packet of letters” from their families that the men had “long wished for”. The delay in receiving mail was no doubt due to the fact that it was passed from one traveller to another between the men’s homes in Newport and the Keaches’ farm in Glocester. Vernon himself made use of this informal postal system in early September when he had the local deputy sheriff take a letter to his wife as he made a journey through the colony.
Letters were also important in securing the Loyalists’ release. Even though their first letter to a government official written on July 10th was unsealed, their “landlord”, Stephen Keach, “absolutely refused taking it”. Within a week, Keach changed his tune and agreed to deliver three letters to officials in the General Assembly when he went on an errand to Providence. He returned with a reply letter that offered the Loyalists “no encouragement for our release”.
Vernon and his companions had been on the Keach farm for about a month when the farmer shared some disturbing news with them. “After supper our landlord informed us that the town was very uneasy at our stay here, and expressed his desire of our being removed to some other house, for it was no longer convenient for his family to entertain us, and that he must think of some method for our removal.” Clearly the local population did not like having Loyalist traitors in their midst.
A relative of one of Vernon’s companions visited the Keach farm one morning in early August. On his journey from Providence, someone who claimed to be a deputy had stopped him. After searching the traveller, the deputy opened and read letters that had been written to the incarcerated Loyalists by their wives, and then confiscated another letter. Undeterred by being searched, the relative left the Keach farm later that day with a letter from the Loyalists to be delivered to Rhode Island’s governor.
Finally, a decision was made by August 27th. “After eight o’clock our landlord came into our room and informed us that he had seen the Deputies of this town, and that they told him that the General Assembly had ordered the Sheriff to remove us to some other house in Glocester, and that we were to pay the charge of our board, etc., and that if we paid his demands, it would prevent our estate from being attached for that purpose. … Besides, that we had not had provisions provided since we had been at his house, which were fitting and proper for us, and that if we had not received frequent supplies from Newport we should have well nigh starved. He being conscious of the truth of this assertion made us no reply, but went out of the room.”
However, nothing happened right away, but wheels were slowly turning. On September 3rd, Benjamin Smith, Glocester’s deputy sheriff, left for the colony’s capital on a mission to have the Loyalists removed from the Keach farm. Everyone involved believed that things were finally going to be resolved. For Vernon and his colleagues, there was the hope of returning to Newport. For the Keach family, there was the hope that they would no longer have to board their unpopular Loyalist guests.
This rising sense of anticipation was evident in the way that the five Loyalists were treated. In the last weeks of August, Vernon’s diary had noted how the Keach family had had a “great coolness and indifference” toward their “guests”. Now, in early September, that frosty attitude began to thaw. Vernon noted, “The women are cheerful and good natured, I suppose with the hope of our leaving them soon.”
September fifth’s diary entry said, “The family are determined that we shall part good friends, which is our hearty wish, having done everything to promote a good harmony in our power.”
On the following day, Vernon’s wife Mary and her father made a surprise visit to the Keach farm. It seems that Mrs. Vernon also expected that her husband would soon be returning to Newport. “You may rest assured they were very welcome visitors. We got them dinner, and made some punch with limes, which they brought with them. They also brought us some refreshments. We had a dish of tea, and you may suppose a good deal of chat with respect to our friends at Newport.”
That same evening, the deputy sheriff returned from Providence with news that the Lower House of Assembly had rejected the four Loyalists’ request to return to Newport by just a handful of votes. The assembly ordered Benjamin Smith “to procure suitable and convenient places within the town of Glocester for Richard Beale, Thomas Vernon and John Nicoll, and that he immediately remove them to such places accordingly.”
However, the deputy said “it was not in his power to provide other quarters for the gentlemen on account of the indisposition of the people to take them.” It seemed that the incarceration of Vernon and his three companions was a bit of a political hot potato. The deputy received no fresh instructions, and the governor could not advise Smith on what should be done with the Loyalists.
At this point, Vernon and his fellow prisoners took matters into their own hands. On Saturday, September 7th, they packed up their clothes with the intention of walking to Newport to have their situation resolved. Ever the one for precise details, Vernon noted that it was 35 minutes after 9 when “we took our leave of the family”. No one, including the deputy sheriff, made any attempt to stop them. After making their farewells to the Keaches, Thomas Vernon, his three companions, his father-in-law and his wife walked for five miles before sitting down to talk. After a “parley”, they decided to part ways; three of their number headed for Providence while Vernon, Richard Beale and John Nicoll would proceed to Newport.
This story of a Rhode Island Loyalist concludes in next week’s Loyalist Trails.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

JAR: The Most Unlucky Man: Patrick Ferguson’s Early Years
by Andrew Waters 19 January 2021
Into a house at 333 High Street in what is now Edinburgh’s “Old Town” was born the strange adventurer Patrick Ferguson on June 4, 1744. The city in that year was still medieval in appearance, its skyline dominated by Edinburgh Castle atop an ancient volcanic bluff. From there, shops and residences cascaded down High Street along the ancient slope’s crest to the city’s eastern end at Holyrood Palace, built as a royal residence to Scotland’s kings and queens in the sixteenth century, by then claimed for England’s royal family.
Defending this tail of land were ancient walls and gates, along with the man-made Nor Loch to the north and marshland to the south, creating a city contained by her landscape, not unlike Manhattan or Hong Kong. High Street itself was described by the writer Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, as the “most spacious, the longest, and best inhabited Street in Europe.”
…Patrick Ferguson must’ve listened to these arguments as a boy, and later a young man, though his fate was to be a solider, not a philosopher. The second-born male, Patrick would not inherit the family estate, and thus his family early set about finding him a profession. In this, his mother’s brother, James Murray, was an important influence. In 1756, Murray was a lieutenant-colonel in the British army, and Patrick’s family purchased for the twelve-year-old boy an ensigncy in his uncle’s regiment, the 15th Foot.
Though at that time it was not uncommon for a boy as young as twelve to enter the army, the conflict known as the Seven Years’ War (or the French and Indian War, as it was known in America) was brewing, and Patrick was deemed too young for combat. That commission was resigned, its cost refunded, but in 1759 another commission as cornet was purchased for the then fifteen-year-old Patrick Ferguson in the Royal North British Dragoons, known as the “Scots Greys.”
But first his uncle James, now a brigadier general commanding British forces in Quebec following the death of General James Wolfe, arranged for young Patrick to attend the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, in south-east London. At Woolwich, the curriculum focused on engineering and artillery; he also studied fencing, drawing, model-making, French, and mathematics.
…Many of Ferguson’s biographers skim over the next six years of his life. His biography in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography notes only, “after one campaign in Germany he was struck down in sickness which kept him from service between 1762 and 1768,” as does the biographical sketch composed by Adam Ferguson.
…In December 1768, the newly commissioned Capt. Patrick Ferguson sailed for Grenada with his new company.
In Grenada, Patrick was stationed at Fort Royal, present-day St. George’s, though he was soon reassigned to Tobago. Johnstone now owned a plantation in Grenada which had proved a profitable venture, and in Tobago, Patrick followed suit, acquiring an estate on behalf of his family in Castara. There were two slave insurrections in Tobago during Patrick’s posting there, though there is no correspondence to suggest Patrick saw any action in them. By 1771, he was ill again, probably a flareup of his tuberculous arthritis, and by the fall of 1772 Patrick was headed home, again a semi-invalid, again his military career in disarray.
…By 1773, he was back in London, helping the 70th Foot recruit and once more seeking meaningful deployment in the British Army. His opportunity would come, though not for three years. As usual, he would spend the interim obsessed over issues of rank and status, even as his health remained fragile. But his mind was sharp and invigorated, and in Scottish Enlightenment fashion, it was to it he would turn to craft the greatest opportunity of his troubled career in the form of the Ferguson Rifle. Read more…
[Editor’s note: This is interesting as much for the evolution of Edinburgh and Scotland in the mid-18th century as for Patrick’s history]

JAR: Thou Shalt Not Steal: Plunder, Theft, and Sticky Fingers
by Joshua Shepherd 21 January
“The cunning man steals a horse, the wise man lets him alone.”
It had been less than three months since Congress had adopted a Declaration of Independence, but George Washington was already warning that the Articles of War governing the behavior of troops was in desperate need of an update, “otherwise the Army, but for the name, might as well be disbanded.”
In a lengthy letter to the president of congress, John Hancock, Washington bemoaned the collapsing state of discipline in the Continental Army. Much of the difficulty stemmed from Congress’s well-meaning attempt at altruism. When the Second Continental Congress initially adopted the Articles of War in June 1775, legislators had endeavored to establish humane limits on punishment. In an age when some armies punished malefactors with 500 or even 1,000 lashes, Congress limited the number of lashes that could be administered to thirty-nine.
Washington, however, found that inconsistent administration of punishments only encouraged further lawless behavior. Washington informed Hancock that “For the most atrocious offences (one or two Instances only excepted) a Man receives no more than 39 Lashes, and these perhaps (thro the collusion of the Officer who is to see it inflicted) are given in such a manner as to become rather a matter of sport than punishment.”
In particular, Washington was dealing with mounting incidents of, as he likened it, “the infamous practice of Plundering.” Read more… [with examples of plundering, and punishment]

Contested Elections – in New Brunswick!
CBC Listen: Shift – NB with Vanessa Vander Valk
New Brunswick’s first election in 1785 was contested in the Saint John area, and overturned in the end. We hear that story from Fred Farrell at the provincial archives. Listen in…
Suggested by Mark Gallop

History of the Old South Meeting House in Boston
At Revolutionary Spaces
Built in 1729 as the largest building in colonial Boston, Old South Meeting House has been an important gathering place for nearly three centuries. The Puritan congregation built their first wooden meeting house on this site in 1669 as the “Third Church” in Boston. When overcrowding became a problem, they replaced it in 1729 with the beautiful spacious brick meeting house that still stands today.
Standing in the centre of town, the Old South Meeting House was colonial Boston’s largest building and was used for public gatherings as well as for worship. In Boston, meetings too large for Boston’s town hall, Faneuil Hall, were held at Old South Meeting House because of its great size and central location. It was a prominent building with a bell and an enormous 1768 tower clock that is still working today. The Old South Meeting House clock is the nation’s oldest American-made tower clock still operating in its original location.
The congregation that built the brick Old South Meeting House in 1729 was descended from the Puritans who founded Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 17th century.
What events were centred around this meeting house? Read more…

The Loyalists of Massachusetts And the Other Side of the American Revolution
By James H. Stark
Publisher: W. B. Clarke Co., Boston in 1907
Available through the Project Gutenberg
“History makes men wise.”—Bacon.
Chapter VIII: The Expulsion of the Loyalists and the Settlement of Canada
The Huguenots and the proscribed of the French Revolution found sanctuary as welcome guests in England and the English colonies.
The Moors were well treated when banished from Spain; the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was civil death to all Huguenots; the Americans made the treaty of peace of 1783 worse than civil death to all Loyalists.
The Americans, at the inception and birth of their republic, violated every precept of Christianity and of a boasted civilization, even to confiscating the estates of helpless women. For all time it is to be a part of American history that the last decade of the eighteenth century saw the most cruel and vindictive acts of spoliation recorded in modern history.
At the treaty of peace, 1783, the banishment and extermination of the Loyalists was a foregone conclusion. The bitterest words ever uttered by Washington were in reference to them: “He could see nothing better for them than to recommend suicide.” Neither Congress nor state governments made any recommendation that humane treatment should be meted out to these Loyalists. John Adams had written from Amsterdam that he would “have hanged his own brother had he taken part against him.”
At the close of the war the mob were allowed to commit any outrage or atrocity, while the authorities in each state remained apparently indifferent. An example of Loyalist ill-treatment is to be found in a letter written October 22, 1783, to a Boston friend, and preserved in New York City manual, 1870:— Read more…
Suggested by Coralee Testar UE

Francis Philip Fatio and New Switzerland: The Williams History
By Philip Eschbach
Francis Philip Fatio was born in Vevey, Switzerland in 1724 to a prominent family. He studied law but decided to join Swiss troops fighting in Sardinia against the French. He was made a Sardinian Viscount for his efforts. In 1748, while living in Nice, he married Marie Crispell, a Sardinian. He bought property there and grew citrus. They moved to Geneva in 1756 and lived there five years before they left for London where they spent the next ten years. There he joined his brother as a partner in a merchant business that invested in plantations in East Florida in 1769.
In 1771, along with his wife and five children, Fatio, now a citizen, moved to British Florida to manage the company’s investments in the indigo plantations along the St. Johns River. When Fatio had first arrived in St. Augustine his boat ran aground on the bar outside the inlet. The boat carried not only his family but also plenty of old-world furniture, silver, china, excellent wine and a great many books. He built his house showcasing a library that was considered the best in Florida, if not the whole south. It included many first edition works by famous authors. By 1774 he had developed a 10,000-acre tract of land, naming it New Switzerland, with a large plantation house costing £800.
It was in 1774 that the naturalist William Bartram visited Fatio on his plantation. Bartram wrote, “This very civil gentleman showed me his improvements. His Garden is very neat & contains a greater variety than any other in the Coliny. He has a variety of European Grapes imported from the Streight, Olives, Figs, Pomegranates, Filberts, Oranges, Lemons, a variety of garden flowers, from Europe &c. We dined with him, then continued up the River…”.
Fatio was a loyalist during the revolution and officially stationed in Charleston, but when the war ended, he decided to remain in Florida and become a Spanish citizen. At that point he bought out his partners, making him the sole owner of New Switzerland. He built a carriage house, a warehouse, workshops, and a hospital, as well as quarters for his slaves, totaling as many as eighty-six. He began to grow corn, citrus, cotton, hogs, cattle, and sheep.
Fatio had gained such respect from the Spanish that he was appointed a judge to mediate claims by the departing English and the entering Spanish at the exchange of the status of Florida from British back to Spanish. Spanish Governor Vincente Zespedes wrote of him, “Since the beginning of His Majesty’s rule he has exerted himself enthusiastically in the Spanish interest, not only by words but by deeds, supplying the ordinary rations to the detachments stationed on the bank of the St. Johns River, to say nothing of other effects of benefit to the royal service made necessary by the lack of money with which to procure them. He, as well as his son, Louis, continue to carry out to my satisfaction the commission which I entrusted to them of exercising primary jurisdiction in quarrels originating among British subjects”. He was fluent in at least five languages and often served as translator for official business between the nationalities.
Fatio died in St. Augustine in 1811. The house on the St. Johns River and its contents were all lost when the plantation was burned during the Patriot War of 1812-1814. His heirs rebuilt the home, but this structure was burned by the Indians during the Second Seminole Indian War of 1835. This was the end of New Switzerland. Fatio also once owned Blue Springs, now a state park. His son Louis became the British Consul in New Orleans and his other children moved to St. Augustine. Their town house survives today as a museum, the Ximenez-Fatio House, and is open to the public.
ENDNOTES

  • Wikipedia, Francis Philip Fatio
  • “Travels in Georgia and Florida, 1773-74: A Report to Dr. John Fothergill.” William Bartram, American Philosophical Society. From Transactions. Philadelphia, 1943.
  • “East Florida Papers,” Reel 16, archives at Smathers Library.

Ontario Heritage trust: Getting ready for Black History Month
Through its museum sites, web resources, publications and Provincial Plaque Program, the Ontario Heritage Trust shares the stories of Ontario’s Black communities. Here are just a few:
Resources:

Heritage Matters magazine articles:

Provincial plaques:

Ben Franklin’s World: Jamaica Ladies: Female Slaveholding in Jamaica
Christine Walker, an Assistant Professor of History at the Yale-NUS College in Singapore and the author of the award-winning book, Jamaica Ladies: Female Slaveholders and the Creation of Britain’s Atlantic Empire, leads us on an investigation of female slave holdership in 17th and 18th-century Jamaica.
During our investigation, Christine reveals how England came to possess and colonize Jamaica; Why the voices and lives of women and people of color must be uncovered and recovered to understand how the British Atlantic Empire came to be; And, information about the lives and deeds of Jamaica’s female slaveholders. Listen in…

Borealia: A Summer Paddle on a Popular Stream: A Review of Canoe and Canvas
Reviewer: Dale Barbour
Jessica Dunkin, Canoe and Canvas: Life at the Encampments of the American Canoe Association, 1880-1910. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019.
Canadians are drawn to the canoe. While it leaves barely a ripple in the historiography of nation building, colonialism, and leisure in other countries, Canadian historians have dug deep into the role of the canoe as a technology for travel and trade and as a symbol of nationhood. We can even see how that historiography has evolved over time. Early Canadian economic historians tracked the canoe’s role as a practical tool for nation building during the fur trade era, with trade routes framing the boundaries of what would become Canada. Nationalist and public historians celebrated the as an icon of Canadian identity during the late twentieth century. Over the past 20 years the appraisal of the canoe has become more critical: a new generation of historians have turned on the celebratory renderings of the Canoe and argued that it represents an Indigenous technology that has been co-opted to serve as a tool of colonialism. This appropriation occurred directly in the fur trade but also symbolically with settlers using the canoe to imagine relationship with the North American environment. As Misao Dean suggests, “the canoe allows Canadians like me to construct an identity in which subjectivity and nationality form a seamless whole.”[1] To paddle is to be Canadian. Finally, and perhaps bringing us full circle, historians—and Bruce Erickson and Sarah Wylie Krotz’s edited collection The Politics of the Canoe is a great example—have partnered with First Nations to study how the canoe is being reclaimed by Indigenous people as a tool to strengthen and fortify their communities.
So, like someone setting out for a summer paddle on a popular stream, Jessica Dunkin’s new book Canoe and Canvas: Life at the Encampments of the American Canoe Association, 1880-1910 is entering crowded waters and needs to find its lane. Read more…

Jamestown-Yorktown Museum: English Womens’ Clothing
Getting Dressed: Clothing for a 17th Century English Woman at Jamestown
Check out our new video about seventeenth century English womens’ clothing! Join Samantha as she shows us the layers that went into getting dressed during the seventeenth century as a woman in Jamestown. From shift to cap, learn the purpose and name for each article of clothing. How much would this have changed by the Rev. War?

Events:

Meeting by Sir Guy Carleton Branch: Genealogy Workshop – The Loyalist Certificate Application Process
Saturday, 30 January 2021, 2:00 to 4:00 pm
Given by Angela and Peter Johnson, UELAC Dominion Genealogists
The presentation will be by Zoom.
The link will automatically be sent to current members of the Sir Guy Carleton Branch, UELAC.
Visitors are welcome. You must register before Friday, 22 January at the Branch e-mail <carletonuel@hotmail.com>.

Fort Ticonderoga presents a Virtual Living History Event on January 30, 2021
All programs are FREE, featured on Facebook at the listed times (See news):
11:00 am — Timber!
In the fall and winter of 1759, the British Army worked to rebuild Fort Ticonderoga. Watch each swing of the axe and each pass of the saw as New England soldiers gather the needed timber to rebuild the fort.
1:00 pm — The Long Haul with Oxen
Witness the power of oxen! See Red Devon Oxen, a common 18th century New England breed, in action as they haul logs from the woods just like in 1759.
2:00 pm — Hewing Beams
Watch as provincial soldiers snap a line and carefully cut with their axes to hew round logs into usable square beams.
3:00 pm — Framing British Ticonderoga
In 1759, skilled carpenters among provincial soldiers carefully cut joints to connect hewn timber into the frames of new buildings. Watch as we peg in-place mortise and tenon joints, creating a timber frame.
4:00 pm — “A road to be marked and cut…may be come known to and frequented by the people of New England”
General Jeffrey Amherst agreed to let New England provincial soldiers return home at the end of 1759 on the condition that they built a road to get there. Discover how this military road over the Green Mountains set the stage for Vermont, the Revolutionary War in the Champlain Valley, and remains a part of our geography today.

Meeting by the Gov. Simcoe Branch, Wed. Feb. 3 at 7:30 – 9:00
“How Canada Has Grown, and Provincial Government Houses”
By Garry Toffoli
While it may be assumed that each Canadian province came into Confederation in the same manner, that was not in fact the case. This illustrated presentation describes the geographical growth of Canada and explains the various criteria and procedures followed in the addition of provinces as a result.
It concludes with a look at the vice regal residences and offices in each province and describes the new procedure for any future provinces.
Registration is required to obtain a link to join. Register here. The link will be returned by an email from Insurance-Canada.ca

Palatines to America: Spring German Genealogy Seminar on 13 March
Registration required, fee
The Ohio Chapter of Palatines to America announces its Spring German Genealogy Seminar. We are honored to present Daniel Jones, presenting four sessions on Saturday, March 13, 2021. Registration is now open at https://oh-palam.org/registernow.php. Click here to download a flyer including information about the sessions.

Additions to the Loyalist Directory
As time permits, we add information to the Loyalist Directory. The latest additions and updates are as follows:

  • James Anderson from Fell’s Point, Baltimore, Maryland was a Loyalist Privateer who later settled at Chester NS after the war. Information provided by Andrew Payzant.
  • John Apps from New York served in the Royal Fencible American Regiment and received land at both Wheatley River, Queens County, Prince Edward Island and land grant at Fox Harbour, Remsheg, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. Submitted by Kevin Wisener.
  • George Burns born in the UK, served atthe Siege of Louisburgh in 1758, settled in Salem Massachusetts, served as Captain, Royal American Fencible Regiment of Foot during the American War of Independence, settled at Remsheg, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia and and later in PEI, died 21 Aug 1801, Dublin, Ireland, information provided by Kevin Wizener
  • Jonathan Jones from New Jersey, served as a Captain in Col. Jessup’s Kings Loyal Americans, and participated in Burgoyne’s ill-fated campaign in 1777 where he was wounded in battle, and that afterwards he was active in the defense and fortification of Quebec in Col. Jessup’s Loyal Rangers, settled at Baddeck, Cape Breton. Information supplemented by Andrew Payzant
  • Angus MacDonald, VII of Tulloch, Chieftan of Clan Donald was serving in the Second Battalion, Royal Highland Emigrants, in 1779; submitted from branch records by Jo Ann Tuskin
  • Dr James Stuart from Stamford, New York served in the KRRNY Johnson’s Company and settled in Wales, Osnabruck Township, today in eastern Ontario. This submission by Elizabeth Stuart

Please help us build the directory by contributing more information for it. Contact loyalist.trails@uelac.org for instructions and guidance.

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

Last Post: BUTTON UE, Betty Marie Genevieve
Betty’s family announces her passing on January 13, 2021, at the Loch Lomond Villa – Birch House. Born on May 16, 1933, in Saint John, NB, she was a daughter of the late George and Emily (Johnston) Pitt.
Betty spent her early childhood years in Woodstock, NB where she attended elementary school. Her family moved to Fairvale, NB in 1950 where she attended Rothesay High School but unfortunately had to leave while in grade 10 due to her father’s illness. She was able to secure a job with the Rothesay Exchange of NB Tel as a switchboard operator, later moving to the Saint John office. After leaving NB Tel, Betty went to work for the Saint John Board of School Trustees as a receptionist and switchboard operator. She also attended Community College, taking courses in Human Development. She secured a position with the Saint John School Board as a Teacher’s Aid and also worked as a Counselor for Social Services.
Betty was very active as a volunteer with numerous organizations, a member of the NB Loyalist Association where she served as Newsletter Editor. She loved to knit, crochet and was a seamstress. She made many of her own clothes as well as for her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Betty took great pride in her heritage, with 20 of her ancestors arriving with the Loyalists in 1783.
Betty will be lovingly remembered by her husband of 66 years, Albert ; children, Susan Thompson (Gunar), Heather Button, Valerie Janes (the late Walter), Gary Button (Connie), Carolyn Button, Tammy Button and David Button (Laura); sister, Carolyn James; 13 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; as well as several nieces and nephews.
In addition to her parents, Betty was predeceased by her sisters, Delores Pitt and June Stairs and her brother, Gordon Pitt.
Resting at Brenan’s Funeral Home – www.BrenansFH.com. – Interment will take place in Fernhill Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, and for those who wish, remembrances in Betty’s name can be made to the Loch Lomond Villa Foundation or the Northside Assembly Building Fund.
Betty’s husband Albert was the Genealogist for New Brunswick Branch, UELAC for some time. Betty received a Loyalist Certificate to Martin Anstin, William Burnett, James Clark, William Cox, Stephen Crabb, John Crabb Sr, Francis Dommick, Abraham Elston, Henry Erb, Thomas Ganong, Samuel Grant, Capt. Joseph Hoyt Jr, Francis Noble, David Oram, James Oram, William Pitt and Hezekiah Scriber.
Angela Donovan, New Brunswick Branch Genealogist

Last Post: FINK UE, Ronald Mernon
January 18, 1947 – January 20, 2021
Peacefully at Brantford General Hospital on January 20, 2021 in his 75th year. Beloved husband of Heather (nee Harris) for 10 years. He is survived by his sisters Ellen Tree (Gerald) and Mary Goddard (George Mills) and his brothers Jim (Mary) and John (Janice). Many nieces and nephews and other relatives. Ronald is predeceased by his parents James E & L Gertrude (Culver) Fink.
Ronald operated the family farm where he was raised, prior to moving to Brantford. He worked for many years at Brantford Lawn and Garden until Parkinson’s forced him to retire. Ronald graduated from the University of Guelph in 1969 with a BA in Economics and from the University of Windsor in 1971 with an Honors Business Administration degree.
He attended the Scotland Baptist Church where he sang in the choir for many years and recently has been attending the Salvation Army Brantford Community Church. Ron was a student of history and was a member of the United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada and the Ontario Genealogy Society. He served as President of the Grand River branch of the UELAC.
Aa time of Remembrance will be held at a later date with internment of ashes at Vanessa Cemetery. Donations in Ronald’s memory may be made to the UELAC Memorial Fund or a charity of your choice. Keith Ovington 519-449-1112 www.keithovington.ca
Ron was been an amazing resource in developing by-laws both at the Dominion level and for the Grand River Branch. He was always very astute and well informed. A wonderful support to our executive and particularly new incoming Presidents. Beloved brother of Ellen Tree UE. , Grand River Treasurer and Membership Chair and wife Heather. He will be very much missed. Don proved his descent from Timothy Culver Sr.,
Bev Balch UE, President, Grand River UELAC
Ellen Tree UE, Grand River Branch

Last Post: GOMME UE, Maurice Albert (1929 –2021) Memories To Cherish
Col. John Butler (Niagara) Branch members are saddened to report the passing of Maurice Albert Gomme UE. Maurice was the current Auditor for the Branch and had served as Auditor for many years. His Loyalist ancestor was Jeremiah Anderson, who served in Delancy’s Brigade and also as a Midshipman. Jeremiah settled first in Gagetown, later the family moved to the Talbot settlement around St. Thomas.
Maurice worked in various capacities for Canada Trust for over thirty-eight years retiring in 1987. For many years he was a member of the Rotary Club of St. Catharines and three times a recipient of the Paul Harris award. Maurice was a Past President of the St. Catharines Chamber of Commerce and of Pathstone Mental Health from which he received the Hope Award. He was also a former Warden of St. Thomas’ Anglican Church. He was the author of a book “The Street Names of St. Catharines“.
Survived by his wife Marilyn, and sons Paul (Tatyana) and Andrew (Anne) and grandchildren, Kaitlyn, Morgan, Oscar and Troy. Maurice is survived by his brother Russell and is predeceased by his twin sister, Marion Argue of Belleville, his brother, Edwin Arthur, and sisters Ruth and Evelyn. Arrangements entrusted to Darte Funeral Home https://dartefuneralhome.com/tribute/details/7670/Maurice-Gomme/obituary.html
Submitted by Paul Preece UE.

Published by the UELAC
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