Loyalist Trails Newsletter 2021-09 (February 28, 2021)

In this issue:

  • The Many Legacies of Frederick William Hecht: Part Four by Stephen Davidson
  • What Slavery Looked Like in Canada
  • JAR: Such As Are Absolutely Free: Benjamin Thompson’s Black Dragoons
  • Washington’s Quill: Introducing Isaac and Kitty, Two Individuals Enslaved at Mount Vernon
  • Haldimand plans to take over historic cemetery in Canfield ON
  • JAR: Incredible Insults and Hardships: The Hostage Experience of Ebenezer Sullivan
  • Response to Query: What Impact did Loyalists have on the UK?
  • Saskatchewan Branch Book Project: “Loyalist Descendants in Saskatchewan”
  • Cliveden (Philadelphia) reconsiders Battle of Germantown reenactment
  • Kelly Arlene Grant: In Search of Online Content: Using social media to keep your site in the public thought
  • List of Loyalist Certificates Updated with those issued in January and February
  • Events
    • Fort Plain Museum: Celebrating George Washington’s Birthday
    • Gov. Simcoe Branch: AGM and Speakers Wed. 3 Mar at 7:30 pm
    • Toronto Branch: Cookbook: Loyalists at Table Wed. 10 Mar at 7:30
  • From the Twittersphere and Beyond
  • Last Post: RODGER: Marlene Elizabeth (née Taylor)

Connect with us:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/uelac
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UELAC

The Many Legacies of Frederick William Hecht: Part Four of Four
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Frederick Hecht’s life affected the course of three enslaved Blacks. He had purchased a man named Hector in Florida and then posted a reward for his capture when Hector ran away in 1784. Two years later, Hecht set free a 20 year-old man who had been his slave since birth. In 1797, Hecht tried to re-enslave a woman who had once been recognized as his property. In the case of Rachel Bross Fair, Hecht’s legacy to her was the traumatic memory of having to fight for her freedom in two courtroom battles.
Hecht, his wife, and daughter moved from Saint John, New Brunswick to Digby, Nova Scotia in late 1786. The Loyalist family may have brought Rachel Bross with them or they may have purchased her after arriving in Digby; the records only indicate that she had at one time been a slave of the Hechts.
Six years after the Hechts had settled in Digby, Bross married a Black Loyalist named Charles Fair. The couple settled in nearby Brindley Town, the second largest community of free Blacks in Atlantic Canada. By this point in time, Rachel had been granted her freedom by Fredrick Hecht and was hiring herself out as a household worker.
His motivation is unexplained, but what is known is that Hecht used his authority as the commissary of musters at the garrison in Annapolis Royal to have Rachel taken from her Brindley Town home and put in prison. There, she was charged with being a runaway slave. Having secured Mrs. Fair, Hecht then advertised that he would be selling her at an upcoming auction. Her husband Charles appealed to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax, insisting that Rachel had once been Hecht’s servant, but not his slave.
When the issue finally came to court in the summer of 1798, the chief justice did not feel that Hecht had much of a case, and let Rachel go free. Nevertheless, the judge felt that Rachel’s legal status –whether slave or free—should finally be resolved. Since being released from prison, Rachel had become an employee of a Mrs. Phoebe Moody. Hecht decided to use the courts to seek compensation from Moody for the financial benefits he would have garnered if Rachel had continued in his service. He charged Moody with harbouring his runaway slave and with procuring Rachel’s services as a wage earner.
In the end, this second attempt to reclaim Rachel Fair as a slave also failed. The jury believed the events as related by Moody and established that Rachel was a free woman. Having almost lost her freedom in Digby, Rachel and her husband moved to Halifax. If the emancipated slave ever learned of Frederick Hecht’s death in January of 1804, the news would no doubt have been received with relief and gratitude. Rachel Bross Fair would never need to fear being made a slave again.
While Hecht’s legacy in the life of this woman would be the memory of a frightening brush with re-enslavement, the Loyalist’s real estate legacy would fall into the hands of another woman who had once served in his home as a servant.
After their arrival in Digby, the Hechts were pleased to meet a Loyalist family by the name of Totten that had also fled New York at the end of the revolution. Having just emancipated a Black slave back in Saint John, the Hechts needed help maintaining their new home in Digby. Rather than buying a slave, they hired the Tottens’ 15 year-old daughter, Jane. Some documents of the era actually claim that she was adopted, but as will be seen, she was regarded as more of a ward or friend. There were at least four Loyalist Tottens who hailed from New York, but it seems most likely that William Totten was the father of the Hecht’s new housekeeper.
Jane Totten first appears in the documents of the era when she was mentioned in Frederick Hecht’s will of 1804, eighteen years after joining his household. The commissary general bequeathed all of his estate to the descendants of his daughter Anne, but outlined an alternate beneficiary if Anne had no children. “But in default of heirs begotten of the body of my said daughter Anne, then to my dear friend Jane Totten of Annapolis, in the county of Annapolis, her heirs and assigns forever.”
Following Hecht’s death, his daughter married Col. Isaac Hatfield, but she had died without any surviving children by the time Hatfield wrote his own will in 1821. (The couple had a child within a year of their marriage, but it had died while very young.) In his will, Col. Hatfield bequeathed all of his estate to his nephew, Isaac G. Hatfield.
The colonel’s beneficiary made the assumption that his uncle had a legal claim on the estate of Frederick Hecht. Since Col. Hatfield had survived his only child by Anne Hecht, he therefore (in the legal language of the day) “seized the estate as heir to his child”.
Isaac G. Hatfield, the colonel’s nephew argued that he –rather than Jane Totten– should therefore receive whatever estate Frederick Hecht had at his death. As it turned out, Hecht had not only owned land in Nova Scotia, but also had bought land in New York before the outbreak of the American Revolution. In the intervening half century, that land had come to be worth a million dollars.
It took the combined efforts of two judges in New York and two judges in Nova Scotia to decide who should inherit Frederick Hecht’s legacy. In the end, the statue of limitations was seen as “a conclusive bar” to Isaac Hatfield’s claim on the land in New York. As to whether Jane should inherit Hecht’s Nova Scotia estate, the American judges felt that was a matter for Nova Scotia’s judicial system to decide.
The trial to determine who should receive Hecht’s legacy was held in Digby and lasted several weeks. Local lore remembers that Isaac G. Hatfield was so certain of his success “that he feasted and banqueted his friends, and he even had the “champagne on ice” with which to treat the jury”‘ after the verdict had been given.” The champagne bottles were never opened. The court ruled that Jane Totten was the rightful heir of the Hecht estate.
Not willing to give up, Hatfield appealed to a higher court. During its re-examination of the evidence in Totten’s favour, the court discovered a codicil in Hecht’s will that said that all of his property should go to Annapolis Royal’s Trinity Anglican Church on the death of Jane Totten. The single woman suddenly had a powerful ally on her side, and representatives of the church exerted their influence to see that she would retain title to Hecht’s legacy — which she did.
Jane Totten never married. She died in Annapolis Royal at age of 90 on January 25, 1862. Fifty-eight years earlier, her employer and “dear friend” Frederick Hecht had bequeathed to her all of his worldly goods, forever changing the fortunes of a woman who was a housekeeper, an Anglican Sunday School teacher, and spinster.
During his long career, Frederick William Hecht had made an impact on a number of lives, most notably those of Sir Guy Carleton, the slave Hector, Thomas Knox, Edward Winslow, Joshua Moore, Mehetable Mowat, his daughter Anne, and Rachel Fair. However, in the end, his greatest legacy was the estate he bequeathed to a former servant girl, Jane Totten.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.


What Slavery Looked Like in Canada
By Tristin Hopper, 27 Feb 2021. The National Post
A generation before it was the final stop of the Underground Railroad, Canada was the westernmost outpost of a British Empire that was the biggest slave trader in the world.
They came in great, dusty columns trudging north; the persecuted refugees of a new country founded on freedom and liberty.
These were the United Empire Loyalists; the thousands of men, women and children loyal to the Crown who were forced into Canada by the victory of rebel forces in the American War of Independence. “Neither confiscation of their property, the pitiless persecution of their kinsmen in revolt, nor the galling chains of imprisonment could break their spirits,” reads a stirring monument to the loyalists in Hamilton, Ont.
And they brought their slaves with them.
When Canadian historians talk about Africans coming here after the American Revolution, they generally focus on the Black Loyalists; freed slaves escaped from American masters who were emancipated by the British and settled in Nova Scotia. But not every African brought to Canada after the Revolutionary War was free.
In the official Act of Parliament that welcomed white Loyalist refugees to British North America, they were permitted to bring along “any negroes” in their possession without paying duty to the Crown. As many as 2,500 Black slaves were brought to Nova Scotia, instantly making it the most slaveholding territory in both the Maritime colonies and New England. “During the late 18th century practically every county in mainland Nova Scotia had slaves, and this story remains to be told,” wrote historian Ken Donovan in 2014.
In historical accounts of North American chattel slavery, Canada usually appears only as an enlightened Eden. We were the final stop of the Underground Railroad, and the place that legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass called “the real Canaan of the American bondmen,” a reference to the biblical Promised Land.
But if Canada came off as the good guy during the United States’ great reckoning with slavery, it’s only because British North America had undergone its own nightmare of human bondage. Read more…

JAR: Such As Are Absolutely Free: Benjamin Thompson’s Black Dragoons
by Todd W. Braisted 23 February 2021
At the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, there is an exhibit in the core gallery examining the choices, opportunities and constraints of African Americans in Virginia in 1781. Titled “Sometimes, freedom wore a red coat” it seeks to educate people on the effect the British Army had on operating in areas where slavery flourished, and the role of these former slaves in Britain’s war effort. It is here where things can get murky—“joining the army” may not have meant what the phrase implies at face value.
At the very start of the war in America, the British recognized the need for locally-raised forces. American troops had been raised in the colonies for all previous conflicts fought there, and despite the nature of the newest war, the British felt confident that enough Americans remained loyal to bolster their ranks, at least until more troops could be raised in Europe. Troops raised by direction of the commander-in-chief of the Army in America, such as the Royal Highland Emigrants, would be known as Provincials. Regiments in the Provincial Establishment would receive arms, accoutrements, equipage, pay, clothing and provisions the same as British soldiers, be under the same discipline, serve for the duration of the war and be liable for service anywhere, although it was understood they would not leave North America.
Not all troops raised in America would fall under this establishment. The governors of the provinces, those who still held some power or control, could call out their militia or raise new corps on their own authority, paid for by whatever funds were available to them. In Halifax, Gov. Francis Legge raised the Nova Scotia Volunteers;[2] in Saint Augustine, Gov. Patrick Tonyn raised the East Florida Rangers;[3] and in Virginia, Gov. the Earl of Dunmore raised two corps: the Queen’s Own Loyal Virginia Regiment and the Ethiopian Regiment. The latter was unique among all these corps, being composed of all Black enlisted men, primarily escaped slaves. Read more…

Washington’s Quill: Introducing Isaac and Kitty, Two Individuals Enslaved at Mount Vernon
by Madeline Pannell, Student Worker 26 February 2021
Isaac and Kitty were a married couple who were enslaved at Mount Vernon. Unfortunately, as a result of being enslaved by the Washington and Custis families, there are not many records that document the lives of Isaac and Kitty. In reviewing and visualizing George Washington’s correspondence and financial papers, we can recover some information about them—from the family and community they cultivated to the independent labor they pursued.
Kitty was a dairymaid and spinner who labored at Mount Vernon’s Mansion House farm for most of her life.1 She arrived at Mount Vernon after the marriage of George and Martha Washington in 1759. As a dower slave, she was part of the one-third share of the Custis estate given to Martha upon the death of her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis. Kitty’s community thus included individuals who were owned by George Washington, and those who had been enslaved on the Custis plantations. Around 1773-74, a year after her first daughter was born, Kitty married Isaac.
Purchased in 1773 by George Washington from his cousin Robert Washington, Isaac was an essential laborer at Mount Vernon. He was also a head carpenter. His work included caring for hogs, managing the storehouse, and harvesting crops.3 In addition to these duties—which sometimes amounted to working for as many as 14 hours a day—Isaac found time to raise chickens and gather honey to sell to the Washington household for small amounts of money.
Though much of their time and labor were stolen from them, Kitty and Isaac built a large family and community. Read more…

Haldimand County Plans to Take Over Historic Cemetery in Canfield ON
The Hamilton Spectator 20 Feb 2021
It’s a dilapidated plot that’s been peacefully hiding the dead beneath the snow.
They’re long gone, but not forgotten: the privately owned Street-Barnes cemetery in Canfield holds an important piece of Black Canadian history, and Haldimand County has decided to preserve it.
“Things are well underway,” said general manager of public works operations, Phil Mete. “There’s a lot involved but a lot happening at the same time.”
…The first Black settlers arrived in Canfield in 1837 after risking their lives to escape slavery in the United States. Read more…
Added Comment: Cayuga, Ontario, Haldimand County is the home of the Barnes family. Lorne Barnes (who would be 120+) was a black man, raised in Cayuga and the great-nephew to Harriet Tubman. Barnes was the barber in Cayuga and was held out to the still-enslaved as an example of the success to be found by escaping to Canada. His parents relocated to Cayuga in the 1800’s, and this town is steeped with history, but no one (I don’t think) has ever taken the time to research what that family did for the black community and the underground railway. There are tunnels under the Grand River. At the time there were three rail lines that came through, from Buffalo and Michigan. One of the names in the cemetery is Barnes.
Pamela Thomas

JAR: Incredible Insults and Hardships: The Hostage Experience of Ebenezer Sullivan
by Mark R. Anderson 24 February 2021
When twenty-three-year-old Capt. Ebenezer Sullivan nobly volunteered himself as a prisoner-exchange hostage in the last weeks of the Canadian invasion, he had no way to foresee the devastating trials and tribulations that he would face as a result of his courageous decision. At the time, he was one of almost five hundred Continentals captured by Indians, British regulars, and Canadians on May 19 and 20, 1776, in and near Fort Cedars, west of Montreal. Sullivan was a proven leader, having already been a company commander for most of the war. He had just proven his mettle in battle too; when his battalion was ambushed and forced to capitulate in a failed attempt to relieve Fort Cedars, he “behaved with the utmost bravery,” and was reportedly “the last who surrendered to the Enemy.”
After a harrowing first couple days in captivity, subjected to relentless Indian pillaging and frequent death threats, Sullivan and the thirty other officer prisoners had been removed to reasonably safe and comfortable conditions in the British-allied Indian village of Canasadaga (Kanesatake), a Catholic mission community. Three days later, on May 26, a redcoat lieutenant delivered a draft prisoner-exchange cartel to the captured officers. Captain George Forster, the British commander, proposed that he and his Indian allies would immediately repatriate their hundreds of captives in exchange for an equal number of redcoat prisoners to be returned as soon as practical. The American officers, in no position to negotiate, all signed the tentative agreement, which required four Continental officers to remain in British hands as hostages to ensure that the Americans eventually fulfilled their cartel obligations. Sullivan and three other captains—Theodore Bliss, Ebenezer Green, and John Stevens—agreed to fill the hostage role.
That afternoon, the British lieutenant led Sullivan and his three companions on a short canoe trip that marked the beginning of their hostage odyssey. Read more…


Response to Query: What Impact did Loyalists have on the UK?
This query was published in Loyalist Trails 2021-08 (February 21, 2021).
Response to Query: the impact of Loyalist refugees on British history
I have been intrigued by the same question for many, many years. Since 2006, I have done my best to try to discover the impact that so many thousands of Americans must have had on British society, business, and religion. Every wave of refugees leaves its mark on the countries where it has “struck shore”, and Britain in the late 18th and early 19th century had to be the same.
I have researched about 30 articles on Loyalists who ended their days in Britain. I am pleased that some of these are now on file in the library at Westminster Abbey where they are used by some of London’s Blue Badge tourist guides. I could find individual stories, but I couldn’t find anything that gave a sense of the impact that they had as a group on the Mother Country. It definitely deserves some sort of academic attention. People should be writing PhD theses on this topic! It’s strikes me as being a topic that combines both sociology and history.
The following statement from a New York Loyalist underscores the point that there are untold stories out there. Speaking of American Loyalists in England, Judge Thomas Jones wrote the following in his book, History of New York During the Revolutionary War: “The number who went to Great Britain and Ireland, especially the former, was very great. There is scarcely a town of any size in England and Scotland, where many expatriated Loyalists were not found for thirty years after the peace, and where their tombstones cannot now be seen.”
But how can we find the stories (and the lasting impact) of thirty years of British history hiding within those graves? I’ve always felt that we need someone in Britain as a research assistant to ferret out this lost history. There must be resources in the UK (archives, newspapers, biographies) that would shed light on this topic.
I want to provide you with a few research crumbs, some “sign posts”, and some resources that might help you in this worthy herculean task that you have undertaken. Attached you will find 30 articles that I have written for Loyalist Trails over the past 15 years that have to do with Loyalists that settled in Britain after the American Revolution. The last two articles feature a woman from Boston who was the publisher of that city’s only Loyalist newspaper. (It will not appear in Loyalist Trails until April of this year.) She is just one of the many noteworthy Loyalists who made England her final home.
Another invaluable resource is the journal of a Massachusetts Loyalist who spent 9 years in exile in England. Although he eventually returned to the USA, his journal mentions a lot of Loyalists who relocated to Britain. The journal of Samuel Curwen is attached. It is my “working copy” so you will see things rendered in different coloured texts — a technique I employed to highlight aspects of the diary that I found especially interesting.
Finally, you should go to this link and download your own copy of The Royal Commission on the LOSSES AND SERVICES OF AMERICAN LOYALISTS 1783 TO 1785 <https://archive.org/details/lossesservicesloy00cokerich>
This collection contains transcripts of hundreds of Loyalists who sought compensation in England for their losses during the revolution. Some remained in England, and others returned to various parts of North America. It is an amazing resource.
There are so many aspects of Loyalist history that remain to be explored. Because I have an interest in Black Loyalist history, a question that haunts me is what happened to the free Blacks who accompanied the Hessian troops back to the German States following the American Revolution? How did Black men fit into German society of the late 18th century? But to even begin to answer those questions, I would need to understand German. And at my age, that is a task beyond my abilities.
Stephen Davidson
A call out to British readers of Loyalist Trails: your assistance would be especially appreciated. You might be able to tap some resources we can’t on this side of the pond. As I said to John, we really need some feet on the ground in England to discover the story of these “lost Loyalists”.

Saskatchewan Branch Book Project: “Loyalist Descendants in Saskatchewan”
The Saskatchewan Branch would like to announce that our book we started over ten years ago is finally going to print. It features a list of 110 Loyalists whose descendants lived or are living in Saskatchewan. With the help of many submissions and hours of research, we have traced the lineage of these Loyalist descendants from the actual Loyalist to people living , or have lived in the Province. Many of these families helped settle the Province and have been here since long before it was a province. They came from all parts of Canada with the promise of free land. Some stayed for a short time and moved on, but others came and their descendants are still here. Others are the first of their families to settle here but everyone contributed to make Saskatchewan what it is today.
“Loyalist Descendants in Saskatchewan” will be going to print in March 2021. It is 247 pages cover to cover. We do not have a firm price yet but it will be between $25 and $40. If you are interested and want more information, contact Gerry Adair UE at gerry.pat@sasktel.net

Cliveden (Philadelphia) reconsiders Battle of Germantown reenactment
Guns have blazed on the grounds of Cliveden for the past 45 years in the reenactment of the Battle of Germantown, but this year things may be different.
Cliveden held a virtual community meeting on Wed. Feb. 17 about updating the Revolutionary Germantown Festival, which the historic site hosts every October. The meeting presented findings from a year-long consideration of the battle reenactment from the perspectives of a variety of stakeholders in the light of rising city gun violence. Some of the key updates will be aimed at connecting the event more closely to the Mt. Airy and Germantown neighborhoods, and backing away from so many live muskets and cannons in the reenactment is among the possible changes. Read more… (Noted by Bonnie Schepers)

Kelly Arlene Grant: In Search of Online Content: Using social media to keep your site in the public thought
Let’s face it, for many of us in the heritage sector, gainful UNemployment is likely to be our future. Many of us are seeking out new ways to engage with history, but also keep abreast of life in the heritage sector. We are embracing social media like never before. Personally, I have an instagram account, this blog, a discord, twitch, youtube, linkedin, and two facebook accounts (personal and professional pages).
There could be more I could jump on to, but this is what I am feeling comfortable keeping updated on a regular basis. That’s important, keeping things updated. You need to be putting content on your pages. You need to stay in the public eye. Don’t be worrying if it’s perfect, just do the best you can right now with what you have at hand…which is likely a phone and your knowledge.
Sites could be doing this sort of thing as well, with very little staffing resources. If a few or even just one person knows that it’s their job to keep the social media updated, that could be their job going forward. A photo and brief blurb of an artifact, an upcoming lecture on Zoom, a pre-recorded bit of interpretation will all do wonders keeping your site in the public’s minds so that when things DO reopen, people will want to come spend money at your site and visit you in person. It doesn’t take much, but that presence should be on a regular basis.
Since we have gone into lockdown, I have attended lectures, workshops, conferences. I have watched living history demonstrations, and folks in their own homes showing me how they do things. These, coupled with photographic updates of artifacts and new art projects have given me a community of people to follow and want to contact in person once Covid is through.
As a few of my social media friends have mentioned in the past few days, it’s important to get out and be seen, to strike new paths for heritage, arts, and the humanities going forward. Join us! Just do it! Check Kelly’s blog.

List of Loyalist Certificates Updated with those issued in January and February
The list of UE Certificates issued since late in 2012 — showing the Loyalist ancestor, name of descendant (when permission is granted), branch and date — has been updated with the certificates issued in January and February of 2021.
The list is now on the new UELAC website https://uelac.ca/certificates/issued/ and the list which is also on the old site will be removed in the near future
Obviously with the Loyalist Directory currently locked down, these updates have not been applied to it.

Events:

Fort Plain Museum: Celebrating George Washington’s Birthday
Three events in three nights. Click for registration

  • Remembering George Washington: In Context – Monday, March 1, 2021 – 7:00 PM ET by James Kirby Martin Register
  • “The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret“: George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon – Tuesday, March 9, 2021 – 7:00 PM ET by Mary V. Thompson Register (Rescheduled)

Gov. Simcoe Branch: AGM and Speakers Wed. 3 Mar at 7:30 pm

The AGM has traditionally been quite short, less than 15 minutes. We will endeavour to do the same this year. It will be followed by three or four of our members and guests offering a vignette about something historical, a member of their Loyalist’s family, a descendant or something else entirely different.

  • Joyce Crook, a long-time member and nonagenarian will recall a certain aspect of her youth when growing up in what is now part of Toronto. She will describe a link to the Dieppe Raid of August 19, 1942, a trip and a commemoration in her local community.
  • Nancy Conn UE will speak about the early life of her Loyalist grandmother. Born in Rawdon Township, Hastings County in 1894, she graduated from College a century ago.
  • Beth Adams UE from Toronto Branch will talk about her 4 times great grandfather. Hear about his epic journey from his birth in New Jersey in 1777 to his death in Port Burwell, Ontario in 1853. He survived 2 wars and built up a successful business as captain of a schooner out of Digby, Nova Scotia, before walking away to follow his daughter and her family to the wilds of Upper Canada to start all over again.

Be sure to wear some historical or Loyalist item to show off at the meeting.
Email Doug Grant loyalist.trails@uelac.org for the link

Toronto Branch: Cookbook: Loyalists at Table by the Author Wed. 10 Mar at 7:30

Ever heard of Vinegar Pie, Spruce Beer or Moose Meat Salisbury? What about Hasty Puddings or Pocket Soup?
On Wednesday, March 10 at 7:30 pm we are pleased to present our second speaker of the year, Darlene Montgomery-Fawcett. Darlene is a member of St. Lawrence Branch UELAC and she and fellow member, Laurie McDonald, developed a cookbook, Loyalists at Table, a compilation of recipes from our ancestors’ time. She will discuss the history of food preparation around that time and talk about adapting and testing a variety of loyalist recipes including some Indigenous ones.
All are welcome. Meeting room opens at 7:15 p.m. For the meeting coordinates, please email Sally Gustin UE gustin.deboer@gmail.com

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

  • Reviewing old survey plan of Town of Digby from 1787 showing lands granted to Loyalists as prepare PowerPoint presentation for upcoming Zoom meeting on March 20th. Brian McConnell UE
  • This Week in History
    • 26 Feb 1770. A solemn occasion #OTD in 1770 as 1000s gather’d in Boston to Mark the tragic Death of Christopher Seider on the 22nd of this Month at the hands of the Despicable Ebenezer Richardson.
      • “A vast number of boys walked before the coffin, a vast number of women and men after it, and a number of carriages. The procession extended further than can be well imagined.” John Adams describes the funeral of 11yo Christopher Seider
    • 20 Feb 1776 Royal Gov. Dunmore offers to negotiate w/Parliament for Virginia; Committee of Safety chooses Congress.
    • 21 Feb 1776 Congress debates details of Continental currency to be issued to finance the war.
    • 22 Feb 1776 Congress demands that New-York explain what efforts had been made to raise troops for its own defense.
    • 26 Feb 1776 “We are making every necessary preparation for taking possession of Dorchester-Heights as soon as possible, with a view of drawing the enemy out.” George Washington.
      • J. L. Bell @Boston1775 “Note that Gen. Washington was not hoping to DRIVE the British out of Boston on their ships, but to DRAW them out into a battle that he hoped would be a second Bunker Hill. That didn’t happen, and he privately expressed disappointment.”
    • 26 Feb 1776 Spain orders West Indies fleet to observe and detain British merchant shipping to gather intelligence.
    • 23 Feb 1778 Prussian Gen. von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge to drill Continental Army into a professional force.
    • 25 Feb 1778 George Rogers Clark heads to Ft Sackville in present-day Indiana, ending British hold on Western frontier.
    • 23 Feb 1779 Congressional Peace Committee of Gouverneur Morris, Thomas Burke, John Witherspoon & Samuel Adams draws up terms for negotiation with Britain includes Boundaries, British evacuation, fishing rights, Navigation of Mississippi & Independence.
    • 24 Feb 1782 American forces, surprised by British attack, try retreat across Wambaw Bridge in SC; bridge collapses.
    • 26 Feb 1780 “The Bay has been froze so hard that people have walked, rode, and sledded, over it to Boston; it was froze across Nantasket Road, so that no vessel could come in or go out, for a month.” Abigail Adams
  • Clothing and Related:
    • Have been thinking about pudding caps for weeks and just cannot get them out of my head. They were protective helmets worn by 18th-century toddlers as they learned how to walk. I love the name and how silly they look on babies!!! Here for any and all pudding based content
    • 18th Century dress, pink silk, unusual front lace up overcoat with long front straps coming down from the collar, crossing over the bodice to hide the front lacing and wrapped and pinned to the rear of the dress, 1770-1780’s
    • 18th Century dress, Robe à la Française, with patterns composed of vases with leaves & flower motifs, & geometric figures woven with metal thread, c. 1750’s
    • 18th Century dress, an example of the transitional fashion between the more structured dresses & the more relaxed Empire line gowns. The silk of this dress is more typical of the mid 18thC, indicating this fabric was repurposed. c,1795
    • The stunning Spitalfields silk of this #frockingFabulous mantua was woven in 1733-1734 and made into a dress c.1735-1740. It includes a complex, elaborately constructed train which has been folded and draped to achieve a quintessential #gloriousGeorgians silhouette. Via the V&A.
    • 18th Century men’s court coat, pocket and button detail c.1765, French
    • Friday Treat Time and it’s loungewear eighteenth century style! This gorgeous salmon pink silk damask dressing gown or banyan dates to about 1715 and is an example of the loose informal gowns worn by fashionable Georgian gentlemen in the privacy of the home
  • Townsends
  • Miscellaneous

Last Post: RODGER: Marlene Elizabeth (née Taylor)
Marlene passed away peacefully at the Brandon Regional Health Centre on Wednesday, February 17, 2021 at the age of 66 years. Marlene was born on September 11, 1954 in London, Ontario. In 1957, Marlene and her family moved to the military base in Rivers, Manitoba before moving back to Ontario in 1969.
One year later Marlene made a move back to Manitoba all on her own and married Gil Rodger on June 3, 1972. Together Marlene and Gil had three boys. Marlene and Gil’s marriage ended in 1983 and shortly after she met Jim Atkinson and they began their life together.
Marlene graduated as an LPN in 1985. Years later she went back to school to become an RN graduating in 1995. Marlene worked at the Brandon Hospital on 400 medicine for 30 years. Following her retirement in August of 2015, she began teaching the Health Care Aide course through ACC.
Marlene was devastated this past September when she had to quit teaching due to her diagnosis. She had many things that she was passionate about. She belonged to the Westman Hospice board, Chase the Chill chapter in Brandon; she enjoyed knitting and providing scarves to those who needed them.
She also loved genealogy. She was a proud member of the United Empire Loyalists, Assiniboine Branch having received her certificate in October 2017 and getting all boys and grandkids their certificates the following year. Her proven loyalist ancestor is Jacob Ott.
Marlene and Jim loved travelling, with many trips to Las Vegas, to Hawaii five times, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, Grand Forks and Minot, among others.
Marlene is survived by her loving partner, Jim Atkinson; sons, Mike (Kelly) of Airdrie, AB; Cory (Tracey) of Brandon; Clayton (Carmen) of Brandon; numerous grandchildren and also survived by several siblings. A private family service has taken place at the Brandon Cemetery. Full obituary here
Barb Andrew UE, Assiniboine Branch

Published by the UELAC
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