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Black Loyalist Elders: Helping a Denomination to Grow
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
The achievements of most Black Loyalists have been lost to history. Sometimes only their names have survived, recorded in government documents, census lists or the Book of Negroes ledger. Sampson Colbert, Peter Richards, and Hector Peters were significant men in their day. They were three of the elders who watched over new Black Baptist congregations that had sprung up during the first ten years of Loyalist settlement in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
The Loyalist refugees who settled in the Maritimes came from a variety of religious backgrounds. While a large number were Anglican, Loyalist Lutherans, Quakers and Jews also settled in the Maritimes. Within the Black Loyalist community, the Methodist Church had the most adherents. The Baptists were a small group in both the Black and white refugee settlements.
Prior to the arrival of the Loyalists, there were only two Baptist churches in the Maritimes: one in Wolfville, Nova Scotia and another in Sackville, New Brunswick. This situation would change with the arrival of David George, a dynamic Black Loyalist preacher.
The son of African slaves, George was born in Virginia in 1742. After becoming a Baptist, George preached in many places during the American Revolution. In December of 1782, this Baptist pastor joined 500 whites and a handful of Blacks on an evacuation ship bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Disappointed by his prospects in the colonial capital, George went to Shelburne. Within the next decade, George would establish Baptist congregations in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick as well as in settlements along the St. John River. There were also Baptist congregations in Preston and Ragged Island, Nova Scotia. The remarkable growth of the Baptist denomination within the era of Loyalist settlement all started with David George’s first church in Shelburne — a church that began with just six members.
George’s ministry was characterized by a methodical building up of Christian communities. And to create strong local congregations, George appointed and trained elders to lead the new believers that sprang up following his preaching tours.
By choosing the right men to lead the embryonic congregations, George made sure that there was strict adherence to proper Baptist doctrine and form. Following the model established in Christian churches of the first century, George trained elders in communities where there were enough believers to form a congregation. In a day when a year or two of training in a seminary was impossible and the number of full-time ministers was pitifully small, this system of lay leadership was well suited to the circumstances of the Maritimes’ emerging Black Baptist churches.
A good example of George’s methodical approach to denominational growth is the trip he made to Saint John, New Brunswick in July of 1790. George quickly encountered opposition to his preaching from white Anglicans. They cited a 1786 law that required all travelling ministers to obtain a license from the New Brunswick lieutenant governor.
Providentially, George met Colonel Isaac Allen, a friend from his days in Charleston, South Carolina. Allen arranged for George to meet the lieutenant governor and receive the required preaching license. In travelling back to Saint John from Fredericton, George stopped to visit Black Loyalists who had settled along the St. John River.
Before returning to Shelburne, George left the Baptists of Saint John with an elder in the person of 40 year-old Peter Richards. George commissioned Richards to “exhort the people” and minister to them.
The little that is known of Richards is found in the Book of Negroes. Peter, his wife Bella and their two teenaged children were originally evacuated from New York City to Shelburne on the Blacket in late April of 1783. Peter was noted as having a cut on his left thumb and being a healthy thirty-three year old. His former master, James Jarvis of Coosawhatchie, South Carolina, gave Peter his freedom upon his death in 1775.
The Richards family later left Shelburne sometime after 1783 and put down roots in Saint John, leading one to suppose that they were the ones whose invitation prompted David George to visit New Brunswick in the summer of 1790. Richards faithfully carried out his responsibilities as an elder for the next two years. He died while accompanying his New Brunswick congregation to Sierra Leone in 1792.
Upon returning to Nova Scotia, George sent Sampson Colbert, an elder in the Shelburne church, to help Richards “tend the flock” in Saint John. Questions about how a poor Black Loyalist could uproot his family to become an elder in another colony –or how he paid for the trip to Saint John—remain unanswered.
Before the year was over George was asked to return to New Brunswick for a second visit. Before he sailed back to Shelburne, George appointed an unnamed elder to watch over the new congregation of believers in Fredericton.
In the fall of 1790, George visited the free blacks of Preston, a community ten miles outside of Halifax. Here he baptized four converts and administered the Lord’s Supper. Hector Peters, who had been described as a labourer in Shelburne in 1784, was left in charge of the Preston congregation. Never enslaved, Peters was born in Charleston, South Carolina and was just 20 years old when he arrived in Nova Scotia on L’Abondance.
Like Colbert and Richards, Peters had been one of George’s Shelburne elders. He must have had great leadership abilities for he was just 26 when George put him in charge of the new congregation in Preston. He, too, would accompany his congregation to Sierra Leone.
George was drawing together Blacks from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with the common denominator of faith. He was raising up a corps of trained leaders and laymen, establishing them in each of the principle Black communities.
By early 1791, a network of communication and common support that connected Black Loyalist communities was beginning to take root. However, in August of 1791, news reached David George and his Baptist elders which would redirect their energies from the cause of the Baptist denomination to the cause of all Blacks within the Maritimes.
Lieutenant John Clarkson was the Englishman in charge of recruiting Black Loyalists to settle in the British colony of Sierra Leone. When George had consulted with Clarkson and the whole enterprise was explained to him, George became “resolutely bent” on leaving for Sierra Leone. Given his influence in the Black Loyalist community, all but a few of his Baptists would eventually immigrate to Sierra Leone.
Although this African resettlment may have been a golden opportunity for the disadvantaged Blacks of the Maritimes, it was a disaster for the Black Baptist denomination, unravelling all that George had accomplished over ten years. In no small way, George had been a factor in the unification of Black Loyalist settlers throughout the Maritimes, meeting more of them in the scope of his travels than either of the two Black Methodist ministers, John Marrant and Boston King.
Although only 1,190 Black Loyalists eventually migrated to Africa, they were a tremendous loss to the Maritimes’ remaining four thousand Black Loyalists. The exodus to Sierra Leone took with it all of the elders of the Black Baptist church, removing not only much needed leadership, but a communication network that connected the region’s Black communities.
Nevertheless, it is important to recognize the remarkable growth of a denomination within early Loyalist settlements — an expansion that owed its existence to those willing to shoulder the responsibilities of leadership –- men who up until the time of the American Revolution had been regarded only as human chattel.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

African Nova Scotian community finds meaning in Vale Road pyramid
By Steve Goodwin 25 February 2022
Local members of the African Nova Scotian (ANS) community hold in high regard the Africentre pyramid on Vale Road in New Glasgow.
Natalie Gero chairs a committee that has organized local African Nova Scotian homecomings, while also focusing on the Africentre, which opened in 2000.
She said she remains an active member of the Homecoming Committee, but there hasn’t been a Homecoming event since 2015. The target is to host the event every five years.
Gero said she appreciates what the Africentre offers besides tributes on panels to the history of the ANS community. Read more…

JAR: Black Drummers in a Redcoat Regiment
by Don N. Hagist 22 February 2022
When British soldiers arrived in Boston in 1768 as part of the British government’s efforts to maintain peace in the colony of Massachusetts, local citizens resented the military presence for several reasons. First and foremost was the implication that the army, in spite of their mission to maintain order, were in fact oppressors sent by a government that was, while not foreign, wildly out of touch with the needs and interests of American colonists. Also, colonists paid taxes to their own colonial governments; most of those governments in turn maintained militia systems that provided defense when needed.
The two regiments posted in Boston, while generally unwelcome, did provide a measure of entertainment with their military rituals—posting guards, drilling, and marching about for various reasons. One facet of military discipline was particularly startling to onlookers: “In the Morning nine or ten Soldiers of Colonel Carr’s Regiment for sundry Misdemeanors, were severely whipt on the Common,” reported a local newspaper. In an era where corporal punishment itself was not unusual, there was something besides the severity of these lashings that brought journalistic commentary. The drummers in the Colonel Carr’s regiment, the 29th Regiment of Foot, were of African ancestry. The newspaper report continued, “To behold Britons scourged by Negro Drummers, was a new and very disagreeable Spectacle!”
Most soldiers in most British regiments, as far as can be told from the scant records available, were from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and were ethnically white. The 29th Regiment differed from most in having a tradition of employing Black men as drummers. Read more…

The William Pearson Daybook
By Barb Pearson and Greg Haley
The William Pearson Daybook was donated by George R. Pearson to the York-Sunbury Historical Society on 17 November 1937. George R. Pearson was a veteran of the Great War and a clerk at the post office in Fredericton. The Book belonged to his grandfather, William Pearson Esq., late of English Settlement, Kings Co., N.B.
So who was William Pearson and what can his Daybook tell us?
William Pearson was one of ten children born to Thomas Pearson and Ann Heaviside of Cumberland England. The family emigrated from England to New Brunswick in 1823, and settled on the Kennebecasis River, a short distance below the mouth of the Millstream tributary, where they purchased the William Inwood farm. On this property in 1825 they built an Englishstyle house, called Stone House, notable for being the oldest free-standing stone building in Kings County. In 1824 several of the Pearson sons, including William Pearson, obtained grants of land in the newly-founded English Settlement, which was being established in the hills separating the Upper Millstream Valley and the Upper Washdemoak.
The settlement straddling the Kings-Queens County Border, was renamed along parish lines in 1897, as Highfield , Queens and Pearsonville, Kings. This was due to the opening of a post office in both areas. The post office in Pearsonville was in William Pearson’s home on Lot #9. The post office in Highfield was in the home of a nephew, William Walter Pearson.
William Pearson spent his early life in Saint John as a clerk in the employ of his uncle Thomas Heaviside Esq. (1769-1833).
William Pearson had married Ann McGinn of McGinn Settlement in 1832.
William Pearson’s daybook covers his commercial activities from 1836 until 1872. An examination of the accounts in the book indicate his dry goods business supplied early settlers and lumbermen from adjacent communities including Irish Settlement, East Scotch Settlement, Collina, Keirstead Mountain in Kings County, and Goshen, Long Creek, Boyds’Settlement (Annidale), and Salmon Creek in Queens County. There are also earlier accounts for his father Thomas Pearson as well as fragmentary early accounts belonging to previous owners of the daybook. Read more…

The story behind the DayBook story.
Greg Haley and I researched the early history of English Settlement Kings and Queens Counties. Greg is the gggrandson of Thomas Pearson who with his family arrived in Saint John NB in 1823 from England. At an auction at the old Stone House in Apohaqui in 2008, Greg was given my name as a Pearson who could be a relative and was living in Pearsonville. Greg came to see me; I was not a relative but connected to his Pearson family by marriage of relatives.
Greg was working in Oromocto. We became a team. He could go to the Provincial Archives in Fredericton to research and I could visit all the Pearsons in the Settlement. In 5 years we had gathered family history to write a book on the Settlement – a future project. Meanwhile we have submitted portions of our research to Generations.
I lived on Lot #9, William Pearson’s land grant, so had already learned much about the early settlers of the settlement.
Greg found William Pearson’s daybook in the York-Sunbury Historical Society collection.
As Greg said;
“One thing I was reminded of in thinking of the William Pearson store and his list of customers: there are a good many leading members of the settlement who are not mentioned at all, and it occurred to me that the ledger would only list those who had debits or credits. I suspect there were many, many sales and other customers who do not appear because they paid directly – in cash or goods – for their purchases. Also, large transactions would not be kept in a book, but would require a “Note of Hand” or promissory note with a signature.
Greg and I put our research together and I wrote the article including the pictures of the Day Book and the old William Pearson General Store and submitted it to Generations. The picture of the store and barns was taken before the house burned in 1950. A new house was built by the then owner.
…Barb

JAR: Johnson Cook: Patriot Warrior
by Adrina Garbooshian-Huggins 24 February 2022
In the fall of 1796, just months before George Washington’s presidency ended, thirty-six-year-old Revolutionary War veteran Johnson Cook (1760-1848), a Connecticut native, petitioned the president for financial assistance and entreated him to spare Cook from living out his final days “neglected.” In his two-page manuscript letter to Washington, written on October 1, 1796, from Marietta in the Northwest Territory (now Ohio), Cook, perhaps in an effort to elicit pity and charity from the former general, chronicled much of the action that he saw during the war. Cook, who had served in the Continental army from 1777 until June 1783, advised Washington about his enlistment as a private in the 6th Connecticut Regiment in January 1777. Cook’s military career also included his transfer to the 4th Connecticut Regiment in 1781, when an army reorganization took effect, and to the 1st Connecticut Regiment in 1783; he eventually attained the rank of sergeant. Instead of including these details about regimental organization and transfers, which were routine during the war, Cook’s letter highlighted the aspects of his career—particularly his war injuries—that surely he thought might intrigue Washington and incite him to offer relief to the veteran. Many of Cook’s injuries left him with lifelong scars and disabilities, and thereby showcase Cook’s heroism and dedication to the Patriot cause. Cook’s letter narrates his participation in skirmishes and other operations between 1777 and 1782, and the suffering he endured on behalf of liberty and his country’s independence. Read more…

Query: Which of McGregory Van Every’s Sons Did It?
I am always looking for any reference to Butler’s Rangers or James Henry and McGregory Van Every. James Henry and McGregory Van Every are my wife’s (Carolyn Margaret Grunau) UEL ancestors in Niagara, and both were involved with Butler’s Rangers. We have the original Niagara 400 acre land grant from King George III to James Henry dated 1 December, 1798. Too bad land is all gone from the family, but the Henry Cemetery remains on the site in very poor condition with many grave stones including James Henry and his wife Catherine House.
In a recent UEL issue I found reference to McGregory Van Every. See In Loyalist Trails 2022-07 dated Feb 13/14 “1793 Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada” which in part reads

“On 14 March 1793, United Empire Loyalist Sergeant Adam Vrooman violently bound Chloe Cooley, a Black woman he enslaved, with a rope. He was assisted by two other men — his brother Isaac Vrooman and one of the five sons of United Empire Loyalist McGregory Van Every.”

McGregory Van Every, ( 1723 -1786 ) had six sons and two daughters:

  • David 1757 -1820
  • Benjamin 1759-1795
  • Abigail 1761-1786
  • Samuel 1763-1820
  • William 1765-1832
  • Phoebe 1767- ?
  • Peter 1771-1816
  • Andrew 1773-1832

The first five sons, all served with Butler’s Rangers and that possibly explains the reference to “one of the five sons of United Empire Loyalist McGregory Van Every “. Andrew, the 6th son, was apparently too young to serve. So the 14 March 1793 incident with Chloe Cooley, a Black woman could have involved any of the six sons as all were adults at the time.
Wonder which of the sons was involved? Does anyone have any information which could identify the individual?
Bob Grunau <grunaumg@gmail.com>

All Things Georgian: Brides and Bigamy
2022 By Sarah Murden 14 February 2022
When the [British] government introduced Lord Hardwicke’s Bill for the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage in 1753, the whole country literally was livid. Modern commentators have now acknowledged that in reality the Acts made little difference, but at the time the mere idea of marriages only in public led to widespread protests, a gazillion angry pamphlets and much debate.
Essentially, the Marriage Act introduced the structure for a valid marriage as we know it today with public banns and licence, but previously it was also possible to have a ‘clandestine marriage’ in secret. You’ve probably already imagined a dashing young Master sneaking into the stables with a pretty young maid, and you’d be right, as the Bill was partly designed to prevent rich heirs from being seduced into clandestine marriages with their social and economic inferiors. Read more…

A Valentine’s Day Reflection: Exploring Love, Marriage, and Relationships Throughout King’s Chapel’s [Boston] History
​by Lily Nunno 14 February 2022
King’s Chapel is a space that encompasses many aspects of the history of Boston. This history includes the history of love and romance. As a church, King’s Chapel has been a site of marriages and of memorializing loved ones in stone. Depending on one’s societal status, the city’s residents, including various members of the King’s Chapel congregation, have experienced love and romance differently.
Around Valentine’s Day when we are thinking about our loved ones, we can explore a variety of questions related to love and relationships. How did people engage in romance when facing opposition and challenges? How was marriage not always a positive institution?
Slavery, Race, and Marriage
As Boston began to develop as an international port city, enslaved Africans were brought as part of the Atlantic slave trade. Free and enslaved Indigenous people entered the city as refugees from conflicts like King Philip’s War. The majority of the city was white, mainly Puritan settlers. Like other early English colonies, Massachusetts banned relationships between white colonists and those of African descent with the law passing in 1705. The law was updated in 1786 to ban marriages between white citizens and Native Americans. Read more…

Washinton’s Quill: A Peek Into George Washington’s Mind: A Letter to Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene, April 18, 1781
by William M. Ferraro 25 February 2022
An unfortunate understanding persists that George Washington achieved greatness through his magnificent character despite a marginal intellect. Contemporaries, such as Timothy Pickering, spread this notion by pointing to how Washington relied on aides and secretaries to write so many of his letters, particularly during the Revolutionary War, and plenty of subsequent biographers and commentators have picked up on the idea.1 It is ridiculous to demean Washington for requiring assistance while acting as commanding general of the Continental army because that position often demanded multiple letters a day, with many involving complex or highly sensitive matters. Moreover, Papers of George Washington editors have discovered documentary evidence that Washington involved himself directly in the drafting of all correspondence and confirmed their final form with his signature.2 Further supporting this evidence are the innumerable textual notes in the Revolutionary War Series where Washington in his own handwriting modified words, phrases, or sentences in drafts prepared initially by aides or secretaries. Read more…

List of Loyalist Certificates Updated with those issued in 2022 until Feb. 17
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 2022 by 17 February.
The list is now on the new UELAC website https://uelac.ca/certificates/issued/
These have also been added to the appropriate Loyalist in the Loyalist Directory.

Who are the People In The Picture? A New One, and One Partially Identified
Go to Who’s In The Picture (WitP). Feb. 25, 2022. This photo of three unidentified individuals (Ref. Code 2-16-21) is from the 1989 Royal Convention (May 18-22 at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville QC), part of the Okill Stuart Fonds.
Do you recognize any of them?
If so, please send an email to Carl Stymiest, Leader of the Library and Archives Committee at communications@uelac.org — please note the date and reference number of the photo. Any additional relevant comments are welcome, and appreciated.
Carl Stymiest

We Know – One Person – Who’s In This Picture!
The lady at left wearing red is June Pierson UE of Gov. Simcoe Branch.
Identified by Doug Grant UE, Go. Simcoe Branch.

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Entries
The reworked version of the Loyalist Directory is now active and people looking for it are directed there. The data brought over from the older version is the same. So what is new?
Entries which have been added, or revised, this week, with thanks:

Upcoming Events:

Fort Plain: The Revolutionary World of a Free Black Man Feb 28 @7:00 ET

Feb 28 @7:00 ET. The Revolutionary World of a Free Black Man: Jacob Francis: 1754-1836. Presented by William Larry Kidder. A free Black man, Jacob of Hunterdon County, NJ was indentured out by his free Black mother to age 21. Five different men “owned his time” during his indenture and each provided a different experience for him. Details and registration.

Gov. Simcoe Branch: “Lives of Loyalist Women” by Jo-Ann Leake 2 Mar @7:30ET

Loyalist women stood alongside their men in the years up to and including the time of the Revolution, and in the formative years of the post war settlement in Canada.
Jo-Ann will share stories from her research into their lives. Her presentation will examine some social, cultural, political, economic and spiritual aspects of Loyalism. She will focus on one of her Loyalist grandmothers – Sarah Leake (John); Elizabeth Keith (Daniel); Jerusha Alward (Oswell) or Mary Polly Parlee (Isaac).
Her presentation will follow a brief AGM
Details and Registration

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

  • How much do you know about Charles Inglis, native of Co. Donegal, Ireland? He was a United Empire Loyalist & appointed first Anglican Bishop of British North America in 1787 based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Chapter 4 in my book Canada’s Ulster Scots reviews his life. Brian McConnell UE @brianm564
  • Ecclesiastical avarice -18th Century vicars with a penchant for money. Vicars were often shown as being mercenary and corrupt — interested only in money and in collecting tithes from their parishioners. First “The Old Dog’s Legacy and appearing in 1800”. Read…
  • This week in History
    • 24 Feb 1761 James Otis argued in the Mass. court that it was illegal to grant Customs services Writs of Assistance (Warrant-less searches). Such arguments over unlimited governmental power and tyranny would develop into the issues igniting the Revolution.
    • 22 Feb 1770 Loyalist Customs Inspector Ebeneezer Richardson’s home attacked by a mob. He fires into the crowd, killing 11 yea- old Christopher Seider (1st casualty of #AmRev ). Boston jury found him guilty of murder. Death led indirectly to the Boston Massacre.
    • 20 Feb 1776 Royal Gov. Dunmore offers to negotiate w/Parliament for Virginia; Committee of Safety chooses Congress.
    • 19 Feb 1777 Colonel Benedict Arnold is passed over for promotion by Congress, contributing to his eventual treason.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 24 Feb 1782 American forces, surprised by British attack, try retreat across Wambaw Bridge in SC; bridge collapses.
  • Clothing and Related:
  • Townsends:
    • Weird Twist on Famed Depression Era Dish – Bubble and Squeak – 18th Century Cooking
  • Miscellaneous
    • Ladles were carved by Native Americans in the northeastern woodlands from local maple, ash and birch using an angled blade, called a crooked knife, and traded to English settlers. This maple specimen, from a private collection, dates to 1700-1750 (Forgotten Frontier catalog)

Last Post: ELLSWORTH UE, Brian 1933-2022
Members of Colonel John Butler (Niagara) Branch are saddened to report the passing of Brian and offer their sincerest sympathy and condolences to his son David and family. David is the Standard Bearer for the Association and Col John Butler (Niagara) Branch. Brian was a faithful, long standing branch member who rarely missed a meeting, travelling monthly from Mississauga to Betty’s Restaurant in Chippawa.
Brian was very proud of his Loyalist ancestor Francis Ellsworth. Francis was a private in Butler’s Rangers from Fishkill, NY. He and his wife, Mary were at Fort Niagara in 1783 and in 1784 they were on a “List of Persons Who Have Subscribed Their Names in Order to Settle and Cultivate the Lands Opposite to Niagara”.
Francis received land grants in Stamford Township. His and Mary’s home was the closest to the Falls and Francis cultivated the lands to the edge of the Falls. They sold the land in 1811 and Francis purchased land in Bertie Township.
Two Hundred years later David and his mother Betty still live on Francis Ellsworth’s land. Brian farmed his Loyalist ancestor’s land there that stretches “as far as the eye can see” until a year ago.
Access the complete obituary with photo. (Editor: Brian was very active and accomplished person – the obituary offers some of his story)
Bev Craig UE, Col. John Butler Branch

Last Post: BAIN, Lynda Joan Ruth
Members of Colonel John Butler (Niagara) Branch are saddened to announce the sudden passing of Lynda Joan Ruth Bain, at her home on Sunday February 20, 2022 in her 78th year. Lynda was a member of the “CJB Dunnville Contingent” and enjoyed their adventures on their monthly expedition to Chippawa. She will be missed.
Lynda is predeceased her husband William Roger Bain. Forever cherished by her children Michael Bain and April (Darren) Papineau. Loving grandmother of Rachael (Ryan Unrau) and Brennen. Lynda is predeceased by her parents George and Gertrude Stillwell (nee. Beasley) and her siblings Carol June Leonard and Sandra (James) Duliban. Lynda dedicated her entire life to her family and friends, her community and being an active member of the church. Lynda will be deeply missed. For more information, send condolences and sign the Book of Memories please visit Ballard Minorfh FH
Bev Craig UE and Dian McIntee UE, Col. John Butler Branch

Last Post: HOWARD-LOCK, Helen
The Hamilton Branch is saddened to announce the peaceful passing of Helen Howard-Lock (B.Sc, Ph.D., FCIC), following an unexpected turn in her health and emergency surgery. Helen is survived by daughters Nicola Simmons (Ben) and Pippa Lock (Erick Feltham) and their children as well as an extended and loving family.
Helen lived the first years of her life in Hamilton, later moving to Aldershot. She loved swimming, being on the water sailing or in a canoe, music, …
Helen graduated in Physics (McMaster, 1959) and worked at the reactor at Chalk River, where she met her husband, Colin Lock. She was the first woman to teach for McMaster’s Faculty of Engineering…
In 1999, she married Mel Preston and joined him at St. James Anglican Church in Dundas. Together they travelled extensively,,,
Helen had innate artistic talent and created many fine paintings over the years.
A celebration of Life for Helen has taken place. Read more.
Pat Blackburn, President, Hamilton Branch

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