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UELAC Dominion Office, Archives Moving to Cornwall ON
The UELAC Board of Directors is pleased to announce that our Dominion Office and Archives will be relocated to the historic city of Cornwall, Ontario, in Spring 2022.
The historic significance of Cornwall will be familiar to many UE Loyalist descendants, as in 1784 New Johnstown (now Cornwall) was established by those looking to begin anew after the American Revolution.
The catalyst for this move is the opportunity to expand access to our collection, outreach through projects and events, and the collaborative nature of the City of Cornwall, and particularly, the SDG* Historical Society, who operate the Cornwall Community Museum.
We look forward to welcoming you to our new home. Read more…
The UELAC Board of Directors

Happy Birthday to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II
On Thursday 21 April 2022 Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 96th birthday.
Then Princess Elizabeth, she was the eldest daughter of The Duke and Duchess of York and was never expected to become Queen. Her life changed in 1936 when her uncle, King Edward VIII abdicated, and her father became King George VI and the young Princess became the heir presumptive.
Following the sad death of her father in 1952, Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II aged just 25, and this year is celebrating 70 years on the throne – a first in British history.
Happy Birthday to Her Majesty, the Queen of Canada. (Watch 2 minute video)

2022 UELAC Conference Invitation
The Planning Committee of the 2022 Dominion Conference would like to invite you to our virtual conference, “From Heartbreak to Hope in the Heart of the Continent“. Visit https://uelmanitoba.ca/conference2022 for more details and registration.

“Magnates, Mavens, and Miracle Workers: Loyalist Descendants in Manitoba”

John Wesley Dafoe, the Younger
Loyalist forebears: John Ernest Dafoe and Daniel Dafoe of New York Province
John W. Dafoe was born in Winnipeg in 1930. He was the grandson of John Wesley Dafoe, the long-serving and illustrious editor of the Winnipeg Free Press.
His mother wanted him to be a lawyer, anything but a newspaper man, as in the past they were ill-paid and often ill-regarded. However, the business was in his blood.
After university Dafoe headed off to London, hoping to land a job on Fleet Street. Fleet Street was less than impressed by his job experience as copy-boy and night reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press. He staved off starvation by shovelling up after the elephants for the Harringey Circus and cleaned the first class compartments of the Flying Scotsman.
Dafoe returned to Canada and began his career with the Lethbridge Herald and the Edmonton Journal. In 1970 he joined the staff of the Winnipeg Free Press, covering the Legislature. The premier of the time, Duff Roblin would become a life-long friend.
Dafoe moved to the Globe and Mail, serving in its Ottawa Bureau. He then moved to the Montreal Star, serving as editor until it folded in 1979. He returned to Winnipeg and in 1980 became editor of the Winnipeg Free Press, a position he would hold until his retirement on 1 July 1995, his 65 th birthday.
Dafoe was admired and respected by his colleagues and staff but his forthright editorial style sometimes earned him enemies. While editor of The Montreal Star he came out in favour of Medicare, a position some doctors opposed. He received repeated bomb threats. The police advised him to change his phone number or retract the editorial. He did neither and the threats gradually ceased. In his farewell editorial in The Winnipeg Free Press in 1995 he recounted that for years in the old Free Press building on Carlton there was a billy-stick hanging just inside the door of the newsroom in case threats became more than verbal.
John Wesley Dafoe married Arline and had three children.
He died in February, 2014 in Winnipeg. The Dafoe family plot is in Elmwood Cemetery.
Sources:

  • “In lieu of being a Lawyer“, J.W. Dafoe, Winnipeg Free Press, 1995
  • “Getting to the Heart of the Matter“, Jim Carr, Winnipeg Free Press, 1995

Mary Steinhoff, Chair, On behalf of the 2022 Conference Planning Committee of the Manitoba Branch

The Loyalist They Chained to the Floor – Part Two of Two
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
In late December of 1779, the Burlington County Prison in Mount Holly, New Jersey held two prominent men who were chained in small cells with only bread and water for sustenance. Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe, a British officer, and Col. Christopher Billopp, a Loyalist militia commander, were purposely being treated harshly in retaliation for the way the British were incarcerating two rebel prisoners in New York City. The only hope for release for the prisoners in Mount Holly was a “relaxation of the sufferings” of the men in New York’s jail — or a prisoner exchange.
Both Simcoe and Billopp wrote letters to military commanders, asking for action to be taken on their behalf. Billopp, seen as a traitor by his Patriot captors, could easily have been hanged for treason. His death would make his 35 year-old wife Jane a widow and his five children orphans.
Finally, on the last day of 1779, Simcoe and Billopp were released in a prisoner exchange. In 1792, Simcoe would return to North America to become the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, a colony populated by Loyalist refugees. Christopher Billopp’s life took him along a different path, but he, too, would find himself in a colony of Loyalist refugees by 1792.
In the year following his imprisonment in New Jersey, the rebel government of New York attainted and banished Billopp and his father-in-law Benjamin Seaman. The state planned to sell Billopp’s estate to raise money for their military expenditures, but because the British still occupied Staten Island, the state could not enforce either the seizure or the banishment. This gave Billopp time to sell off some of his land, converting his holdings to cash that he could use to support his family as they went into exile.
There are no records of Billopp being involved in conflicts with Patriot troops or raiding parties following his imprisonment in New Jersey. Having been held captive on two different occasions, he may have decided to maintain a low profile in the final years of the American Revolution. 1780 saw the birth of Billopp’s second daughter Jane, who was named for her mother. His oldest daughter by his first wife Francis was 15 when her half-sister was born.
Billop’s name appeared twice in Rivington’s Gazette in the following year. In March, he gave notice that the police office was open in Richmond Town on Staten Island where he was still the superintendent of police. In July, Billopp placed an ad to employ someone who could teach English, writing and arithmetic. The revolution may have interrupted regular schooling for the Loyalist students of Staten Island, but Billopp was able to provide his children with a private tutor.
In April of 1783, Billopp placed another ad in Rivington’s Gazette. This time he announced his intention to leave the country and wanted to “settle accounts”. He obviously felt that he could no longer remain on Staten Island at the end of the revolution and was weighing his options — either England or Nova Scotia.
His sons, Thomas (16 years old) and John (14) had decided to remain in New York, as had their 18 year-old sister Sarah. She was engaged to Henry Seaman. As he was the son of Benjamin Seaman, the father of Christopher Billopp’s wife, Billopp and his daughter shared the same father-in-law upon her marrying Henry in early 1784.
In July of 1783, Billopp and his father-in-law joined with 53 other Loyalist “gentlemen” who described themselves as being “obliged to leave their homes and seek an asylum in His Majesty’s Province of Nova Scotia”. The 55 Loyalists petitioned Sir Guy Carleton to acquire sizeable land grants for them from the governor of Nova Scotia — land that amounted to 275,000 acres.
When other Loyalists heard about this attempt to make a pre-emptive acquisition of Nova Scotia land, they were outraged, and signed a counter-petition. They were shocked that “there could be found amongst their Fellow sufferers Persons ungenerous enough to attempt engrossing to themselves so disproportionate a Share of what Government has allotted for their common benefit.” The attempt of the 55 to acquire estates in Nova Scotia came to nothing, but their 1783 petition made the “less respectable” middle and working class Loyalists wary of the “most respectable” Loyalists such as Christopher Billopp and his father-in-law.
Having failed to acquire the amount of land to which he had grown accustomed, Billopp sailed for England rather than Nova Scotia. On February 9, 1784, Billopp appeared before the Royal Commission on the Losses and Services of American Loyalists when it convened in London in the hope of recouping some of his lost fortune.
Adding weight to his claims of losses were witnesses such as General Cortlandt Skinner (commander of the New Jersey Volunteers), and General James Robertson (the former British commandant of New York City). Billopp also produced certificates of reference from such notables as William Tryon (New York’s last royalist governor), General John Campbell (British commander in chief for North America), and his fellow prisoner, Col. John Graves Simcoe (commander of the Queen’s Rangers).
Despite his wartime service and his influential friends, Billopp only received £2,000 of the claim he made for £26,000 in losses. With no hope of an estate or profession in Britain, Billopp took his family back across the Atlantic and settled in a Loyalist refugee settlement on the Bay of Fundy — a city that would soon be known as Saint John, New Brunswick.
The mouth of the St. John River had become a sanctuary for a number of Staten Island Loyalists, including families bearing the names Beatty, Bedell, Browne, Drummond, Flowers, Hilliard, Johnson, King, Lane, McLean, Sharp, Smith, Stewart, Taylor, and Yearley – as well as Billopp’s widowed father-in-law, Benjamin Seaman.
Seaman’s stay in Saint John was not a long one. He died after only a year of residency. In addition to bequeathing two enslaved Black boys, his watch, cane, horse and sword to his sons, Seaman also left the residue of his estate on Staten Island to be divided among his children — including Billopp’s wife Jane. Whether this actually ever occurred is not known.
By 1785, Billopp was living on a grant in the Upper Cove area of Saint John where the elite of the city’s society had settled. Having once been a member of the New York Legislature, it is not surprising that Billopp became part of a six-man slate to represent St. John County in New Brunswick’s first election. All of these men lived in the Upper Cove and all of them favoured a government led by the lieutenant governor and a colonial aristocracy. Six candidates from Saint John’s Lower Cove wanted a democratic government along the lines of what they had known in the Thirteen Colonies.
Despite the fact that all 12 candidates were Loyalists, the campaign was a heated one. Billopp’s inclusion in the infamous 1783 petition of the 55 men who tried to acquire land for themselves was still fresh in the minds of many Saint Johners. It made great propaganda for the Lower Cove party to illustrate that the Upper Covers were out to seize power and influence for themselves rather than serving the citizens of the county.
Votes were cast in early November. Each of the six Lower Cove candidates garnered more votes than any members of the Upper Cove party. To his credit, Billopp received the eighth highest number of votes – 512. This was more than four others in his party.
The Upper Cove group demanded a recount of the votes. Following his “scrutiny” of the ballots cast, Sheriff William Oliver discounted 200 votes cast for the Lower Cove group, making Billopp and his friends the winners of St. John County’s six seats in the House of Assembly.
When almost 300 men put their names to a petition claiming that the sheriff was not impartial, the government prosecuted the signers as “factious and seditious”. It was hardly an auspicious beginning to Billopp’s political career in New Brunswick.
When the House of Assembly convened in Saint John on January 4, 1786 its members began to consider 61 bills that were proposed as new laws for the colony. The historical records do not reveal if Billopp introduced any of these bills or which ones received his approval.
More is known of Billopp’s domestic life than his political or professional life over the next two decades. His daughter Anne was born sometime in 1786, followed by Mary in 1790. The growing Billopp family moved into a house on the north side of King Street above Germain Street, but it would only be Jane Billopp’s home for a year. Christopher’s wife died in 1792 at the age of 48, leaving him a widower at the age of 65.
In the late 1790s, yellow fever swept through New York City where Billopp’s sons Thomas and John had gone into business together. (This tropical virus that causes yellow fever affects the kidneys and liver, producing a fever and jaundice.) John urged his older brother to take his wife and three children into the country to prevent them contracting the fever. A bachelor, John died at the age of 29.
Although Thomas Billopp survived the yellow fever epidemic, he died eight years later in Venezuela. A member of an expedition to aid in a revolution against Spain, Thomas was captured by Spanish officials and hanged on April 28, 1806. Five years later, Christopher Billopp learned of the death of his oldest child, Sarah Seaman who passed away on Long Island, New York, at the age of 46.
1807 saw the beginning of a series of weddings for the daughters of Billopp had by his second wife. Catherine married the timber and shipping merchant John Black, and at some point in time her younger sister Jane later married her husband’s brother, William Black. Mary Billopp became the wife of the Rev. Archdeacon Robert Willis in 1819, three years after her sister Louisa married the Rev. John Wallace, the president of Kings College. Their sister Frances married the merchant James William Robertson.
Billopp’s daughter Ann never married, but a small story from her life has survived. In 1824, she paid a visit to her father’s home on Staten Island. The 38 year-old woman took flowers from the trumpet creeper vine that was growing over Billopp House, and gathered black walnuts and cherries from the family’s burial ground. Posterity records that she “presented them to the old colonel” upon her return to Saint John, her 87 year-old father “wept like a child on beholding them“.
Forty-eight years after being chained to the floor of a New Jersey prison where he was compelled to live on bread and water for eight weeks, Christopher Billopp died on March 28, 1827 in Saint John, New Brunswick far from his Staten Island home. His descendants did their best to sum up the Loyalist’s life, putting these words on his tombstone:
“Christopher Billopp, a member of His Majesty’s council in this Province, whose uncompromising loyalty as a lieutenant-colonel in the royal cause during the American Rebellion obliged him at the termination of that contest to abandon without compensation his hereditary property, on Staten Island, and retire with his family to this colony where he has since resided universally respected.“
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

JAR: The British Soldiers Who Marched to Concord, April 19, 1775
by Don N. Hagist 19 April 2022
During the night of April 18-19, 1775, a force of roughly 700 British soldiers left Boston on a mission to find and destroy rebel military stores in Concord, Massachusetts. What happened on that day is the topic of innumerable books and articles, most of which treat the soldiers as an amorphous mass of men. But they were individual people, each with a distinctive background and subsequent life. Who were they? What were they like, in terms of background, age, and military experience? What became of them?
The information in this article pertains solely to the sergeants, corporals, drummers, fifers, and private men who marched on April 19. Their names were recorded on muster rolls, most of which survive in The National Archives of Great Britain. The age, place of birth and other details on some of these men can be found in pension records, and details on a few others come from a host of alternative primary sources.
The expedition to Concord consisted of eleven grenadier companies and ten light infantry companies detached from British regiments garrisoned in Boston. At full strength, each had two sergeants, three corporals, one drummer, and thirty-six private soldiers, and each grenadier company also had two fifers. This means that the most men who could have marched out that day was 42 sergeants, 63 corporals, 42 drummers, 42 fifers, and 756 private soldiers—945 men, not including officers. Read more…

JAR: French Military Hospitals in Rhode Island
by Norman Desmarais 18 April 2022
Louis-Dominique Éthis de Corny (1736–1790),Commissioner of War, came to America aboard the French warship Hermione along with Maj. Gen. Marie Jean Paul Joseph du Motier Marquis de Lafayette in April 1780. Corny’s assignment was to procure everything necessary for the arrival of the expédition particulière, the army of about 5800 troops under Lieutenant General Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur Comte de Rochambeau due to arrive in America in the summer of 1780. Corny needed to buy horses for the artillery and the cavalry, food, firewood, straw and forage, and to secretly gather general information about the country. He submitted his report to his supervisor Claude Blanchard, Chief Commissary of War. He also established hospitals for the many soldiers who would arrive sick from the voyage or contract illnesses after they landed. Read more…

Early Residents of Marrtown New Brunswick
By Barb Pearson UE
Marrtown New Brunswick is in the middle of the Saint John – Fredericton – Moncton triangle in New Brunswick, lying roughly equidistant from all three. It is in Studholm Parish, Kings County. This article references other places in the area including Jordan Mountain, Goshen/Sheba, Thompson Corner, McFarlane Settlement; and families such as Marr, McKnight and Leonowens and numerous others.
Alexander Marr Sr., 1749-1829, a native of Aberdeen Scotland, served with the 42nd. Highland Regiment throughout the American Revolutionary War. He was discharged at Halifax in 1783 and came with the Loyalists to St. John where he married Esther Job Deed. Eventually he received a 250 acre crown grant at Smiths Creek in 1809 where the Pat Madden farm is located.
He was the founder of the Marrs who spread along the creek and over Jordon Mountain. In 1800 he had 5 acres of land, 4 cattle and 4 sheep. He died of drowning in 1828 at 80 years of age and is said to be buried at the Nowlan/Knollin cemetery, although no marker remains.
The family’s children: Richard, Lydia, John, James, Alexander.
Barb notes two people in particular with whom she worked on this research. Both have sadly passed away.
Jim Marr was a member of the King’s County Historical Society for years. He did so much in restoring the Marr family stones on Jordan Mountain and in the Newtown Cemetery.
Arnold Murray McKnight lived in Marrtown. He grew up in Pearsonville, English Settlement and went to the Pearsonville School. His mother, Ethel Idella (Cameron) McKnight taught there. She was born in Sheba, Queens County. His Dad, John Henry McKnight, was born in Marrtown. They later moved to Marrtown. Ethel kept a scrapbook of people and events of Marrtown and the surrounding settlements. Arnold had inherited her scrapbook and from it we had a treasure of information of the people and their lives. The scrapbook remains in the family but will be donated to the KCHS Archives.
Read about Early Residents of Marrtown.

Victoria BC: Can you help identify loyalist group members in 1939 photo?
The United Empire Loyalists’ ­Association of Canada is appealing for the public’s assistance in identifying some of its members from a picture that appeared in the Victoria Daily Colonist on Dec. 2, 1939.
The Victoria Branch, founded in 1927, was the first branch established west of Ontario.
As part of preparations for its ­centennial in 2027, the group wants to identify and celebrate its early members, some of whom remain a mystery. Read more and see photo…

History Comes Alive in Cornwall – #Cornwall1784
Experience history as it comes to life! On May 20-22, Lamoureux Park will be the site of a celebration commemorating how Ontario began in 1784. Created and organized by the SDG Historical Society through the Cornwall Community Museum, three days of historical displays and cultural performances will fill the park. The festival will bring together over two hundred and fifty reenactors, equipment, artifacts, and activities representing three cultures that played significant roles in the area’s early history: the Indigenous peoples (Mohawks), the French-Canadians, and the Loyalists (British, Scottish, and Palatines). This is a “rain or shine” activity that is free to the public and open to all.
Few people travelling down Water Street in Cornwall realize they are passing by one of Ontario and Canada’s key historic sites. On the banks of the St. Lawrence River near what is now Lamoureux Park, two hundred and thirty-eight years ago a group of exiles from the United States landed to make a new home. Read more…

Borealia: Cautionary Tales: The Upper Canada Rebellion and the Freedom Convoy
By Jonathan Szo 19 April 2022
On 7 December 1837, a force of 1,200 troops marched down Yonge Street in the city of Toronto under the command of Sir Francis Bond Head, the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada. Their destination was a wayside inn known as Montgomery’s Tavern, the meeting place for hundreds of rebels who were angered by government corruption and mismanagement under the yoke of the elite ‘Family Compact.’
Upon closer inspection, it would quickly become apparent that these troops were not professional British soldiers, but instead armed civilians who were loyal to the British crown. Due to a sister rebellion in Lower Canada, Head had ordered a complete migration of professional troops from Upper Canada to fight the insurrection in present-day Quebec, despite cautionary warnings of Adjutant General Fitzgibbon, who correctly suspected a brewing insurrection in Upper Canada. Head dismissed his concerns and ordered the province to be emptied of professional military personnel. The government was in denial, believing in the steadfast loyalty of the common Upper Canadian. In a now-infamous quote, a high-ranking government official proudly stated that “not fifty people” could be found to take up arms against the British crown. Meanwhile, more than 600 rebels had gathered at Montgomery’s Tavern, with new supporters joining their numbers.
The government’s immense oversight left only the militia, comprised entirely of civilians. When the call went out for loyal subjects to help stave off the rebellion, the enthusiasm was unparalleled. Within a day, more than 1,200 individuals had risen in defense of the government and had mustered in Toronto. Read more…

Response to Query. Route from New Brunswick to Upper Canada
In the April 10 issue of Loyalist Trails, Kathy McIlwaine asked about the route Loyalists took from New Brunswick to Upper Canada. (NOTE: there were several responses; more will be included in subsequent issues)

From Brenda Glover
Here is a link to an e-book that I reference regularly about British Colonial America.There are divisions of the book that provide great contextual information.
History of the settlement of Upper Canada (Ontario, with special reference to the Bay Quinte) author: William Canniff
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54554/54554-h/54554-h.htm
I use the book to get an overview from the perspective of a man of that time, Wiliam D. Canniff, a medical doctor. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/canniff_william_13E.html

This author has written a lot of books and I pull keyword search terms from his works to search the internet and I have organized my files on his Divisions. There are references to many original settlers so I also use the search function keys to see if people that I am researching are mentioned.
This book has many references to the Bay of Quinte but it is a great primer for the whole of Upper Canada. Here for your reference are the key Divisions of the book to give you an idea re: the depth of the material.

  1. THE REBELLION OF 1776—THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.
  2. TRAVELING IN EARLY TIMES—​ORIGINAL ROUTES. -four chapters
  3. THE LOYALISTS AS PIONEERS—​THE ORIGINAL SURVEY.
  4. THE FIRST YEARS OF UPPER CANADA. Chapter 22 -Old channels of trade, and travel
  5. THE EARLY CLERGYMEN AND CHURCHES.
  6. Early Education in Upper Canada
  7. THE TERRITORY OF UPPER CANADA—​THE BAY QUINTÉ.
  8. THE FIRST TEN TOWNSHIPS IN THE MIDLAND DISTRICT.
  9. THE EARLY GOVERNMENT OF UPPER CANADA
  10. THE EARLY MILITIA OF UPPER CANADA.
  11. ADVANCE OF CIVILIZATION.
  12. The United Empire Loyalists – The Fathers of Upper Canada
  13. Appendix:
    1. Roll of the 2nd Battalion King’s Royal Regiment
    2. The Governors of Canada
    3. Indian Goods

Mr. Canniff also wrote “The medical profession in Upper Canada, 1783–1850. . . (Toronto, 1894). “, another good reference book that also contains biographies of many medical practitioners of that time. It is likely available through other internet digital libraries. https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objects/197721/the-medical-profession-in-upper-canada-17831850

One other source that I have found with a helpful description of travel is L.H. Tasker, M. A.’s paper (William Briggs, 1900) published in the Ontario Historical Papers and Records, Vol. II, titled “The United Empire Loyalist Settlement at Long Point, Lake Erie“
CHAPTER IX. ROUTES OF THE LOYALISTS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LONG POINT.
I found this paper on William (Bill) Martin’s wonderful “Early Ontario Records” website. http://my.tbaytel.net/bmartin/longpt2.htm
Many thanks Brenda. Good references well beyond the travel query too.

A Challenge to You: Add to the Loyalist Directory
The Westchester Loyalists primarily consisted of people from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and a few from other colonies. They were a diverse group, consisting of ministers, farmers, lawyers, blacksmiths, women, children, soldiers from several Loyalist Units and just about every kind of citizen from their respective colonies. The vast majority of those people went to Nova Scotia during the British evacuation of New York. A significant number of them went on to New Brunswick, after being given Loyalist Land Grants in Nova Scotia. that they never lived on.. Over the more than 200 years since the end of the American Revolution, their descendants have gone to every part of Canada, The United States, Australia, New Zealand and all over the world.
I have recently been submitting information about Loyalists from my Peers and Teed ancestry, who were soldiers in the Third Battalion of Delancey’s Brigade, to be added to the UEL Loyalist Directory. Some were there with minimal information; many were missing. I started by printing out “Nova Scotia Land Papers 1765-1800” from the online Nova Scotia Archives. Then I simply went to one name after another, getting the information and putting it into the proper format.
NOTE: You can print out the new format by going to the UEL List, clicking on any name, and then clicking on “Details”. Then, just print out the entire “Details, and the format will show you how to “fill in the blanks”. Do try to provide as much information as possible (Editor’s note: send a request to me at loyalist.trails@uelac.org and an Guide and an Excel template will be returned).
As I was working on finding my own ancestors, I noticed that there were a lot of others who received Loyalist Land Grants in Nova Scotia, but are NOT on the UEL list. People like several members of the Ackley, Angevine, Goolding, Horton, Kipp and Pugsley families. Just on that one page, there were over 50 surnames which do not appear in the Loyalist Directory, or who have very sparse information.
I would like to challenge everyone who has an ancestor on the “Nova Scotia Land Papers 1765-1800” to research their history, and submit them for inclusion on the UEL Loyalist List. I would love to see every known Loyalist family included on that list. They are all honored ancestors, and they deserve to be recognized.
Lynton “Bill” Stewart, BA, MA, MS, Ed.D theoldmedic@att.net

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Entries
Entries which have been added, or revised, this week, with thanks:

  • Additional information from Rick Wood and Jim Bruice for
    • Pvt. John Wood settled in Lot 6, Concession 3, Cornwall Township, Eastern District of what became Upper Canada (Ontario)
  • Information from Guylaine Petrin with extensive research about John and some descendants
    • about John Topp at Malden, then Gosfield Township, Essex County (Ontario)
  • Appreciation to Richard Poaps and Ken Vance for
    • Johann Adam Pabst at Eastern District (Winchester Township) – later Upper Canada (Ontario)
  • Kevin Wisener submitted
  • Thanks to Lynton “Bill” Stewart for

Would you add some information to a directory entry, revise some or even add a new entry? Send a note to me at loyalist.trails@uelac.org – please include the name of the Loyalist about whom you would like to contribute information. If that person is in the Loyalist Directory already, please send the ID number too. …doug

Upcoming Events:

Gov. Simcoe Branch: “The Bachelorette New France” May 4, 2022 at 7:30 EDT

“The Bachelorette New France (Les Filles a Marier and Les Filles du Roi): Stories of Bigamy, Incest, Witchcraft and Murder” — Presentation by Dawn Kelly & Carol Ufford
In 1630 New France was populated mainly by men. With threats to its economy from the British in the south, plans were made to encourage young women to immigrate, marry and populate the young colony.
Between 1634 and 1663 the Company of 100 Associates sponsored 260 young women who are now known as Les Filles à Marier or The Marriageable Girls.
Dawn Kelly is a veteran radio newscaster.
Carol Ufford is a retired librarian, and is currently Carol is currently Chair of the Toronto Branch of the OGS (Ontario Ancestry)
More details at Governor Branch Meetings. Please register to get the link.

Nelles Manor Museum: Mother’s Day Tea 2022 Sunday 7 May

Enjoy Mother’s Day afternoon tea in Nelles Manor with a fashion show by Jackie O’s Boutique. There are tables for 2 — 6 guests.
Tickets are $40.00 per person. Information and ticketing
Nelles Manor Museum <info@nellesmanor.ca>
Kate Pyatt, Museum Manager

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

Last Post: RIORDON UE, Roderick Charles
It is with deep sadness that we mourn the passing of Roderick Charles RIORDON, UE, a very dear friend and longtime member of Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch. Rod was a descendant of Loyalist Lt John Robinson, of the Loyal American Regiment. He was a very active member of our Branch for more than 20 years, a member of our executive for 15 years and our Branch President from 2007 to 2012. Rod passed away on Thursday, 11 April 2022, at the age of 90. He will be missed.
Our deepest sympathies go out to his son James, our Branch webmaster, and to all the Riordon family.
More information.
Michel Racicot – Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch

 

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