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Scholarship Challenge 2022: Multiplying UE Scholar Opportunities
Thank you for your donations.
The donations received by Thursday 30 June have been added at Scholarship Challenge 2022. Sorry, due to vacation, no update available this week.
The scholars we support help add to the collective wealth of information and growing body of interpretation and understanding of the Loyalist-era experience.

Sarah Beth Gable, a 2022 UELAC Loyalist Scholarship Award Recipient, is a PhD candidate at Brandeis University.
Her forthcoming dissertation, “Policing the Revolution: Massachusetts Communities and The Committees of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety, 1773-1783,” examines the process of identifying, prosecuting, and banishing loyalists and suspected loyalists in Massachusetts communities. She argues that the Committees’ definition of “loyalist” was fluid, adapting to the shifting needs of the Revolution rather than reacting to legitimate military threats. Through this process, the Committees effectively policed dissent in communities, forcing compliance with Revolutionary leadership.
Her work pays particular attention to the legacy of forced banishment and community violence on the loyalist diaspora. Read more…

Multiplying UE Scholar Opportunities will run until August 22, 2022 with updates each week.
Please join the challenge by donating – the instructions are there to mail a donation, or to donate online via Canada Helps – and watch our success as we meet the challenge goal of $8088.
Christine E. Manzer UE, Scholarship Committee, Chair.Scholarship@uelac.org

UK National Portrait Gallery: Queen’s Jubilee
Explore a collage of portraits from our Collection. Two minute video.

A Loyalist Rogues Gallery: Part Two
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Almost 260 years ago, the American historian Lorenzo Sabine published the first collection of Loyalist biographies. Among those life stories were tales of about 20 men that he considered to be “robbers and marauders” – men whom he felt used the violent days of the American Revolution to enrich themselves rather than serve a political cause.
One such Loyalist “rogue” was a man named Stephen Burke who also went by the alias of Stephen Emmons. Summing his life up in a sentence, Sabine said that Burke “infested the pine woods of New Jersey” and had hands that were “often imbrued in blood”.
The modern historian Joseph Wroblewski has uncovered more of Burke’s story, including the fact that in 1778 the Patriot governor of New Jersey had posted a 500-dollar reward for the capture of Burke. He also describes one of times when Burke’s “refugee gang” plundered a New Jersey home.
Burke, Jacob Fagan and John Van Kirk raided the home of a rebel Captain Benjamin Dennis in September of 1778. Taking advantage of Dennis’ absence from his home, the Loyalist “banditti” invaded the home, overturning furniture and searching for money and valuables. The only ones home at the time were Mrs. Dennis, her daughter, and a ten year-old son.
When Mrs. Dennis refused to say where a wallet containing $80.00 was hidden, the Loyalist robbers took a bed cord and hung the captain’s wife from a cedar branch. The gang fired on the two children as they ran towards the approaching wagon of a neighbor. As the Loyalists plundered the wagon, Mrs. Dennis freed herself and escaped.
Lorenzo Sabine described Jacob Fagan as a miscreant who plundered whenever he could and changed sides as often as interest dictated. After deserting from the rebel army, he joined the Second Battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers. Given freedom to recruit other loyalists, Fagan also robbed travellers on New Jersey’s roads and plundered from homesteads. More than 100 people died during his reign of terror.
A 1776 description of Fagan said he was “19 or 20 years of age, a lusty well set fellow, about 5 feet 5 or 6 inches high, straight black hair, with some freckles in the face.”
After the Dennis family had moved to the safety of nearby Shrewsbury following the raid on their home, Fagan and his men returned to the house to search for valuables. But there was a Judas in their group – John Van Kirk betrayed Fagan and Burke to Patriot militiamen who were lying in waiting inside the Dennis home. Burke was able to escape into the woods, but Fagan was fatally wounded and carried away.
Three days later patriots discovered Fagan’s hastily dug grave. The next day (Sunday), victims of the robber’s crimes took his body out of the grave. They wrapped it in a cloth covered it in tar, and hung it from chains in a tree near a public highway. This was all part of what was commonly called a “degradation ceremony”.
The local carrion birds “picked the flesh from its bones and the skeleton fell to the ground in pieces.” Local legend claims that Fagan’s skull was put up in a tree with a pipe stuck between its jaws.
In January of 1779, Captain Dennis finally tracked down the remaining “Pine Banditti” and killed three of its members– including Stephen Burke—on the spot. His body was put on public display, but this did little to stop other Loyalists from carrying on their campaign of terror in the pine barrens of New Jersey.
Caleb Sweezy who operated out of the Great Swamp near modern day Madison, New Jersey. Sabine notes that he “committed the most atrocious robberies”. A local paper described how other Loyalists assisted Sweezy, giving him “information and assistance, to commit several atrocious robberies, which induced the governor to offer $200 reward for apprehending him.”
The August 1799 edition of the Herald of Liberty contained this article on Sweezy and his brother:
“As the two oldest Caleb and Isaac, had been villains from the time they were capable of distinguishing right from wrong, they rejoiced at the calamities which threatened our country in ’75, as a new and extensive field would be opened for the exercise of their talents. During the war they were Tories.
While New York remained in possession of his majesty’s troops, the Sweezys found a safe refuge there, from whence they made frequent excursions into the neighbouring counties of Essex, Bergen & Morris, for the purpose of stealing horses and other property.
Whenever it was discovered that they were in the country, they were hunted like wolves. … The two brothers pursued the business of horse stealing with great success (while many of the accomplices were brought to the gallows) till near the close of the war.”
In 1780, Sweezy and his gang had their descriptions given in a notice that alerted the public to a $5,000.00 reward for their capture. The advertisement listed: “a certain Isaac Sweezy, about thirty years of age, five feet eight or nine inches high, sandy complexion, and had a scar of a bullet … in one of his temples. … Caleb Sweezy, jun. is about six feet high, thirty-two or thirty-three years of age, has a clear skin, and black beard, and altogether a well made, good looking man. John Swan is a small man, of a dark complexion, and about thirty-six years of age. Thomas Douglass is about six feet high, has black hair and beard, is something ruddy in his cheeks, thick lips, is about twenty-eight years of age. Nathan Horton, jun. is about twenty-two years of age, quite a small man, rather slender, and of a light complexion.”
As fate would have it, Sweezy’s career came to an end with just one fellow gang member at his side — John Parr, the only other friend of Sweezy referenced in Sabine’s biographies.
In September of 1782, 12 rebel soldiers kept an eye on the home of a known Loyalist friend of Sweezy and Parr. Mrs. Isaac Badgley was seen carrying food into the swamp on two different occasions. (Sabine says that Sweezy had “guilty relations” with her.) The Patriots surrounded the swamp and caught the “notorious robbers” by surprise.
Parr and Sweezy’s flints were not in their pistols, so instead of fighting back, they tried to escape their attackers. Sweezy was shot and killed. “The other one, John Parr, who was concerned in the robbery of Mr. Stewart’s house, at Hackettstown, was slightly wounded, and taken, and is now confined in the Morristown jail.” Neither Sabine nor other historical records give the final fate of Parr.
Interestingly enough, Caleb’s brother Isaac Sweezy’s name appears in the Book of Negroes, a ledger containing the names of all free and enslaved Blacks leaving New York City in 1783. Isaac served as an escort for a Black Loyalist named James Brown. The two men were passengers on the sloop Cato bound for Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia in October of that year. Given that free Blacks were known to be members of many Loyalist “gangs”, it may well be that Brown and Sweezy fought alongside one another during the revolution. If nothing else, the ledger entry shows that Isaac Sweezy – a Loyalist “villain”—ultimately found sanctuary in Nova Scotia.
This series on the Loyalist rogues gallery will continue next week in Loyalist Trails.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

John Marselis (Marcellus) UE
By Ronald L. Doering UE
Ronald.doering@gmail.com
John Marselis, born 30 September, 1741, farmed in the Mohawk Valley near Turloch, Tryon County, New York, 15 miles from Scoharie where he had 150 acres. On August 15, 1777 he joined the King’s Royal Regiment of New York (KRRNY) while it was laying siege Fort Stanwix as part of the St. Leger Expedition. He served in Captain Richard Duncan’s Company throughout the war. In his claim for compensation he listed that he had left behind his family with 4 horses, 3 cows, 3 calves, 6 hogs and a fully furnished farmhouse, concluding simply that “the rebels got it all”. The Commissioners wrote in the margin of their Report beside his name: “A good man”.
John was discharged from the KRRNY and fled as a refugee from America to Montreal where he lived with his family from July 15, 1783 to March 25,1784 until he was given his land as a United Empire Loyalist finally settling right on the front on the west half of Lot 20, Concession 1, Williamsburg Township, Dundas County on 14 October 1784. With his wife Catherine Elizabeth Kling he settled with 2 sons and 4 daughters. They subsequently had three more sons Thomas, Garrett, Peter and a daughter Maria.
John died on October 16, 1801. His fieldstone tombstone, the oldest in the Pioneer Memorial Cemetery at Upper Canada Village, is now mostly illegible.
Thomas, Garrett and Peter Marselis served with the Second Flank Company of the Dundas Militia during the victorious Battle of Crysler’s Farm. My book “Defending Our Home: Loyalist families of Dundas County and the Battle of Crysler’s Farm” (Borealis Press, 2012) recounts the story of these three Marselis men and of the other Loyalist families along the St. Lawrence River as the largest army that had ever been assembled by the United States proceeded relentlessly through their farms on its way to capture Montreal. The British Regulars, Canadian Militia and Mohawk warriors faced overwhelming odds and the largest cavalry charge mounted during the war, in a battle that is one of the most important in Canadian history, in a war that “helped define who we are today, what side of the border we live on, and which flag we salute.’
A plaque above the tombstone of John Marselis will be unveiled at 11 am on July 17, 2022 as part of the program for Military Reenactment Weekend at Upper Canada Village, Morrisburg, Ontario.

The Loyalist Keirstead Family and The Collina Store, Kings Co., N.B., c1820-1969
by Sherrill (Keirstead) Chown & Barb Pearson catwoman@bellaliant.net
Published in Generations, submitted here by Barb Pearson
Collina NB, roughly half-way between Saint John and Monction, is located 2 km south of Kierstead Mountain in Studholm Parish, Kings County. The name Collina comes from the Latin word for hills

The Keirstead Family Arrives In New Brunswick, 1783
Reviewing Samuel Keirstead’s store Ledger of 1851-1859 has brought back memories of the fascinating history of the early residents of this community of Collina and the surrounding areas of Irish and English Settlements, Gibbon and Keir¬stead Moutains, East and West Scotch Settlements, Marrtown and Bullmoose Hill. Samuel was one of the merchants of Collina who helped to shape the community’s early history. His son, Alfred, also became a merchant in 1871.
Samuel’s grandfather, Samuel and grand-mother, Mary (Johnson) Keirstead had arrived in New Brunswick in May of 1783. They had come from Jamaica, Long Island, New York with at least six of their sons to St. John, New Brunswick at which time Kings Square was still a wilderness. Some time later a Grant of 500 acres of land was given to Samuel and his youngest son, near the Kennebecasis River in Kings County. The married son, James, with his wife Elizabeth (Shaw) Keirstead received land not far out of St. John, at Gondola Point. Isaiah and Benjamin went farther up the Kennebecasis to its tributary, the Mill-stream, and took up land in the Parish of Studholm. Here, when he was 27 years old, Benjamin married Jemima Bunnell, descendent of William Bunnell, who had come from England to Connecticut in 1638/9. They raised a family of eleven children on Keirstead Mountain.
On January 18th 1791, Samuel’s father, Isaiah, now nearing 30 years, married Elizabeth, daughter of John and Lois Lester. Isaiah at this time must have been in Queens County as the marriage is notated in the Gagetown Marriage Records. Isaiah was born 18 Nov 1761 at Jamaica, Long Island, New York. Elizabeth was born 27 Feb 1776 at Long Island, New York and had come to Kings County with her Loyalist parents in 1783 to the Hampstead area of Queens County. By the birth of their first son in 1793 they were living on Gibbon Mountain just opposite the Thomas Gibbon farm. On December 12th, 1809 Isaiah received a land grant of 400 acres in the Millstream area. Isaiah and Elizabeth raised a family of twelve children, only one of which was a girl. They were John Isaiah, Mary, Samuel, Amenzie, Gilbert Lester, Isaiah Jr., Jasper Belding, Scotch William, Abra¬ham, Oliver Coney, and James Dudley Keirstead. All married into local families in the area. Isaiah and Elizabeth’s marriage lasted 60 years, Isaiah living to 90 years of age and Elizabeth to age 93.
From Elizabeth Keirstead’s obituary we find that Isaiah died before 1866. Actually he died in 1851. Isaiah is believed to be buried with Elizabeth at Keirstead Mountain Cemetery. On April 26th, 1866, the newspaper Christian Visitor of Saint John reported: d. 12th inst., Millstream Mountain, Studholm (Kings Co.) Elizabeth, relict of Isaiah Keirstead, Studholm, age 93. The deceased was born on Long Island, New York and came to New Brunswick with the Loyalists in 1783. She leaves two sisters (the elder of whom is 98 years of age); eight sons (the eldest of who is 75 years of age); 58 grandchildren; 51 great-grandchildren; 2 great-great grandchildren. Funeral service by Rev. Elias Keirstead.
Read the article, full of details about the various stores, a ledger, who were some customers, what they purchased, how they paid, and much more.

Story behind the history article:
Sheriil is ill and in a home. A very talented lady who was a painter and an author.
She wrote “Facial Expressions of Home” in 1994. As she said, “the book was written for one purpose~to preserve her family’s heritage for future generations”. Her research included Gibbon Mountain, Keirstead Mountain, English Settlement, Collina (UpperSpringfield), and Lower Springfield.
I found Sherrill’s Book in the Sussex Library when I was researching my Mercer family in 2006. She had written about one family who had lived in the Collina area and about whom I had no information. I called and went right to her home on Gibbon Mountain to see if she had any copies left. She did and I bought one.
Sherrill had been loaned a very old ledger from a cousin on Gibbon Mountain that he had obtained by barter.
She brought it to me with the hope that I could help her with the history of the ledger.
And so we worked together on the story of the Collina Store. The old Ledger had belonged to Samuel Keirstead whose general store was situated on the back road in Lower Springfield. Sherrill and her relatives thought the Ledger belonged to Samuel’s son, Alfred, who later built the store in Collina. I knew the history of the area and together we discovered the old ledger belonged to Samuel’s Store just down the road from Collina. The ledger listed the customers who shopped there from 1851 to about 1861. This information is very valuable as the Census for this time period is missing from the provincial Archives. …Barb

Prime minister apologizes for anti-Black racism experienced by No. 2 Construction Battalion
Members of the battalion served with distinction in the First World War
CBC News 9 Jul 2022
The federal government has formally apologized to descendants and relatives of the men of the No. 2 Construction Battalion Saturday afternoon, 106 years after the formation of the historic battalion that faced anti-Black racism during the First World War.
The Nova Scotia-based battalion was the first military unit in Canada made up of mostly Black personnel. The battalion was primarily used in non-combat situations to clear trees, build roads, and maintain railway tracks.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the gruelling work of battalion members was invaluable to the war effort.
He said despite their hard work, members were forced to live in segregated camps and not provided with proper medical care, rations or equipment.
“We cannot ever let what happened to No. 2 Construction Battalion happen again,” Trudeau said. “And we cannot let the service of any member of our forces ever be overlooked and forgotten.” Read more…

The Canadian Encyclopedia: No. 2 Construction Battalion
On 5 July 1916, the Department of Defence and Militia authorized the formation of No. 2 Construction Battalion. It was the largest Black unit in Canadian history. Its members continued the proud tradition of service to king and country that went back to the American Revolution and continued through the War of 1812 and the Rebellions of 1837–38 to the start of the First World War. But there were many obstacles: Black soldiers and communities faced racism both at home and overseas, despite their commitment to the war effort. Read more…

National Trust for Canada: Historic Places
Today we launch Historic Places Days 2022! From July 8-31, we are so excited to be working with communities to celebrate the dynamic and diverse stories of Canada, from coast to coast to coast. Historic Places Days is a 3 week festival (in person/online) that features over 500 historic places, 250 #Visitlists, and over 170 special events.
We know that historic places create a sense of belonging, and these places resonate when their stories are told by passionate people who create special experiences and connections for their visitors. Stories of resilience, stories of commemoration, stories of reconciliation.

Featured: Little Hyatt One-Room Schoolhouse (here)
Waterville, Québec (At 500 historic places, type Waterville in the search box)
I received a phone call yesterday morning to tell me that our Little Schoolhouse had been chosen to be listed on their tour program which is all across Canada which began yesterday and ends July 31st. We do have a tour guide on site to welcome the visitors. To open the story along with pictures Click on “500 historic places”.
Needless to say we volunteers are pretty excited! Bev Loomis…
NOTE: For many years the restoration and operation of the Schoolhouse was a major project of the Little Forks Branch, UELAC, with assistance from UELAC. Many people were involved but the main leaders were Bev and Milt Loomis. Interesting note that Milt celebrated his 95th birthday on July 6.
NOTE: If you spot an Historic Place which is associated with Loyalists, please send a note so we can feautre in Loyalist Trails through July

Ben Franklin’s World: Experiences of Revolution, Part 2: Disruptions in Yorktown
How did people in Yorktown experience everyday life and work amidst the arrival of the British, French, and American armies in the summer of 1781?
We speak with Marcus Nevius, an Associate Professor of History and Africana studies at the University of Rhode Island and author of City of Refuge: Slavery and Petite Marronage in the Great Dismal Swamp, 1763-1856; Ed Ayers, Historian at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation; and Gretchen Johnson, Farm Site Supervisor and Historical Interpreter at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. Listen in…

Ailments, Complaints, and Diseases in the 1700 and 1800s
By Geri Walton 23 January 2014
Common ailments, complaints, and diseases were a mystery in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Physicians were often baffled and did not have a clear understanding of microorganisms or how diseases were transmitted. They believed in the longstanding central principle of Western medicine, known as the Humoral theory, which believed in balancing the four humors—blood (sanguine), black bile (melancholic), yellow bile (choleric), and phlegm (phlegmatic). Among the ways to balance the four humors was bloodletting, which was thought to cure everything from acne to diabetes to indigestion and from nosebleed to scurvy. Unorthodox methods, such as bloodletting, however, often failed. This led to an investigation of other methods to “cure” patients, which eventually resulted in the germ theory that revolutionized medicine.
To help you understand the diseases people faced in the 1700 and 1800s, here is a list, in alphabetical order, of the more common diseases, ailments, and complaints.
AGUE was a type of malarial fever. It was usually characterized by regular intervals of chills, sweating, and fever, and depending on these intervals, sufferers were said to have quartan ague, quintan ague, quotidian ague, or tertian ague. AGUE was also known as chill fever, the shakes, Panama fever, or swamp fever.
BILIOUSNESS was a liver disease characterized by gastric pain and an undue amount of bile brought on by disorders of the liver or gallbladder.
CATARRH was a disorder or inflammation of the mucous membranes in a body cavity or in the airways. There were several forms of this disease: bronchial catarrh was bronchitis, epidemic catarrh was influenza, suffocative catarrh was croup, urethral catarrh was gleet, and vaginal catarrh was leukorrhea.
Read more…

JAR: British Soldier John Ward Wins Back His Pocketbook
by Don N. Hagist 7 July 2022
We expect writers for the Journal of the American Revolution to use primary sources—things written as close as possible to the time of the events that they describe. Sometimes even primary sources contain inaccuracies that can be spotted and resolved only by cross-referencing other primary sources. One example lies in the records of a criminal trial held in April 1779 at the sessions house of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of the City of London and of Middlesex, known as the Old Bailey.
The defendant was John Ward, who had just been discharged from the British army in America and had come to the London area to go before the army’s pension examining board that sat at Chelsea Hospital. This was a common path for soldiers who had ended their careers. If a man served in the army for so long that he was no longer able to earn a living in another line of work, or if he had incurred a disability through military service, the government awarded him a pension. But he had to appear in person before the examining board, a group of army officers who determined that his circumstances did, in fact, qualify him for a pension.
The trial proceedings identify Ward as “a soldier in General Burgoyne’s regiment” who had “been lately discharged on coming home from America.” Read more…

Loyalist Quarterly Newsletter, June 2022, by Paul J. Bunnell UE
Published since 2004, the June 2022 issue is now available. At twenty-five pages, it features:

  • Loyalist Spies In the Revolution
  • Ann Bates
  • Elizabeth Thompson
  • Major John Andre
  • General Benedict Arnold
  • Court Martial of Daniel Strang, 1777
  • Court Martial of Philip Wickware and Robert Dunbar, 1777
  • Spies & Intelligence
  • Black Loyalist Heritage Site

Vol. 19 Part 2 June 2022 Quarterly Issue “In Publication since 2004”
Editor: Paul J. Bunnell, UE, Author, Koasek Abenaki Chief; BunnellLoyalist@aol.com; 978-337-9085, 49 Pleasant St., #106, Alstead, NH 03602
The Only U.S. Newsletter Devoted to The study of The American Loyalists
Subscription Rate: $22 U.S. $24 Can. $5 each copy — (March, June, September, December issues)

Common Place: Revisiting Early American Material Culture and Campus Collections across Pandemic Time
Christine DeLucia
Among the many early American material culture items I have encountered across the Northeast, a certain chest of drawers has captured my attention. This chest, with its striking wood grain, veneering, contrasting coloration, and brasswork, offers a story worth telling about objects and their continuing trajectories in the twenty-first century. It also invites reflections on the experiences of learning, researching, and teaching with material culture across the COVID-19 pandemic, which has necessitated abrupt transitions to the virtual domain—then back again. As with many multi-layered stories, this one begins with a photograph that invites us into closer looking.
The bow-fronted chest at hand is described in the online catalog of the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) as a mahogany piece produced in New Hampshire between approximately 1795 and 1820….
Now that our campus (like so many others) is resuming in-person living and learning, I continue to ruminate on what lessons from the sudden remote turn will we carry forward, and which elements we will gladly leave behind. I recently discarded the hand-sewn mask I clumsily fashioned from a dishtowel in the spring of 2020, using the sewing kit I inherited from my late grandmother. Others are similarly deaccessioning—or preserving—the material traces of pandemic time. And they are delving into the pedagogical implications of the transformations we have experienced.
What this means for the future of early America, and of the meaningful materials that endure today, is a matter still unfolding. Read more…

JAR: Partisan Politics and the Laws Which Shaped the First Congress
by Samuel T. Lair 5 July 2022
Every ten years the United States engages in the process of re-apportionment, wherein each state with more than one House seat redraws their Congressional districts. Simultaneously, every re-districting cycle partisans, activists, and pundits alike all bewail the harmful effects of gerrymandering on the process. Far from a modern phenomenon, partisan politics has always had a significant influence on the re-districting process. Indeed, the Framers of our Constitution designed our system of republican government with the understanding that “party spirit” would be a constant feature in its operation—particularly in redistricting. Nor would it take long for these effects to become a mainstay in the redistricting process. Even before the First Congress assembled in Philadelphia, the partisan quarrels between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists colored the debates over the first election laws and which form of Congressional district was intended by the Constitution. Read more…

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

If you are willing to submit some information, send a note to loyalist.trails@uelac.org
All help is appreciated. …doug

Family Reunions far from the Loyalist Land Grant to Enos Wood
The descendants of Cornwall area Loyalist settlers Enos Wood and Margaret Eamer Wood (these two people are our children’s great- great-grandparents) gathered on Sunday 3 July in the Clear Lake Park, Clear Lake, Wisconsin for our family reunion. Normally these Eamer-Wood families gathers every five years (in a year ending in either a “0” or a “5”). However due to Cv-19 and its variants, the reunion was put off until – we trust – a safer season.
As families grow and move, we now have families living from Florida to Alaska; New Jersey to California and all states in between meaning the numbers of people able to attend grows smaller each year. While fewer in numbers I do believe we have energy spent in planning, program preparation and food production as we did years ago because the younger set (BLESS their hearts) have now taken a step forward to do the work needed for a successful event and us old folks can sit back and give advice (when asked of course!).
Lyle Vernon Wood is a proven Loyalist descendant of Peter Eamer UEL. We live in Hudson, Wisconsin and have four children, eight grandchildren and 6 great-grands. Lyle is in good health, rides his bike 9-10 miles a day, was 96 years old just a couple of weeks ago so we celebrated in style.
PS: 64 persons attended this event from as close as 2 miles to as far away as Jacksonville, Florida in one direction and Deer Lodge, Montana in the opposite direction.
Food was all delicious and more than plentiful; singing to a guitar was good; pictures of family members long gone were hung on the wall for all to see and fun trying to pick out which one of those children in the photos were our grandparents.
….Lyle and Helen Stoltz Wood

Upcoming Events:

UEL Heritage Centre & Park: School of the Sailor encampment; Battle on the Water

July 9 & 10, 2022: SCHOOL OF THE SAILOR 1792-1815 Encampment on the park grounds open to the public Saturday 10-4 and Sunday 10-3 with general day admission.
Special event – a battle on the water – held on Sunday from 11AM at Gap Park near Lennox Generating Station.
Visit UEL Heritage Centre & Park

St. Lawrence Branch Exhibits: July 10; July 16/17

Our next appearance will be 10 July at “History in the Park” an event in Iroquois organized by the Historical Society of South Dundas. It will be held at the Iroquois Campground adjacent to the Forward House.
July 16 and 17, we will have a display at the Battle of Crysler’s Farm Re-Enactment at Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg.
A plaque above the tombstone of John Marselis will be unveiled at 11 am on July 17 as part of the program for Military Reenactment Weekend at Upper Canada Village, Morrisburg, Ontario. (See article above about John)

Victoria Branch – BC Loyalist Day Picnic – July 22

At Willows Park, Oak Bay, BC to celebrate BC Loyalist Day and Victoria Day’s 95th anniversary
Attending? If so please notify social.vic.uelac@gmail.com
See flyer with Photo: Loyalist Day Tea, May 18, 1938 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Walter E. Adams, 1790 Beach Drive

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

  • This week in History
    • 3 July 1772: The HMS Resolution, arrives at Plymouth (England) to join HMS Adventure as the two ships prepare to circumnavigate the globe under the command of Capt. James Cooke.
    • 3 Jul 1775 Sword aloft, George Washington takes charge of Continental Army, leading it to eventual victory.
    • 5 Jul 1775 Congress offers Crown the “Olive Branch Petition,” appealing for reconciliation with Colonies.
    • 2 Jul 1776 Congress votes for outright independence, severing all connections with the Crown.
    • 4 Jul 1776 Congress approves the text of the Declaration of Independence, two days after voting for independence.
    • July 4, 1776, John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence as president of the Continental Congress. So did Charles Thomson as secretary. Thomson sent that copy to the printer. And it disappeared long ago.
    • 8 Jul 1776 Liberty Bell is rung to announce public reading of Declaration of Independence.
    • 5 July 1777, one day after toasting independence in Fort Ticonderoga, Gen. Arthur St. Clair ordered his troops to abandon the post. By taking the nearby high ground, Gen. John Burgoyne’s redcoats retook the fort with only a little skirmishing.
    • 6 Jul 1777 Ft. Ticonderoga retaken by British, with great loss of critical military supplies, light casualties.
    • 7 Jul 1777 The only battle of the Revolution fought in Vermont, Battle of Hubbardton, ends in Patriot defeat.
  • Clothing and Related:
    • 18th Century dress, robe à l’anglaise, wedding dress, American, c.1775
    • 18th Century dress, robe à l’anglaise, c1775, The fabric was designed by Anna Maria Garthwaite, an important English textile designer and the only woman known to have worked in Spitalfields, London.
    • Detail of 18th Century caraco jacket, c.1740-1750, showcasing the winged cuffs & blue brocaded silk – quite possibly Spitalfields silk
    • 18th Century waistcoat, made of silk woven by a well-knwn 18th Century London weaving company, Maze & Steer. Their pattern book of “Fancy Vestings & Handkerchief Goods” is also held in collection & features this design woven in 1788 in 3 colourways
    • 18th Century man’s suit, pink silk, silver brocade with rich embroidery in gold, 1780
  • Townsends:
  • Miscellaneous

 

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