In this issue:
- Conference 2023: Friday Tour Vancouver, Virtual Speaker Jennifer DeBruin, Registration
- UELAC Scholarships: Current Recipient: Sarah Beth Gable
- John Kane: Forgotten Ancestor, Remembered Foe, by Stephen Davidson UE
- Considering the Revolution: The Identities Created by the American Revolutionary War
- William Atwater of Cheshire, New Haven, Connecticut. A Loyalist?
- Perspectives on the Ten Crucial Days of the Revolution
- A Wartime Visit to the Enemy’s Capital
- Book: The Revolutionary World of a Free Black Man: Jacob Francis: 1754-1836
- Black Founder James Forten and the Making of the United States
- Agony by ice: HMS Proserpine, 1799
- Female dentists of the 18th century
- UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions
- In the News:
- Upcoming Events
- From the Twittersphere and Beyond
Connect with us:
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Conference 2023: Where the Sea Meets the Sky June 1-4
Tour “A” Explore Vancouver
Friday, 02 June- Tour ‘A’: Enjoy a Vancouver Cultural Tour of Vancouver City, (lunch included) with stops at the historic and beautiful Stanley Park, followed by lunch and in the afternoon a fully guided tour at the Museum of Vancouver.
Stanley Park is a 405-hectare public park in British Columbia, Canada that makes up the northwestern half of Vancouver’s Downtown Peninsula, surrounded by waters of Burrard Inlet and English Bay. While Stanley Park is not the largest of its kind, it is about one-fifth larger than New York’s Central Park and almost half the size of London’s Richmond Park.
The Museum of Vancouver (MOV) connects Vancouverites to each other and connects the city to the world. An enthusiastic civic advocate, MOV is dedicated to encouraging a deeper understanding of Vancouver through stories, objects, and shared experiences. Its mission is to be a gathering space that fosters connection, learning, and new experiences of Vancouver’s diverse communities and histories.
Read more about Tour “A” – Vancouver
Eleven great topics by expert speakers, and a bargain
For all virtual attendees. Eleven expert guest speakers from across Canada; all for the price of $50.00 – Canadian Funds!
Introducing Guest Presenter #5: Jennifer DeBruin (Central East Region) “Hidden Stories”
“Researcher, author, and speaker Jennifer DeBruin has deep ancestral roots in Quebec, Eastern Ontario, and Colonial America, and a passion for researching and sharing the stories of ordinary people who experienced extraordinary history. With a focus on North America from the 16th – 20th centuries, she seeks to expand the understanding of our complex history from a variety of perspectives.”
All Guest Speaker Presentations will be available at an appropriate scheduled time and Zoom Invite Links will be forwarded closer to the Conference date.
Registration
To register, complete one of the in-person or virtual portion at 2023 Conference Registration.
Pay the necessary Registration Fee via the online, secured Paypal portal OR forward your 2023 Registration Form and Cheque to
Christine Manzer UE, Conference Registrar
208 — 7180 Linden Ave,
Burnaby BC V5E 3G6
Please make all cheques payable to: The UEL Ass’n of Canada Vancouver Branch
If you have any questions regarding registration, please contact UE2023Registrar@gmail.com.
See all conference details at https://uelac.ca/conference-2023/
UELAC Scholarships: Current Recipients
The UELAC Scholarship committee would like to remind Loyalist Trails readers who our current Scholarship recipients are. When we introduce the annual Scholarship Challenge, a few months from now, we hope that knowing the names and research focus of the students will reinforce the importance of the fundraising challenge.
Sarah Beth Gable, PhD Candidate – American History, writing about The Committees of Correspondence. She studies 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.
Learn more at https://uelac.ca/scholarship/
…Christine Manzer UE
Sarah Beth adds:
It has already been a very busy academic year for me! I have been working hard on my dissertation, with the goal of finishing by next Spring. The generous support that UELAC has offered has been an integral part of my progress this year. I have been able to cut back on some of my supplementary paid work and have devoted more time this year to putting together conference proposals to share my work – something that I rarely did last year without additional financial support.
The support of the UELAC scholarship gave me the opportunity to present at three conferences this year. The feedback from those experiences has been vital to my continued momentum on this project. I am so honored and grateful that UELAC has chosen to believe in me and my scholarship.
As a scholar deeply devoted to telling the stories of Loyalists during the American Revolution, this particular award means so much to me. This semester and into the summer, I plan to complete my first draft of the dissertation and will be hard at work editing through the 2023-24 academic year. I am looking forward to finishing and making you all proud!
John Kane: Forgotten Ancestor, Remembered Foe
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
While the descendants of Loyalists have honoured the history of their forebears over the centuries, there are some Loyalists whose existence is only known because of their inclusion in histories written by Patriots.
The descendants of one such man —John Kane— are no doubt unaware of their forefathers’ political leanings during the American Revolution. Kane’s story has also been lost to the chroniclers of Loyalist history. He is one of those in the awkward position of being forgotten by his descendants, but remembered by his enemies.
At the outset of the American Revolution, John Kane (sometimes O’Kane) was a prominent landowner in New York’s Dutchess County. He had come to the New World from Ireland in 1752 at the age of 18. Over time Kane’s successful mercantile pursuits enabled him to buy a “spacious mansion” that became the hub of local society. One source recalled that “no man in the county was more highly regarded than was John Kane“. He and his wife, the former Sybil Kent, had seven sons and six daughters.
One sign of his community’s regard was the fact that Kane was elected to the Provisional Congress of New York in November of 1775. Because he was also “captain of horse” in 1774-75, documents sometimes refer to him as Captain Kane.
One source says that Kane’s initial sympathies were with the Patriots. He could not imagine that the American colonists had any chance of defeating a world power such as Great Britain. This is born out by family tradition that says he raised a company to fight for the colonies. However, when Kane later learned that the colonies were going to break away from the empire, he became “very distressed”.
Other sources say that Kane tried to maintain a neutral political stance. This, of course, pleased neither his Patriot nor Loyalist neighbours.
By 1776, he decided to stand with the Loyalists of Dutchess County. As with so many Patriot histories, Kane’s eventual allegiance to the crown was written off as being done out of “considerations of self-interest”.
Family lore says that Kane was thought to be a friend of General William Howe, the British commander in chief – a rumour that the Patriots of Dutchess County decided to investigate. A party of rebel officers and neighbours went to Kane’s home and demanded to know where his allegiance lay. He became irate, refusing to respond to their questions or to let them speak to his wife.
Fearing for John’s life, Sybil Kane confessed to receiving a document from General Howe’s wife – a friend of hers— that would have given the family safe passage to British lines. But Sybil also confessed that she had burned the pass as she felt that her family did not need the Howes’ protection.
The party at his door then wanted John to take an oath of allegiance to the new republic. Kane “flew into a rage”, ordered the Patriots out of his house, and declared that he would no longer deal with such characters.
Patriots put Kane in irons in the Poughkeepsie jail in late December of 1776. After seven weeks, he was let go on the condition that he would not engage in “any traitorous correspondence with the enemies of the State“.
Kane would later testify that with rebel “troops and militia in going to and returning from their Army, he was exposed to the frequent insults of a licentious soldiery, and having chosen a convenient time for the purpose he quitted his family and habitations, and effected his escape to New York, being accompanied by two of his sons and a party of thirteen Loyalists, one of whom was killed by a patrolling party of the Rebels with whom they fell in at night, by which they were compelled to abandon their horses and everything they had with them, and with difficulty saved their lives.”
The New York legislature confiscated the Kane mansion and property in 1777. Stories passed down through the generations tell of Patriot officers yanking the pillows and blankets from the cradle of Kane’s youngest child. The family remembered suffering “all the indignities that could be inflicted on the bitterest Tory“.
In 1778, General George Washington made Sharvogne, the Kane estate, his official headquarters for 8 weeks. By this time, Kane and two of his sons had found sanctuary on Long Island. Sybil and the remaining children stayed at Sharvogne for three more years. In 1783 Sybil and her family — including two male slaves– took refuge near Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia while John went to England to seek compensation for his wartime losses.
In his petition to Parliament, Kane described his house as “a large and commodious dwelling house, containing ten rooms, a large storehouse 65 feet distant from the dwelling house, with a stone building of one story between, which joined each.” He listed “a barn, barracks, stables, corn-house, shed, smoke-house, dairy, etc.” The farm encompassed 351 acres, and had an orchard of 500 bearing apple trees, and 950 rods of stonewall.
While one source says that he “talked too well of the King’s rebellious subjects” to deserve anything from the British government, Kane did, in fact, receive a life-long pension of £80 a year. While the family was still in Nova Scotia, John wanted two of his sons to become officers in the British Army, but Sybil encouraged them to return to the United States instead.
By 1792, all of the Kane family had returned to the United States where John went into business with his sons. Unable to purchase his former home in Pawling, he established a home in Schenectady, New York. Remembered as an “unfortunate and obstinate Irishman” who had made a “sad mistake” in siding with the Loyalists, John Kane died on March 15, 1808.
Three of Kane’s daughters eventually married men with strong rebel connections. Maria became Mrs. Joseph Yates, Sarah became Mrs. Thomas Morris, and Sybilla became Mrs. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer. All seven of the Kanes’ sons returned to the United States where they re-established their father’s trading company. In time, their business was moving goods from the western frontier to New York City and then on to Europe.
Given that his family remained in the United States and did not take any pride in having a Loyalist ancestor, John Kane’s name was almost lost to history. However, because his home had once been Washington’s headquarters, Kane came into the historical spotlight one last time.
In September 1905, a small crowd gathered at what had once been the Kane home. They witnessed the unveiling of a copper tablet that was draped in both the British and American flags. Mrs. Van Rensselaer Schuyler, a descendant of John Kane, was in the audience that heard “remarks” on the life and character of John Kane. The plaque reads, in part:
THE RESIDENCE OF JOHN KANE ON THIS SITE WAS HEADQUARTERS OF WASHINGTON FROM SEPTEMBER TWELFTH TO NOVEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH, 1778
The fact that Kane happened to have been a Loyalist was discreetly ignored. It is unlikely that any of John and Sybil Kane’s descendants took any pride in their forefather’s loyalty.
Among those descendants is Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the celebrated Arctic explorer – a man who later had a lunar crater, a naval vessel, and an Arctic basin named in his honour. His funeral was the largest in American history until Abraham Lincoln’s surpassed it in 1865.
Other Kane descendants include General Thomas L. Kane (Union officer and ally to the Latter Day Saints) and Judge John Kent Kane of Philadelphia, one of the best-known American politicians of his time.
Had any of these descendants wished, they could have had the initials “U.E.” follow their names – a right granted to any descendant of a recognized Loyalist. But even if they had been aware of the title, it is doubtful they would have used it.
(Editor’s note: See a portrait of John Kane as photographed by Julia Bright)
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.
Considering the Revolution: The Identities Created by the American Revolutionary War
By Jean-Pierre Morin, the departmental historian for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and Indigenous Services Canada, 1 Feb. 2023 in The Public Historian, Universirty of California Press
“Considering the Revolution: The Identities Created by the American Revolutionary War” was the closing public plenary at the May 2022 virtual conference of the National Council on Public History (NCPH). The session, sponsored by the National Park Service (NPS) and NCPH, was the second in a series of five annual scholarly roundtables considering the origins and legacies of the American Revolution
The American Revolutionary War was a seminal event that created new identities, new borders, and new realities for the British, French, African, and Indigenous inhabitants of North America. While the war was foundational in the formation of what became modern American identity, its repercussions go well beyond the citizens of the new republic. The events of 1776 to 1783 not only divided the continent between American and British interests, they also divided families and communities between “Patriots” who supported the Congressional Army and “Loyalists” who supported the British Crown. The establishment of the US–British (later Canadian) border not only defined the territories of the new United States—without any consideration of Indigenous rights or interests—it also divided the peoples of North America into American citizens or British subjects, while imposing a new settler-colonial construct upon Indigenous nations.
Historic sites, such as the Minute Man National Historic Park, Independence Hall National Historic Park, and Valley Forge National Historic Park in the United States, or the Fortifications of Quebec National Historic Site in Canada, play a dual role in historical interpretation of the Revolutionary War. These sites not only commemorate and recount the historical events that occurred during the conflict, but also guide visitors towards a very specific idea of who the individuals participating in them were. Read more…
Suggested by Christine Manzer UE, who notes that Two of the panel speakers mentioned in the article have ties to the UELAC Scholarship committee. Rebecca Brannon is a current member and Taylor Stoemer was a previous chair of the committee. There is also significant reference to Cornwall, where the new UELAC Dominion Office – our new home – is to be located.
William Atwater of Cheshire, New Haven, Connecticut. A Loyalist?
By David Collins UE, a sixth generation descendant on his maternal side
The Atwater clan of New Haven, Connecticut were all descended from David Atwater, one of the first planters of New Haven. He had come to the colonies in 1637 as one of those “infected with distemper for the authorised church.” The family counted itself as minor gentry In Lenham, Kent, and can be traced to the fifteenth century Sir Thomas Atwater. David’s father had died in 1636 which must have prompted him to seek his fortune elsewhere, and so he arrived in Boston with a brother and sister and spent his first winter there.
William Atwater was David’s great grandson, born in March 1730. He married Esther Tuttle on 3 January 1754 and had at least six children, three of which, William, Rufus and Ira, formed the party that eventually decamped to Nova Scotia. As far as we know William Senior was a farmer.
The politics of 1770s America became fierce, as we know. Grievances against the mother country mounted and several of the Thirteen Colonies agitated for better representation if not actual independence from the England of King George III.
Connecticut was one colony, unlike Massachusetts or New York, that showed its revolutionary colours early. Citizens who did not swear an oath of loyalty to the colony once independence was declared lost jobs, offices and often their property. Some left to join the forces that were being formed in more loyal colonies to fight with the British. Many in Connecticut joined the militia forming there to fight for independence.
The records do not indicate if William Atwater and his sons took either course. What is more likely is that they kept their counsel and professed outward loyalty, or at least not disloyalty, to Connecticut as they went about their business. What is clear though is that after the War of Independence was won, these four decided that the tenor of the new regime was not one they shared and sought to leave. But they did this well after the peace treaty of 1783.
Nova Scotia before and at the time of the War of independence was actively SEEKING new settlers. Discharged soldiers from the British Army were fully eligible for land grants and were encouraged to settle. Such was the case too for those displaced Loyalists from the Thirteen Colonies. One such opportunity lay through the Hallowell Grant. Benjamin Hallowell was the Commissioner of Customs at Boston and highly esteemed. When he applied for a grant of land in Nova Scotia, no one doubted his bona fides and he was allocated a large block of land, some 20,000 acres in north eastern Nova Scotia in what is now Guysborough County. But this was early, in 1765, and he was a man of huge foresight. The Collector had a son, also called Ben who entered the Royal Navy and became one of Nelson’s captains. Another son, Ward, was persuaded to take the name of his uncle Nicholas Boylston and it is after him that the village of Boylston was named.
We are not exactly sure how our brave Atwaters came by transport to eastern Nova Scotia in 1785 but there is a Nova Scotia land document noting them as part of James Scovill’s Company at that time. Two later deeds dated 1 August 1787 gave title to both farm (300 to 350 acres) and town plots to the new settlers with William Atwater Sr and his two sons William and Ira Atwater being among the recipients.
William died within several years of arriving in Nova Scotia leaving his farm to his widow Esther who remarried Joseph Hadley in 1791. Another of his sons, Rufus, not mentioned in the initial land grants was born in 1754 and died as a result a logging accident in 1790. His widow Mary Tuttle remarried Elisha Randall in 1792. Rufus’ son William was born in 1785, as the family arrived in Nova Scotia. His son, James Randall Atwater (who became postmaster and a justice of the peace) was born in 1816
and married Mary Janes Boles, born in Co Tipperary Ireland. They had ten children including my great grandfather Frederick P. Atwater.
Not to prolong the story, but it is fair to say that life in that part of Nova Scotia could only support so many children on small land holdings, and the Atwaters were hugely prolific. Many, including Frederick Atwater returned to the ‘Boston states’ where there were family connections and jobs. Fred became a naturalised American citizen in 1890. He met and married a fellow Nova Scotian, Nellie McDonald, in Boston and their first daughter, my grandmother, Ethel Hope Atwater, was born there in 1894. Soon after Fred received the call to return home and run the family farm, there being no one left in Boylston to take care of his parents and manage the farm. No doubt his wife’s desire to return with her new baby to show her own family (of prosperous merchants from Antigonish) influenced the decision too.
They returned in late 1895 and Fred farmed in Boylston until 1938 when he died and the property left the immediate family. My mother and her two siblings recall happily bucolic summers on the farm in Boylston.
So the story is not one of important people who had an active part in supporting the British Crown in Connecticut. It is more one of industrious, hard working farmers who kept their heads down during the Revolution and decided that the new America was not to their taste. The family must have kept its affairs near New Haven in somewhat good order because they still held land there in 1788, at least several years after they migrated to Nova Scotia.
This then begs the question: what sort of Loyalists were they really? Were they tried and true United Empire Loyalists? Were they part of the Associated Loyalists of Connecticut (so-called)? Were they Late Loyalists? I will let the reader judge.
I like to think of them as ‘closet’ Loyalists – certainly retaining loyalty to the Crown but equally not so anti-independence that they risked life, limb and property in what was a very revolutionary minded colony. In the end they were survivors and many Atwaters and their descendants throughout North America are here because if it.
Perspectives on the Ten Crucial Days of the Revolution
by David Price 2 March 2023 Jpournal of the American Revolution
The “Ten Crucial Days” winter campaign of 1776-1777 reversed the momentum of the War for Independence at a moment when what George Washington termed the “glorious Cause” of American independence appeared on the verge of final defeat. During the period from December 25, 1776 through January 3, 1777, beginning with the fabled Christmas night crossing of the Delaware River, the Continental Army under Washington’s command won its first three significant victories—on December 26 and January 2 at Trenton and in the capstone engagement at Princeton on January 3—over Anglo-German forces: British troops and their Hessian auxiliaries, under the overall command of Gen. William Howe and the field command of Lt. Gen. Charles Cornwallis.
Washington’s offensive realized a spectacular degree of success in a remarkably short span of time: more than 1,700 British and Hessian soldiers killed, wounded, captured, or missing in action, as compared with fewer than two hundred American casualties; seizure of a substantial quantity of arms and supplies; and expulsion of His Majesty’s forces from most of New Jersey. The campaign would ultimately be judged among the most brilliant in military history. The Continental Army and its supporting militia bested an adversary who boasted superior training, discipline, and experience, and in the process overcame manifold challenges—supply shortages; harsh weather; desertions; expiring enlistments; and the effects of disease, malnutrition, and exhaustion.
The following observations about the events of the Ten Crucial Days—some familiar to aficionados of this subject and others fairly obscure—are taken from individuals on both sides of the conflict and other commentators. Read more…
A Wartime Visit to the Enemy’s Capital
by Louis Arthur Norton 28 Feb Journal of the American Revolution
Imagine what it would be like to visit London during the waning days of the American Revolution, to hear about attitudes of British officers toward the war and chance to see King George III. Patriot Nathaniel Fanning had this opportunity, and recorded his thoughts and observations in a memoir.
Born in Stonington Connecticut on May 31, 1755, Fanning had a complex maritime career spanning fifty years. He was an American privateer, captain’s clerk, prize master, British prisoner, midshipman/captain-of-the-main top, and most famously sailed under the command of John Paul Jones on the Bonhomme Richard. Fanning later became a French privateer and ultimately a commissioned officer in that country’s navy prior to the war-ending Treaty of Paris. His relatively obscure 1801 memoir is an eyewitness account from the remembrances recorded in his journal. Fanning’s modest education is evident in the work’s grammar, spelling, and punctuation. He stated in his introduction that he did not intend this publication for a general audience. Certainly, the writing style reflects the pen of a sailor rather than a skilled journalist. That noted, this mariner’s memoir is a literary porthole. It includes a chronicle of a junior naval officer’s impressions of the British court and societies at the close of the war.
The following are two excerpts of events that occurred during the spring of 1782 when Fanning left Ostend, Belgium, on a combined business and spy mission to London. Read more…
Book: The Revolutionary World of a Free Black Man: Jacob Francis: 1754-1836
By William L. Kidder Self-published (December 9, 2021)
This is the story of free Black man Jacob Francis of Amwell township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey who 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. The last man lived in Salem, Massachusetts and Jacob lived there between 1768 and 1775 during the buildup to fighting in the American Revolution. Jacob enlisted in a Massachusetts Continental regiment in October 1775 and served through the siege of Boston, the New York campaign, and the Battle of Trenton.
When his enlistment expired on January 1, 1777, he left the army and went back to his birthplace to find his mother and learn his family surname. He established himself in Amwell and turned out for active militia duty for the rest of the war.
In 1789 he married an enslaved woman named Mary whose master sold her to him on their wedding day. He freed her and together they raised a family of nine children. After his life of farming, Jacob and Mary moved into the village of Flemington about 1811 and lived there the remainder of their lives. They were active in the local Baptist Church and their youngest son, Abner, became an ardent abolitionist opposed to the idea of sending freed Black people as “colonists” to Africa. Abner always noted that his father’s participation in the Revolution had been an inspiration for his lifelong endeavors to achieve equal rights Black people as well as White people.
The story of Jacob and his family helps us understand the longstanding systemic racism that Black people in the United States have had to deal with while working to establish their place in society. It is a story of grit and determination combined with kindness and friendship.
This book is available from the Fort Plain Museum Bookstore
Black Founder James Forten and the Making of the United States
Ben Franklin’s World:
People of African descent have made great contributions to the United States and its history. Think about all of the food, music, dance, medicine, farming and religious practices that people of African descent have contributed to American culture. Think about the sacrifices they’ve made to create and protect the United States as an independent nation.
Matthew Skic, a Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, joins us to investigate the life and deeds of the Forten Family, a family of African-descended people who worked in the revolutionary era and beyond to build a better world for their family, community, state, and nation. Listen in…
Agony by ice: HMS Proserpine, 1799
HMS Proserpine was a 28-gun Enterprise-class frigate that entered Royal Navy service in 1777. Her career up to 1799 was worthy but unspectacular. In January 1799 when commanded by Captain James Wallis, she was tasked with carrying the diplomat Thomas Grenville (1755 –1846) on the first leg of his journey to the British Embassy at Berlin, the Prussian capital. This meant dropping him at Cuxhaven, on the west side of the vast estuary of the River Elbe. In that era, before dredged channels had arrived, sandbanks and shoals made navigation in the area difficult and necessitated the services of an experienced pilot.
HMS Proserpine sailed from Yarmouth on 28th January 1799, a mail packet, the Prince of Wales, sailing with her. They arrived off the island of Heligoland – then held and fortified by Britain – two days later and HMS Proserpine took a pilot on board there. A buoy, “the Red Buoy” marked the entrance to the navigation channel, and there both vessels anchored for the night. The other buoys that marked the approaches to the Elbe estuary had been removed to hinder access by hostile forces. Captain Wallis expressed doubts about proceeding further. The pilot was confident however that he would be capable of reaching Cuxhaven as long as the effort was made between half-ebb and half-flood tide, as the lowered water levels would expose sandbanks and show the necessary access channel. He would be further assisted by sight of known landmarks. Wallis yielded and the next morning HMS Proseprine began her passage up the Elbe, proceeded by the Prince of Wales.
All went well until late afternoon, when light was fading. Fog descended, snow began to fall and the pilot could not see his landmarks. Read more… (here is the link to Part II)
Female dentists of the 18th century
By Sarah Murden 26 Sept 2019 All Thnings Georgian
As you may be aware I have previously written about 18th century dentistry and I was interested when I came across ‘City Women in the 18th Century’ which showed a trade card for a female dentist, Catherine Madden.
Catherine Madden of 53, St John’s Street, West Smithfield was working as a dentist between 1790 and 1799, whose cures were so efficacious that she guaranteed ‘no recurrence of the trouble’.
This started me wondering whether she was unique, as I hadn’t spotted any when writing the previous article. No, it seems, she was not unique. Read more…
UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions
Entries which have been added, or revised, this week, with thanks:
- Lynton “Bill” Stewart has added more information to the records for these people:
- Col. Joshua Chandler II from New Haven CT and a graduate of Yale in 1747resettled in Digby, Annapolis County, NS. In 1787, he and his family were on their way to St. John’s, New Brunswick, to relocate there, when the ship they were on foundered in a storm off Musquach Point. Joshua made it to shore, with a rope tied around him, so that the other people could also get ashore. He climbed a large rock to see further, when he slipped and fell to his death. His children, Joshua Jr., Elizabeth and William, made it safely to shore, but froze to death before they could find help.
- Capt. William Chandler Son of Joshua, served in the Long Island Militia. He too settled in Digby, but on 12/13 March 1787 Musquach Point, New Brunswick, he froze to death while seeking assistance for the survivors of the shipwreck that ended in the death of his father Joshua Chandler II.
- Capt. Joseph Clark from Stratford CT served in the Prince of Wales (Surgeon & Captain). He resettled in Maugerville, NB. He and Isabella Elizabeth Allenye had seven children born in Stratford, 2 on Long Island and one more in Maugerville.
- Lewis George DeBlois Sr. born in 1739 in Oxford England settled in Salem MA but resettled in Halifax NS. He went by ‘Lewis’ in his business dealings and ‘George’ in the family. He went to England from Nova Scotia, and died in Holburn, London on 23 Nov 1794.
- George DeBlois Jr. He was the first born of Lewis George Sr. He settled in Newbury Port, Massachusetts Bay before the war. He was an importer and seller of English goods. In April 1775, after the Battle of Lexington, he took his family to St, John River. He went to New York in the Spring of 1776, where he joined the Militia. In 1787 received a Town Lot Loyalist Land Grant in Lunenberg, Lunenberg County, Nova Scotia.
If you are willing to submit some information, send a note to loyalist.trails@uelac.org All help is appreciated. …doug
British colonies were not immune to slavery
By Terry Fegarty and Nancy Matthews, 28 Feb 2023 in Bradford Today
February is Black History Month in the U.S., Canada (since 1996) and several other countries.
The annual national campaign here encourages all Canadians to learn more about Black history in Canada and to remember the incredible influence that Black people have left – and continue to leave – on the cultural fabric of our country.
We Canadians tend to be very proud of our involvement in helping refugees from slavery but seem far less aware that slavery was commonly practised in the Canadian colonies for some 200 years prior to its abolition in 1833.
In the 1790’s, there were: 2,500 enslaved Black people in the Maritimes, 300 in Lower Canada (now Québec), 500 to 700 in Upper Canada (now Ontario).
Many had been brought here by United Empire Loyalists immigrating to Canada from the south after the American Revolution. Read more…
Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia Conference April 22-23
The Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia (GANS) is hosting a Zoom virtual conference on April 22-23. Nova Scotia/New Brunswick received a large number of Loyalists. The list of presenters also includes two speakers on historical British Military research and one with Black Loyalist heritage. The main purpose of this virtual genealogy conference is to connect speakers and researchers from Nova Scotia to researchers and genealogists all around the world. Visit https://www.nsgenconference.ca/ for details and registration.
From the Twittersphere and Beyond
- Brian McConnell UE: Memorial to Black Loyalists in Bayview Cemetery, Goldboro, Guysborough Co., NS reads:
GOD, THE SUPREME BEING
HEBREWS 1: 10 – 12
IN HONOR OF
THE BLACK LOYALISTS
OF THESE VILLAGES
WHO SETTLED HERE IN 1784
AND WERE BURIED IN THE
REDHEAD CEMETERY
REBURIED IN THE
BAYVIEW CEMETERY
ON OCTOBER 21, 2001THIS IS A PROJECT OF
THE LINCOLNVILLE COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION
REDHEAD PROJECT COMMITTEE - Townsends
- This week in History
- 26 Feb 1776 Spain orders West Indies fleet to observe and detain British merchant shipping to gather intelligence.
- 28 Feb 1776 Washington prepares to take heights above Boston, writing that it will “bring on a rumpus” with British.
- 2 Mar 1776 Patriot bombardment of occupied Boston begins, eventually leading to British evacuation.
- 3 Mar 1776 Silas Dean departs to negotiate in secret for French contributions of arms and military materiel.
- 27 Feb 1776 “[Dorchester] Heights will command a large part of the town. If anything will induce General Howe to risk an engagement, it will be this. I am determined to do every thing in my power to bring on one, and that as soon as possible.” George Washington
- 28 Feb 1777 London. Gen John Burgoyne outlines his elaborate scheme to separate New England from the rest of the colonies: a 3-pronged attack with thrusts on Albany, NY from the north, west & south. A good plan but terrain, poor coordination & politics would foil it. Not to mention a strong rebel resistance after an initial setback at Ticonderoga.
- 25 Feb 1778 George Rogers Clark heads to Ft Sackville in present-day Indiana, ending British hold on Western frontier.
- 1 Mar 1781 The Articles of Confederation ratified, forming first national gov’t for new United States of America.
- 27 Feb 1782 British House of Commons votes against continuing war in America.
- Clothing and Related:
- Queen Charlotte’s Notebook c.1765. Tortoiseshell, gold, diamonds (11.0 x 8.3 x 2.5 cm)
- This ca 1725 British dress is a fine example of Spitalfields silk. Moreover, unlike most surviving C18th dresses, it shows no sign of ever having been altered. A Spitalfields silk dress with a dome-shaped skirt conforms not only to the silhouette of the 1730s but also to the interaction between silks and laces during that time, especially evident in Spitalfields manufacture. The silk pattern is like that of lace.
- 18th Century dress, delicate wool crewel embroidery saves this dress from the austerity of the later style & assures a date of about 1798; the piece fully anticipates the Empire style but retains one last vestige of rococo ornament & incident.
- 18th Century ensemble of quilted silk caraco jacket and skirt, the quilting was not only decorative but also added warmth to the wearer. c.1760’s
- 18th Century men’s waistcoat, embroidered with silk leaves and fruits, 1780-1800
- Examples of 18th Century men’s clothing, a highly decorative Court suit and a smart day suit, 1770-1790
- Royal Navy white wool waistcoat of the 1795 pattern. The rank and status of the wearer was indicated by the pattern of the button, in this case a flag officer.
- Mudlarking: A beautifully preserved shoe, c.18th century, found in the mud last week. A few hundred years in some very oily mud meant it was really too smelly to take home, so I left it for the tide.
- Miscellaneous
- A vintage map of Nieuw Amsterdam The city of the Dutch West India Co. in Nieuw Nederland as Dirck Storm first knew it in 1662 – now New York City, USA.
- Executions in 15 objects – Newgate door: This heavy, imposing door was the third and final door through which the condemned would pass on their way to the scaffold. Beyond the door was the noise of eager spectators c.1780. Museum of London.
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Doug Grant UE Tel: (416) 580-8327 loyalist.trails@uelac.org
Editor of Loyalist Trails
United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada (UELAC)
1713 – 158 Front St. East., Toronto ON, M5A 0K9 Canada‘Loyalist Trails’ UELAC Newsletter 2023-10, Mar 5, 2023
In this issue
- Conference 2023: Friday Tour Vancouver, Virtual Speaker Jennifer DeBruin, Registration
- UELAC Scholarships: Current Recipient: Sarah Beth Gable
- John Kane: Forgotten Ancestor, Remembered Foe, by Stephen Davidson UE
- Considering the Revolution: The Identities Created by the American Revolutionary War
- William Atwater of Cheshire, New Haven, Connecticut. A Loyalist?
- Perspectives on the Ten Crucial Days of the Revolution
- A Wartime Visit to the Enemy’s Capital
- Book: The Revolutionary World of a Free Black Man: Jacob Francis: 1754-1836
- Black Founder James Forten and the Making of the United States
- Agony by ice: HMS Proserpine, 1799
- Female dentists of the 18th century
- UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions
- In the News:
- Upcoming Events
- From the Twittersphere and Beyond
Connect with us:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/uelac
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2303178326/?ref=share
Conference 2023: Where the Sea Meets the Sky June 1-4
Tour “A” Explore Vancouver
Friday, 02 June- Tour ‘A’: Enjoy a Vancouver Cultural Tour of Vancouver City, (lunch included) with stops at the historic and beautiful Stanley Park, followed by lunch and in the afternoon a fully guided tour at the Museum of Vancouver.
Stanley Park is a 405-hectare public park in British Columbia, Canada that makes up the northwestern half of Vancouver’s Downtown Peninsula, surrounded by waters of Burrard Inlet and English Bay. While Stanley Park is not the largest of its kind, it is about one-fifth larger than New York’s Central Park and almost half the size of London’s Richmond Park.
The Museum of Vancouver (MOV) connects Vancouverites to each other and connects the city to the world. An enthusiastic civic advocate, MOV is dedicated to encouraging a deeper understanding of Vancouver through stories, objects, and shared experiences. Its mission is to be a gathering space that fosters connection, learning, and new experiences of Vancouver’s diverse communities and histories.
Read more about Tour “A” – Vancouver
Eleven great topics by expert speakers, and a bargain
For all virtual attendees. Eleven expert guest speakers from across Canada; all for the price of $50.00 – Canadian Funds!
Introducing Guest Presenter #5: Jennifer DeBruin (Central East Region) “Hidden Stories”
“Researcher, author, and speaker Jennifer DeBruin has deep ancestral roots in Quebec, Eastern Ontario, and Colonial America, and a passion for researching and sharing the stories of ordinary people who experienced extraordinary history. With a focus on North America from the 16th – 20th centuries, she seeks to expand the understanding of our complex history from a variety of perspectives.”
All Guest Speaker Presentations will be available at an appropriate scheduled time and Zoom Invite Links will be forwarded closer to the Conference date.
Registration
To register, complete one of the in-person or virtual portion at 2023 Conference Registration.
Pay the necessary Registration Fee via the online, secured Paypal portal OR forward your 2023 Registration Form and Cheque to
Christine Manzer UE, Conference Registrar
208 — 7180 Linden Ave,
Burnaby BC V5E 3G6
Please make all cheques payable to: The UEL Ass’n of Canada Vancouver Branch
If you have any questions regarding registration, please contact UE2023Registrar@gmail.com.
See all conference details at https://uelac.ca/conference-2023/
UELAC Scholarships: Current Recipients
The UELAC Scholarship committee would like to remind Loyalist Trails readers who our current Scholarship recipients are. When we introduce the annual Scholarship Challenge, a few months from now, we hope that knowing the names and research focus of the students will reinforce the importance of the fundraising challenge.
Sarah Beth Gable, PhD Candidate – American History, writing about The Committees of Correspondence. She studies 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.
Learn more at https://uelac.ca/scholarship/
…Christine Manzer UE
Sarah Beth adds:
It has already been a very busy academic year for me! I have been working hard on my dissertation, with the goal of finishing by next Spring. The generous support that UELAC has offered has been an integral part of my progress this year. I have been able to cut back on some of my supplementary paid work and have devoted more time this year to putting together conference proposals to share my work – something that I rarely did last year without additional financial support.
The support of the UELAC scholarship gave me the opportunity to present at three conferences this year. The feedback from those experiences has been vital to my continued momentum on this project. I am so honored and grateful that UELAC has chosen to believe in me and my scholarship.
As a scholar deeply devoted to telling the stories of Loyalists during the American Revolution, this particular award means so much to me. This semester and into the summer, I plan to complete my first draft of the dissertation and will be hard at work editing through the 2023-24 academic year. I am looking forward to finishing and making you all proud!
John Kane: Forgotten Ancestor, Remembered Foe
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
While the descendants of Loyalists have honoured the history of their forebears over the centuries, there are some Loyalists whose existence is only known because of their inclusion in histories written by Patriots.
The descendants of one such man —John Kane— are no doubt unaware of their forefathers’ political leanings during the American Revolution. Kane’s story has also been lost to the chroniclers of Loyalist history. He is one of those in the awkward position of being forgotten by his descendants, but remembered by his enemies.
At the outset of the American Revolution, John Kane (sometimes O’Kane) was a prominent landowner in New York’s Dutchess County. He had come to the New World from Ireland in 1752 at the age of 18. Over time Kane’s successful mercantile pursuits enabled him to buy a “spacious mansion” that became the hub of local society. One source recalled that “no man in the county was more highly regarded than was John Kane“. He and his wife, the former Sybil Kent, had seven sons and six daughters.
One sign of his community’s regard was the fact that Kane was elected to the Provisional Congress of New York in November of 1775. Because he was also “captain of horse” in 1774-75, documents sometimes refer to him as Captain Kane.
One source says that Kane’s initial sympathies were with the Patriots. He could not imagine that the American colonists had any chance of defeating a world power such as Great Britain. This is born out by family tradition that says he raised a company to fight for the colonies. However, when Kane later learned that the colonies were going to break away from the empire, he became “very distressed”.
Other sources say that Kane tried to maintain a neutral political stance. This, of course, pleased neither his Patriot nor Loyalist neighbours.
By 1776, he decided to stand with the Loyalists of Dutchess County. As with so many Patriot histories, Kane’s eventual allegiance to the crown was written off as being done out of “considerations of self-interest”.
Family lore says that Kane was thought to be a friend of General William Howe, the British commander in chief – a rumour that the Patriots of Dutchess County decided to investigate. A party of rebel officers and neighbours went to Kane’s home and demanded to know where his allegiance lay. He became irate, refusing to respond to their questions or to let them speak to his wife.
Fearing for John’s life, Sybil Kane confessed to receiving a document from General Howe’s wife – a friend of hers— that would have given the family safe passage to British lines. But Sybil also confessed that she had burned the pass as she felt that her family did not need the Howes’ protection.
The party at his door then wanted John to take an oath of allegiance to the new republic. Kane “flew into a rage”, ordered the Patriots out of his house, and declared that he would no longer deal with such characters.
Patriots put Kane in irons in the Poughkeepsie jail in late December of 1776. After seven weeks, he was let go on the condition that he would not engage in “any traitorous correspondence with the enemies of the State“.
Kane would later testify that with rebel “troops and militia in going to and returning from their Army, he was exposed to the frequent insults of a licentious soldiery, and having chosen a convenient time for the purpose he quitted his family and habitations, and effected his escape to New York, being accompanied by two of his sons and a party of thirteen Loyalists, one of whom was killed by a patrolling party of the Rebels with whom they fell in at night, by which they were compelled to abandon their horses and everything they had with them, and with difficulty saved their lives.”
The New York legislature confiscated the Kane mansion and property in 1777. Stories passed down through the generations tell of Patriot officers yanking the pillows and blankets from the cradle of Kane’s youngest child. The family remembered suffering “all the indignities that could be inflicted on the bitterest Tory“.
In 1778, General George Washington made Sharvogne, the Kane estate, his official headquarters for 8 weeks. By this time, Kane and two of his sons had found sanctuary on Long Island. Sybil and the remaining children stayed at Sharvogne for three more years. In 1783 Sybil and her family — including two male slaves– took refuge near Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia while John went to England to seek compensation for his wartime losses.
In his petition to Parliament, Kane described his house as “a large and commodious dwelling house, containing ten rooms, a large storehouse 65 feet distant from the dwelling house, with a stone building of one story between, which joined each.” He listed “a barn, barracks, stables, corn-house, shed, smoke-house, dairy, etc.” The farm encompassed 351 acres, and had an orchard of 500 bearing apple trees, and 950 rods of stonewall.
While one source says that he “talked too well of the King’s rebellious subjects” to deserve anything from the British government, Kane did, in fact, receive a life-long pension of £80 a year. While the family was still in Nova Scotia, John wanted two of his sons to become officers in the British Army, but Sybil encouraged them to return to the United States instead.
By 1792, all of the Kane family had returned to the United States where John went into business with his sons. Unable to purchase his former home in Pawling, he established a home in Schenectady, New York. Remembered as an “unfortunate and obstinate Irishman” who had made a “sad mistake” in siding with the Loyalists, John Kane died on March 15, 1808.
Three of Kane’s daughters eventually married men with strong rebel connections. Maria became Mrs. Joseph Yates, Sarah became Mrs. Thomas Morris, and Sybilla became Mrs. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer. All seven of the Kanes’ sons returned to the United States where they re-established their father’s trading company. In time, their business was moving goods from the western frontier to New York City and then on to Europe.
Given that his family remained in the United States and did not take any pride in having a Loyalist ancestor, John Kane’s name was almost lost to history. However, because his home had once been Washington’s headquarters, Kane came into the historical spotlight one last time.
In September 1905, a small crowd gathered at what had once been the Kane home. They witnessed the unveiling of a copper tablet that was draped in both the British and American flags. Mrs. Van Rensselaer Schuyler, a descendant of John Kane, was in the audience that heard “remarks” on the life and character of John Kane. The plaque reads, in part:
THE RESIDENCE OF JOHN KANE ON THIS SITE WAS HEADQUARTERS OF WASHINGTON FROM SEPTEMBER TWELFTH TO NOVEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH, 1778
The fact that Kane happened to have been a Loyalist was discreetly ignored. It is unlikely that any of John and Sybil Kane’s descendants took any pride in their forefather’s loyalty.
Among those descendants is Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the celebrated Arctic explorer – a man who later had a lunar crater, a naval vessel, and an Arctic basin named in his honour. His funeral was the largest in American history until Abraham Lincoln’s surpassed it in 1865.
Other Kane descendants include General Thomas L. Kane (Union officer and ally to the Latter Day Saints) and Judge John Kent Kane of Philadelphia, one of the best-known American politicians of his time.
Had any of these descendants wished, they could have had the initials “U.E.” follow their names – a right granted to any descendant of a recognized Loyalist. But even if they had been aware of the title, it is doubtful they would have used it.
(Editor’s note: See a portrait of John Kane as photographed by Julia Bright)
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.
Considering the Revolution: The Identities Created by the American Revolutionary War
By Jean-Pierre Morin, the departmental historian for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and Indigenous Services Canada, 1 Feb. 2023 in The Public Historian, Universirty of California Press
“Considering the Revolution: The Identities Created by the American Revolutionary War” was the closing public plenary at the May 2022 virtual conference of the National Council on Public History (NCPH). The session, sponsored by the National Park Service (NPS) and NCPH, was the second in a series of five annual scholarly roundtables considering the origins and legacies of the American Revolution
The American Revolutionary War was a seminal event that created new identities, new borders, and new realities for the British, French, African, and Indigenous inhabitants of North America. While the war was foundational in the formation of what became modern American identity, its repercussions go well beyond the citizens of the new republic. The events of 1776 to 1783 not only divided the continent between American and British interests, they also divided families and communities between “Patriots” who supported the Congressional Army and “Loyalists” who supported the British Crown. The establishment of the US–British (later Canadian) border not only defined the territories of the new United States—without any consideration of Indigenous rights or interests—it also divided the peoples of North America into American citizens or British subjects, while imposing a new settler-colonial construct upon Indigenous nations.
Historic sites, such as the Minute Man National Historic Park, Independence Hall National Historic Park, and Valley Forge National Historic Park in the United States, or the Fortifications of Quebec National Historic Site in Canada, play a dual role in historical interpretation of the Revolutionary War. These sites not only commemorate and recount the historical events that occurred during the conflict, but also guide visitors towards a very specific idea of who the individuals participating in them were. Read more…
Suggested by Christine Manzer UE, who notes that Two of the panel speakers mentioned in the article have ties to the UELAC Scholarship committee. Rebecca Brannon is a current member and Taylor Stoemer was a previous chair of the committee. There is also significant reference to Cornwall, where the new UELAC Dominion Office – our new home – is to be located.
William Atwater of Cheshire, New Haven, Connecticut. A Loyalist?
By David Collins UE, a sixth generation descendant on his maternal side
The Atwater clan of New Haven, Connecticut were all descended from David Atwater, one of the first planters of New Haven. He had come to the colonies in 1637 as one of those “infected with distemper for the authorised church.” The family counted itself as minor gentry In Lenham, Kent, and can be traced to the fifteenth century Sir Thomas Atwater. David’s father had died in 1636 which must have prompted him to seek his fortune elsewhere, and so he arrived in Boston with a brother and sister and spent his first winter there.
William Atwater was David’s great grandson, born in March 1730. He married Esther Tuttle on 3 January 1754 and had at least six children, three of which, William, Rufus and Ira, formed the party that eventually decamped to Nova Scotia. As far as we know William Senior was a farmer.
The politics of 1770s America became fierce, as we know. Grievances against the mother country mounted and several of the Thirteen Colonies agitated for better representation if not actual independence from the England of King George III.
Connecticut was one colony, unlike Massachusetts or New York, that showed its revolutionary colours early. Citizens who did not swear an oath of loyalty to the colony once independence was declared lost jobs, offices and often their property. Some left to join the forces that were being formed in more loyal colonies to fight with the British. Many in Connecticut joined the militia forming there to fight for independence.
The records do not indicate if William Atwater and his sons took either course. What is more likely is that they kept their counsel and professed outward loyalty, or at least not disloyalty, to Connecticut as they went about their business. What is clear though is that after the War of Independence was won, these four decided that the tenor of the new regime was not one they shared and sought to leave. But they did this well after the peace treaty of 1783.
Nova Scotia before and at the time of the War of independence was actively SEEKING new settlers. Discharged soldiers from the British Army were fully eligible for land grants and were encouraged to settle. Such was the case too for those displaced Loyalists from the Thirteen Colonies. One such opportunity lay through the Hallowell Grant. Benjamin Hallowell was the Commissioner of Customs at Boston and highly esteemed. When he applied for a grant of land in Nova Scotia, no one doubted his bona fides and he was allocated a large block of land, some 20,000 acres in north eastern Nova Scotia in what is now Guysborough County. But this was early, in 1765, and he was a man of huge foresight. The Collector had a son, also called Ben who entered the Royal Navy and became one of Nelson’s captains. Another son, Ward, was persuaded to take the name of his uncle Nicholas Boylston and it is after him that the village of Boylston was named.
We are not exactly sure how our brave Atwaters came by transport to eastern Nova Scotia in 1785 but there is a Nova Scotia land document noting them as part of James Scovill’s Company at that time. Two later deeds dated 1 August 1787 gave title to both farm (300 to 350 acres) and town plots to the new settlers with William Atwater Sr and his two sons William and Ira Atwater being among the recipients.
William died within several years of arriving in Nova Scotia leaving his farm to his widow Esther who remarried Joseph Hadley in 1791. Another of his sons, Rufus, not mentioned in the initial land grants was born in 1754 and died as a result a logging accident in 1790. His widow Mary Tuttle remarried Elisha Randall in 1792. Rufus’ son William was born in 1785, as the family arrived in Nova Scotia. His son, James Randall Atwater (who became postmaster and a justice of the peace) was born in 1816
and married Mary Janes Boles, born in Co Tipperary Ireland. They had ten children including my great grandfather Frederick P. Atwater.
Not to prolong the story, but it is fair to say that life in that part of Nova Scotia could only support so many children on small land holdings, and the Atwaters were hugely prolific. Many, including Frederick Atwater returned to the ‘Boston states’ where there were family connections and jobs. Fred became a naturalised American citizen in 1890. He met and married a fellow Nova Scotian, Nellie McDonald, in Boston and their first daughter, my grandmother, Ethel Hope Atwater, was born there in 1894. Soon after Fred received the call to return home and run the family farm, there being no one left in Boylston to take care of his parents and manage the farm. No doubt his wife’s desire to return with her new baby to show her own family (of prosperous merchants from Antigonish) influenced the decision too.
They returned in late 1895 and Fred farmed in Boylston until 1938 when he died and the property left the immediate family. My mother and her two siblings recall happily bucolic summers on the farm in Boylston.
So the story is not one of important people who had an active part in supporting the British Crown in Connecticut. It is more one of industrious, hard working farmers who kept their heads down during the Revolution and decided that the new America was not to their taste. The family must have kept its affairs near New Haven in somewhat good order because they still held land there in 1788, at least several years after they migrated to Nova Scotia.
This then begs the question: what sort of Loyalists were they really? Were they tried and true United Empire Loyalists? Were they part of the Associated Loyalists of Connecticut (so-called)? Were they Late Loyalists? I will let the reader judge.
I like to think of them as ‘closet’ Loyalists – certainly retaining loyalty to the Crown but equally not so anti-independence that they risked life, limb and property in what was a very revolutionary minded colony. In the end they were survivors and many Atwaters and their descendants throughout North America are here because if it.
Perspectives on the Ten Crucial Days of the Revolution
by David Price 2 March 2023 Jpournal of the American Revolution
The “Ten Crucial Days” winter campaign of 1776-1777 reversed the momentum of the War for Independence at a moment when what George Washington termed the “glorious Cause” of American independence appeared on the verge of final defeat. During the period from December 25, 1776 through January 3, 1777, beginning with the fabled Christmas night crossing of the Delaware River, the Continental Army under Washington’s command won its first three significant victories—on December 26 and January 2 at Trenton and in the capstone engagement at Princeton on January 3—over Anglo-German forces: British troops and their Hessian auxiliaries, under the overall command of Gen. William Howe and the field command of Lt. Gen. Charles Cornwallis.
Washington’s offensive realized a spectacular degree of success in a remarkably short span of time: more than 1,700 British and Hessian soldiers killed, wounded, captured, or missing in action, as compared with fewer than two hundred American casualties; seizure of a substantial quantity of arms and supplies; and expulsion of His Majesty’s forces from most of New Jersey. The campaign would ultimately be judged among the most brilliant in military history. The Continental Army and its supporting militia bested an adversary who boasted superior training, discipline, and experience, and in the process overcame manifold challenges—supply shortages; harsh weather; desertions; expiring enlistments; and the effects of disease, malnutrition, and exhaustion.
The following observations about the events of the Ten Crucial Days—some familiar to aficionados of this subject and others fairly obscure—are taken from individuals on both sides of the conflict and other commentators. Read more…
A Wartime Visit to the Enemy’s Capital
by Louis Arthur Norton 28 Feb Journal of the American Revolution
Imagine what it would be like to visit London during the waning days of the American Revolution, to hear about attitudes of British officers toward the war and chance to see King George III. Patriot Nathaniel Fanning had this opportunity, and recorded his thoughts and observations in a memoir.
Born in Stonington Connecticut on May 31, 1755, Fanning had a complex maritime career spanning fifty years. He was an American privateer, captain’s clerk, prize master, British prisoner, midshipman/captain-of-the-main top, and most famously sailed under the command of John Paul Jones on the Bonhomme Richard. Fanning later became a French privateer and ultimately a commissioned officer in that country’s navy prior to the war-ending Treaty of Paris. His relatively obscure 1801 memoir is an eyewitness account from the remembrances recorded in his journal. Fanning’s modest education is evident in the work’s grammar, spelling, and punctuation. He stated in his introduction that he did not intend this publication for a general audience. Certainly, the writing style reflects the pen of a sailor rather than a skilled journalist. That noted, this mariner’s memoir is a literary porthole. It includes a chronicle of a junior naval officer’s impressions of the British court and societies at the close of the war.
The following are two excerpts of events that occurred during the spring of 1782 when Fanning left Ostend, Belgium, on a combined business and spy mission to London. Read more…
Book: The Revolutionary World of a Free Black Man: Jacob Francis: 1754-1836
By William L. Kidder Self-published (December 9, 2021)
This is the story of free Black man Jacob Francis of Amwell township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey who 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. The last man lived in Salem, Massachusetts and Jacob lived there between 1768 and 1775 during the buildup to fighting in the American Revolution. Jacob enlisted in a Massachusetts Continental regiment in October 1775 and served through the siege of Boston, the New York campaign, and the Battle of Trenton.
When his enlistment expired on January 1, 1777, he left the army and went back to his birthplace to find his mother and learn his family surname. He established himself in Amwell and turned out for active militia duty for the rest of the war.
In 1789 he married an enslaved woman named Mary whose master sold her to him on their wedding day. He freed her and together they raised a family of nine children. After his life of farming, Jacob and Mary moved into the village of Flemington about 1811 and lived there the remainder of their lives. They were active in the local Baptist Church and their youngest son, Abner, became an ardent abolitionist opposed to the idea of sending freed Black people as “colonists” to Africa. Abner always noted that his father’s participation in the Revolution had been an inspiration for his lifelong endeavors to achieve equal rights Black people as well as White people.
The story of Jacob and his family helps us understand the longstanding systemic racism that Black people in the United States have had to deal with while working to establish their place in society. It is a story of grit and determination combined with kindness and friendship.
This book is available from the Fort Plain Museum Bookstore
Black Founder James Forten and the Making of the United States
Ben Franklin’s World:
People of African descent have made great contributions to the United States and its history. Think about all of the food, music, dance, medicine, farming and religious practices that people of African descent have contributed to American culture. Think about the sacrifices they’ve made to create and protect the United States as an independent nation.
Matthew Skic, a Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, joins us to investigate the life and deeds of the Forten Family, a family of African-descended people who worked in the revolutionary era and beyond to build a better world for their family, community, state, and nation. Listen in…
Agony by ice: HMS Proserpine, 1799
HMS Proserpine was a 28-gun Enterprise-class frigate that entered Royal Navy service in 1777. Her career up to 1799 was worthy but unspectacular. In January 1799 when commanded by Captain James Wallis, she was tasked with carrying the diplomat Thomas Grenville (1755 –1846) on the first leg of his journey to the British Embassy at Berlin, the Prussian capital. This meant dropping him at Cuxhaven, on the west side of the vast estuary of the River Elbe. In that era, before dredged channels had arrived, sandbanks and shoals made navigation in the area difficult and necessitated the services of an experienced pilot.
HMS Proserpine sailed from Yarmouth on 28th January 1799, a mail packet, the Prince of Wales, sailing with her. They arrived off the island of Heligoland – then held and fortified by Britain – two days later and HMS Proserpine took a pilot on board there. A buoy, “the Red Buoy” marked the entrance to the navigation channel, and there both vessels anchored for the night. The other buoys that marked the approaches to the Elbe estuary had been removed to hinder access by hostile forces. Captain Wallis expressed doubts about proceeding further. The pilot was confident however that he would be capable of reaching Cuxhaven as long as the effort was made between half-ebb and half-flood tide, as the lowered water levels would expose sandbanks and show the necessary access channel. He would be further assisted by sight of known landmarks. Wallis yielded and the next morning HMS Proseprine began her passage up the Elbe, proceeded by the Prince of Wales.
All went well until late afternoon, when light was fading. Fog descended, snow began to fall and the pilot could not see his landmarks. Read more… (here is the link to Part II)
Female dentists of the 18th century
By Sarah Murden 26 Sept 2019 All Thnings Georgian
As you may be aware I have previously written about 18th century dentistry and I was interested when I came across ‘City Women in the 18th Century’ which showed a trade card for a female dentist, Catherine Madden.
Catherine Madden of 53, St John’s Street, West Smithfield was working as a dentist between 1790 and 1799, whose cures were so efficacious that she guaranteed ‘no recurrence of the trouble’.
This started me wondering whether she was unique, as I hadn’t spotted any when writing the previous article. No, it seems, she was not unique. Read more…
UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions
Entries which have been added, or revised, this week, with thanks:
- Lynton “Bill” Stewart has added more information to the records for these people:
- Col. Joshua Chandler II from New Haven CT and a graduate of Yale in 1747resettled in Digby, Annapolis County, NS. In 1787, he and his family were on their way to St. John’s, New Brunswick, to relocate there, when the ship they were on foundered in a storm off Musquach Point. Joshua made it to shore, with a rope tied around him, so that the other people could also get ashore. He climbed a large rock to see further, when he slipped and fell to his death. His children, Joshua Jr., Elizabeth and William, made it safely to shore, but froze to death before they could find help.
- Capt. William Chandler Son of Joshua, served in the Long Island Militia. He too settled in Digby, but on 12/13 March 1787 Musquach Point, New Brunswick, he froze to death while seeking assistance for the survivors of the shipwreck that ended in the death of his father Joshua Chandler II.
- Capt. Joseph Clark from Stratford CT served in the Prince of Wales (Surgeon & Captain). He resettled in Maugerville, NB. He and Isabella Elizabeth Allenye had seven children born in Stratford, 2 on Long Island and one more in Maugerville.
- Lewis George DeBlois Sr. born in 1739 in Oxford England settled in Salem MA but resettled in Halifax NS. He went by ‘Lewis’ in his business dealings and ‘George’ in the family. He went to England from Nova Scotia, and died in Holburn, London on 23 Nov 1794.
- George DeBlois Jr. He was the first born of Lewis George Sr. He settled in Newbury Port, Massachusetts Bay before the war. He was an importer and seller of English goods. In April 1775, after the Battle of Lexington, he took his family to St, John River. He went to New York in the Spring of 1776, where he joined the Militia. In 1787 received a Town Lot Loyalist Land Grant in Lunenberg, Lunenberg County, Nova Scotia.
If you are willing to submit some information, send a note to loyalist.trails@uelac.org All help is appreciated. …doug
British colonies were not immune to slavery
By Terry Fegarty and Nancy Matthews, 28 Feb 2023 in Bradford Today
February is Black History Month in the U.S., Canada (since 1996) and several other countries.
The annual national campaign here encourages all Canadians to learn more about Black history in Canada and to remember the incredible influence that Black people have left – and continue to leave – on the cultural fabric of our country.
We Canadians tend to be very proud of our involvement in helping refugees from slavery but seem far less aware that slavery was commonly practised in the Canadian colonies for some 200 years prior to its abolition in 1833.
In the 1790’s, there were: 2,500 enslaved Black people in the Maritimes, 300 in Lower Canada (now Québec), 500 to 700 in Upper Canada (now Ontario).
Many had been brought here by United Empire Loyalists immigrating to Canada from the south after the American Revolution. Read more…
Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia Conference April 22-23
The Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia (GANS) is hosting a Zoom virtual conference on April 22-23. Nova Scotia/New Brunswick received a large number of Loyalists. The list of presenters also includes two speakers on historical British Military research and one with Black Loyalist heritage. The main purpose of this virtual genealogy conference is to connect speakers and researchers from Nova Scotia to researchers and genealogists all around the world. Visit https://www.nsgenconference.ca/ for details and registration.
From the Twittersphere and Beyond
- Brian McConnell UE: Memorial to Black Loyalists in Bayview Cemetery, Goldboro, Guysborough Co., NS reads:
GOD, THE SUPREME BEING
HEBREWS 1: 10 – 12
IN HONOR OF
THE BLACK LOYALISTS
OF THESE VILLAGES
WHO SETTLED HERE IN 1784
AND WERE BURIED IN THE
REDHEAD CEMETERY
REBURIED IN THE
BAYVIEW CEMETERY
ON OCTOBER 21, 2001THIS IS A PROJECT OF
THE LINCOLNVILLE COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION
REDHEAD PROJECT COMMITTEE - Townsends
- This week in History
- 26 Feb 1776 Spain orders West Indies fleet to observe and detain British merchant shipping to gather intelligence.
- 28 Feb 1776 Washington prepares to take heights above Boston, writing that it will “bring on a rumpus” with British.
- 2 Mar 1776 Patriot bombardment of occupied Boston begins, eventually leading to British evacuation.
- 3 Mar 1776 Silas Dean departs to negotiate in secret for French contributions of arms and military materiel.
- 27 Feb 1776 “[Dorchester] Heights will command a large part of the town. If anything will induce General Howe to risk an engagement, it will be this. I am determined to do every thing in my power to bring on one, and that as soon as possible.” George Washington
- 28 Feb 1777 London. Gen John Burgoyne outlines his elaborate scheme to separate New England from the rest of the colonies: a 3-pronged attack with thrusts on Albany, NY from the north, west & south. A good plan but terrain, poor coordination & politics would foil it. Not to mention a strong rebel resistance after an initial setback at Ticonderoga.
- 25 Feb 1778 George Rogers Clark heads to Ft Sackville in present-day Indiana, ending British hold on Western frontier.
- 1 Mar 1781 The Articles of Confederation ratified, forming first national gov’t for new United States of America.
- 27 Feb 1782 British House of Commons votes against continuing war in America.
- Clothing and Related:
- Queen Charlotte’s Notebook c.1765. Tortoiseshell, gold, diamonds (11.0 x 8.3 x 2.5 cm)
- This ca 1725 British dress is a fine example of Spitalfields silk. Moreover, unlike most surviving C18th dresses, it shows no sign of ever having been altered. A Spitalfields silk dress with a dome-shaped skirt conforms not only to the silhouette of the 1730s but also to the interaction between silks and laces during that time, especially evident in Spitalfields manufacture. The silk pattern is like that of lace.
- 18th Century dress, delicate wool crewel embroidery saves this dress from the austerity of the later style & assures a date of about 1798; the piece fully anticipates the Empire style but retains one last vestige of rococo ornament & incident.
- 18th Century ensemble of quilted silk caraco jacket and skirt, the quilting was not only decorative but also added warmth to the wearer. c.1760’s
- 18th Century men’s waistcoat, embroidered with silk leaves and fruits, 1780-1800
- Examples of 18th Century men’s clothing, a highly decorative Court suit and a smart day suit, 1770-1790
- Royal Navy white wool waistcoat of the 1795 pattern. The rank and status of the wearer was indicated by the pattern of the button, in this case a flag officer.
- Mudlarking: A beautifully preserved shoe, c.18th century, found in the mud last week. A few hundred years in some very oily mud meant it was really too smelly to take home, so I left it for the tide.
- Miscellaneous
- A vintage map of Nieuw Amsterdam The city of the Dutch West India Co. in Nieuw Nederland as Dirck Storm first knew it in 1662 – now New York City, USA.
- Executions in 15 objects – Newgate door: This heavy, imposing door was the third and final door through which the condemned would pass on their way to the scaffold. Beyond the door was the noise of eager spectators c.1780. Museum of London.
Published by the UELAC
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