In this issue:


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The Scholarship Challenge has launched.
Thursday June 1st launched the UELAC Scholarship Challenge for 2023. Members and guests attending the conference in Richmond BC had a chance to view a display about the challenge and to read thank you messages from our current scholars. It is the 25th anniversary of this successful scholarship program. Much credit goes to the many individuals who have guided this committee in the past.
Funding Future Scholars is our theme for this year. The challenge will run from June 1 – August 1, 2023. Watch for updates as the climb to our goal of $5000 is reached. Thank you to many for ongoing donations and to the Branches and individual members who donate at the time of our 8-week challenge. Your help is what keeps this program vibrant.
Read more about the Funding Future Scholars here.
Christine Manzer UE on behalf of the whole Scholarship Committee.

Conference 2023: Where the Sea Meets the Sky
Today, Sunday 4 June, is the finale, the wrap-up day, for UELAC Conference 2023.
Thanks to the four branches of the Pacific Region which have hosted the event, and the many members and guests who have attended, in-person or virtually.
It was a lot of work, but a pleasure, to plan and organize the event with the help of all the individuals who helped out.

The 2023 Conference Planning Committee – Co-Chairs Carl Stymiest UE, Diane Faris UE, Christopher Wilcott UE, and Coco Aders-Weremczuk

Visit Where the Sea Meets the Sky for all the Conference details

Loyalist Gazette, Spring Issue 2023
The digital copy of the Spring 2023 issue of the Loyalist Gazette is now available from uelac.ca in the members section. Log-in is required.
The Gazette is at the printer, and this past week the printer proofs were approved. It is in the printing process, then to be stuffed and stamped. If all goes well, it could be delivered to Canada Post later this week for delivery to those who have requested a paper copy.
Inside, you will find great content including articles such as

  • 95th Anniversary of the founding of the Victoria Branch UELAC
  • Re-enacting with the King’s Royal Yorkers
  • A HISTORY OF THE COLOURS OF THE Recreated King’s Royal Yorkers
  • A visit to Fort La Presentation
  • Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry A Brief History

Enjoy.

Unpacking Loyalists’ Runaway Notices – Part Four of Four
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Enslaved Africans were not the only people to run away from oppressive masters. As a reading of colonial newspapers prior to the American Revolution demonstrates, indentured servants and apprentices also fled from their working situations. Notices offering rewards for return of fugitive servants and apprentices were a regular feature in American newspapers. Such ads were placed by men and women who– in a matter of a single decade –would later identify themselves as either Patriots or Loyalists.
Although he did not offer a reward for a runaway servant, Stephen Skinner’s name appeared in two such ads due to the fact that he was the authority by which two “straggling” persons were imprisoned under suspicion of being runaway servants. Skinner was the treasurer for Eastern New Jersey and a member of its council, positions in the colonial government that entitled him to be noted as “esquire” (a gentleman) when his name was published.
As demonstrated in last week’s article, the masters of indentured servants and apprentices posted very detailed ads to make it easy for newspaper readers to identify the runaways. These descriptions often led to the arrests of men who were perceived as strangers, followed by the publishing of ads to notify masters of their apprehension.
In August of 1768, two men were put in Perth-Amboy’s jail “on suspicion of being runaways”. Charles Conner and Charles Lee, both Irishman, confessed to being fugitives and former convicts. Conner first arrived in Maryland in 1765.
While people are generally familiar with the fact that Great Britain sent its convicted criminals to Australia in the latter part of the 18th century, most are not aware that up until the American Revolution, the Thirteen Colonies were used as an alternative to Britain’s overflowing prisons.
Charles Conner testified that upon arriving in Maryland, he was “sold to William Gill, his present master who lives in Baltimore County“. As whites were not enslaved in the colonies, this reference must mean that his indentured service was sold to a Marylander.
Conner was described as being 39 years of age, 5 feet 7 inches in height, having a fair complexion, brown hair, and light grey eyes. When arrested, he was wearing an old felt hat, a fearnought (a thick woolen fabric) jacket, a coarse white shirt, trousers made of tow (coarse flax fiber), and old shoes. (If this runaway has descendants alive today, such details are an unexpected revelation of an ancestor’s appearance.)
Charles Lee, also a former convict, had been transported from London to Maryland in 1764. He was “consigned” to two men who then “sold” him to Joseph Crummel. Lee lived just two miles from where Conner was in servitude, and ran away with the Irishman in July of 1768 earlier.
The notice that reported his imprisonment in Perth-Amboy, New Jersey described Lee as “about 5 feet 8 inches high; remarkable brown complexion, {with} black curled hair.”
Two months later, Stephen Skinner’s name appeared in a newspaper notice that informed the public of another “straggling person” being kept in the Perth-Amboy jail. Skinner had ordered the arrest of an unnamed man because the latter could give “no satisfactory account of himself when under examination”. The report of his capture was made in case “he is any gentleman’s servant, or that any one hath any demand on him.” If no one stepped forward to claim the straggler within 4 to 5 weeks he would be “sold to pay cost”. (Again, this must refer to a sale of his labour in an indenture rather than enslavement.)
The anonymous man was about 5 feet 10 inches high, had dark brown hair, was of a swarthy complexion, and had a stoop in his shoulders. He was very still in company, and appeared to be “a subtle fellow”. He wrote “a good hand”, and had one ankle much bigger than the other. His clothing was described as “poor”.
While the “straggling” person’s fate is unknown, there is much more to the story of the man who ordered him put in jail. 1768 had not been a good year for Stephen Skinner. As the treasurer for Eastern New Jersey, he kept an iron trunk containing £6000 of the taxpayers’ money in his home. When the trunk was stolen, the colonial legislature blamed Skinner’s negligence for the theft. He resigned in disgrace, but he retained the support of New Jersey’s governor, William Franklin.
That friendship may have been what prompted George Washington to have Skinner taken prisoner in July 1776. He was put under house arrest in Trenton, New Jersey. Later in that year, “the handsome dwelling house” Skinner owned in Perth-Amboy was “accidentally set on fire and entirely consumed“. One newspaper reported that “by this Fire and the Depredations of the Rebels, {Skinner} has suffered within this Month a Loss of full £3000.”
What remained of Skinner’s property and possessions were auctioned off in 1779. Nevertheless, Skinner maintained his commitment to the crown, fulfilling his commission to raise a Loyalist company in New Jersey, becoming the brigadier-general of the New Jersey Volunteers.
When the revolution came to an end, Skinner sailed for England to seek compensation for his and other Loyalists’ wartime losses. By 1784, Stephen, his wife Margaret, and their four children (John, Gertrude, Maria Theresa, and Margaret) had settled in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. In addition to acquiring a schooner, Skinner opened a hardware store in the Loyalist city. Later he would supervise the construction of a lighthouse as a beacon on McNutt Island in Shelburne Harbour.
In 1791, Skinner was made an agent of the Nova Scotia government responsible for overseeing the departure of Black Loyalists from Shelburne to Halifax. There, a fleet of ships took them to West Africa to found the colony of Sierra Leone. Ever the speculator, Skinner purchased much of the land that had been owned by the departing Black Loyalists. The New Jersey Loyalist represented Shelburne County in the colonial legislature from 1793 to 1799.
Stephen Skinner died at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, on October 27, 1808, at age seventy-two. He had outlived his wife, children, and two grandsons. Only his daughter-in-law survived to mourn the death of a Loyalist who had, in his own way, become a “straggling person” and stranger in a strange land.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

Lord Cornwallis: Defender of British and American Liberty?
by Douglas R. Dorney, Jr. 1 June 2023 Journal of the American Revolution
General Charles, 1st Marquess, Cornwallis remains one of the most recognizable British figures of the American Revolution. Over the past two centuries, he has come to be invariably known as one of the “men who lost America.” This appellation has greatly overshadowed his less heralded service in Parliament, India, Europe, and Ireland. In Parliament, during the 1760s, Cornwallis was one of several lords opposing taxation and the infringement of British and American rights. Governing in India, he reformed civil, criminal, and economic systems that would expand the rights and privileges of its British and Indian imperial subjects there. In Ireland, he sought political rights for the Catholic majority while implementing a political union with England. Broadly speaking, Lord Cornwallis deserves more consideration than merely the general who surrendered an army at Yorktown.
Charles Cornwallis was born in 1738 and, from an early age, had the “irresistible impulse” to be a soldier.[1] After receiving an ensign’s commission in the 1st Foot Guards in 1756, he briefly attended the military academy at Turin before serving in the Seven Years’ War. In 1760, Lord Brome (as he was then known) was elected to the House of Commons for the Eye constituency.[2] While still serving in Germany in June 1762, he learned of his father’s death and his new status as the second Earl Cornwallis.[3] Returning to England, he took his seat in the House of Lords where he generally voted with Lords Shelburne and Temple.[4] Cornwallis’s political associations, at least during these early years, seem to have been a family tradition, his forebears being Whigs going back to the Glorious Revolution. Read more...

Eutaw Springs and the Ambiguity of Victory
by David Price 30 May 2023 Journal of the American Revolution
The Battle of Eutaw Springs, South Carolina, on September 8, 1781 was the last major open-field battle of the Revolutionary War and perhaps its most savage. The close-quarter fighting that occurred there ranks among the bloodiest and most intensely contested military encounters in young America’s quest for independence. It has, however, been eclipsed in historical memory by the climactic military event of the conflict—the siege at Yorktown, Virginia, and subsequent surrender of a British army that overshadowed the struggle in South Carolina.

Overview
Eutaw Springs Battleground Park, near today’s Eutawville in Orangeburg County, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The site is some fifty miles northwest of Charleston, which at the time of the battle was occupied by British troops for well over a year. At Eutaw Springs some 2,200 Americans—Continental regulars from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Delaware; state troops from South Carolina; and militia from North and South Carolina, supported by two cavalry units and four cannon—under Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene, a Rhode Island Quaker-turned-Patriot warrior, collided with the last of His Majesty’s field armies operating south of Virginia. The latter comprised about two thousand British regulars and Loyalists under Lt. Col. Alexander Stewart: the 63rd and 64th Regiments of Foot; the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants); grenadiers and light infantry drawn from the 3rd, 19th, and 30th Regiments of Foot; Loyalist units from New York and New Jersey; a single cavalry unit; and five cannon. The combatants were bathed in blistering heat during an engagement that lasted between three and four hours, one of the longest of the war, and over 1,400 were killed, wounded, captured, or missing—consuming about 40 percent of Stewart’s army and a quarter of Greene’s. Read more…


Digging For Mathew Elliott UEL
Note, The recording of “Matthew Elliott, unsung saviour of Upper Canada” Roy Winders presentation to Hamilton Branch on Apr. 20, 2023 is available in the Members’ Section at uelac.ca
The following is by Arthur Pegg of Col. Edward Jessup Branch

At the close of the War of American Independence in 1783, many British officers drew back to both the Niagara and Detroit frontiers, which still remained British posts; Mathew Elliott was one of them.
By 1791 he was occupying a house with an additional lot, 200 yards from, and facing the Detroit River. Isaac Weld, a traveller who stayed at the site in 1791 described the property as an extensive plantation with an estimated size of two thousand acres. It was from this property on the mainland across from the south end of Bois Blanc island, that Elliott allocated trade goods on behalf of the British Indian Department, in order to sustain the allegiance of various Indian tribes to the mother country. Adjacent to Elliott were allocated properties of Col. McKee, Capt. Caldwell, and Capt. Bird, all to the north along the Detroit River.
In 1980, this writer and Professor Leonard Kroon, University of Windsor, with a student crew, implemented archaeological research and excavations (12 weeks) at and around the purported Elliott site.
Excavation focused upon the remnants of the existing foundations, and their interiors.
The artifact assemblage included tableware, crystal, window glass, nails, bird and mammal bones, butchered faunal remains, military artifacts, including embossed and blank military issue buttons, brass medallions, coins, musket balls, kaolin pipe stems and bowls, musket lock plates, ironstone, crockery, etc.
Elliott and his family were forced to abandon their plantation in 1813 in the face of a large approaching American force. Elliott never returned to his plantation and died on May 7, 1814, in Burlington Ontario. Sarah Elliott returned to the old home after the war. The house was rebuilt and lived in once again by the remaining members of the family.

School of the Loyalist in Piscataway, New Jersey, July 15-16, 2023
From Facebook: School of the Loyalist 2023
We are pleased to announce the 3rd incarnation of the School of the Loyalist, a weekend of scholarly presentations and living history, set in beautiful East Jersey Old Town Village, located in Piscataway, New Jersey. The event will be free and open to the public the weekend of July 15-16, 2023. Stay tuned here for information on speakers, events and scheduling. Hope to see you there! (A website with more details and registration – no charghe – is in development)

As promised… I couldn’t be more proud or excited. I am truly humbled that these fine, extremely learned people have agreed to speak at this year’s School of the Loyalist, July 15-16 at East Jersey Old Town in Piscataway. Over the coming weeks I will feature each one individually so you may learn of them and their topic. I imagine you will mostly know them all.

Todd W. Braisted
The Good Americans: His Majesty’s Loyal American Troops, 1775-1784.
Black Loyalists: The British Military and the Role of African-Americans
William Caldwell
“Disagreable Service in the back woods”: Jersey Loyalists in the Southern Mountains and Their Role in the Kings Mountain Campaign.
Vivian Davis
“God is Forgotten and the Soldier Slighted”: The War of Words and the Battle that Jumpstarted The Revolution.
Erik Goldstein
Rethinking the Potter; The Truth Behind the Ultimate Sword of the Revolutionary War.
Bonnie Huskins
“She is a very active and clever Woman both in the management of her Family…and as well in her business”: unpacking the legacy of “ordinary” Loyalist women during war and exile in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Celeste Sherry
Spinning Through History: Fiber Arts in the Colonies.
Kirby Smith
Sunset of the Queen’s American Rangers: The Battle of Spencer’s Ordinary, 26th June 1781.
Jason Wickersty
Strategy, Logistics, and the Tyranny of Distance: Reinterpreting General Sir William Howe’s Command During the New York/New Jersey Campaigns of 1776-1777 Using British Archival Sources.
Mike Williams
Plain, concise and practical remarks on the art and mystery of Physic and Surgery.

Not the whole story? Letter from James Robertson to John Amiel
From School of the Loyalist 2023, about 30 May 2023

When does a document not tell the whole story? Probably more times than not. But you mostly don’t know what you don’t know. This morning, while transcribing the memorial of a New York City Loyalist John Amiel, I noticed an outstanding support document, shown below. This is a letter from Major General James Robertson, who would become New York’s last royal governor. We do not have any letter (and most likely none now exists) that Amiel sent to Robertson that prompted this reply, but we can surmise it had something to do with raising a company of men.
At this time in New York City, eight independent companies of volunteers were raised to do militia duty. These men would provide their own uniforms with the British providing arms and accoutrements to those who did not have them. One of these companies would be known as the Massachusetts Volunteers while the other seven companies would be all independent until July 1780 when they were joined together as the Loyal Volunteers of the City of New York.
There’s just one thing that is missing from this story: John Amiel, to whom Robertson’s letter is addressed, was never an officer in any of these companies. The Papers of James Robertson reside in Scotland, and list all the officers in these companies, with their dates of commission. No where does Amiel appear before being appointed major of brigade to the New York City Militia in January 1780. What happened to his plans to raise a company in 1777? He makes no mention of that whatsoever. Yet one more mystery that may never be solved…

“New York October 16, 1777
Sir
It is with much pleasure, I find a Spirit of Loyalty which I always knew existed in this City, is now preparing to shew itself with Lustre. That you, among a great Number of His Majesty’s Loyal Subjects are desireous of forming a Company to Cooperate with His Majesty’s Troops for the Defence of this City & Island & that you desire my approbation in such a measure, I highly approve of your proposal & am persuaded that such Zeal will merit the Thanks and applause of all who wish for His Majesty’s Interest & will greatly tend to extirpate anarchy & overawe Rebellion. I think to forward this Service you should Nominate Two Lieutenants to assist you.
I am Sir
Your most hble Servt:
James Robertson
Major General
Mr. John Amiel”
Source: Great Britain, The National Archives, Audit Office, Class 13, Volume 113, Part I, folio 46.

Advertisement “Physician, Surgeon, and Man-Midwife.” 28 May 1773
The Adverts 250 Project: An Exploration of Advertising During the Era of the American Revolution, 250 Years Ago This Week

When Richard Tidmarsh arrived in town in the spring of 1773, he published “An Address to the Inhabitants of New-Haven, and the Public in general” to offer his services as “Physician, Surgeon, and Man-Midwife.” Like others who provided medical care and placed newspaper notices, he included an overview of his experience and credentials in hopes of convincing prospective patients otherwise unfamiliar with him that he was indeed qualified.
See the advertisement; read the interpretation. More…

Welcome to NYC Revolutionary Trail!
A multimedia self-guided walking tour, presented by the Gotham Center for New York City History
Library
Nerd out with our Library and test your knowledge of the American Revolution. This extended material, available for each stop, offers four times as much content as the Walking Tour, including text, imagery, and source material. Plus, you’ll need it for our scavenger hunt!
Walking Tour
Discover the city at the heart of the American Revolution in this audio-narrated tour, featuring site information, character profiles, video, and more. Visit all sixteen locations in lower Manhattan for the full experience. Or curate the journey by picking your own destinations, focusing on a single era, or using the Library for a more self-directed trip.
Classroom
Are you a teacher or an educator?
We have brief and extensive lesson plans for middle and high schoolers, as well as experiences for college-level students. These modules can be used in-class or combined with trips that bring our material to life, and let students design their own adventure.
Check out the details for each of the above…

Straw Hats: Fashion Accessory
Morning! More work in the garden ahead. This finely plaited straw hat has appliqué straw decoration. Almost certainly Italian, made 1760-80 @V_and_A collections.

By the 1740s wide brimmed straw hats with shallow crowns had become a fashionable accessory for women. The hats were inspired by those traditionally worn by working women in rural areas in order to protect themselves from the sun. The popularity of the rural idyll in fashionable society and an idealised appreciation of the pastoral gave this traditional hat a new standing. In France the style was known as a bergère (french for shepherdess) and the style continued in fashion, worn at various angles and with varied decorations until the late 1780s.
This particular hat is almost certainly of Italian manufacture, the fineness of the plait was something which could not be replicated in England until the invention of the straw-splitter tool around 1800. The decoration on this hat consists of flowers cut from straw sheets which have been dyed in a range of colours. The flowers lie flat around the edge of the brim and are outlined in a fine twisted straw braid which is dyed to match the flowers. An intricate plaited braid outlines the edge of the hat’s shallow crown. Read more…


Response to Query: A Source for the Loyalist Rose
In last week’s issue of Loyalist Trails, this query “Query: A Source for the Loyalist Rose in USA” A source, but in Canada.

Hello Joshua:
The Loyalist Rose (Maiden’s Blush) can be obtained from Palatine Nurseries, Niagara–on-the Lake. The Nursery grows the rose and does mail deliveries. However, they also run out of a supply early, and only keep a very few for display and customer purchase.
They have a website. Palatine Roses 905-468-8627
They ship all over, but not sure if they ship to USA
Pat Blackburn UE, Hamilton Branch


Archives, Museums and Heritage Organizations in Ontario
As part of our (Ontario Ancestors, Virtual Conference 8 – 10 Sept. 2023, Diversity in Genealogy) conference programme, we would like to feature any and all local archives, museums or heritage organizations from across the province. Our focus is on Diversity, and informing family historians about the wealth of information that is out there that might be hiding in the various collections that are held locally. We know that there are gems of information all over Ontario, and we would like to help shine a light on where genealogists might look for those hidden clues that could potentially break down a brick wall.
Our plan is to feature as many organizations as we can in several ways:
We will include a full list of all organizations that submit the form to us in our downloadable syllabus, available to all conference registrants.
We will feature up to twelve organizations live during the conference in our FastTracks lunch hours, for five minutes each.
We will tag your organization on our social media during the three-month lead up to conference.
This is a FREE service! We want to promote and celebrate Ontario’s diversity and assist family historians in uncovering their own unique stories. Simply fill out the form and submit it to us, we will take care of the rest!

Loyalist Day Celebrations

Kingston and District Branch, Loyalist Day, Signage Unveiling, Monday 12 June

The Board of the Heritage Cemetery at Cataraqui, Kingston and District Branch of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada, and members of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York cordially invite the public to attend the unveiling of signage designating the cemetery as a Loyalist Burial Ground on Monday, June 12 (Loyalist Day in Kingston*) at 2:00 p.m. at 965 Sydenham Road, Kingston. Light refreshments to follow. All are welcome.
In the event of rain, the ceremony will be held in the church hall adjoining the cemetery.
*On June 12, 1784, Governor Haldimand received confirmation from King George III, “His Majesty approves the plan you have proposed for settling some of the Loyalists at Cataraqui and places adjacent.”

June 18 St. Albans Centre, Annual United Empire Loyalist Commemorative Service

To celebrate the 239th anniversary of the landing of the Loyalists at Adolphustown in June 1784, service at 11 am.
Guest Speaker: Chief R. Donald Maracle, Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte
A Sweets & Savouries Tea afterwards
at 1:30 pm Flag raising Ceremony at the Old UEL Burying Ground
See more details

Loyalist Flag Raising in Ottawa, June 19, 2023

The Sir Guy Carleton Branch of the UEL will be raising the Loyalist Flag at Ottawa City Hall, Marion Dewar Plaza . The ceremony starts at 10:00 am and runs for a half hour. There will be brief speeches by the Mayor of Ottawa and the Branch President.
You are welcome to attend in period dress, but it is not mandatory. We look forward to seeing you. More details.

Upcoming Events

American Revolution Institute: Disunion Among Ourselves. June 7 @6:30

The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution, Author’s Talk. By Eli Merritt. Far from a harmonious collaboration, the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War was so filled with political strife that the delegates feared the Revolutionary War would end in disunion or civil war. Details and Register…

Colonel Edward Jessup Branch of UELAC Lunch Meeting and AGM Sat 10 June 11:30

Our first AGM and lunch meeting since Covid will start at 11:30 am on Saturday, June 10th, 2023 at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church Hall, 107 Holy Trinity Road, Athens, Ontario, (just west and south of Athens). The meal by the ACW volunteers – ham, scalloped potatoes, baked beans, turnip puff, peas and carrot medley, cabbage salad, tea and coffee and a selection of pies. This is a church fundraiser and they are only charging us $25 per meal. We have met there before; the food is delicious.
This will be an important meeting to discuss the future of our Colonel Edward Jessup Branch.
Please register and ask any questions by e-mail to Barb Law UE bnk@cogeco.ca so we can let the ladies know how many delicious meals to prepare. If you need a ride, we will try to arrange one for you.

Fort Plain Museum: The Revolutionary War Conference 250 in the Mohawk Valley, June 9-11

Friday, June 9: Bus Tour – Forts and Fortified Homes of the Mohawk Valley
Opening Reception and Registration
Saturday, June 10: Program and reception
Sunday, June 11 until noon: Program
See details: schedule, registration, lodging etc

Moore Family Reunion 2023, Sat. 10 June 2023 @ 1:30 ET via Zoom

A gathering of the descendants and friends of Samuel Moore I, of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Province of New Jersey, born c. 1630, and his great-grandson, United Empire Loyalist Samuel Moore of Upper Canada, formerly of the Provinces of New Jersey and Nova Scotia, born 1742, died and buried 1822, Norwich, Upper Canada

  • 1:00 Informal meet and greet
  • 1:30 Welcome, Introductions and 2 presentations, each followed by discussion and a break:
    • Unravelling the DNA by Bob Moore
    • Life in the Aftermath of the Flushing Remonstrance: Assessing Liberalism’s Unintended Consequences at the End of the Modern Age by M. Jane Fairburn

We look forward to sharing stories and insights into the rich historical tradition of the Moore family in North America, all without distance restrictions!
Please share this invitation.
Contact Donna Moore UE d.moore3359@gmail.com for the Zoom link

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

  • Choke-cherry and pin cherry are 2 native varieties of cherry trees in North America. The English weren’t fond of their fruit, so they brought over both sweet & sour cherries for their orchards. Cherries were common in 18th-century recipes like this cherry tart. JYFnMuseums
  • Townsends
  • This week in History
    • 28 May 1754 Col. George Washington accidentally starts French & Indian War, as captive dies during interrogation.
    • 2 JUNE 1773, LONDON: Lord Dartmouth sends Benjamin Franklin a reply to the Massachusetts legislature’s petitions for the removal of the threepenny tea duty and an end to the plan to pay imperial officials from the tea revenue. Dartmouth has presented both petitions to the King. Franklin immediately forwards the reply to Massachusetts. Read Dartmouth’s full reply…
    • 31 May 1775 “Unhappy it is though to reflect, that a Brother’s Sword has been sheathed in a Brother’s breast, and that, the once happy and peaceful plains of America are either to be drenched with Blood, or Inhabited by Slaves.” —George Washington
    • 26 May 1776 President of Virginia Convention warns Maryland of approaching British fleet.
    • 27 May 1776 Representatives of the Haudenosaunee Confederation appear before Congress, discuss concerns.
    • 31 May 1776 Mecklenburg County, NC issues “Mecklenburg Resolves,” suspending British authority in North-Carolina.
    • 1 Jun 1779 Benedict Arnold’s court-martial begins, embittering him & turning him toward treason against Colonies.
    • 29 May 1780 British Col. Tarleton reportedly has surrendering rebels shot at Waxhaws, SC, cementing a reputation for brutality.
    • 2 Jun 1780 1780 Lord George Gordon presented the petition of the Protestant Association complaining against the Catholic Relief Act. It prompted days of violence in London and elsewhere, leaving widespread destruction and many dead.
    • 2 June 1783, commander-in-chief George Washington issued orders for the disbanding of the Continental Army “as soon as the definitive Treaty of Peace is concluded”:
  • Clothing and Related:
    • Philadelphia shoemaker A. Rutherford alerted customers “resolved to distinguish themselves by their patriotism & encouragement of American manufactures, that he makes and sells…worsted or wool shoes, of all sizes, as neat & cheap as any imported from England”
    • Apart from its obvious sunny cheer, this robe a l’anglaise is testament to the skill of the embroiderer. The blue silk chain stitch was worked after the gown was constructed, a flow of blooms running over seams as if they had blossomed later & by surprise. 1770s at At Colonial Williamsburg
    • 18th Century linen petticoat with naive but delightful wool embroidery, American, 1780-1790’s
    • Sleeve detail from an 18th Century dress, robe à la Française of silk with metallic-thread supplementary-weft patterning, and metallic lace, c.1760
    • 18th Century dress, robe à la française, this exquisite example is constructed from a rare Chinese export silk dating from the first quarter of the century. c.1770
    • C18th waistcoat embroidered with tiny scenes and insects!
    • 18th Century men’s Coat, detail of delicate floral embroidery, silk, 1770 – 1790
    • 18th Century men’s ensemble of the 1790’s, French
  • Miscellaneous
    • This eighteenth-century tent stitch picture, maintaining much of its original colour, shows Abraham casting out Hagar and Ishmael into a dramatic landscape. At the bottom is an inscription which reads, “SARH READ WORKT THIS IN 1733.” “SARH” is surely meant to be read as “Sarah”
    • A very unusual Meissen outside painted plate, c. 1725 but painted c.1740-50. Translate to something akin ‘my gaze has always adore who ignites me’. painting attributed to Johann Friedrich Metzsch, Bayreuth.

Last Post: MCCONNELL, Margaret “Ann” 1954 – 2023
Ann was born January 25th, 1954, in Wingham, Ontario and grew up on the family farm before moving to Fergus to complete school. She later moved to Nova Scotia, where she worked in Dartmouth and Digby, settling in the Annapolis Valley at Upper Clements.
Ann enjoyed the outdoors and gardening. She was skilled at needlework and other crafts and completed many impressive projects over the years. For many years, she raised Golden Retriever dogs; Sheba and Brea brought great joy to her. Ann enjoyed travelling,
Ann was an enthusiastic volunteer with Girl Guides. She also volunteered on the Executive of the NS Branch of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada.
Ann is survived by her loving husband Brian and other family members.
A private family graveside service will take place.More details…

The book “The First Church – Old Holy Trinity in Middleton, Nova Scotia” is a fundraiser for a Black Loyalist monument. The Book which I have dedicated to my wife Ann who passed away early last month and who was my frequent companion on research trips and outings is now available.
Brian McConnell UE, President, Nova Scotia Branch UELAC

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