In this issue:

 

2023 Scholarship Challenge, Jun 1 – Sept 1, 2023: Just a few dollars more
With only 1 week until the official end of the 2023 Scholarship Challenge – Funding Future Knowledge we are so close.
As of the most recent update – August 25, 2023 our total has reached $4,541.14 of our $5,000 goal. Thank you to the UE Branches and individual who have answered the challenge. See details.
There is at least one donation in the mail which fill almost half the gap.
Would you donate a bit to take us over the top?
Christine E. Manzer UE, Chair, Scholarship Committee

Some Loyalists of Rhode Island: Merchants. Part Three of Four
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Many of Rhode Island’s Loyalists were men who made their living as merchants. Their wares ranged from snuff to slaves. The three considered in this article all journeyed to England following the American Revolution to seek compensation for their wartime losses. Only two would return to the Maritimes where their descendants live to this day.
Thomas Cutter was an Englishman who immigrated to Rhode Island in 1755 and found work in a tobacconist’s shop. Some time in the 20 years before the outbreak of the American Revolution, he opened his own business. One of the most valuable items in his store was snuff.
This powdered (and sometimes scented) tobacco was carried in a small box. Rather than being burned and smoked, snuff was usually sniffed or snorted up the nostrils, providing a nicotine rush without having to inhale hot smoke. Scented snuff would have the added advantage of masking the many unpleasant smells of the 18th century. When moistened, snuff was placed in the user’s mouth either between the gum and cheek or behind the lips.
As a purveyor of snuff, this Loyalist tobacconist was in good company. Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III, had a room at Windsor Castle where she kept her various types of snuff. Her favourite? A blend mixed with bitter almonds, ambergris, and attar. (Martha Washington, the general’s wife also favoured that blend.) Nicknamed “Snuffy Charlotte” at court, the queen’s portrait often appeared on snuffboxes of the period. While smoking tobacco was seen as a pastime of the commoner, taking snuff was regarded as a pleasure reserved for society’s elite.
Regular snuff usage could lead to nasal and mouth cancer, gum disease, tooth decay or the loss of a tooth. Despite these dangers to one’s health, when Thomas Cutter needed a witness to speak on his behalf before the loyalist compensation board in February of 1785, it was a Dr. John Halliburton who provided testimony.
Halliburton, a former Newport resident, confirmed that Cutter had “always been uniform in his loyalty”. When Rhode Island rebels “put arms into his hands”, Cutter refused to use them. He didn’t take up arms for the British either. Instead, he “assisted in procuring intelligence” for the crown. Within three weeks of his joining the British in 1778, Cutter’s property was confiscated and sold by Patriots.
After the British occupation of Rhode Island ended in October of 1779, its rebels put Cutter in jail for five weeks. Many Loyalists had evacuated with the British forces, but Cutter had remained behind owing to the fact that his wife and six children were ill.
George Wightman, another witness for Cutter, remembered that he had “a considerable stock of snuff”. He may have lost as much as £100 worth of snuff when Patriots confiscated his shop’s contents.
Dr. Halliburton gave Cutter a positive endorsement as a Loyal Rhode Islander, but he felt that the tobacconist had overstated the value of what had been stolen. He thought that Cutter’s request for $8,000.00 in lost stock was a “very improper demand”, and should have been more like $800 or $900.00. While the compensation board determined that Cutter was, indeed, a Loyalist, the final settlement that the Rhode Islander received for his wartime losses is not recorded.
Cutter’s final fate is revealed in Lorenzo Sabine’s biographical dictionary of Loyalists. “At the peace, accompanied by his family of nine persons, and by one servant, he went from New York to Shelburne, Nova Scotia, where the Crown granted him fifty acres of land, one town and one water lot. His losses in consequence of his loyalty were estimated at £2,554.”
Robert Ferguson was a Loyalist merchant of Newport, Rhode Island who made his fortune from a very different kind of “product”. He was part of the “Guinea Trade”, a euphemistic term for the African slave trade. A native of Scotland, Ferguson settled in Rhode Island in 1770. For the next four or five years he was “in the Guinea trade”, but “retired before the troubles” of the revolution began. He was remembered as being “a very honest man and he lived upon the little which he had saved out of the Guinea Trade.”
The historian Christy M. Clark-Pujara notes that Rhode Island merchants such as Ferguson dominated the American trade in enslaved Africans, and its colonists had the highest proportion of slaves in New England. No less than 700 Rhode Islanders owned slave ships.
Slavery was a divisive issue in the colony. Both Quakers — who made up a large proportion of Rhode Island’s population– and Congregationalists denounced slavery. In 1775, the Quakers forbid their members to be slaveholders. In the previous year, the Rhode Island assembly made it illegal to import more slaves. It may be this measure that compelled Robert Ferguson to abandon transporting Africans to the American colonies.
In testimony made before the loyalist compensation board, Ferguson testified that he had become a storekeeper. He had a “lucrative trade” carrying wood on a sloop. Rebels in Connecticut later seized his vessel. Friends remembered that he “lived very comfortably”. His political views caused him to receive “many insults and incendiary letters”. When the British army occupied Rhode Island, Ferguson gave them “every assistance in his power”. After the army left the colony in 1779, Ferguson sought sanctuary in England. He may have taken as many as three enslaved Blacks with him; one is known to have died on the transatlantic voyage.
Isaac Lawton, unlike the other two Loyalists cited above, was “a native of America”, having been born in Portsmouth, Rhode Island around 1730. He and his family lived in Newport where he “kept a vessel for trade”. In 1774, the colonial census noted that his family consisted of “two males over age sixteen, three females over age sixteen, two males under that age, and one Black”.
His loyalty was well known, resulting in the public humiliation of being carted around the city as a Tory. During the British army occupation of Rhode Island in 1776, he “took part with the king’s troops” and “bore arms as a private man”.
When the army evacuated Rhode Island in 1779, he went with them to New York, remaining there for the next four years. After seeking sanctuary in England, he appeared before the loyalist compensation board in June of 1785. Two years later, he served as a witness for another Rhode Island Loyalist when the compensation board convened in Saint John, New Brunswick.
Lawton was quickly recognized as a venerable citizen. At age 56, he was made a member of a 15-man grand jury that considered evidence in New Brunswick’s first libel suit.
Lawton died on June 4, 1810. His will makes reference to a large farm, money for his grandchildren’s education, and a house on Germain Street.
Next week, the last in this series spotlighting some of Rhode Island’s Loyalists will feature Sarah Slocum.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

What’s the Point in Talking About it: Community Responses to Enslavement in Shelburne, Nova Scotia
By Erin Isaac is a PhD candidate at Western University. In Borealia “Early Canadian History”, 23 Aug 2023
The Ross-Thomson House & Store Museum, in Shelburne, NS, has always been known as a site of enslavement in this community. Most people around here reference this by speaking about a pair of leg shackles that were once in the basement—“do you know, there were shackles in the basement?” Like many 18th-century Maritime communities, Shelburne’s early economy was inextricably tied to the institution of slavery—through the goods they imported, the buyers for goods they produced, and the actual labour of enslaved Nova Scotians. But even as many of our communities have houses that are remembered as enslaved spaces, like Ross-Thomson House, it is my impression that this is where (for many of us) our curiosity ends. There is a simultaneous impulse to remember shackles in the cellar and to distance ourselves from their implications.
In Shelburne, people lower their voices when they speak to me about slavery. I’ve been working this summer as the Renewal Coordinator for the Ross-Thomson House & Store Museum, a role that has placed me at the centre of debates about how or if Shelburne’s history of enslavement should be told. People seem generally comfortable with the museum sharing the story of Catherine Edwards, who escaped bondage at Ross-Thomson House and secured her freedom in Halifax in October 1806. In fact, I haven’t heard anyone disagree with the importance of making this history a part of the Ross-Thomson House & Store Museum. But questions about how her story should be told and how much the interpretation at Ross-Thomson House & Store should explore enslavement in Shelburne generally are hotter. Read more…

A Frog Feast
by Norman Desmarais 22 August 2023 Journal of the American Revolution
Let’s admit it. Most of us have used or have heard the word “frog” as a derogatory term to refer to the French. But why? We don’t really know the origin of the use of the term in that context, but we do know that it dates back to the colonial period or even earlier. Britain and France had been archenemies at least since the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when the Norman victory resulted in England being ruled by French-speaking kings for more than three centuries.
The English, who were the predominant immigrants to America, harbored the same prejudices, stereotypes and hatred of the French, considering them the meanest and most abominable people on earth. They believed that they were “dwarfs, pale, ugly specimens who lived exclusively on frogs and snails—and a hundred other such stupidities.”[1]
Moreover, the French had been the enemy in all the previous colonial wars, particularly the Seven Years War, known in America as the French and Indian War. Many residents had fought in that war and harbored bitter memories. Few Americans had ever seen a Frenchman except at the end of a musket and they had no inclination to dispel their prejudices. Yet, when the French began to arrive in America as its allies, there was great curiosity to see just what these “monsters” looked like. Read more…

U-M Clements Library announces online access to popular Revolutionary War manuscript collection
by Clements Library 11 Aug 2023
The University of Michigan William L. Clements Library has made available volumes 1-11 of the English Series of the Thomas Gage Papers.

Thomas Gage was a famed British commander-in-chief in the decade leading up to the American Revolution and also the governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1774 to 1775.
The papers are being digitized through a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to digitize over 23,000 items from one of the Clements Library’s largest and most utilized collections.
“Multiplying modes of access to our collections is one of our primary goals,” said Paul Erickson, the Randolph G. Adams Director of the Clements Library. “We will always remain committed to welcoming the many scholars who travel to Ann Arbor from around the world to do research in the Clements Library, but we are also committed to making it possible for people anywhere in the world to study landmark collections like the Gage papers.”
A premier destination for the study of 18th and 19th century American history, the Clements Library’s archive is particularly strong in their papers and artifacts related to the American Revolution.
“The Gage papers, which are one of the crown jewels of the Clements Library, have been studied by generation after generation of historians,” said Cheney Schopieray, curator of manuscripts at the Clements and project director. “They contain extraordinary documentation of colonial America through the paperwork of the highest echelons of British administration in the colonies during the tumultuous years leading up to the Revolutionary War.” Read more…

Father and Son: Patriots Who Gave Their All
by William H. J. Manthorpe, Jr. 24 August 2023 Journal of the American Revolution
William Mehls Dewees (1711-1777)
The “Father” of this history is William M. Dewees. He was the son of William Dewees of Germantown (1680-1745), “the papermaker,” and Anna Christina (Mehls) Dewees (1690-1749).He was born at the new family home and paper mill in what is now Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. In 1735, he married Rachel Farmar (1712-1777), the daughter of Edward Farmar (1672-1745), the youngest son and heir to the vast Farmar land holdings. In 1704, those lands became Whitemarsh Township of Philadelphia County. In about 1710, Edward Farmar built his family home and mill, and donated land to build a church on a portion of those lands.
After their marriage in “the little church at Whitmarsh,” the couple lived on Farmar land. William M. was serving his father-in-law by selling plantations of the Farmar lands. Soon their first child, and the “Son” of this story, William Farmar Dewees (c. 1739-?) was born.
When William the papermaker died in 1745, he left his son William M. Dewees a token five shillings. When Edward Farmer died the same year, Rachel inherited “Some lands [that] cannot be sold until the leases have been expired.” The executor, Peter Robeson, a brother-in-law of Rachel, insured that, when distributing Farmar land to family, there were “18 ¼ acres exempted granted . . . to William DeWees, inn holder of Germantown.”
On February 3, 1747, a notice in The Pennsylvania Gazette advertised that a “commodious stone house” in Germantown was “To be SOLD.” William M. was in possession. It was the original Dewees family home, his inheritance. Read more…

Book: United for Independence: The American Revolution in the Middle Colonies, 1775–1776
By Michael Cecere, Westholme Publishing (June 9, 2023)
In the aftermath of the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775 and the start of the Revolutionary War, it was not clear whether the colonies outside of New England would participate militarily in the conflict. Troops from the four New England colonies surrounded Boston immediately after the fighting at Lexington and Concord, and two months into the standoff the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, assumed authority over the New England army, but the middle and southern colonies had yet to see armed conflict or bloodshed with British forces.
In United for Independence: The American Revolution in the Middle Colonies, 1775–1776, historian Michael Cecere examines how the inhabitants of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland reacted to the outbreak of war in Massachusetts. Leaders in these middle colonies, influenced by strong Loyalist sentiment within their borders and, in some cases, among themselves, fiercely debated whether to support the war in New England. Congress’s decision in the summer to establish a continental army, and its authorization for an invasion of Canada, both of which involved troops from the middle colonies, set the stage for their full-scale involvement in the Revolutionary War.
Using primary source extracts and proceeding chronologically from the spring of 1775 to the fall of 1776, the key events in each of these colonies is presented, from the political struggles between Whigs and Tories, through the failed Canadian expedition, to the loss of Long Island and New York City. Designed for readers to understand the sequence of events that transformed a resistance movement into a war for independence, United for Independence provides an important overview of events in the middle colonies at the start of the Revolutionary War that complements other works that focus on specific military clashes and campaigns.

Advertised on 23 August 1773: “…send their Advertisements Saturday Afternoon”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“It would greatly oblige us, if our advertising Customers would send their Advertisements Saturday Afternoon.”
Colonial printers only occasionally addressed the business of advertising in their newspapers. Some did solicit advertisements in the colophon at the bottom of the final page, though they did not always specify rates or offer additional instructions. In the colophon for the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, for instance, Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks stated that “Subscriptions, Advertisements, and Letters of Intelligence for this Paper are taken in” at their printing office. John Holt did provide more information in the colophon for the New-York Journal, noting that “Advertisements of no more Length than Breadth are inserted for Five Shillings, four Weeks, and One Shilling for each Week after, and larger Advertisements in the same Proportion.” A few printers also promoted other forms of advertising. Isaiah Thomas, for example, informed readers that he printed “Small HAND-BILLS at an Hour’s Notice” in the colophon for the Massachusetts Spy. The printer of the Wöchentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote highlighted a particular service in the masthead of that newspaper: “All ADVERTISEMENTS to be inserted in this Paper, or printed single by HENRY MILLER, Publisher hereof, are by him translated gratis.”
Most printers, in contrast, did not regularly publish information about advertising in their newspapers. Read more…

Shallow Ford in North Carolina: A Humble Crossing
By S. W. O’Connell 14 October 2017 in Yankee Doodle Spies
The Shallow Ford, located some 15 miles west of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is a shallow section of the Yadkin River which, in colonial times, afforded a safe place for travelers to cross. The ford is formed by a sand and gravel bar. Upstream from the ford, a stretch of hard rock crosses the river and below the stretch of rock, the gradient decreases, reducing the strength of the current and depositing sediment creating the bar that forms the crossing. It provided a natural game crossing and fish trap, which was used by the Indians. By 1748, six families had settled near the ford. Within two years a ferry and tavern operated there. Soon Moravians settled nearby and cut the first road to the ford and over the years several others were cut, making it a transportation hub of sorts. By the time of the American Revolution, the Shallow Ford was a focal point for travelers. While the Yadkin River could be crossed at other fords and ferries, heavier wagons could cross at only two places: the Trading Ford, near Salisbury (Rowan County), and the Shallow Ford (Surry county). Several roads converged on both sides of the river. That humble crossing would be the instrument of a little heeded but important event in shaping the outcome of the war. Read more…

Notes re Battle of Ridgefield CT: Ancestor lived on Main Street
Another note concerning Ridgefield CT .
Elsie Schneider UE, member of Grand River Branch, notes that a family in her ancestral lines, the Olmsteads (Ebenezer Olmstead married to Esther Ingersoll.) lived on main street in Ridgefield Conn. Who knows, maybe the house they lived in might be on a lot where they find some artifacts.
Although not on the main street, Elsie notes that one of her Loyalist ancestors Ebenezer Jones is listed in The History of Ridgefield CT by George L. Rockwell, published by the author in 1927.

The Ridgefield Historical Society is undertaking research into and stewardship of the Battle of Ridgefield – more details.

Loyalists and descendants who participated in the War of 1812: Owen Roblin Jr. and son Jacob
Jacob Roblin was born in Adolphustown in1795 or 1796, the son of Owen Roblin UEL and Mary Margaret Elizabeth Ruttan. He was a young man of 17 or 18 years at the time the War or 1812 broke out.
Jacob returned from the war and on August 7, 1815 or 1816 married Sarah VanDusen, daughter of Conrad VanDusen UEL and Millicent Ferguson. Jacob and Sarah had 15 children.
The family lived at Adolphustown for a while and by the Census of 1861, Jacob and Sarah were living in Sophiasburgh, Prince Edward County with their son Conrad. Read more…
Submitted by Gord Hammell

Read about other Loyalists and the sons and daughters of Loyalists who participated in the War of 1812. Two more submissions have been received; will be noted in coming weeks.

Submissions are still welcome. Send up to 500 words describing the Loyalist’s experience or participation in the war, and where settled before and afterward, to loyalist.trails@uelac.org. Please reference both the Loyalist experience, perhaps to a lesser degree, along with the 1812 history.

Bay of Quinte Branch: Loyal Americans Hall of Honour: George Kirkpatrick UE
The Legacy of Loyal Americans ~ Hall of Honour was created in 2003 by the Bay of Quinte Branch. It has the following purpose: to identify and celebrate those descendants of the United Empire Loyalists who have made significant achievements, either locally, nationally or internationally.

General Sir George Macaulay Kirkpatrick, KCB, KCSI, UE
George Macaulay Kirkpatrick was born in Kingston on 23 August 1866, son of George Airey Kirkpatrick and Frances Jane Macaulay. He was educated at Trinity College in Port Hope, then attended the Imperial Service College in London England. He then attended Royal Military College in Kingston, graduating from there in 1885.
Following his graduation, he was appointed as a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 30 June 1885. He worked with the Engineers as a surveyor, and in 1892 published maps on the towns and environs of the Fez district of Morocco. Later in 1892 he was appointed as aide-de-campe to the General Officer in command of the Thames District of the Royal Engineers in London, and then promoted as a captain in 1894.
With the outbreak of the Boer War, Kirkpatrick was deployed to South Africa. Read more…
Kirkpatrick was one of the few Canadians ever to reach the office of General in the British Army. He was a descendant of two Bay of Quinte Loyalists, Judge Alexander Fisher of Adolphustown, and Robert Macauley of Kingston.
See who else has been so honoured at UEL Hall of Honour

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

  • Kevin Wisener, President, Abegweit Branch, has contributed information about:
    • Peter Jervais (Gervais) possibly the first Black Loyalist in PEI, arrived with his wife in Charlottetown in Sept 1784 and settled in Queen’s County.
    • Thomas Marsh served in the King’s Rangers and settled in King’s County PEI. Thomas Marsh and family owned and operated the Thomas Marsh & Company, merchants owning a store in Lot 17 and were also timber merchants with timber interests in Lot 17 and Lot 1 in Prince County. Thomas Marsh was a prominent member of the Loyal Electors political movement on PEI.
    • Ranger Amos Ensley (Ainslie) was attached to the garrison at Detroit and settled at what is now Kingston Ontario. He was a master carpenter.
    • Pvt. John Ensley (Ainslie) enlisted in the 3rd Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers prior to Nov. 1779. He was held prisoner of the Rebels. He settled at Vernon River, Lot 50, Queens County
    • William Laws was married and is shown on the PEI 1798 census at Lot 50, Queens County.

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

Upcoming Events

Gov. Simcoe Branch “Prelude to Brandywine” by Joshua Loper Wed 6 Sept @7:30 ET

“Prelude to Brandywine: Loyalists, Hessians, the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge, and a Fateful Council of War”. The Battle of Brandywine, fought just outside of Philadelphia on September 11, 1777, resulted in an overarching British victory and the conquest of the rebel seat of government.
However, this presentation is not about Brandywine, but some of the events leading up to it. John Graves Simcoe, participated in this battle.
Joshua made a great presentation in May, mixing historical facts, debunking myths, adding some humour (Recording available in the Members Section.
Joshua is a historian, published author, and educator of many years. He is currently the Director of the Delaware Military Heritage and Education Foundation/the Delaware Military Museum. He is also the Executive Director of the George Washington Witness Tree of Delaware Museum. He has a lifelong love of history, especially the American Revolution. More details or Register now.

St. Lawrence Branch Charter Night Banquet Sat, Sept. 16, 2023 @ 5:00 ET

At St. Matthew’s Presbyterian Church, 15 Memorial Square, Ingleside ON. Social hour at 5:00pm; serve at 6:00pm. A ham supper with all the fixings.
Speaker is Roy Lewis, Col. Edward Jessup Branch.
Tickets are $30, advance sales only. Email Secretary Darlene Fawcett dmfawcett@ripnet.com to reserve seats. Payment by e-transfers to Treasurer Michael Eamer, eamermc@yahoo.com. Reference dinner tickets in the “Message” box. Tickets must be reserved by September 4th.
There will be a Harvest Basket raffle at the end of the night. Contact Darlene Fawcett if you will contribute to the harvest basket.

Grand River Branch Celebrates 50th Anniversary on Sunday 17 Sept.

At the Arlington Hotel in Paris, Ontario.
Reception & Mingle 4:00 p.m. Buffet Dinner 6:00 p.m.
Tickets: $50.00 Payable to “Grand River Branch UELAC” by Sept. 1.
RSVP Ms Jane Adams, 92 Brewster, Cambridge, ON N3C 3T9
Period Costume is encouraged
Guest Speaker: Nathan Tidridge, Honorary Fellow, UELAC
Topic: “Crown Indigenous Relations“.
Questions to Bill Terry UE Charles@kwik.com

A View From Abroad: The Story of John and Abigail Adams in Europe

The American Revolution Institute, Tues 29 Aug 6:30 ET
From 1778 to 1788, future president John Adams lived in Europe as an American diplomat. Joined by his wife, Abigail, in 1784, the two shared rich encounters with famous heads of the European royal courts. Jeanne E. Abrams, professor of history at the University of Denver, shows that the Adams’ journey not only changed the course of their intellectual, political and cultural development, but served to strengthen their loyalty to America, and highlights how the Adamses and their American contemporaries set about supplanting their British origins with a new American identity. Details and registration

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

  • Kneeling beside headstone for Henry Magee, UE Loyalist, in Oak Grove Cemetery at Kentville, NS. It’s inscribed: “Memory of
    Henry Magee, a native
    of Ireland, an Emigrant
    from America during the
    time of the unhappy Rebel
    lion in which he was a sufferer
    and finally closed his life
    August 2, 1806, aged 67 years
    firmly attached to the King & Country
    Man is born of a woman
    Hath but a short time to live” posted by Brian McConnell, UE @brianm564
  • On arrival in London, the future Queen Charlotte was expected to be taken to the garden gate of St James’s Palace at 3pm precisely so she could meet the king for the first time.
    They were to be married 6 hours later. Read more…
  • Townsends
  • This week in History
    • 21 Aug 1754, Banastre Tarleton is born in Liverpool, England. He would go on to be a very controversial cavalry commander during #AmRev leading his Loyalist legion in brave actions and dastardly massacres that burnt across the Carolinas.
    • August 25, 1771, Henry Pelham told his half-brother John S. Copley: “We have had the most excessive hot Weather, this Month. It has been the death of several People here, and had like to have been Fatal to Capt. Joy.”
    • Colonial newspapers contributed to the perpetuation of slavery. Advertised 250 years ago today: “RAN away … an Indian servant named Adam Sock … Whoever will apprehend said runaway, and return him to … his master … shall receive five dollars.” (Newport Mercury 8/23/1773)
    • 23 Aug 1775 London, England King George officially declared the American colonies to be in rebellion issuing the Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition.
    • 22 Aug 1776 British cross from Staten Island & arrive at Long Island, between Gravesend & New Utrecht, with 24K troops. Gen William Howe’s strategy was to capture NYC & gain control of Hudson R, which would divide the rebellious colonies in half.
    • 23 Aug 1776 Bedford Pass (LI), NY Col Edward Hand’s screening force skirmishes with Hessians under Col Karl von Donop. The Hessians force Hand to withdraw on the American lines.
    • 22 Aug 1777 Warwick Township, PA After receiving intelligence of a British fleet entering Chesapeake Bay. Gen George Washington sends forces under Gen John Sullivan & Francis Nash to assemble near Chester, PA.
    • 22 Aug 1777 Setauket (LI), NY Lt Col Richard Hewlett’s 150 Loyalists repulse an attack by 500 rebels under Gen Samuel Parsons.
    • 23 Aug 1777 Fort Stanwix, NY Native allies under Lt Col Barry St Leger panic on the arrival of Col Benedict Arnold’s relief column. They abandon the siege & their camp & equipment in a flight west.
    • 25 Aug 1779 British Adm Marriot Arbuthnot pulls into New York harbor and relieves Adm John Byron as commander of the British fleet. Arbuthnot also brought transports carrying 3K reinforcements for Gen Henry Clinton’s army.
    • 23 Aug 1784, Counties in western NC declare independence as the state of Franklin. Settlers in Cumberland River Valley formed an independent govt from 1772 – 1777 & were concerned Congress would sell the territory to Spain or France to pay for #RevWar
    • 24 August 1804 – Peggy Shippen (b. 1760) dies in London. The femme fatale from Philadelphia was at the center of an espionage triangle, connecting former beau and British spymaster Maj Andre with her husband, disgruntled American Gen Benedict Arnold.
    • In August 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette, one of the last surviving generals of the American Revolutionary War, arrived in New York for a grand tour of America. He visited all 24 states & received a hero’s welcome everywhere
  • Clothing and Related:
    • Flax: From Flax Day at the The Colonel Paul Wentworth House We were each given recently retted flax & were able to try our hand at braking, scutching & combing (using various heckles). I won’t quit my day job but it was immensely satisfying to see the fibers.
    • Have you met Team Flax? Read more about them.
    • Back fastening closed dress with trained skirt & leading strings, 1760-70. Light blue figured silk with woven design of latticed ribbons. @mcrartgallery
      notes similarity to child’s dress in Zoffany’s 1770 portrait of George III & Queen Charlotte with their children
    • lets have a better look at this delightful peppermint-green silk gown, A ‘Circassienne’ robe – polonaise panels of equal length and a short skirt with deep bands of adornment to the petticoat hem. French, c.1780
  • Miscellaneous
    • Harian’s Wall: As the layers are stripped back during the archaeological investigation at #Vindolanda all the 9 forts which overly each other slowly appear from the early wooden forts to the late fighting platform to the rear (top right)
    • The London Mudlark: Found on the Thames foreshore, this 18th c wine bottle dates from the age of sail and trade, when London was the largest port in the world. Maybe it was dropped off a passing ship, I wonder if it was picked up in a riverside tavern or perhaps it came from foreign shores…

Last Post: SHAW UE, David James
David passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family, on August 3, 2023, at the age of 55. Cherished husband to Lisa and proud loving father to Nathaniel. Predeceased by his father Wally and mother Joan.
David will be lovingly remembered by his PSS (personal support sister), Jennifer, who was at his side throughout, as well as his remaining siblings and in-laws along with their partners. David made a huge impact in his business community and will be missed by all.
Service on Saturday, August 26th. Details at Ogden Funeral Home, Scarborough.
As a member of Gov. Simcoe Branch, David received his Loyalist Certificate to ancestor Col. Aeneas Shaw in 2011.

Last Post: STEVENS, Marion
Marion was a long time reader of Loyalist Trails. A resident of Hurley NY, she was a descendant of both Planters and Loyalists in Nova Scotia. She celebrated her 103rd birthday earlier this year but unfortunately passed away in July.

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