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How has Canadian English changed over the past 50 years? A Survey.
How does it vary across the country today?
The United Empire Loyalists played a central role in establishing the English language in Canada in 1783-84. The way Canadians speak English has changed a lot since then. In 1972, M.H. Scargill and H.J. Warkentyne published a Survey of Canadian English, a landmark study of the pronunciations, grammar, words and spellings used by Canadians across the country. Many regional differences were found, as well as variation between older and younger Canadians and even between women and men.
Five decades later, Canadian English continues to evolve, so a team of researchers in the Linguistics Department at McGill University, led by Prof. Charles Boberg, has undertaken a replication of the 1972 study. Our new, online survey reprises many of the original questions and adds some new ones, allowing us to measure change over the last 50 years, as well as regional and age differences today.
In order to ensure a representative view of Canadian English, Canadians of all ages, regions and social backgrounds are encouraged to participate in this research by responding to the survey.

If you’d like to add your voice to this view, please follow this link to complete the survey: https://surveys.mcgill.ca/ls3/414379?lang=en

You can also access the survey through the research project website: https://www.mcgill.ca/canadianenglish/
Participation is easy, fun and anonymous; it takes about 20-25 minutes. Anyone is welcome to participate, but we particularly value responses from native speakers of Canadian English who are good representatives of the region where they grew up. Respondents connected to the United Empire Loyalists, the original speakers of Canadian English, are especially welcome!
Dr. Charles Boberg, Professor, Department of Linguistics, McGill University

A Dozen Loyalist Women of New York
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
In no other warfare is there the same degree of vindictiveness, vengeance, and violence as is found in a civil war. Given that there were a large number of Loyalists among the population of the colony of New York during the American Revolution, the conflict there was one that saw brother fighting brother and neighbour betraying neighbour. The degree of violence that New York’s Loyalist wives and sisters experienced was especially harsh as demonstrated in the testimonies of 12 women.
In general, wives were not thought to have political opinions, so they were not treated in the same way as their husbands who suffered imprisonment, confiscation of property or execution if they took a stance of loyalty to the British crown. However, in the heat of war, Patriots often lashed out at the female relatives of Loyalist men.
Mary Purdy was left to manage the family farm in Newburgh, New York when her husband Gilbert became a guide for the British army in 1777. During the course of the war, rebels took kegs of cider, wheat, flour, hay, beef, and an ox from the Purdy farm. Then one day, a party of rebels came to the door of the Purdy home and demanded to see Mary’s “permit to stay” – a document that allowed a Loyalist’s wife to remain on her property. Mary said that the permit was in the home of her widowed sister, Jane Gidney.
The rebels accused Mary of lying to them and of keeping arms in her home. They boasted that they had orders from the governor of New York to kill Mary and her children by “shooting, drowning, tomahawking, or any other way they had mind to“.
In the end, the Patriots said that if Mary did not leave by the following Friday, they would destroy all that she had. She had already been subjected to multiple losses. All of her husband’s brothers had joined the British. One became a prisoner of war – and all died during the revolution. When her only brother fled the area, it left her “in a most melancholy situation”. Before the war’s end, her husband Gilbert also died.
Mary’s eight children managed to survive the war. Her fours sons were Gilbert Jr., David. Mecadia, and Samuel. Mercy, Rhoda Mary, and Charlotte were the daughters. Of these eight, only David and Mercy settled in Canada. Although Mary’s son David sought compensation on her behalf as a Loyalist widow in 1788, her claim was rejected – no doubt because she had decided to remain in the United States.
Just days after Grace Clarke’s husband James was killed during the defeat of General Burgoyne’s troops at Saratoga, rebels turned her out of her 500-acre farm. Destitute, she threw her lot in with the British army and followed it back to Quebec. At the conclusion of the revolution, Grace returned to New York in 1784 to earn her living as a housekeeper. Deprived of a husband and property, she hoped to receive compensation when the British commission convened in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her trip was in vain; her claim for losses was rejected.
Mary Dunning was the wife of another Loyalist who served with General Burgoyne. Following the defeat at Saratoga, Amos Dunning died in Montreal. Local rebels learned of his death before news reached Mary. She remembered that she was “stripped, pillaged, and plundered and –with her four small children– was turned off her property and left to shift for herself“. Although Mary never remarried, she was able to care for her children, all of whom were still alive in 1786.
Although she goes unnamed, the wife of William Brisbin of Palmerston, New York was remembered as “acting loyally”. She helped William feed and clothe more than 50 men that he conducted to safety in Canada. When rebels entered the Loyalists’ home in August of 1781, they stripped Mrs. Brisbin of all her clothes and took the shirts off the backs of five of her sons.
When the home of Staten Island Loyalist Isaac Decker was plundered by Patriots under the command of General Stirling, they stripped his wife “to her under-petticoat”, and burned his ship’s rigging. Mrs. Decker was left on Staten Island when her husband was “obliged to leave with British troops” making it impossible for him to help his “distressed family”.
But other Loyalist women suffered far more than the indignity of having their clothes removed by rebel troops. Rebels imprisoned a woman known only as Widow Taylor and her two daughters on charges of concealing spies. All three women were sentenced to be hanged. However, they managed to escape through a window, and were hidden in the cellar of William Leahy of Haverstraw, New York.
Rachel Ogden had also opened her home as “an asylum for escaping Loyalists”. Later, she lost her husband Benjamin Ogden at the Battle of Hanging Rock on August 6, 1780. She later claimed that “No woman in America in equal circumstances had done more, said more, laboured more or spent more than {she} to encourage, comfort, and support loyalists“.
Because she could not support her four children on her late husband’s pension, Rachel married a Loyalist widower named Timothy Wetmore and settled in New Brunswick. Her children (Rachel, Benjamin, Albert and Andrew) also made the Maritimes their home. Rachel died at the age of 94 on July 2, 1829.
Phiny Sniffen was another widow who had once had a home in New York and later settled in New Brunswick. She, her two sons, and two daughters had been eye-witnesses to the brutal death of her husband John. Rebels shot him dead upon arriving at his home in Westchester, New York.
The “helpless aged sister” and daughters of Philip Skene of Lake Champlain, New York were seized by an “armed banditti” to their “unspeakable terror and anxiety” and were taken by an armed escort “200 miles suffering extreme hardship, sometimes walking through the woods and sometimes on an ox cart, with scarcely a change of clothing and exposed to every insult and mortification from a licentious people“.
Unfortunate as these stories of loss and trauma are, other women fared far worse. David Beverley of Grandyle, New York was away from his family from 1776 to 1783, serving with the British forces. He later recounted that his wife and three children died because of “hardships suffered” during the war.
John Derry and his wife lived in Westchester, New York before the outbreak of the revolution. John served in the British army from 1777 to 1783, but it was his wife who suffered the greatest violence. At some point in the war, rebels hanged Mrs.Derry “until she was supposed by them to be dead“.
Had the trials of one New York Loyalist woman been as dire as those of Mrs. Derry, Canadian history might have been different. Elizabeth Tilley witnessed Patriots drag her husband Samuel out of bed at night and imprison him while their home was plundered. A week later, Elizabeth was arrested and separated from her three children. Relatives cared for James, Thomas, and Samuel Jr. until their father escaped to the British lines where his family joined him “without even a change of clothes”.
The Loyalist family eventually settled in Gagetown, New Brunswick. Elizabeth’s grandson, Leonard Tilley, became a Father of Confederation in 1867, and was the one who suggested “From Sea to Sea” as the new country’s motto. Born in 1818, Sir Leonard Tilley would have known his Loyalist grandmother until her death in 1835. Dying at the age of 84, Elizabeth Tilley, like many women of New York, would have had sobering stories of a civil war that was the cause of much hardship for its female participants.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

Book: Dishonored Americans: The Political Death of Loyalists in Revolutionary America
by Timothy Compeau
The book, 270 pages, is now available from:

With the final words of the Declaration of Independence, the signatories famously pledged to one another their lives, their fortunes, and their “sacred Honor.” But what about those who made the opposite choice? By looking through the analytical lens of honor culture, Dishonored Americans offers an innovative assessment of the experience of Americans who made the fateful decision to remain loyal to the British Crown during and after the Revolution.
Loyalists, as Timothy Compeau explains, suffered a “political death” at the hands of American Patriots. A term drawn from eighteenth-century sources, ‘political death’ encompassed the legal punishments and ritualized dishonors Patriots used to defeat Loyalist public figures and discredit their counter-revolutionary vision for America. By highlighting this dynamic, Compeau makes a significant intervention in the long-standing debate over the social and cultural factors that motivated colonial Americans to choose sides in the conflict, narrating in compelling detail the severe consequences for once-respected gentlemen who were stripped of their rights, privileges, and power in Revolutionary America.
Tim would like to thank UELAC members for their kind support over the years. He conducted much of the research for Dishonored Americans with help from the UELAC Graduate Scholarship and he continues to work on Loyalist Migrations at Huron University College in London, Ontario in partnership with the UELAC. Tim has enjoyed chatting with members at many talks over the years and can be available to speak at branch meetings. Please feel free to contact him at tcompeau@gmail.com.
Note: Tim is also a member of the UELAC Scholarship Committee

Battle of Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia
29 November 1776 – During the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia, comes to an end with the arrival of British reinforcements.
The Battle of Fort Cumberland 10-29 November 1776 (also known as the Eddy Rebellion) was an attempt by a small number of militia commanded by Jonathan Eddy to bring the American Revolutionary War to Nova Scotia in late 1776. With minimal logistical support from Massachusetts & four to five hundred volunteer militia & Natives, Eddy attempted to besiege & storm Fort Cumberland in central Nova Scotia (near the present-day border between Nova Scotia & New Brunswick) in November 1776.
The fort’s defenders, the Royal Fencible American Regiment led by Joseph Goreham, a veteran of the French & Indian War, successfully repelled several attempts by Eddy’s militia to storm the fort, & the siege was ultimately relieved when the RFA plus marine reinforcements drove off the besiegers on 29 November. In retaliation for the role of locals who supported the siege, numerous homes & farms were destroyed, & Patriot sympathizers were driven out of the area. The successful defense of Fort Cumberland preserved the territorial integrity of the British Maritime possessions, & Nova Scotia remained loyal throughout the war. See photos (Noted by Brian McConnell UE)
Also see

The Armed Boat Company and the Great Whaleboat Battle of 7 December 1782
by Kenneth MacCallum, Wilton, CT 06897 – Ken.maccallum@outlook.com
December 7 is best known and commemorated as the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It is also the anniversary of the “great whaleboat battle” which occurred near the end of the Revolutionary War in 1782 – 241 years ago – in the Long Island Sound, between the shores of Connecticut and Long Island, New York. This little known event – and the “whaleboat wars” on Long Island Sound in general – are virtually unknown pieces of Revolutionary War history. The Rebel (American) side of the events of December 7, 1782 is described as the “spy boat fight” in an article published this week in The Journal of American Revolution. That article identifies many of the Rebels who were involved, but gives no description of the foe whom the Rebels were fighting: the men and whaleboats of the Armed Boat Company. What was this equally unknown and obscure British unit – which was likely almost entirely comprised of men who were Tories, rather than men of the Royal Navy – and what role did it play in the Revolutionary War? The Armed Boat(s) Company was a British seagoing unit based in New York City during the Revolutionary War that manned armed whaleboats. Formed early during the conflict, it was reactivated as a small maritime unit when Governor Clinton – the Royal Governor of New York – issued a Warrant on 2 July 1781 to raise an Armed Boat Company. Read more…

Caleb Brewster’s Spy Boat Boys
by Philip D. Weaver 30 Nov 2023 Journal of the American Revolution
In researching one of the many projects I have in train, I ran across the Federal Pension Application file of Caleb Brewster. With all the public interest of late in him, Abraham Woodhull, Robert Townsend, and the Culper Spy Ring, I decided to take a more detailed look.
Brewster was first commissioned as the lowest-rated infantry officer, an ensign, in the 4th New York Regiment on November 1, 1776. Three months later, on January 1, 1777, he advanced to the rank of 1st lieutenant in the 2nd Continental Artillery. He was promoted to captain-lieutenant on June 23, 1780, was wounded on Long Island Sound in December 1782, and officially ended his military career on June 16, 1783.
I dug into the subject. I learned that the whaleboat men who ferried Brewster back and forth across Long Island Sound and attacked British shipping were actually skilled current and former soldiers organized into rotating crews, with more men attached to those crews as marines. These enlisted men, mostly natives of Long Island and Connecticut, were transferred from different regiments as they were the most qualified for this particular service. Read more…

Top 20 Wartime Quotations from the Letters of Lucy and Henry Knox
by Phillip Hamilton 28 Nov 2023 Journal of the American Revolution
Lucy and Henry Knox experienced the American Revolution at its very center. Growing up in Boston, the couple had fallen in love and married just prior to the outbreak of hostilities. Shortly after war broke out on April 19. 1775 at Lexington and Concord, they fled the city and Knox volunteered his services to the gathering Continental Army. He then began a remarkable military career. Indeed, during the conflict, he worked his way into George Washington’s inner circle, gained command of the army’s artillery branch, and ended the war as a major general and one of Washington’s most trusted lieutenants.
Frequently separated by the struggle, Henry and Lucy wrote scores of letters to one another. As with most couples during this age, they wrote for many reasons: they wished, first and foremost, to express their love for one another and desire to be together; they also wrote about the war’s events (both great and small) as well as debated the Revolution’s impact upon their marriage. These twenty quotations from their wartime correspondence demonstrate the Knoxes’ involvement in and influence upon these events. They also reveal the deeply personal struggles of a newly-married couple attempting to come to terms with a world in the midst of momentous changes. Read more…

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: Action in New Jersey Sept 1777
From a Hessian Diary of the American Revolution.
This excerpt from the diary of Johan Conrad Dohla (170 pages).

At Two active days in New Jersey (page 37) with General Clinton
11 September 1777.
During the evening an expedition was made from Staten Island over to the province of Jersey, as a countermove. The force included Captain [Philipp Friedrich] Seitz with his Grenadier Company and the Waldeck grenadiers. These units and three English regiments, namely, the Seventh, Twenty-sixth, and Fifty-second, three companies of the Royal Rangers, and over three hundred inhabitants of Staten Island who on their own fought on the royal side, and all under the command of Lieutenant General Clinton, were transported across the Kills River at night in various types of craft and landed at Elizabethtown Point.
Then they marched to Elizabethtown without encountering any opposition. This is a beautiful place similar to a small city. It has several churches and steeples, a nice combination city hall and schoolhouse, and other fine buildings. The buildings are widely scattered, however, and it requires nearly an hour to pass by all the houses.
Here a prolonged attack occurred. The enemy General [Israel] Putnam appeared with a corps of three thousand Jersey and New England militiamen and two regular battalions and took a very advantageous post on a height and in the forest. All the following day there was heavy small-arms and cannon fire. Toward five o’clock in the evening, the enemy was compelled to pull farther back into the woods. Our exhausted grenadiers marched to Newark in order to enjoy nourishment and to rest.
Although this Newark is an unimportant place, still it is laid out pleasantly and pleasingly. One house does not stand close to the next one as they do in large Germany cities.
12 September.
At sundown General Clinton marched farther with his corps and after one and one-half hours arrived at a defile where the enemy, who had hidden therein, suddenly fired heavily from a field of Indian corn growing beside the road.49 Our grenadiers returned this fire with swift volleys. A captain of the English Seventh Regiment was shot through the hip, so that his leg had to be amputated. Otherwise, however, no one was killed or wounded. The reason for such minimal damage was the great darkness.
At nine o’clock in the evening we arrived in a small village called Second River, which received its name from the river that flowed past it. Most of the inhabitants, except for a few women, had left. Nevertheless, it was necessary to remain under arms the entire night.
Here our troops also enjoyed a comical scene. One of the rebels found himself on this side of the Second River. Because it was pitch black, he believed our troops were his comrades, and he called to them that he had a prisoner and he did not want the regulars (by which he meant Clinton’s troops) to catch him. This speech was heard by the Green Rangers, and as he continued to shout, “G.. d… the King!” and “G.. save the Master Washington!” they disguised themselves and promised him that they would meet him with a boat, if only he would swim part way across the river. Therefore, he immediately jumped in the river, completely naked, after he received several shots directed at the place of his embarkation. While in the water, he lamented and asked for help, finally arriving on the bank near our and the Waldeck grenadier companies, where the Rangers pulled him out. Here he could no longer contain himself and cried out, “G.. d… the Hessians! G.. d… the Germans!”, for which he had to sit the entire night by other prisoners, just as he had arrived. He was, as one sometimes meets, one of those who betrayed the houses of loyal citizens for a small reward. With this opportunity, our troops got acquainted with Lieutenant General Clinton. He is a very gentle and plain man, speaks some German, and is very friendly to the German troops.
(to be continued)

Advertised on 23 November 1773: “The Hat-Making Business”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

“He continues the Hat-making Business, and hopes those who have already obliged him with their Custom will continue so to do.”

When he moved from Market Street to Water Street in Philadelphia, Samuel Read, “HAT-MAKER,” ran an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette to “inform the Public, and his Friends in particular” of his new location. He encouraged “those who have already obliged him with their Custom” to visit his new shop, especially since he “intends making it his particular Study to merit their Favour.” Read also assured “Country Store-keepers, Shallop-men, and others, who have Orders for Hats” that they “may depend on having them at the most reasonable Rate.” Read more…

A History of the Myaamia
With Diane Hunter and John Bickers at Ben Franklin’s World 28 Nov 2923
Early America was a diverse place. A significant part of this diversity came from the fact that there were at least 1,000 different Indigenous tribes and nations living in different areas of North America before the Spanish and other European empires arrived on the continent’s shores.
Diane Hunter and John Bickers join us to investigate the history and culture of one of these distinct Indigenous tribes: the Myaamia. At the time of this recording, Diane Hunter was the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. She has since retired from that position. John Bickers is an Assistant Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Both Diane and John are citizens of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and experts in Myaamia history and culture.‌
John and Diane reveal what we know about the history and origins of the Myaamia people before European contact; Details about the Myaamia’s ancestral homelands and the different elements that make up Myaamia culture and identity; And, how contact with Europeans and Americans has altered Myaamia culture and their relationship with their ancestral homelands.‌ Listen in…

Recognizing and rewarding our UELAC Volunteers – Suzanne Morse-Hines Memorial Award
Do you know of a UELAC member who has made significant progress in researching their family history and genealogy with the goal of obtaining a UE certificate? If so, consider nominating them for the annual Suzanne Morse-Hines Memorial Genealogy-Family History Award.
The UELAC Suzanne Morse-Hines Memorial Genealogy-Family History Award was created by the Board in March 2022 to honor the memory of past president Suzanne Morse-Hines and to recognize volunteer excellence in the Association.
The Volunteer Recognition Committee is currently seeking nominations for the Suzanne Morse-Hines Memorial Genealogy Family History Award.
Nominations may be made by current UELAC members. For more information and to download a nomination form and instructions, members only go to https://uelac.ca/members/ and look for “Suzanne Morse-Hines” in the table of content.
The deadline for nominations is February 28, 2024.
Diane Faris UE, Vice-President Pacific Region, Chair – Volunteer Recognition Committee

Loyalist Certificates Issued in October
The publicly available list of certificates issued since 2012 is now updated to end of October 2023.
When a certificate is added there, it is also recorded in the record for the Loyalist Ancestor in the Loyalist Directory.

UELAC Head/Dominion Office Holiday Season Closures
The UELAC Head Office in Cornwall will be closed on Mon. December 25, 2023, Tues. December 26, 2023 and Mon. January 1st, 2024
If you have any urgent matters that require immediate attention, please contact Rodney Appleby (UELAC Office Administrator) <uelac.office@gmail.com> before December 25th.
We wish you all a joyous holiday season and a prosperous New Year.
Carl Stymiest UE, UELAC Dominion President

Upcoming Events

Gov. Simcoe Branch “Monarchy in Movies” + Christmas Anecdotes by Garry Toffoli Wed 6 Dec 7:30

For over a century, since the earliest silent films, monarchy has been a subject exlpored in cinema. Both sympathetic and hostile portrayals of royalty have been presented. The films have included dramas, comedies and musicals, with adventure, romance, politics, intrigue and humour among the elements in the stories. From King David to Queen Elizabeth II, from fantasy rulers to famous monarchs, the realm of the screen has embraced them all. This presentation will look at that long history in English language film productions, and how the theme of kingship has been addressed from cultural, historical and political perspectives. For a Christmas touch, Garry will talk briefly about some personal Christmas anecdotes, mostly humorous. And lots of Christmas goodies and a book sale for those attending in person
Read more about Garry and the meeting.
Register for zoom. If attending in person, contact Anne Neuman anneneuman@hotmail.com 905-888-1278

American Revolution Institute: “God Save Benedict Arnold” Thurs 7 Dec 6:30

Author’s Talk – God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America’s Most Hated Man
For more than two centuries, all most Americans have ever known about Benedict Arnold is that he committed treason—yet he was more than a turncoat. He was a superb leader, a brilliant tactician, a supremely courageous soldier and one of the most successful military officers of the early years of the Revolutionary War. His capture of Fort Ticonderoga, his Maine mountain expedition to attack Quebec… Although his new book doesn’t exonerate Arnold for his treason, historian Jack Kelly forces us to reexamine our understanding of Arnold. Details and Registration.

Kawartha Branch Christmas Luncheon Sunday, 10 December, 2:00 p.m. ET

Members and friends at Kelsey’s Original Roadhouse, 1211 Lansdowne Street West, Peterborough for a 2:00 p.m. ET Christmas luncheon on Sunday, 10 December.
Order from the menu. A Christmas prize draw.
Space is limited, 25 – 30 in a private room.
RSVP to Grietje and Bob McBride, maplegrm@gmail.com or uelbob@nexicom.net or 705-295-4556 as soon as possibl

Christmas Songfest at St.Albans’s Centre Sun 10 Dec 2:00

Come and sing along with musicians John and Christopher Hall and Doug Handford
Free admission but Non-perishable food items or cash donations for Morningstar Mission welcomed. Refreshments Provided
St. Alban’s Centre, 10419 Loyalist Parkway (Hwy. 33), Adolphustown

American Revolution Institute: Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America, Wed 13 Dec, 6:30 ET

On the night of December 16, 1773, a party of Bostonians boarded three British vessels and dumped over three hundred chests of tea into Boston Harbor. In addition to objecting to taxation without representation, the participants were also protesting the Tea Act of 1773. To commemorate the 250th anniversary, Benjamin Carp, professor of history at Brooklyn College, discusses the event in the context of the global story of British interests in India, North America and the Caribbean. Register

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

  • Townsends – or Food
  • This week in History
    • 2 Dec 1738 Richard Montgomery, Irish General in Continental Army during RevWar, born in Swords, Dublin, is born. Montgomery would lead the ill-fated 1775 invasion of Canada. His untimely death was a key contributor to the American loss.
    • 27 November 1770 Boston, MA John Adams defends the soldiers that served under Captain Preston at the Boston Massacre at the 2nd trial began of the accused. Adams succeeded in the defense, getting them acquitted.
    • Nov 27, 1773, the first East India Company tea arrived! The Rotch family’s Dartmouth sailed into Boston harbor.
      Also, Philadelphians threatened the captain of the tea ship headed there and any pilots that might help him:
    • Nov. 28, 1773: the Dartmouth arrives in Boston Harbor carrying 114 chests of British tea. Under the law, it cannot leave port until it has paid the tea tax. If unpaid after 20 days, the tea will be seized and sold to pay the tax.
    • Nov 28, 1773, the Dartmouth came into Boston’s inner harbor with 114 chests of East India Company tea. Whigs called for a public meeting. This would not be a town meeting but a “meeting of the people” in Old South Meeting House
    • Nov 29, 1773, Bostonians gathered in @OSMHBoston to discuss the Dartmouth tea ship in the harbor. Jonathan Williams moderated. Edward Procter led a group who volunteered to patrol the dock and ensure no tea was unloaded.
    • Nov 30, 1773, Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson sent Suffolk County sheriff Stephen Greenleaf to Old South Meeting House with an order for the people discussing the tea ships to disperse.
      The gathering voted to ignore this order.
    • 2 Dec 1773 Boston, Mass. The ship Eleanor, laden with 114 chests of tea, arrived at Boston harbor.
    • 2 Dec 1773, the tea ship London arrived in Charleston, South Carolina. That city”s tea protest ended with the East India Company tea being unloaded and stored but not counted as landed, so no tax was collected
    • 25 Nov 1775 Continental Congress authorizes privateering against British ships & recommends the creation of Admiralty Courts to adjudicate prize money. Privateering would place a huge dent in British merchant shipping & profits
    • 29 Nov 1775 Philadelphia PA Congress created the Committee of Secret Correspondence as they tried to woo European nations to aid in the war. Secret because the committee’s members felt public discussion of the information would endanger everyone involved.
    • 29 Nov 1775 A militia force of 1,000 men under Col William Woodford assumes strong defenses on the west bank of the Elizabeth R., VA., hoping to block Royal Gov John Murray, Lord Dunmore’s forces from seizing Suffolk.
    • 1 Dec 1775 A column of 300 men under Gen Richard Montgomery sails down the St Lawrence R. to reinforce Col Benedict Arnold at Point aux Trembles. In winter cold & short on supply & men, the rebel siege of Quebec is about to begin with 800 men.
    • 28 Nov 1776, The Declaration of Dependence to King George III . was signed by 547 (one said over 900) Loyalists who wanted to stay under the King’s dominion. It put forth the concerns and faith of Loyalists as a counter to the Independence Declaration.
    • 30 Nov, 1776 NYC Adm Richard Howe & Gen William Howe issue a proclamation offering a “free and general pardon”, to anyone who within 60 days would “come forth and take an oath of allegiance” to the King.
    • 1 Dec 1776 Gen Charles Cornwallis’s column almost catches American forces crossing the Raritan R., but the bridge is destroyed, and the British halted (for a while) at Brunswick, NJ.
    • 25 Nov 1777 Gloucester NJ. Marquis de Lafayette leads 300 men in a surprise attack on a large force of over 350 Hessian Jaegers. Lafayette caught them unprepared & the elite Jaegers began a fighting retreat toward the main British camp.
    • 26 Nov 1777 Adm Richard Howe anchors at Philadelphia with 63 ships in order to resupply British forces occupying the city.
    • 27 Nov, 1777, Gen George Washington’s proclamation of amnesty for deserting soldiers who returned before January 1 was published in the Virginia Gazette. Washington was always desperate for recruits, and deserters helped fill the ranks of both sides.
    • 1 Dec 1777 Baron Friedrich von Steuben arrives at Portsmouth, NH from France, bearing a letter of introduction from Benjamin Franklin.
    • 30 Nov 1779 – Gen Washington decides on Jockey Hollow for the site of the main 1779-80 winter encampment. This would be the 2nd Morristown Encampment. & would prove far more bitter than the 1st and even more terrible than the winter camp at Valley Forge.
    • 28 Nov 1780 Gen Washington wrote to his Intelligence officer & commander of the 2nd Continental Light Dragoons, Maj Benjamin Tallmadge, to congratulate his commando-style raid upon Fort St. George on Long Island.
    • 30 Nov 1780 Maj Henry Lee promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. And given command of a hand-picked force of 300 dragoons & several foot companies to be known as Lee’s legion., which he turns into one of the crack units in the Continental Army.
    • 26 Nov 1781 West Indies A French fleet under Adm Francois-Joseph-Paul, comte de Grasse, drops anchor at Martinique to prepare for the attack on Barbados.
    • 30 Nov 1782, Preliminary Treaty of Paris signed, bringing hostilities RevWar to a close. The British government sought peace with the Americans after the surrender of Gen Charles Cornwallis & the loss of several possessions to France and Spain.
    • 25 November 1783, New York City. Evacuation Day. Three months after the Treaty of Paris took effect, the last British forces and 30,000 Loyalists departed New York City, ending a seven-year occupation. Correspondence between General George Washington and British commander-in-chief General Guy Carleton had arranged that the city was open for American reoccupation once Carleton departed on the last British ship.
  • Clothing and Related:
  • Miscellaneous
    • Wow, a 3,400 year-old ancient Egyptian paint box containing its original pigments! (Looks similar to a modern-day set!)
      The preserved cake pigments are red (red ochre), blue (Egyptian blue), green (a mixture of Egyptian blue, yellow ochre, and orpiment) and two of black (carbon black, from charcoal).
      An inscription on the wooden paint box tells us it belonged to Amenemope, who was Vizier during the reign of king Amenhotep II. As a member of the elite, he would have used it for painting for leisure.
      The Cleveland Museum of Art

Last Post: Watt (née Robinson), Elizabeth Gillian 1937 – 2023
Gill died in Southlake Hospital on November 20th after suffering two major strokes. She is survived by her husband Gavin K. and her three children: Nancy of Newmarket; Sarah and her husband Christian Cameron and daughter Beatrice of Toronto; and her son Gavin A., his wife Laura Graffi and their son Alexander of Niagara Falls.
Gill was passionate about her offspring, her wonderful mother, and her broader family. She was the organizer of decades of annual family gatherings at her home north of King City and greatly enjoyed the family farm and cottages in Waupoos, Prince Edward County.
Gill was a lifelong learner. She loved her wooded property in King and was a natural, artistic gardener, weaving wild and cultivated flowers, bushes and trees into lovely patterns.
She was a determined conservationist and an almost 50-year member of Concerned Citizens of King Township, coming to serve as the organization’s secretary. She was instrumental in the campaigns to Save the Oak Ridges Moraine and to block the Big Pipe.
Her romance with Gavin K. began in Sunday school (St. John’s, York Mills) at age 9, followed by several years in church groups, then a date at age 17; five years of courtship and 64 years of marriage. Gill supported Gavin in his final year of university; the highs and lows of his business career, and in all his outlandish pursuits, often becoming involved in his history projects. She is the love of his life.
At the request of her family and in memory of Gill, please do whatever you can to protect yourselves and others from Covid.
For more about Gill, service, memories, visit Aftercare.

Last Post: LOOMIS, Milton ”Milt” H. 1927 – 2023
Milton “Milt” H. Loomis Bell Canada Retiree passed away peacefully, Thursday, 23 November, 2023 at the CHUS- Fleurimont, Sherbrooke, QC.
Son of the late Harold W. Loomis and the late Verda M. Hammond.Beloved husband of C. Beverley “Bev” Bennett. Dear Father of Nancy ( Wendell Smith), Cindy ( David Suitor), Susan (John Powers), Jeff (Ellen Oxford), Debi (Bruce Bennett),and Warren (Helen MacKinnon).
Funeral at a later date. Details etc.
Milt and Bev were the backbone of the Little Forks Branch of the UELAC. They were also the driving force behind the preservation and restoration of The Hyatt One-Room Schoolhouse.

 

Published by the UELAC
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