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The Loyalist Gazette, Fall 2023 Issue “Maritime Loyalists” is Now Available
The Loyalist Heritage: A Legacy of Compassion
By Guest Editor Stephen Davidson UE
The heavy work – gathering, editing, layout, design – of the Loyalist Gazette has been completed and this issue is now at the printers. The paper copies should be in the mail before Christmas and for those who have requested one, you should receive it not long afterwards, depending on distance and the Christmas mail rush.
The digital copy is now available to all current members. Login at uelac.ca and you will find reference on the Members page, or click here to go directly, then download.
This issue includes articles such as

  • A Nova Scotia Story: Loyalist History and a 1930s Road Trip Through Nova Scotia
  • The Loyalist Collection at UNB Libraries
  • The Hardships and contributions of Loyalist Women in New Brunswick
  • Benjamin Franklin’s Nova Scotia Land by…
  • The Diligent River Monument
  • High Treason Trials: Death sentences and pardons in Delaware.
  • Loyalist Battle of Bennett’s Island Finally receives historical recognition

Lot’s of great reading. Enjoy!

Loyalist Whitesmiths
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
While most people could easily define a blacksmith as someone who shapes things out of (black) iron, the term “whitesmith” is not as familiar. In days of yore, a whitesmith was someone who worked with “white metal” — otherwise known as tin. Among the skilled craftsmen who became Loyalists in the 18th century, there were both blacksmiths and whitesmiths. This article begins a two-week examination of some of the Loyalists known to have made their living working with tin.
Of all of the whitesmiths that can be found in documents relating to Loyalists, John Burch’s story provides the greatest number of biographical details. A native of England, he settled in New York in 1772. When pressed to sign an oath of allegiance to the Patriot cause in 1775, he moved to Albany in the hopes of not drawing attention to his continued loyalty to the British crown. He began to operate a dry goods store and worked as a “Japanner and Tin man”.
Fashionable in the 18th century, “japanning” was a European imitation of lacquer work typically produced in Japan and other Asian nations. Items such as tin trays or canisters were covered in a heavy black enamel paint and then had gold pictures or designs applied to them. Burch was as much an artist as he was a maker of tin goods.
Burch then moved to Pataukunk on the Delaware River where he had 5,000 acres of land. Rebels seized his shop in Albany, stealing or selling his “stock in trade”. One of the people who took things from his home had been his housekeeper.
At Pataukunk, he heard that Col. John Butler planned to attack rebel sites in the Susquehanna Valley, and was in need of provisions. Burch offered to supply the Loyalist colonel with his own cattle and that of his Loyalist neighbours. In the end, Burch and 40 others delivered 136 cattle to Butler.
Patriots later arrested Thomas Cumming, the overseer of Burch’s farm. He was tried for his life and condemned as a traitor for having assisted in supplying Col. Butler with cattle. Fortunately, Cumming was later released.
Discovering that Burch was aiding the British side, Patriots surrounded and plundered his Pataukunk home, not once, but on three different occasions in 1778. Jumping out of a window under a hail of bullets as his home was set afire, the Loyalist tin smith escaped into the woods. Over the next weeks, he travelled through Indigenous territory, and found sanctuary at Fort Niagara.
Made a member of the Indian department at Niagara, Burch took care of the “Indian Stores” rather than participating in the numerous raids led by Col. Butler. At the end of the revolution, Burch did not return to the east coast colonies, but settled near Niagara Falls.
Among the possessions and property for which Burch sought financial compensation at Montreal in 1787 were his tools for working with tin, iron, and copper. Patriots had seized these and 3 horse loads of goods and cash while they were in transit from Albany to Delaware in the summer of 1778. Burch’s shopkeeper Janet McClement and Loyalist friends Hugh Alexander and John Pervis had tried to transport the tinsmith’s shop goods to him. All three were arrested and prosecuted for aiding the enemy.
Janet was handed over to a number of Patriot women who “stripped her down to her shift on pretext (that) they were searching for treasonable papers, but only discovered some money in her petticoats.”
The Loyalist woman survived the war. In 1787, a fellow Loyalist affirmed that Janet (by then Mrs. Andrew) “had a good character” and lived “in sobriety and honesty”.
“Reckoned a rich man” by his contemporaries, the tinsmith John Burch ended his days as one of the hundreds of Loyalist refugees who made the Niagara region their new home.
Alexander Smith had been a whitesmith in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after emigrating from Scotland in 1769. His prosperous business came to an end seven years later when he “declared against the rebels” at the outbreak of the American Revolution. When British troops occupied the whitesmith’s city in 1777, Smith joined them – and when they evacuated in the following summer, he was among the Loyalist refugees that sailed on the Fanny for sanctuary in New York City.
Unfortunately for this craftsman, he was not able to bring any of his tin-smithing tools with him. At the end of the war, Smith headed north to Canada. He sought compensation when the Royal Commission on the Losses and Services of American Loyalists convened in Quebec City on June 18, 1787. He was able to substantiate his claims the value of his house, whitesmith shop, and property with certificates from Samuel Shoemaker and Daniel Cox.
The latter had once been a member of his Majesty’s Council in New Jersey. During the revolution, Cox became the president of the Board of Refugees. Established in New York in 1779, it consisted of delegates from the Loyalists of the Colonies. It may have been the actions of this board that initially brought Alexander Smith in contact with such a prominent fellow Loyalist.
Samuel Shoemaker had once been the mayor of Philadelphia. A Quaker, he was remembered for his compassion for Patriot prisoners held by the British. Thanks to his interceding with the British admiral, many rebels were eventually freed from military prisons and sent home. When Shoemaker found sanctuary in London, he was often consulted by the commissioners who deliberated as to how much loyal Americans should be compensated for their losses. At one time, the Quaker Loyalist even had a private interview with King George III at Windsor Castle.
No doubt his connections to such high ranking Loyalists were instrumental in Alexander Smith being compensated for the loss of his tin shop. How he fared as a refugee in Canada goes unrecorded.
John Brown was a whitesmith who had immigrated to Georgia from Scotland in 1764. He plied his trade as a tin worker for “the Indian trade”, making goods that could be exchanged with Indigenous people at the colony’s frontier trading posts. Because he was far from the metropolitan centres, Brown was able to avoid serving in Patriot militias and signing oaths of allegiance.
Eventually, the Loyalist whitesmith joined Col. Campbell in Savannah and remained with the British troops, serving in the militia during the siege of the city. Recognizing his service to the crown, Sir James Wright, Georgia’s last royalist governor, made Brown a lieutenant in the militia on September 6, 1780.
Within six months of his promotion, Brown joined other southern Loyalists who relocated to St. Augustine, Florida. When East Florida was returned to the Spanish crown, Brown sailed north and made his home in Nova Scotia. He went to live in Rawdon, where a number of other southern Loyalists had settled.
The tinsmith’s wartime losses were considerable. His earnings as a whitesmith had allowed him to buy a 200-acre plantation. This in turn provided enough of an income that Brown could acquire 17 head of cattle, 8 hogs, 4 horses, tools, and clothing. His log house was described as being “tolerably furnished”. It is doubtful that Brown ever returned to his pre-war level of prosperity.
Whitesmiths also settled in New Brunswick. Three of their stories will appear in next week’s Loyalist Trails.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

The American Invasion of Canada
by James M. Smith 5 Dec. 2023 Journal of the American Revolution
When the fighting between the British and American forces broke out on April 19, 1775, just one month prior to the start of the Second Continental Congress no one was sure just where things were going or how they were going to turn out, but one thing was acutely on everyone’s mind at the time. The thirteen American colonies were now faced with a war in which they were battling a nation with the largest navy in the world, an army that was flush with victory having won a stunning defeat of its archrival, France, and a nation that now had the largest empire the world had seen since the days of ancient Rome. Great Britain’s army was small, but highly trained and used to victories.
America was looking for friends. Could Canada be one of those friends? If the Canadians could overthrow their new British masters, it would go a long way in restricting British operations in America. At first there was talk in the Continental Congress of invading Canada that summer. That idea was quickly given up, but could the French Canadians be convinced to do it on their own? The Congress did send a letter written by John Dickinson in the First Continental Congress in 1774 to the French Canadians, but they did not respond. Read more…

More about The Battle of Fort Cumberland
I read last week’s piece on the 1776 Battle of Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia with interest, as one of my ancestors, Sargent William McLeod Senior, participated and others of my ancestors were involved on the Rebel/patriot side with Col. Eddy. There is much more to the story than is set forth that article and the cited sources.
William McLeod was a soldier with long service in the British Army. He served in the 59th Regiment of Foot from 1760 to 1774. On June 17, 1765, William McLeod sailed from Cork, Ireland, bound for Newfoundland under the command of Captain Allen McDonald of the 59th. He served in Newfoundland with the 59th until he left the Regiment in 1774, probably after it had been relieved and moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. He served in the Royal Fencible Americans during the American Revolution, probably joining that Regiment in Nova Scotia in 1775 or early 1776, and was with the Fencibles until that regiment was disbanded at Fort Howe in Saint John October 1783. His eight year old son John McLeod enlisted as a drummer boy in the Fencibles on June 10, 1776 – possibly making him one of the youngest Loyalist soldiers of the American Revolution.
William McLeod saw his first engagement with the Fencibles at Fort Cumberland, which had been captured by a force of men under Colonel Jonathan Eddy – Rebels from Maine, disaffected Planters from Maugerville on the Saint John River, indigenous peoples (“Indians”), and Acadians. McLeod was one of the 150 men in the Fencibles relief force under Lt. Batt and Captain (later Major) Gilfred Studholm; he was one of the Fencibles who were part of the original garrison when the fort was besieged. He was then a sargeant in the Royal Fencible Americans, and participated in the November 29, 1776 attack: “[f]our sargents were selected from among the six in Studholme’s and Batt’s companies: John Innes,… William Mcleod…” The English attack force included 74 men from the Fencibles – 64 rank-and-file, four sargeants, two drummers, three junior officers and Captain Gilfred Studholm. The Fencibles carried the center of the attack and charged directly into the enemy camp, with the Marines on either flank. Eddy’s force was defeated and withdrew, leaving the fort in the hands of the British.
Rebel attacks on the settlement at what later became known as Saint John led to the British taking defensive measures, with Major Studholme building and commanding a garrison at Saint John at what became known to this day as Fort Howe. Studholm arrived at the mouth of the Saint John River during the latter part of November, 1777 with 50 men of the Royal Fencible Americans, including William McLoed. Fort Howe was garrisoned by the Fencibles under Studholm until October 1783. After the War McLeod settled on the Salmon River on part of Major Studholm’s a 5,000 acres grant in the Parish of Sussex in Kings County, N.B. McLeod was closely connected with Major Studholm and Captain Samuel Denny Street of the Fencibles during the War and until his death in 1815.
Ken MacCallum

Securing the Bells
by William W. Reynolds 7 Dec. 2023 Journal of The American Revolution
“Remove all public bells, in Philadelphia, to a place of security.”—Continental Congress Resolution, Sept. 14, 1777
The British Army commanded by Gen. Sir William Howe landed on the western shore of Elk River in Cecil County, Maryland, on August 25, 1777, with the objective of occupying Philadelphia, capital of the recently declared independent United States. While the invasion had been anticipated by Continental authorities, the landing stimulated their action to move to a more secure location the important collection of military stores in Philadelphia, as well as those at Head of Elk, Maryland, and Valley Forge and French Creek, Pennsylvania. Fortunately for the Continentals, Howe consumed thirty-two days covering the fifty-seven miles to Philadelphia, providing time to move the city’s military stores, papers, money, books, and other items to a place of safety. The British Army’s position as it moved from Head of Elk towards Philadelphia threatened evacuation routes running west from Philadelphia but not routes running north, so the Lehigh Valley became the place of security preferred by Pennsylvania and Continental authorities.
The Continental Congress took the first action relative to Philadelphia stores on September 4 by ordering…. 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).

Taking Fort Montgomery (page 39)
6 October 1777.
General Clinton marched against Fort Montgomery in order to open a passage from Albany for General Burgoyne. He stormed the previously mentioned fort and, in so doing, lost many men. The Grenadier Company of the Ansbach Regiment participated in this capture, and Captain [Ludwig Heinrich Vollrath] von Erckert was shot through the chest, dying of his wound on 11 October. He was a favorite of General Clinton, who really is a great friend of the Germans. He constantly had to eat with General Clinton and be near him. He often asked permission of the general to be used in important undertakings in order to distinguish himself; however, out of friendship the general always refused. Finally, he was able to join his grenadier company and the English and Hessian grenadiers. At Fort Montgomery those combined troops had to pass through a nearly impenetrable abatis. The fort lies on a nearly insurmountable cliff and was provided with 120 cannon, among which were many of 36-pounds. Although the cannon fire from the fort was terrible and the grapeshot flew thick and at times, when it ricocheted on the rocks, made a startling sound, still, the brave Scots and Englanders, as well as Captain von Erckert, with his company and the Hessian Grenadier Battalion, pressed through with fixed bayonets, even though many people fell. When he was already at the third battery, Captain von Erckert received a discharge of grape that shattered his right arm. This caused him to fall, but he raised himself, took his sword in his left hand, exhorting and calling his grenadiers with these words: „Be consoled and undisturbed, my children. I still lead you bravely on and will not leave you.
Only press forward! Keep your honor, keep your courage!” With these and other words he steadfastly urged his troops on, and wanted, ignoring the great pain and flowing blood, to press on. But he was again hit by a ball from a field cannon, which entered his left side and exited at the right shoulder, fatally wounding him and causing him to fall. He still had the pleasure that General Clinton hurried to him with tears in his eyes, again embraced him and kissed him, and sent him back to New York, where a few days later he gave up the ghost and was greatly missed.
This strong fort [Fort Montgomery] was then overrun and taken by storm with fixed bayonets. More than three hundred men were made prisoners, and four to five hundred were bayoneted and killed. The remainder, however, took flight. They left all the cannon and cannonballs in the fort, but had spiked many of them and made them unserviceable. A considerable supply of flour, meat, and cognac, and much ammunition, was also found. General Clinton had everything that could not be carried away sunk in the North River, which flowed past, and all the cannon that had been made unserviceable were thrown in the river. Although the fort received the name Fort Clinton, it was not occupied by the English, but completely destroyed. In this conquest, more than six or seven hundred men were killed and wounded.
Lieutenant Colonel Campbell and Major Duncan of the Blue Scots were among the English dead. The Hessian grenadiers lost Lieutenant von Ventheim. Two men of the Ansbach grenadiers were killed, and five wounded. Although the loss on the English side was great, the conquest was important. No one who has not seen it can grasp the size, splendor, and strength of the fort. Now, however, it is completely destroyed and lies buried in its ruins. A chain as thick as your arm extended across the North River from the fort. This was raised and lowered by a machine, which prevented the passage of ships up the North River. It too was taken away and brought to New York.
(to be continued)

Frigate Duel, 1782: HMS Santa Margarita vs. L’Amazone
In the Dawlish Chronicles
In reading about warfare in the Age of Fighting Sail one is invariably impressed by the aggression and sheer bloody-minded will to win that characterised the officers and crews of the Royal Navy. These were the factors that regularly brought victory even when the odds seemed stacked against British ships and the enemy, usually French or Spanish, never seems to have had the same single-minded focus on prevailing. Only in the War of 1812, when Britain again confronted the United States, did the Royal Navy consistently encounter enemies with the same ruthless commitment to victory.
These thoughts came to me this week when leafing again through the Victorian classic, “Deeds of Naval Daring” by Admiral Edward Giffard (1812-1867), and came on an action I had not previously known of. This was a duel between equally-matched British and French frigates, HMS Santa Margarita, an ex-Spanish prize, and the French L’Amazone in 1782. Built for the Spanish navy in 1774, HMS Santa Margarita had been captured off Lisbon in November 1779. Take into British service, she was refitted in 1780/81 and sent in June 1781, under the command of Captain Elliot Salter, to join a squadron off the American coast. Read more…

The Brown Brothers had a Sister
By Karin Wulf Dec 2023 in Common Place
Women’s work is often hidden or marginal within historical records that were meant to show men’s economic and political lives.
“Nick and Josie, John and Mosie.” Or “Johnnie, Josie, Nickie, Mosie.” I haven’t been able to source this one, but I’ve also heard the four Brown brothers—Nicholas (1729-91), Joseph (1733-85), John (1736-1803), and Moses (1738-1836)—referred to as “Nick, Joe, Jack, and Moe.”
Ubiquitous in the annals of early American commerce, politics, and slavery and in the history and lore of Providence, Rhode Island, the wealth from the Brown brothers’ extensive merchant trading and companies was the foundation for centuries of family philanthropy and was instrumental in the founding of Brown University. The Browns are both emblematic of the kinds of wealth that was generated through trade in the eighteenth century, and distinctive for their success and long legacies. Those legacies in Providence and beyond are many, including the library where I work, named for the originating collection of John Carter Brown, a grandson of Nicholas Brown. Joseph Brown helped design the university’s first building, University Hall. The John Brown House is a cornerstone of the Rhode Island Historical Society’s programming. The Moses Brown School remains a pillar in the city. The brothers were such a potent foursome, then and since, that when their powerful-in-her-own-right mother died in 1791, she was memorialized on her gravestone as “the mother of Nicholas, Joseph, John, and Moses Brown.”
So much for Mary, their sister and their mother’s only daughter.
It’s a commonplace that women remain largely absent from histories in part because of biases in the sources. But for early periods the always scant historical record of women’s activities is even spottier. Thus Mary Brown Vanderlight (1731-95) has been, like other women, even spectacularly privileged women, elusive to history. In a detailed biography of her brother, Moses, she appears three times, all to note her, incorrectly, as a member of his household—just another dependent. In the account of the family that was long the standard, written by the organizer of the family business papers, she doesn’t warrant a single mention. Mary remains so invisible and appears in so few accounts of the family’s or the city’s or the university’s history that even historically-minded folks in Providence today suggested when I began to research her life that she couldn’t possibly be a Brown sister, but another of the many Mary Browns—maybe one of the brothers’ aunts. Read more…

Advertised on 5 December 1773: “Linen Rags”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

“Those who really wish to promote the interest of America … will contribute their aid to the success of the paper manufactory.”
John Keating, the proprietor of a “PAPER MANUFACTORY” near New York, had a task for every household in the colonies: collect rags to make into paper. That might seem like an insignificant act, he argued in an advertisement that appeared week after week in the New-York Journal, but it had value beyond measure. “The smallness of the value of rags in a family, is apt to make people careless in saving them, as being scarce worth the trouble,” Keating acknowledged. However, “small as the value is, it is more than sufficient, taking one family with another, to supply each with all the paper necessary for its use.” This endeavor, like so many acts of protest against the abuse of Parliament, depended on colonizers working in unison. Cooperation yielded strength. Keating elaborated on his vision: “And the benefit each will receive in common with the community, will be much greater than the immediate profit by the of the rags.” To achieve that goal, he encouraged every household to designate a spot for collecting rags, noting that “a little practice in saving them, would soon make it habitual to do it, and establish this valuable manufactory upon a permanent foundation.” Read more…

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions

Entries which have been added, or revised, this week, with thanks:

  • Thanks to Robert Harvey for additional information about James Gerolamy Sr. He was born in the Argyle District , Albany Co, New York (near Fort Edward), served in Capt John W. Meyers co, Loyal Rangers (AKA Jessup’s Rangers) and settled in 1784 at West 1/2 lot 17, con 4, Ernestown, Mecklenburgh District, Quebec, then 1790 at West 1/2 lot 16, con 1, Marysburgh. He served with the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles Regiment during war of 1812
  • Duplicate records for Thomas Bayeaux were consolidated, thanks to Jo Ann Tuskin. A daughter married Loyalist Elijah Vincent

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

Turning Wood: Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Museums
Today (4 December) being the 404th anniversary of Thomas Coopy’s arrival in Virginia aboard the ship Margaret (Capt. Woodleif). So for #MuseumMakerMonday we’re looking at the Art and Mystery of Turning, an everyday presence in most Europeans’ lives for centuries.
On the crossing, sailors and passengers alike would have eaten from turned wooden bowls, and used a variety of turned items. The @MaryRoseMuseum has many turned artefacts recovered from the wreck including the original pieces reproduced below by our turners in James Fort.
Our lathe was built in-house by the Fort’s woodworking team. The 1st turner we can document in Virginia was Thomas Coopy “Carpenter & Smyth fowler and Turner.” We debuted our lathe on the 400th anniversary of his arrival at Jamestown, 4 December 2019.

Vagabonds in late Georgian London
R M Healey 4 Dec 2023 in All Things Georgian
It is always a pleasure to welcome back guests to All Things Georgian and today, joining us is R M Healey who is taking a look at vagabonds.
Patrick Colquhoun, who we have met before in a post on capital punishment, was a magistrate concerned with measures that might diminish crime in late Georgian London.
His pioneering Treatise on the Police in the Metropolis, eventually led to the establishment of the Metropolitan police by Robert Peel in 1829. In the 1797 edition of this book Colquhoun considered the punishment dealt out to ‘Idle and disorderly persons’ through the Vagrancy Act of 1744. One small section of this class would receive one month’s imprisonment, while the much larger class of ‘Rogues and Vagabonds’ were punished with six months imprisonment. Read more…

Newsletters by Branches of UELAC for Members
Many branches of UELAC publish a newsletter. Many of these are then stored in the Members Section – noted in the table of contents there – at uelac.ca for members of other branches to read. Please check them out.
Note to Branch Newsletter Editors:
When your newsletter is ready to be submitted, please send to Bill Russell UE, Chair of Communications at Communications@uelac.org. Please do not send to President Carl Stymiest – we have given him enough to do!
Thanks
Bill Russell UE, Communications

In the News:

A Spirited Presentation at the Library by author Stuart Lyall Manson
by Ian Bowering 4 Dec 2023 in the Seeker
Naming Lake St. Francis, just off of South Lancaster, Canada’s “Bermuda Triangle,” due to the number of “accidental” deaths throughout the late 18th century, author Stuart Lyall Manson’s presentation on Thursday, November 30th at the Cornwall Public Library, promoting his new book “Sacred Ground,” Vol. II, opens a new way of viewing the region’s history.
Peppered with questions throughout and after the presentation by the audience, Stuart pointed out that historic cemeteries were direct, tangible links to our past and that tombstones were authentic documents and artifacts. That is, if the inscriptions on the tombstones are accurate! Read more…

First Post Office in British North America, Ben Franklin, Halifax
In The Globe and Mail (Ontario Edition) 9 Dec 2023 by Eric Atkins
Canada Post
Before e-mail, telephones or even TikTok, those able to write would communicate by putting pen to paper. The letters would be sent by horseback, boat or someone who happened to be going that way, eventually. The first British post office in what is now Canada, opened in Halifax on this day in 1755, changed that. Benjamin Franklin, the deputy postmaster for the colonies, opened the post office that moved packets, containing military communications at first, to other Atlantic colonies, and Falmouth, England, via New York. (A year earlier, a post office for local mail had opened in Halifax.) Franklin’s service was monthly, and by vessel. He would go on to establish post offices in Quebec City, Trois-Rivières and Montreal before being fired in 1774 for siding with the Americans in the Revolutionary War. Read more at Canada Post…

500 Days in the Wild: Walking the Trans Canada Trail with Dianne Whelan
The award-winning Canadian filmmaker, photographer, author and multimedia artist discusses her epic six-year journey across the world’s longest hiking trail
Published Nov 28, 2023 by Canadian Geographic

“The question would be, “Why not?”
We love a good journey here on Explore, and Dianne Whelan went on a doozy of one with lots of great stories to share.
Whelan became the first person to travel the entire Trans Canada Trail across Canada, the longest hiking trail in the world stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific. She travelled by bike, foot and canoe, through all seasons. Throughout her journey, she focused on reconciliation, honouring First Nations, Inuit, and Métis People who have been an essential part of the story of this land for thousands of years, long before Canada was created. Her six-year, 24,000-kilometre odyssey is now captured in her new documentary, “500 Days in the Wild.” It premieres at the Whistler International Film Festival in early December 2023.
4 photos, 40 minute podcast

Upcoming Events

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

American Revolution Institute: Letters Written from Captivity Fri Dec 15 12:30

A Collections of Letters Written from Captivity by William Russell. Historical Programs Manager Andrew Outten discusses a collection of letters written from captivity by William Russell, an American soldier and privateer who was imprisoned twice during the Revolution. Following his initial capture at sea, Russell was first held prisoner at Mill Prison in England before being released. Shortly after, he was recaptured and incarcerated on the infamous prison ship Jersey in New York Harbor. After his final release in March 1783… Read more and registration.

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

  • Slavery Adverts: Newspapers published during the era of the American Revolution contributed to the perpetuation of slavery. Advertised 250 years ago today: “TO BE SOLD, A LIKELY NEGRO [WOMAN], who can wash, iron, cook … enquire of the Printer.” (Newport Mercury 12/6/1773)
  • Townsends – or Food
  • This week in History
    • 7 December 1703 – The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, makes landfall. Winds gust up to 120 mph, & 9,000 people die. High winds caused 2,000 chimney stacks to collapse in London & damaged the New Forest, which lost 4,000 oaks. Read more…
    • 4 December 1745 – Charles Edward Stuart’s army reaches Derby, its furthest point during the Second Jacobite Rising. The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the ’45 (Scottish Gaelic: Bliadhna Theàrlaich, lit. ‘The Year of Charles’), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took place during the War of the Austrian Succession, when the bulk of the British Army was fighting in mainland Europe. Read more…
    • 6 Dec 1766 Boston, MA The Massachusetts Assembly passes compensation for victims of Stamp Act violence, but it also pardons the offenders.
    • 5 Dec 1770 Boston, MA The Boston Massacre trial ends with six Accused British soldiers acquitted & 2 found guilty of manslaughter. Privates Matthew Kilroy & Hugh Montgomery are branded on the thumb & released. Their defense attorney was John Adams.
    • 5 Dec 1775, Henry Knox began moving artillery from Ticonderoga to Cambridge MA. Artillery was key to dislodge the British from Boston. Moving cannons & mortars through frozen swamps & slush mud roads was an incredible endeavor the British didn’t expect.
    • 4 Dec 1776 Benjamin Franklin & Arthur Lee reach the port of St Nazaire, France, and continue by coach to Paris to assume duties as Continental Congress’s representatives to the French government.
    • 5 Dec 1776 The Continental Army is reinforced by the Pennsylvania Associators from Philadelphia and a German-speaking regiment under the command of Col Nicholas Haussegger.
    • 6 Dec 1775 Continental Congress responds to King George III’s rejection of the Olive Branch Petition, repeating vows of allegiance and protesting Parliament’s unconstitutional actions. Independence is not mentioned.
    • 7 Dec 1775 Gen Richard Montgomery was promoted to Maj General, although he will be killed in action at Quebec before the effective date of rank.
    • 8 Dec 1775 Quebec, Canada. Gen Richard Montgomery demands Quebec surrender. Gov Gen Guy Carleton refuses, however, and the Americans begin a desultory bombardment of the city.
    • 8 Dec 1775 Paris, Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, declares Louis XVI has renewed his injunction against loading munitions aboard American ships in French ports. But the injunction is not enforced.
    • 4 Dec 1776 Captain Lambert Wickes, in command of Reprisal, sails from France to begin what would be a very successful naval foray into the Bay of Biscay.
    • 6 Dec 1776 Gen William Howe catches up with Gen Charles Cornwallis’s advance column at Brunswick, ordering Cornwallis to resume his pursuit of the fleeing Continental Army.
    • 7 Dec 1776 Gen Washington starts to move on Princeton, NJ with 1,200 men but encounters the fleeing troops of Lord Stirling (Gen William Alexander) and retreats to Assunpink Creek with both forces.
    • 7 Dec 1776 Newport, RI. Gen Henry Clinton’s 6K men occupy the port, which British Adm Peter Parker uses as a base for his naval forces.
    • 8 Dec 1776 Weaver’s Creek, RI. British Gen Richard Prescott lands a force of grenadiers and light infantry, dispersing the local militia & departing with cannon & livestock.
    • 4 Dec 1777 Paris, France. News of the American victory at Saratoga, NY, arrives, making the French Foreign Minister Comte de Vergennes agreeable to discussing a formal military alliance instead of the covert aid France had been providing the rebels.
    • 8 Dec 1777 Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania. The multi-day series of engagements called the Battle of White Marsh ended when British General William Howe failed to surprise and capture General George Washington’s outnumbered troops and withdrew. The day earlier, Howe tried to turn the rebel left flank at Abington and Edge Hill, a ridge that runs parallel to the lines. Read more…
    • 3 Dec 1780 Charlotte, NC. Gen Nathanael Greene arrives & assumes command of the Southern Department from the discredited Gen Horatio Gates. Greene, with only 2.5K Continentals & militia, decides to take the offensive over vastly superior British forces.
    • 6 Dec 1782 An action fought between 64-gun HMS Ruby & 64-gun French ship Solitaire off Martinique. After 40 minutes, the Solitaire had mizzenmast shot away, rigging & sails in tatters & struck her colors. Solitaire 35 killed & 55 wounded. Ruby 2 wounded.
    • 4 Dec 1783 NYC. Gen George Washington says his final farewell to his officers at a doleful and celebrated dinner at Fraunces Tavern. After eight years of war, the band of brothers must now turn to building a nation.
  • Clothing and Related:
    • There’s nothing better adrenaline rush of opening a box in the archive to find it’s full of 18th century textile samples, drawings of flowers, and little packets that the archivists let you open! Two days in Lyon gave me the most exciting archive finds ever
    • a block-printed linen gown, c.1777-80. The colours are ‘pencilled’, or painted, by hand. The skirt could be ruched up using internal cotton tapes to create an elegant and fashionable alternative look.
    • Fan, 1780-1800 @mcrartgallery with lines of spangles for #sparkle.
    • Dec 7th: Gold
      Benozzo Gozzoli’s Magus Melchior 1459-61
      Earring 1800s (V&A)
      Silk jacket 1770s (Met)
    • 5th Dec: Evergreen (& berries)
      Matilda Etches green silk jersey evening dress c1948 (V&A)
      Shoe with red Louis heel 1720-30 (V&A)
      Evening mantle ‘Au Bon Marché’ 1900 (MFA Bost)
      Quant seersucker cotton mini-dress 1972 (V&A)

 

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