In this issue:

 


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UELAC Conference 2024: THE STORY CONTINUES………
UELAC is very excited to be presenting Cornwall 2024 in conjunction with the SD&G Historical Society’s premier event 1784.ca – “240th Anniversary of New Johnstown & the Royal Townships”.
With the 2021 Conference having gone “Virtual”, we are anticipating that many of you who watched in wonder on your screens all the places you can now plant your feet on.
Walk on the ground where our Loyalists drew their lots, live the reenactment taking place at Lamoureux Park, visit the Pioneer Museums, research the UELAC archives, tour the Woodhouse & Lost Villages.
Please join us this JUNE 6-9 in Cornwall ON – Registration is open.
See more details – Conference tours, Registration, hotels, Venue

Using New Brunswick’s Loyalist Research Resources
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Though dreary, the dark and cold days of winter can be the opportunity for the loyalist historian or genealogist to devote some serious time to trawling through the online resources provided by archives, newspapers, probate records and old historic texts. And as the case of a man named Jehiel Partelow demonstrates, if one is searching for biographical material on a Loyalist, New Brunswick has a wealth of primary sources to reconstruct such a person’s life.
A good starting point for piecing together the biography of any Loyalist is the painstaking research of Lorenzo Sabine, an American who compiled the Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution in 1847. Living in Maine meant that this historian was situated next to New Brunswick, thus giving him access to hundreds of stories of that colony’s loyal refugees.
Sabine noted that Jehiel Partelow was a Connecticut Loyalist who went to Saint John, New Brunswick in 1783 and died at the age of 87 in 1831. However, the rest of his entry for the Loyalist only contains information about his sons Jehiel Jr. and John. Minimal information, but it is a starting point.
The research of Dr. David Bell of the University of New Brunswick, compiled in his American Loyalists to New Brunswick: The Ship Passenger Lists, provides further details. (Besides ships’ manifests, this book also lists Loyalists who signed significant petitions and who are recorded in the muster rolls of Fort Howe. The aforementioned garrison supplied Loyalist refugees with food and provisions). Partelow came to the colony with his wife and four children aged 10 and older. They sailed on the Nancy in September of 1783 as members of Captain Thomas Woolley’s Company.
Bell’s research also reveals that Partelow signed a grievance against the infamous 55 Loyalists who tried to acquire large swaths of land in New Brunswick before leaving New York. He also signed the Seditious Election Petition of March 1786. Clearly, Jehiel was a man who was not afraid to express an opinion.
The mention of Partelow’s evacuation vessel points the researcher to the Book of Negroes, a ledger that contained the names of all of the free and enslaved Africans who left New York City in 1783. In addition to data on the Black passengers, there is information about dates of departure, ship’s names, and the names of white Loyalists who served as escorts for the Black Loyalists. Though misspelled, Jehiel Partelow’s name appears in the ledger as an escort for Cuff Benn, a 40 year-old free man who – 5 years earlier– had been enslaved in Norfolk, Virginia.
The Public Archives of New Brunswick has an excellent website that gives researchers access to newspapers, land grants, and probate records. The vital statistics found in the newspapers of the era indicate a number of milestones in Jehiel Partelow’s life. His wife Jane –presumably the spouse who accompanied him to New Brunswick– died in the summer of 1805. In October of the same year, Jehiel married Margaret Archer. (Located in Saint John’s Old Burial Ground, her tombstone reveals that she died on March 13, 1819 at the age of 65. Some quick math shows that Jehiel married his second wife when she was in her 51st year.)
Jehiel’s 17 year-old daughter Hannah died two years after his second marriage. His daughter Alithea married Jacob Dean in February 1810, and daughter Elizabeth married John Gorman in November of 1819. He died in 1832 when a sled loaded with wood ran over him when he slipped and fell. In addition to his widow, one daughter also survived him.
Jehiel Partelow married for a third time in November of 1821. His new wife was Elizabeth Duff, a widow. As her name does not appear in Partelow’s will of 1831, she must have died before that year.
The newspaper records of the PANB note that Jehiel died on Thursday, November 10, 1831. Knowing that he died at the age of 87 allows the researcher to work out his age at significant moments in his life. He would have been 39 when he arrived in Saint John with his family, 61 when his first wife died, and 75 when his second wife died.
The probate records of New Brunswick provide more insight into Jehiel Partelow’s life and relationships. An illness or infirmity may have prompted him to compose his will. It was written in February, and he died in the following December. He is described as a tanner and currier who lived in Saint John. In 1831, his surviving children were John, Nathan, Thomas, Jehiel Jr., James, Mrs. Alithea Dean, Mrs. Elizabeth Gorman, and Mrs. Ann Hall. (The latter lived in Rhode Island.) Partelow bequeathed property that he had on Britain Street and James Street in Saint John.
Rich as these online resources are, one has to consult the book American Loyalist Claims (edited by Peter W. Coldham) to discover details of Partelow’s life that are found nowhere else. The book contains a summary of a claim for compensation that Jehiel made when the British commissioners came to Saint John in January of 1787.
It notes that Partelow’s hometown was Greenwich, Connecticut and that he and his family left New York City with his brother Matthew’s family in September of 1783. On the voyage to New Brunswick, the Nancy lost its masts and rigging in a storm, forcing them to “refit in a rebel port”. This delayed their arrival, bringing them to Parrtown (Saint John) in December. A witness for Partelow said that the Nancy’s passengers were “shipwrecked in the Bay of Fundy and suffered great distress“.
Other Loyalist refugees who arrived near the end of 1783 had to endure their first New Brunswick winter living in surplus army tents and burning green wood to keep warm. Fortunately for Jehiel Partelow’s family, they were among the Loyalists who received food and provisions from the local garrison for their first year far from the comforts they had once known in Greenwich, Connecticut.
As this article demonstrates, primary sources based in New Brunswick flesh out the very basic data that Lorenzo Sabine had in 1847 regarding the Loyalist, Jehiel Partelow. Born in 1744, Partelow was a tanner who lived in Greenwich, Connecticut until he joined the thousands of Loyalist refugees who fled New York City at the end of the American Revolution. Accompanied by his wife, children, and a Black Loyalist aboard the Nancy, he survived a shipwreck and settled in New Brunswick in December 1783. Before his death in 1831, Partelow had three wives and owned property in the city of Saint John. Eight children mourned his death.
While not all of New Brunswick’s Loyalist settlers have left as rich a “paper trail” as Jehiel Partelow, the example of the resources available for piecing together the biography of the provinces’ American founders holds out hope for both historians and genealogists.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

Meet the Black Snowshoers Who Walked 1,000 Kilometres Across Canada in 1813
Jacqueline L. Scott PhD Student, University of Toronto 1 February 2024 in Everything Zoomer
Snowshoeing in the woods on a sunny winter’s day is my idea of fun. When playing in the snow, winter seems to pass faster.
Over two-thirds of Canadians participate in outdoor recreation, according to Statistics Canada. Some 13 per cent of these nature fans enjoy snowshoeing. Compared to skiing, snowshoeing is low key, inexpensive and easy to learn. And it can be done anywhere as long as there is snow.
Snowshoe walks and races were once the most popular winter sports in Canada, long before hockey seized that prize. A century ago, snowshoe clubs were scattered all over the country. The most important was the Montréal Snowshoe Club, formed in 1840. It organized professional and amateur races.
Some Black men once snowshoed over 1,000 kilometres in about 50 days. The epic trek took them from Fredericton, N.B., to Kingston, Ont. Unlike us, these men were not doing it for outdoor recreation.
The Black men were part of the 104th New Brunswick Regiment of Foot. Read more…

Black History: The Prince & the Pistols: James “Gunsmith” Jones
James “Gunsmith” Jones’ gift was fit for royalty, his patrimony was not.
by Guy Simser 6 February 2018 Canada’s History
For years, visits to Canada by British royalty have provided the hoi polloi with fodder for gossip. The most recent national sucking-of-breath would be the October 2002 media exposure of the little-engine-that-couldn’t during the Queen’s ill-fated water-taxi ride in Winnipeg. No matter the excruciating planning, Murphy’s Law often rules the day.
Such was the case in September 1860 during a visit by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII. The prince had been persuaded to divert his first extensive official Canadian tour to Chatham, Ontario, in order to accept a finely crafted pair of derringer pistols made by a local gunsmith and engraver of coffin-plates and Canadian Pacific Railway dining-car silverware.
As scheduled by minions, the prince arrived promptly in his royal coach at the Chatham rail station where he unexpectedly found himself twiddling his thumbs for ten minutes while local officials earnestly huddled to solve a last-minute difficulty.
This procedural hiccup was reported in a local newspaper of the time, the Chatham Tri-weekly Planet. Apparently, a certain prominent citizen named Mr. McKellar had been informed, much too late, that a Black businessman and manufacturer named James Monroe “Gunsmith” Jones had made the gift of derringer pistols.
Confronted with a dilemma, the local pooh-bahs had precious little time to smooth it over. Read more…

Liberty and Property: Cash Africa’s American Revolution
by Tim Abbott 6 Feb 2024 Journal of the American Revoluttion
The 1774 colonial census for Litchfield, Connecticut lists 2,554 people living in this western New England town. Of these, just forty-five are people of color, including those of African origin described as “negroes” and indigenous Americans counted as “Indians.” Among fifteen “negro” males, eight are under twenty years old and seven are above. During the Revolutionary War, four African American men from Litchfield enlisted in the Continental Army, and one of them—Cash Africa—served during all eight years of the conflict.
The name “Cash” appears just twice among Connecticut’s known African American soldiers of the Revolution. Possibly it derives from “Quash,” a traditional name of West African origin that denotes a male child born on a Sunday. There were several people with the surname “Africa” living in Litchfield and surrounding communities in the 1770s, but given how few people of color were counted in Litchfield in the 1774 census, it is highly unlikely that more than one of them would be named Cash Africa. The records of his name from this time period almost assuredly refer to the same individual, including a court case from 1777 that notably took place while Cash Africa was in the army, but at a time when he was recorded as “absent.” Read more…

Re-Thinking Where the Sources Lead: Reflecting on the Research and Writing Process
By Alanna Loucks, PhD Student, Queen’s University, early Feb 2024 in Borealia
Over the last few months, I started writing a draft of the final chapter of my dissertation. This chapter reconstructs the household and larger web of relationships created by Mère d’Youville and the Grey Nuns of Montréal. This chapter fits into my larger project, which traces the familial and economic networks created by three generations of four French families, each involved in distinct enterprises that were emblematic of colonial Montréal society, which together influenced the ever-changing character of the city: French colonial governance, the fur trade, the military, and monastic life. At any one time, the households of these four families reflected the diversity that characterized Montréal, as a crossroad between continental and Atlantic worlds, and the surrounding region economically, and in occupation, ethnicity, and gender. These households were worlds of their own – a microcosm of the broader societal landscape of the city – but they were also deeply embedded in the fabric of this city itself and in larger, overlapping economic, social, and familial webs and channels of exchange that criss-crossed North America and the Atlantic. For the fur trader, colonial officer, and governor, their households are dynamic and diverse, but quite obviously similar to each other in structure and individual roles and participation within these spaces. But for the final household, that of the Grey Nuns, the contours of this spatial container seemed harder to delineate and the structures, hierarchies, labour divisions, and larger network of this monastic family, albeit similar in some ways to the other three, seemed more difficult to dissect and assess. What follows is a description of the ongoing process, in all its messiness, of working through this research and reconstruction to ponder or probe how to balance where the sources can lead and the maintenance of a larger argument and methodology. Read more…

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: Protecting Rhode Island Aug 1778
From a Hessian Diary of the American Revolution.
This excerpt from the diary of Johan Conrad Dohla (170 pages).

1778 – Aug: Protecting Rhode Island (Continued – page 57)

7 August. Our Bayreuth Regiment sent a large command to the region beyond Tominy Hill. All Turkish and Indian corn and all other grains on Rhode Island were destroyed. All stone walls and fences that were around the fields were torn down. All trees were chopped down, and many houses torn down and burned down in order to detect sooner the arrival of the enemy crossing over from New England.

8 August. In the morning our regiment reentered camp. At four o’clock in the afternoon the French Admiral Comte d’Estaing, who has lain already ten days in a watchful position at anchor outside the harbor, appeared and with eleven ships stormed into the harbor under a heavy thunder of cannon. They sailed past the city and the English batteries, and their 36-, 42- , and 48-pound cannonballs frequently flew over the city and into our camp. Fortunately, the English batteries not only were in the best condition but also completely ready to receive the bold venture with dignity. This sharp resistance caused the French to consider it no longer advisable to remain in this position, but to move to the other side, where they dropped anchor and were busily engaged for forty-eight hours, day and night, repairing their damaged ships.

9 August. During the afternoon a fleet was seen approaching on the sea. It was at first believed to be General Howe coming from Halifax to our assistance; however, it was an English fleet carrying wood, which had sailed from Huntington on Long Island and knew nothing about the French squadron. During the night, after tattoo, our regiment had to fall out in the greatest haste and march forward three English miles because the rebels were crossing over to Rhode Island in many boats. We remained under the open sky throughout the night and the next morning returned to our camp. Also during the night a Hessian ensign and three men, and an English lieutenant and two men, went over to the enemy.

10 August. After the French, as much as possible, had somewhat repaired their ships, they succeeded in making their departure with a favorable wind. Even though their entire visit and attack on the harbor and the city had failed, out of necessity they again sailed past the English batteries and fired a heavy thunder from their ships’ cannon such as had been employed while forcing their entrance. During their entrance and departure, the enemy had sent more than ten thousand cannonballs at us, which, however, had done no noticeable damage because, in order to lessen the danger from the English cannonballs, they had sailed too far from us. During their departure they were toasted so well from two English batteries, „Prince Dauneck” and „North Fort,” that they were glad to give the air to the idea of conquering Rhode Island. When the fleet had cleared the harbor, it sailed as swiftly as possible after the English fleet in order to capture it. This fleet, however, had already absconded.
While this was taking place, twenty thousand Americans under the command of General Gates and General [John] Sullivan, who had been prepared to support the attack on Rhode Island, crossed the river from Bristol and Providence with the intention of falling on the rear of our corps, which had a strength of about seven thousand men. It was too late, however, and the rebels did not have the heart to make the least movement forward. That this bold undertaking by the French fleet was not successful — which would have closed the harbor to the English and given possession of this place to the French — was due in part to the alertness of the English land and sea commanders and to their subordinate troops, and in part to luck, that the French did not achieve their goal. It appeared as if the powers of Heaven watched over the English. The French, however, considering their advantage, were blind, because if the French, who were supplied with sufficient cannon and munitions, had not considered the English resistance to be insurmountable, they surely would not have been so easily and ingloriously convinced to forgo taking the port with force.

11 August. We moved our camp about one hour forward and again set up our tents near Tominy Hill. This Tominy Hill, an exceptionally strong hill fortification on a high cliff, is the place to which our troops would fall back in an emergency. Today our troops brought in three captured rebel officers who had ridden on reconnaissance.
(to be continued)

Rediscovering Charles Thomson’s Forgotten Service to Early American Historiography
by Daniel L. Wright 8 Feb 2024 Journal of the American Revolution
George Washington’s perseverance kept the American army in the field long enough to win negotiated independence, and later saw him through the first presidency under the Constitution. Benjamin Franklin’s ingenuity and sagacity guided the formation of the young nation before it yet realized it could be a country of its own. Thomas Jefferson’s eloquence gave expression to the fundamental principles of equality and liberty in America’s Declaration of Independence. Their places in the popular memory are secure, even as they have and will continue to change.
Yet, the man who stood at the center of those vital years between 1774 and 1789 as the lone Secretary of the Congress, Charles Thomson, is quite often forgotten. It must be considered why this is so. It seems remiss that one whose zeal for patriotic resistance and formal separation from Britain earned him the moniker, “Sam Adams of Philadelphia,” should be shut out from the leading figures in the Founding pantheon. Since he is not included there, it must be wondered why and what has disqualified him. As historian James M. Smith notes, “There are many, many founding fathers in the story of America’s Revolution and unfortunately only a few are really known to the general public. Yet without those who are less known, there would have been no revolution. One of those men was the official secretary of the Continental Congress, Charles Thomson.”
Charles Thomson was the lone figure at the center of the Continental Congress through the fifteen crucial years of Revolution up to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, 1774 through 1789. The glaring absence of Thomson’s definitive history of the American Revolution has furnished a contentious discussion among scholars focusing on him. Read more…

Loyalists and descendants who participated in the War of 1812: John Baxter
The Baxter family were among the band of refugees who landed in Miller’s Bay in November of 1783.
There is some debate about the parentage of John Baxter. Some records show him as the son of Jacob Baxter and Rebeccca Beam while others refer to him as the son of David Baxter.
In 1786 David Baxter Sr. obtained a ticket from Major Campbell for 240 acres of Lot 3, Concs 1 and 2 L.E. including Broken Front. Apparently David passed away or disappeared shortly thereafter leaving a wife and four sons, the eldest of whom were Thomas and John. A character reference from Commissionary John Warren Sr. was attached to the 1796 petition to transfer David’s land to his sons. It reads: “Thomas and John Baxter’s from Boys they have grown up to Manhood, and by their honest industry has maintained their Mother and two younger Brothers’ their modest good behaviour has attracted the attention of several Commanding Officers of this Post.”
John settled in Bertie Township. The History of Welland County describes John Baxter as an United Empire Loyalist and among the earliest settlers of the County. In 1796 John and his brother Thomas had received the transfer of their father’s lands. Read more…

Read about other Loyalists and the sons and daughters of Loyalists who participated in the War of 1812.

Advertised on 7 February 1774: “View of the Town of Boston”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

“Embellished with a (Quarto) View of the Town of Boston … neatly engraved on Copper.”

The Royal American Magazine was a popular magazine during a run cut short due to the fighting of the American Revolution. It was first published in 1774 by Isaiah Thomas, a renowned printer who ran the Massachusetts Spy, a newspaper, since 1770. The Royal American Magazine lasted from January 1774 to early spring of 1775. Not many successful magazines were started in America before the American Revolution. Frank Luther Mott states that there were only fifteen magazines published in America before the Royal American started, most of them lasting a year or less. Isaiah Thomas’s advertisement campaign for the Royal American, however, helped to make it one of the most successful American magazines prior to independence.
The Royal American Magazine was known for having many more engravings than other American magazines at the time; engravings are visual images inserted into a written work, and were made by carefully carving a reverse image onto a copper plate, coating it with ink, and then transferring the image to paper in a printing press. The engravings representing a “View of the Town of Boston, and a Representation of a Thunder Storm,” as mentioned in this advertisement, enticed more people to subscribe to the magazine. According to Mott, “its distinctive feature was a little series of engravings by Paul Revere.” Read more and the added commentary…

Phillis Wheatley & the Playwright
Podcast with Ade Solanke 6 Feb 2024 at Ben Franklin’s World
Ade Solanke is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and university lecturer. She’s the founder and director of Spora Stories, a company that tells dynamic stories about the African Diaspora. She is the author of two plays about Phillis Wheatley, Phillis in London and Phillis in Boston, which tell the story of Phillis Wheatley’s experiences as an African woman poet abroad in Georgian London and at home in Revolutionary Boston.
During our exploration of Wheatley’s life, Ade reveals information about Phillis Wheatley’s early life and the cultural origins she came from in the Senegambia region of Africa; How Wheatley was able to write poetry as enslaved teenager; And, how playwrights like Ade use the work of history and historians to create dramatic works of art that can help us view and understand the past in new ways. Listen in…

Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the Hands of the Red Scared
By Georgina Blackburn, early Feb 2024 in Common Place
Again and again, the filmstrip shows its viewers images of women in states of distress.
In February 2023, I impulsively booked tickets to Glasgow to visit an old friend. I have been completing a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and American Studies at the University of Manchester, an urban campus in a city shaped by the nineteenth-century cotton trade. But Glasgow is older—and cooler. The buildings are moody and gothic, surveyed by the looming angels of the Necropolis cemetery. When it rains, as it often does, the sandstone shines. In place of huge, flat shopping centers, cobbled Glasgow offers rows of unnamed storefronts selling eclectic antiques.
Rooting around in one of those shops, I found it: a little tin so small that it could fit in your fist. UNCLE TOM’S CABIN was stamped on its label. I bought it without opening it. It cost two pounds.
At the time, I was enrolled in Dr. Gordon Fraser’s class, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a Global Media Event.” Each student in that class was asked to develop a project that considered how readers around the world responded to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famous anti-slavery novel. I still wasn’t sure about my research project, although I had a few ideas. I had read a lot of Toni Morrison, and I was thinking about The Bluest Eye and its Shirley Temple doll, a cultural derivative of the angelic little Eva from Stowe’s novel. Perhaps I could find British dolls referencing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, I thought. But serendipitously, I found a mysterious tin labelled with the name of the novel I was studying in class. I felt obligated to investigate.
My friend’s heating was broken, so I sat in bed at four in the afternoon, shivering from the cold. I heated my palms with my breath and tugged at the tin. It was a roll of film. Holding it up to the light revealed its title: “Great Books Retold In Pictures” and “A Beacon Filmstrip.” So, I thought, this is a filmstrip. Whatever that is. Read more…

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions

Entries which have been added, or revised, this week, with thanks to Kevin Wisener UE, President, Abegweit Branch in PEI.

  • A new record for Frederick Weisner of Philadelphia (who settled in Shelburne, NS) has been added to the Loyalist Directory.
  • Information about Pvt. Henry Gray of Westchester NY (who received a land grant in Pownal Bay, PEI after two different land grants in NS) has been added to the Loyalist Directory.

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

Events Upcoming

Hamilton Branch: Black Loyalists by Brian McConnell UE Thurs 15 Feb @7:30

Hamilton Branch will hold its annual meeting on Thursday, February 15th at 7:30 in person at St. Matthew on-the-Plain, 126 Plains Rd. E., Burlington or by ZOOM.
Speaker (by Zoom) will be Brian McConnell UE, President, Nova Scotia Branch talking on the oldest Loyalist church in Canada, Old Holy Trinity. We are using this topic to acknowledge Black History month and the Black Loyalists who worshiped at the church and are buried in the adjoining cemetery.
Contact Pat Blackburn UE <uepat624@gmail.com> to register for zoom.

Toronto Branch: Genealogy and Family History at LAC, Nicole Watier 15 Feb @8:30

On Thursday, February 15th at 8:30 pm, Nicole Watier, Genealogy Consultant, Library and Archives Canada / Government of Canada will speak on Genealogy and Family History at Library and Archives Canada. Link is in this email.
Learn what resources are available at Library and Archives Canada to help you trace your Loyalist ancestors. She’ll provide an overview of our website, then dive deeper into frequently consulted topics that concern Loyalists, including military records and land records. Other sources will also be examined, which may be especially useful, especially if you can’t find your ancestors where they are supposed to be!
Nicole Watier is a Genealogy Consultant at Library and Archives Canada with several years of experience in Genealogy and Reference Services. In addition to assisting clients to uncover their family histories, she has presented at conferences and seminars both nationally and internationally.
For access to the virtual meeting, contact Sally Gustin torontouel@gmail.com

Kawartha Branch: Jane Simpson about Giraud/Gerow Family Sun. 18 Feb @2:00

Jane, a Member of the Bay of Quinte Branch UELAC, will speak about her latest book, Shades of Allegiance: Hidden Loyalties of the Giraud/Gerow Family in the American Revolution.
This family saga opens as Daniel Giraud, a Huguenot, escapes the French king’s clutches in the 1690’s, in the southwest of France. Fleeing to New York City; he, his wife, and small child seek safety and religious freedom. The family joins other Huguenots on Long Island Sound.
Now grown, his son persuades him to move north in Westchester County to become a tenant-farmer of the land-owning Van Cortlandt family. Hard work is rewarded by prosperity. Years later, the grandson and inheritor, Daniel Gerow, serves in the Westchester militia in both the French and Indian War, and in the American Revolution.
Life for Daniel and his family becomes one of chance and fate as Cortlandt Manor becomes a nucleus for both Revolutionaries and the British Army. Gerow family members perish or are exiled in the conflict. More details at Kawartha Branch events.
Join Zoom Meeting after 1:30 for 2:00 start https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83426479996?pwd=MXTCozPObMUI23QHAWc0n8uBnatq7Z.1 Meeting ID: 834 2647 9996 Passcode: 078318

American Revolution Institute: the 50th Anniversary of the Library Wed 21 Feb 6:30

Founded on November 30, 1973, our library is one of the most important resources in the United States for advanced study on the Revolution and the art of war in the eighteenth century, with more than fifty thousand rare books, manuscripts, prints, broadsides, maps, and modern reference sources. Kicking off a series of events commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of our library, the Institute’s executive director, Andy Morse, along with former fellows John Maass, Jake Ruddiman and Iris De Rode, will discuss the significance, evolution, and collections of our library and the scholarship that has taken place within its walls. Details and Registration.

Kingston Branch “Joel Stone” by Dr. Tim Compeau Sat. 24 Feb @1:00

Kingston and District Branch, United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada will meet on Saturday, February 24 at 1:00 p.m. at St. Paul’s Anglican Church Hall, 137 Queen Street (doors open at noon); or if you prefer on Zoom (open at 12:30 p.m.). Dr. Tim Compeau will discuss “Joel Stone, founder of Gananoque”. A summer job at age 19 gave Dr. Compeau the privilege of archiving a suitcase full of letters from Joel Stone (1749-1833) and started his pursuit of a career as a history professor. For the Zoom link for the meeting, visit the website www.uelac.org/Kingston-Branch. All with an interest in Canadian history are welcome

From the Social Media and Beyond

  • Celebrate our Black Heritage. Brian McConnell UE has compiled a play list of six short videos about Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia. Our Canadian history.
  • Working on a new project and fascinated to come across in my research this letter dated at Digby, Nova Scotia on April 2, 1785 from Philip Machinton to Rev. Dr. Breynton which states in part:
    “According to your request, I have made particularly examination into the School fixed by your Order amongst the black people at Brinley Town and I am very happy to inform you that every thing on that head is going very well and I trust it will be a very great blessing to them…” Brian McConnell UE
  • Townsends
  • This week in History
    • 8 Feb 1587 Executed (alas!) on this day in 1587, Mary Queen of Scots. Here just seven years old and already a queen at the court of France. Drawn by Clouet.
    • 10 Feb 1763 Treaty of Paris signed ending Seven Years War & French & Indian War. Britain’s victory awards them an empire, but the war debt & cost of protecting new territory brought new colonial tax policies, political strife, insurgency & rebellion. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1756257197778985222
    • 7 Feb 1770 NYC The Crown’s authorities went to printer James Parker & forced him to reveal the author of newspaper articles hostile to the colonial assembly. They arrest Alexander McDougall, leader of Sons of Liberty, and hold him with a £1000 bail set. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1755181610264359058
    • The Rev War Minute
      5 February 1776, King George III of England and Friedrich II (Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel) signed an agreement providing the British with German forces, all broadly called “Hessians” by the Americans. The first of many “contracts” that would eventually reach 30,000 soldiers. The German troops were regular conscripts and volunteers in regiments leased by their various German princes (Brunswick, Anhalt, etc.), essentially as auxiliaries. So technically, they were not mercenaries as we understand the term today, although their princes were. These were truly professional soldiers, well-trained and equipped, and provided an invaluable boost to the British cause. They were no more brutal than the British regulars, Loyalists, or even American regiments. But their “foreign” nature made them easy targets for American propaganda. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1754514163408281901
    • 6 Feb 1775 John Adams publishes “The Rule of Law and the Rule of Men” in the Massachusetts Gazette, arguing for the authority of provincial legislatures over Parliament. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1754904786099700094
    • 9 Feb 1775 London King George III declares the colony of Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1755994466262167962
    • 4 Feb 1776 NYC A patriot force under Gen Charles Lee enters the city the same day British Gen Henry Clinton’s expedition to SC drops anchor in NY harbor. Clinton claimed he was visiting Loyalist NY Gov Tryon. He eventually sails south to SC. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1754093691629650001
    • 6 Feb 1776 Norfolk, VA American (NC) Col Robert Howe burns the surviving structures in the city and abandons it. Once thriving commercial port now charred and desolate. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1755005449399853537
    • 8 Feb 1776 Cumberland NS Unsigned letter of this date delivered to Gen Washington by Jonathan Eddy, leader of resistance to the royal govt in NS, requesting forces to overthrow royal govt in NS. Washington referred him to Congress – they turned him down. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1755630316780392891
    • 4 Feb 1777 Ft McIntosh, GA Capt Richard Winn surrenders the garrison to Loyalist forces before reinforcements led by Lt Col Francis Marion can get there. Winn loses 4 killed, 3 wounded & 68 taken prisoner. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1754180513634410713
    • The Rev War Minute 7 February 1777 London. Parliament authorizes privateering against American ships & begins issuing letters of marque & reprisal. The Americans were already at it, wreaking havoc on British merchant shipping and helping distract the Royal Navy from other missions necessary to wage a war of power projection across an ocean. European governments regularly issued documents known as Letters of Marque and Reprisal to legitimize privately outfitted men of war. In a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, these documents authorized private parties to attack enemy vessels under highly regulated conditions. Although only a few shades different from Piracy, Privateering would play a pivotal role in the conflict but hurt British merchant shipping more than Americans. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1755224971830280212
    • 6 Feb 1778, France officially recognizes the independence of the United States. Britain responds by declaring war on its historic foe. https://twitter.com/MilHistNow/status/1754749513217298484
    • 4 Feb 1779 Beaufort, SC Battle of Port Royal Island British troops tried to establish a Loyalist foothold surrounding Savannah but met with rebel resistance & withdrew. Gen William Moultrie’s reputation grew as one of the best Patriot leaders in the South https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1754233614055952722
    • 5 Feb 1779 Kaskaskia IL Col. George Rogers Clark leads 127 men on a 180-mile march to try to retake Ft Vincennes from the British & sends an armed galley down Mississippi to intercept British vessels. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1754591975003598921
    • 9 Feb 1780 Mobile Bay, West Florida Spanish Gen Bernardo De Galvez’s expedition lands 750 soldiers. Meanwhile, British Lt Gov Elias Dunford decides to defend the old brick bastion, Ft Charlotte, and await reinforcements. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1756135901963686394
    • 7 Feb 1781 Shallow Ford NC Capt Joseph Graham’s company of 20 NC militia cavalry captures 6 Loylists straggling behind the British column & cut down a Hessian straggler who leveled his musket at them. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1755441325414232370
    • 4 Feb 1783 London King George III declares a permanent ceasefire in America. After Yorktown surrendered in October 1781, the House of Commons first voted to end the war on 27 Feb 1782 & in Mar, Prime Minister North resigned. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1754327733583200678
    • 6 Feb 1783 Gibraltar, Spain. A well-orchestrated British defense on land and see repulses the Franco-Spanish armada. Although the British suffered 350 killed & 1,000 wounded, they inflicted twice that on the Allies. https://twitter.com/SWOConnell/status/1755044959680696757
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Last Post: MORLEY UE, Colin, October 21, 1928 – February 1, 2024
by Ruth Nicholson UE – Hamilton Branch UELAC
Colin was a lively and giving member to his neighbourhood, church community, family and friends his entire life. Anyone who brushed shoulders, worked alongside Colin or even went for a drive with him would always remember his remarkable intelligence and creativity.
Colin was born in Vineland, attended the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. He was admitted to the bar in 1953 and was a founding member of Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP.
Colin married the love of his life, Marilyn and he mentioned her in nearly every conversation. Marilyn passed in 2023 after almost 70 years of marriage. Colin and Marilyn raised four sons and one daughter: Peter, Matthew, Tom, Andrew and Jan Nelson (Jeff). They had three adoring grandchildren: Emma, Jess and Colin.
Colin was a chairman of the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital and a very active volunteer with Wellington Square United Church.
Colin was very proud of his Secord Loyalist ancestry and was a member of the Colonel Butler Branch as well as our Hamilton Branch. Colin served for many years as one of our councillors, in Hamilton. He organized and led a trip to Niagara during our Dominion confererence in 2013. Colin attended many meetings in both Niagara and in Hamilton. He often introduced or thanked our speakers. Colin attended our Regional meetings and Loyalist Day ceremonies. He was a strong supporter of the UELAC.
Visitation will be at Smith’s Funeral Home, 485 Brant St., Burlington on Wednesday, February 14 from 4-8 p.m. The service will be held on Thursday, February 15 at 10 a.m. at Wellington Square United Church, 2121 Caroline St., Burlington.
The family requests that donations go to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Last Post: ANDERSON UE, George 23 Aug 1937 – 5 Feb 2024
George passed away peacefully in hospital on Monday, February 5, 2024 at the age of 86. Beloved husband for over 46 years to Janet. Dear uncle of Harold Hamilton, Rob Hamilton, Kerstine Szederkenyi (Tamas), Randolph McDonell (Elsie), Sara Balanuik (Steve) and their families.
George was very proud of his United Empire Loyalist ancestry, having volunteered his time post-retirement.
He was also a long-time member of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada. Sincere gratitude to the staff of the Ottawa Civic Hospital – ICU for their care of George.
George was a life member of Sir Guy Carleton Branch, centred in Ottawa, where he and Janet resided but was also a member of St Lawrence Branch around Cornwall where his Loyalist ancestors settled and of Heritage Branch in Montreal. See obituary.
George received a Loyalist certificate having proved to his ancestors Samuel Anderson UEL, Henry Casselman UEL, Sephrenus Casselman UEL, Philip Empey UEL, Albert French UEL, Lt. Jeremiah French UEL, John Marsellis UEL, John McIntire (McEntire) UEL, Sgt. Michael Van Koughnet UEL and Peter Weaver UEL.
George as a volunteer was on the organizing committee for UELAC Conference by St. Lawrence Branch in the early 2000s and at the Dominion level he served as Sr. Vice-President for a one-year term in 2002-2003.
UELAC President Carl Stymiest UE recollects George as an organizer of a bus trip to the Mohawk Valley that Carl attended with 50+ UELAC members/guests in 2006. See Loyalist Trails, 2006, issue #40

Two couples, George and Janet along with Ed and Elizabeth Kipp also of Ottawa area organised at least eight bus trips beginning in 1998, several such as the 2006 one toured the Mohawk and Hudson Valleys.

Published by the UELAC
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