In this issue:

 


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Happy 20th Anniversary, Loyalist Trails
The first issue of what became a weekly newsletter in less than a year’s time was distributed to a small group of mostly Executive members of UELAC Branches twenty years ago today, 28 April 2004. All past issues are in the Loyalist Trails archives

“The Story Continues…” at the UELAC 2024 Conference
June 4-9, 2024 at Cornwall, Ontario
The conference has three main groupings of events:

  • Pre-Conference day-tours: Tues June 4 to Thurs June 6
  • UELAC Conference: Evening Thurs June 6 through Sunday June 9
  • 240th Anniversary of New Johnstown & The Royal Townships: Fri June 7 through Sunday June 9
    • UELAC has scheduled Sat daytime for conference attendees to visit and learn.

And so “The [Loyalist] Story Continues….”

NOTE 1: earlybird conference fee $220 CAD is valid until Tues. 30 April; regular fee $250 CAD begins Wed 1 May.

Gala speaker, Brent Whitford, Senior Curator and Administrator at the Cornwall Community Museum and Archives. PhD Candidate, University at Buffalo SUNY. Prehistoric Archaeologist. Brent is from Cornwall, ON, born and raised. What he appreciates most is the direct impact on the community as regards the importance of history and heritage.

History v. Heritage: Blending the Past and the Present

History is history. What I mean to say is that history is nothing more than an amalgamation of tangible artifacts and facts that together make a coherent narrative about that which is said to have happened once upon a time. Heritage, on the other hand, is that which we choose to emphasize and remember about our history. Heritage is our history preserved. In other words, heritage is what we believe matters about the past in the present. As such, we don’t preserve history simply because it is history, but rather because it is our history and it continues to hold meaning in the present. But how do we communicate the meaning of history to new and younger audiences? How do we ensure that our history continues to hold heritage-value in the present and into the future? These and other matters will be discussed in the context of the UELAC at this year’s keynote address.

NOTE 2: The all-inclusive ticket for the conference of course includes the gala banquet. However, additional standalone tickets for the banquet can be purchased – please contact Trish Groom at conference2024@uelac.org.

For more details and registration, see “The Story Continues…”

All UELAC Members: The Annual Reports for Members and the AGM Sat. 11 May – Register today

UELAC as an association was formed to preserve and promote information about the Loyalists.
What does UELAC do?
As a Member, you can get a better appreciation of the contributions many people make to UELAC as a whole by reading the Reports Package prepared for the AGM. The package was updated on Apr. 23 to add the Financial reports and is now complete.
Read reports in the Members’ Section at https://uelac.ca/ (Login required) from:

  • members of the Executive Committee
  • Chairs of each of the many committees

Attend the Annual General Meeting Saturday 11 May
The meeting is virtual and will commence at 11:30 AM EDT. Registration in advance is required. Log in at https://uelac.ca/ and see the details for the meeting and registration at https://uelac.ca/members/ Do join us, register today.

Yesterday’s (Loyalist) News. Part One of Two
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
April 28 is a Sunday in 2024, but in 1785 it was a Thursday – the day when the weekly Port-Roseway Gazetteer and The Shelburne Advertiser went on sale. If you were one of 17,000 Loyalists who had settled in Shelburne, Nova Scotia after the American Revolution, you would no doubt spend a good part of your Thursday mornings browsing through the newspaper to read advertisements, essays, and news from around the Atlantic world.
Only two editions of The Port-Roseway Gazetteer and The Shelburne Advertiser are in the collections of Nova Scotia’s provincial archives. Nevertheless, the newspaper provides a fascinating glimpse into the life of what was at one time the largest Loyalist refugee settlement in all of North America. (In fact, Shelburne was the fourth largest city on the continent in 1785; only New York, Philadelphia and Boston were bigger.)
The Nova Scotia Archives describes Shelburne’s weekly paper as “a sort of literary magazine featuring essays, poetry, stories and letters“. Ignoring the saying that equates “yesterday’s news” with something uninteresting, let’s browse through the April 28, 1785 edition of The Port-Roseway Gazetteer and The Shelburne Advertiser and get a sense of life in a busy loyalist city.
The front page of the Gazetteer was made up of four long columns without headlines or illustrations. The first two columns contained advertisements – the equivalent of today’s colourful newspaper flyer inserts. James Cox and Company on St. John’s Street listed a variety of items that it was selling “for cash”: foodstuffs, sewing supplies, candles, soap, fishing supplies, stationery, gloves, ribbons, etc.
In a smaller ad, Robertson and Rigby on King Street opposite the British Coffee House listed items for sale “on the most reasonable terms for cash, bills of exchange, fish, furs, or lumber“. While there were no debit cards or credit cards in the 18th century, purchases could — it seems–be made with something other than cash.
Graham and McLean on the corner of St. Andrew’s Lane and Dock Street announced that they had imported rum, muscovado (partially refined) sugar in barrels as well as a few barrels of fresh limes. They also sold gin, brandy, wine, tea, stone and glassware, copper and tin ware, and “a few casks of cattle’s hair for plastering“.
Sullivan and Mills advertised that they had goods from London. Many of their items were similar to those sold in their competitors’ store, but they also had playing cards, London pewter dishes and basins, sword belts, men’s clothing, boots, dictionaries, Bibles and testaments, hats, shoes, and garden seeds “of all sorts“. The variety of goods that Shelburne’s Loyalists could buy at just these four stores indicates what a thriving trade the city had with ports on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the newspaper’s third front-page column, the townsfolk could catch up on news that transpired in the previous four months. Despite the lack of the internet or news wire services, the citizens of Shelburne could still learn about what was happening in such diverse places as Rome, Warsaw, Sicily, Bonn, Vienna, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Paris, the Hague and Copenhagen. The paper’s fourth front-page column was dedicated to news from London.
More European news filled the first column of the Gazetteer’s second page. News contained in a letter posted in Antwerp dealt with the merits of free trade between Ireland and Great Britain. Having no international reporters on staff, the Gazetteer relied on news found in other newspapers and in personal correspondence to fill its pages.
Sensational news found its way into the April 28th edition as the editors recounted the gory details of a British officer’s suicide. There was also an element of anti-American news coverage – not unexpected in a paper serving a public that had been persecuted by the victorious rebels. An American public figure was quoted on his feelings about the new republic entering into trade with Great Britain. “That degenerate country (divested either of justice or humanity) has carried on a seven years war with these states (marked with unheard of cruelties) for supporting and defending that liberty which was once the boast of Englishmen…”
In a column that featured news from Boston, the writer lamented the neglect of agriculture in the United States, comparing it to factors that led to the fall of the Roman Empire. This negative reporting of American matters was evident on the very last page of Gazetteer. There was some finger wagging at American newspapers that published “essays and paragraphs” against slavery, and yet the “inhabitants show such an avidity to purchase slaves when cargoes arrive as to encourage the merchants of New York and Charleston, not only to persevere in the lucrative branch of traffic, but to extend their concerns therein; at both those places vessels are continually fitting out for the coast of Guinea {Africa}, where meeting with great encouragement from the natives, their return cargoes are soon completed.”
It should be noted that the Shelburne editor was condemning American hypocrisy and not the institution of slavery. The Loyalist city was home to a sizeable number of enslaved Africans who had been part of the portable property that more prosperous Loyalists brought with them to Nova Scotia following the American Revolution.
Given that Shelburne was originally settled because of its large protected harbor (then known as Port Roseway), it is not surprising that the Gazetteer carried news of ships arriving from American ports and the West Indies – and of vessels leaving for New Brunswick, New England and Jamaica.
Much of the news found on the newspaper’s third page reflects how intricately tied the city was to international trade and shipping. News from Jamaica had to do with fears of attacks from Spanish vessels.
There were concerns that the French court was planning to put a bounty on any ship that carried 600 slaves from Africa. Should this become French policy, the editor felt it would mean the loss of Britain’s “triangular trade” that saw slaves taken from Africa to the West Indies where ships would take on sugar to sell in Britain. The ships would then take British goods south to trade in Africa. This would all happen, the writer felt, due to “the encouragement of the French, the subtlety of the Americans and the encroachment of the Danes“.
Given that Shelburne was settled by refugees as early as 1783, it is interesting to note that the local Board of Agents posted an ad in April of 1785 advising those who were entitled to land (and had not yet received it) should apply to the board before the end of May. The slowness with which land was granted was an ongoing irritation to Loyalists who had hopes of a better life in Nova Scotia.
Our virtual reading of the April 28th edition of The Port-Roseway Gazetteer and The Shelburne Advertiser will conclude in next week’s Loyalist Trails.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

The Plight of Massachusetts Loyalists
By Larry C. Kerpelman, Spring 2024, in American Heritage
In “the cradle of the American Revolution,” loyalists to the Crown faced a harsh choice: live with terrible abuse where they were, or flee to friendlier, but alien regions.
It has been said that history is written by the victors, so it is not surprising that the story of Loyalists who lived in the American colonies and held fast to their loyalty to the Crown is not as widely known as that of the Revolutionary War’s victors. In many ways, Loyalists suffered not only the slings and arrows of their Patriot neighbors as the drumbeat to independence from England grew louder and louder. Many Loyalists suffered the agony of fleeing their towns and homes for another country. Historian Thomas B. Allen characterized the Revolutionary War as “America’s first Civil War.” By the end of that conflict, between 60,000 and 100,000 people fled their homes in the colonies.
Before the outbreak of that war, the tumult was already reaching up and down the eastern seaboard. It was most contentious, though, in what several historians have called “The Cradle of the American Revolution,” Massachusetts. From Boston’s furious streets into the Massachusetts colony’s hinterlands, whether originating with individuals or stimulated by local Committees of Correspondence (formed to exchange information and ideas within and among the several colonies and, later, with local Committees of Safety that coordinated military and security issues), antagonisms ran hot and heavy among the populace.
Loyalist Ann Hulton wrote a friend a letter on September 4, 1767 from her home in Brookline, Massachusetts (a town of about 600 people surrounded on three sides by Boston) that promised “many things to tell you, & some very interesting events I must communicate . . . .” This and later letters were collected in a book, Letters of a Loyalist Lady, which wasn’t published until a century and a half later. In addition to reflecting upper-class life (her brother Henry, who lived with her, was the Crown’s Commissioner of Customs in Boston) during a particularly fractious period in colonial America, the letters offered a firsthand view by a fervent Loyalist.
letters from a loyalist ladyPublished a century and a half after they were written, Ann Hulton’s Letters of a Loyalist Lady offer a firsthand view by the sister of Boston’s customs commissioner.
By 1776, the Hulton siblings had had enough of the tensions in their colony and bolted for England’s friendlier shores. Read more…

Book: Shadows to Sunshine, Our Roblin Line
By Diane Sleger 1 Feb. 2024
In this genealogical analysis of my paternal side ancestry, particularly the United Empire Loyalists lineage. My focus is on my fifth great-grandfather, Philip John Roblin who was a Loyalist pioneer. He helped settle the Ontario frontier, Bay of Quinte, Hay Bay area, in Prince Edward County.
Additionally, on my paternal grandmother’s side, the book traces back the ancestry to my third great-grandfather Ivy Randall Roblin and his wife, my third great-grandmother Sarah Van Tassel.
We also descend from my fifth great-grandfather John Van Tassel, who played a significant role as one of my Revolutionary War Patriots.
As a member of the Saguaro Chapter, NSDAR, AZ. I’ve been researching my family history for years. Most of my DAR patriots and my Mayflower pilgrim come from my paternal grandmother’s Leffingwell side. I started researching her mother’s Roblin side, and found Phillip John Roblin.
See Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Sunshine-Our-Roblin-Line/dp/B0CTX55XF4
Diane Sleger

The Milford Connecticut Cartel
by Tom Hogan 23 April 2024 Journal of the American Revolution
As 1776 was ending, a group of about 225 American prisoners was released from the British prisons in New York City to be sent to Patriot-controlled New England. Most of them were enlisted soldiers from Connecticut, but there were also a few from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and several officers. They had so far survived the battlefield and the deprivations of imprisonment, but their greatest trial lay before them. They still had to get home.
On December 24, the men were hastily paroled and marched down to the docks on the Lower East Side where a former merchantman called the Glasgow was moored. Before the Revolution, the ship had carried commercial goods but it was now serving as a military transport. Many writers have dubbed the Glasgow a “prison ship” but in this instance, it was being used as a conveyance. Its belly was large enough to accommodate—albeit quite deficiently—the large number of paroled men who were put aboard. The ship’s master, Capt. Robert Craig, planned to make for the small coastal port of Milford under a flag of truce. To get there, Craig would have to squeeze his way up the narrow East River, through the treacherous Hell’s Gate into the contested waters of Long Island Sound. Under ideal conditions, the trip would have taken less than a week. Unfortunately, a series of misfortunes would keep the prisoners on board for eleven hard days.
There was little chance the Americans would rise up. To win their parole they had pledged to refrain from any adverse action against the Crown. It would not only be considered dishonorable for them to go back on their word; parole violators also faced swift retaliation from their British captors—and possible punishment by Patriot authorities. In any event, many of the prisoners were in a weakened state, their bodies wasted from the short rations and foul conditions in the city’s hellish military jails. No matter how dire their circumstances became, the prisoners knew the Glasgow and its crew provided their only means of escaping British-held territory. Read more…

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: Newport RI – A Soldier’s Life Sept & Oct 1779
From a Hessian Diary of the American Revolution.
This excerpt from the diary of Johan Conrad Dohla (170 pages).

September 1779 (Page 74)
3 September. We conducted a prayer hour in camp.
4 September. In the morning punishment was carried out at the Bayreuth Regiment. A Private [Mathias] Elias, of Eyb Company, had to run a two-hundred-man gauntlet eight times because he had loudly complained about the English pay, and a Private Bayer, also of Eyb’s Company, ran four times.
7 September. With my Captain von Quesnoy, I went with a large command to Fort Prince Dauneck and stayed there eight days.
14 September. Our tour was completed. The English Grenadiers relieved us.

October 1779
1 October. Private [Friedrich] Abt, of Eyb’s Company, whose captain he also served, and the captain’s servant, deserted together.
4 October. I went on security guard at a local residence for eight days, where I ate and drank well. I had a large garden to watch over, which was planted with Indian corn, wheat, cabbage, potatoes, and other produce, and where a garden house was provided for lodgings.
11 October. A large fleet of transport ships arrived here and brought the orders from General Clinton that we should leave here and completely vacate Rhode Island. Today I left my security guard.
12 October. The loading of baggage on the newly arrived transport ships has already begun.
17 October. The women from our regiment were embarked.
21 October. I went on work detail to destroy the defenses. These were all destroyed. Today we sent our knapsacks aboard ship. Tonight I went on picket duty as lance corporal.
25 October. I went on the main watch in the city as lance corporal. At one o’clock in the afternoon we were withdrawn from the watch. All troops were hastily embarked. Newport and all of Rhode Island, including Conanicut, was completely vacated. I went aboard the ship Silver Eel. Our regiment had only two ships.114 Everything was embarked that it was possible to bring away. There were also many merchants and inhabitants from the island, with all of their possessions on the ship, who wanted to sail to New York also. Some days before our departure, all garden produce and fruits of the fields were turned in. We therefore received much fresh meat and on some days had a surplus of food and drink. On our march out of Newport all the houses were locked, and it was on the strictest orders of General Prescott that no inhabitants, and especially no females, permitted themselves to be seen at any window or on the street, and should anyone show themselves, those who were on patrol were ordered to fire at them immediately. Therefore, in Newport it appeared as if the entire city had died. This was done so that no one could desert or be left behind. From our regiment, Herr von Beust’s servant was left on the island.
We had hardly embarked when there were already rebels to be seen on Rhode Island. We had spent one year and three months on the island of Rhode Island, had withstood many hardships, and had much duty on watch and at the defenses. At ten o’clock in the evening we sailed with a good wind. Our fleet consisted of 102 sails, including two warships and three frigates as escorts.
26 October. We sailed as far as the lighthouse, where the fleet anchored.
28 October. At three o’clock in the afternoon we had already arrived at New York Harbor. We made this journey of one hundred German hours, or thirty English miles [sic], in a short time.
29 October. I went on watch on the ship as lance corporal.
30 October. We received letters from Germany. I also received one from my parents in Wunsiedel. On the gracious orders of His Serene Highness, our Lord Margrave of Ansbach, [Karl] Gr‡bner, until now a corporal in Quesnoy’s Company, was named and assigned as second lieutenant to Eyb’s Company. The order was also received that the invalids were to return to Germany at the earliest opportunity.
31 October. In the morning we disembarked and at noon marched with music playing through the city of New York and, about one-quarter of an hour beyond, set up camp near Corlaers Hook.
(to be continued)

Advertised on 27 April 1774: “These Baths and Waters”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

“These Baths and Waters … have been for some Years deservedly in the highest Repute.”

As spring gave way to summer in 1774, the proprietors of the “BRISTOL BATHS and CHALYBEATE WELLS” ran an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette to advise residents of Philadelphia and other towns that they provided services “in the most commodious Manner, for such Persons who may incline to make Use of them [during] the approaching Season.” For any “Strangers” who were not familiar with “these Baths and Waters,” the proprietors proclaimed that they “have been for some Years deservedly in the highest Repute” for their “Effects in a Number of Diseases, which had resisted every other Medicine.” The chalybeate (or iron-infused) waters had a restorative effect that made visiting the spa an occasion for recuperation as well as relaxation. The proprietors provided several examples of maladies that the bathing in and drinking the chalybeate waters alleviated. They asserted that the waters strengthened the stomach, “promoting a good Appetite,” and rejuvenated “relaxed debilitated Constitutions, whether arising from Sickness, residing too long in a warm Climate, or too free living.” In addition, the iron-infused waters “have infallibly removed” “Obstructions in the Liver, Spleen, and mesenterick Glands.” Read more…

Save the home of one who helped create America
By David Shribman 21 Apr 2024 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
SWAMPSCOTT, Mass. — In those black-and-white days, so long ago, my high school classmates Cindy Smith, Cheryl Gordon and Jan Schwartz were popover girls, circulating through the General Glover House Restaurant dining room with a basket of hot, light and buttery rolls.
So integrated into our small town was the General Glover restaurant that we thought it would be there forever.
But nothing, not even the Glover, as everyone called it, lasts forever, and in fact the restaurant, so much a part of three towns on Boston’s North Shore, has been closed for a third of a century. Three years ago, the town of Swampscott condemned the building
So why an op-ed column on the kind of dining landmark every town has and every town loses?
Here’s why the house in Swampscott is different: The General Glover House was General John Glover’s house. General Glover, you ask? He was the fellow who repeatedly went to the rescue of George Washington’s raggedy Continental Army….
…”On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, we need to renew our commitment to the values on which this country was founded,” Schultz said in an interview. “General Glover personified those principles.”
One of those principles — not expected in the 1770s — was a commitment to diversity. The Glover regiment included Native Americans and Blacks, the first integrated military force on the continent. Read more…

Was Thomas Paine a Secret Tory? It Defies Common Sense
by Richard Briles Moriarty 25 April 2024 Journal of the American Revolution
Did Thomas Paine actively write against the American cause after emigrating from England in late 1774 and only opportunistically pretend to support the cause? When Paine was nominated for a Congressional position in April 1777, did delegate John Witherspoon hurl those accusations against Paine?
As other delegates were undoubtedly well aware, Witherspoon knew Paine personally. In 1775, while Paine edited Robert Aitken’s The Pennsylvania Magazine, Aitken was Witherspoon’s “compatriot and protégé” and Witherspoon regularly contributed to and co-owned the magazine. Had the prominent and highly respected Reverend Witherspoon called Paine a secret Tory who only pretended to be a patriot on the floor of Congress in 1777, that could have devastated a reputation that, though ascendant after Common Sense and “The Times That Try Men’s Souls,” was fragile given how little was known about Paine’s pre-America life.
Whether Witherspoon, who died in 1794, made those accusations is grounded on the Autobiography that John Adams wrote between 1802 to 1807. Adams claimed that, after he nominated Paine as Secretary to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Witherspoon objected that “he knew the Man and his Communications,” that when Paine “first came over” from England “he was on the other Side and had written pieces against the American Cause,” and that Paine “had afterwards been employed by his Friend Robert Aitkin,” and only “turned about” upon “finding the Tide of Popularity run rapidly” the other way. Adams claimed he was “surprized” by Witherspoon’s accusations and his “Earnestness,” that Daniel Roberdeau “spoke in [Paine’s] favour,” and that Paine’s nomination was approved after no one confirmed the accusations. But, Adams added without explanation, “the truth of it has since been sufficiently established.” During the five year period that Adams wrote his Autobiography, his rage against Paine was incandescent. Read more…

BOOK REVIEW: Ordinary Greatness: A Life of Elias Boudinot
Authour: by Andrew Farmer (American Bible Society, 2022)
Review by Sam Short 22 April 2024, Journal of the American Revolution
This book examines one of nation’s lesser-known Founding Fathers with particular emphasis given to his career as it concerns his relationship with George Whitefield, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Alexander Hamilton.
Published by the American Bible Society, which Elias Boudinot helped found later in life, Farmer’s work does place importance on Boudinot’s religious convictions and how his faith continued to influence him throughout his life. While Boudinot may not be a household name, his record during the interwar period serving under George Washington and his tenure as a member of the Continental Congress, Confederate Congress, multiple US Congresses, and Director of the Mint warrants a biography.
Elias Boudinot IV was born on May 3, 1740. He immediately found himself in the company of a central figure in colonial society. His family, living on the south side of High Street in Philadelphia, had a neighbor in the already well-known Benjamin Franklin. Franklin and Boudinot would remain connected throughout life and despite a generational gap, Farmer emphasizes that the two had much in common—like their antislavery sentiments, lack of formal education, and military service. Read more…

The role of a pew-opener
By Sarahmurden 9 Oct. 2023 in All Things Georgian
Whilst the clue is in the job title, they opened the gates to the pews in church, but there was a bit more to it than that. Did you know that during the Georgian era, most, but not exclusively, these roles were fulfilled by the older and often poorer, women of the parish?
Here we have an image of a somewhat stern looking woman opening the pew gate with her hand outstretched waiting for some pennies to boost her meagre income. Read more…

Loyalist Certificates Issued
The publicly available list of certificates issued since 2012 is now updated to end of March 31, 2024.
When a certificate is added there, it is also recorded in the record for the Loyalist Ancestor in the Loyalist Directory.

Events Upcoming

Gov. Simcoe Branch: “The Young George Washington” by Sam Davis Wed 1 May 7:30

“Before 1770, George Washington was a surveyor, farmer, and landowner in Virginia. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, advocating for colonial rights. As a militia colonel during the French and Indian War, his leadership and bravery gained recognition. These experiences laid the groundwork for his future leadership roles.”
There was more to Washington’s youth than being a militia colonel. One might wonder:

  • Mt. Vernon was a large estate. How did he come by it?
  • Did he cut down a cherry tree, and not lie about it?
  • What was his life like before and after his Seven Years War military role?
  • How well did he really do as an officer in that war?

Samuel Davis SAR, from Trenton NJ, like George Washington, a Freemason frequently portrays George Washington for groups and events.
Details. The meeting is virtual: Registration.

Fort Plain: Opening WSeekend with Willett’s Levies, 4 & 5 May

The Fort Plain Museum, in the Heart of Mohawk Country!
Join the Marinus Willet’s Levies Recreated Revolutionary War Living History Organization as they camp and provide demonstrations, and other living history events.
The Museum and Bookstore will be open. More information..

Saratoga: Women in War Symposium and Bus Tour 4 and 5 May

Saratoga: America’s Turning Point. The 3rd Annual Women in War Symposium returns to Saratoga County in 2024. Featuring noted authors & historians, the event will offer optional tours of the Saratoga Revolutionary heritage sites, compelling speaker panels, breakfast & lunch, plus time to enjoy the amenities Saratoga has to offer. For program and details…

Col. John Butler Branch: the John Butler Homestead Sat. 4 May 11:45 at Betty’s Restaurant

Dr. Ron Williamson. The Discovery and Investigation of the John Butler Homestead: Perspectives from Two Decades Later.
The foundations of the John Butler Homestead can now be seen clearly in the Butler Parkette in Niagara-in-the-Lake, thanks to archeological excavations led by Ron Williamson. Those investigations yielded over 50,000 ceramic shreds and over 14,000 animal bones. These finds allowed archaeologists to reconstruct the family’s meal systems and to interpret life in the Butler home, especially at the dining table. An analysis of almost 100 artifacts related to flint-lock firearms and military-uniform accoutrements helped to identify the archaeological evidence of the War of 1812 skirmishes at the site. John Butler was well known for his relationship with Indigenous peoples but what he might not have realised is that he situated his homestead on a location that had been host to Indigenous peoples periodically for more than 8,000 years! Dr. Ron Williamson will summarise all these findings in his presentation.
The Colonel John Butler (Niagara) Branch meets at Betty’s Restaurant, Chippawa, at 11:45 for a lunch meeting. Cost of the lunch is $30 for UELAC members and $35 for guests. Cash only. No credit cards. If you plan to attend, RSVP to 283corvette@gmail.com in advance so that the restaurant can prepare.

From the Social Media and Beyond

  • The 1763 Treaty of Paris formally ended the French and Indian War. France ceded its territorial claims to Britain, though most of the territory was still occupied and controlled by Indigenous tribes.
    On April 27, 1763, several tribes gathered for a grand council meeting convened by the Odawa leader Pontiac. He and the Lenape prophet Neolin espoused a return to Indigenous self-reliance and called for a concerted multi-tribal offensive to curb westward colonial expansion.
    10 out of 14 British forts in the Great Lakes and “Ohio Country” were taken. Raids reached interior Pennsylvania and New York. Long months of fighting negatively impact Indigenous fighters and communities unaccustomed to prolonged campaigns.
    A defeat of coalition warriors at the Battle of Bushy Run in 1764 effectively ended this offensive. The British revised their policies, and the borderlands grew quiet. The peace was temporary, as many Indigenous tribes got involved in the war between Britain and its colonies.
  • Townsends
    • Rich Food VS Poor Food. What’s the difference between Rich Food and Poor Food when the same ingredients are being used? What exactly is the dividing line between the two classes when it comes to the supper table? We try to find some answers in this episode.
  • This week in History
    • 26 Apr 1766 Stamp Act repeal is celebrated throughout the colonies. The British boycott gradually lost steam. image
    • 22 Apr 1768 London. Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Hillsborough, orders governors to prevent assemblies from drafting pamphlets & order Mass. Royal Gov Francis Bernard to dissolve the general court if it refuses to retract its circular letter. image
    • 21 Apr 1775 Williamsburg, VA. To preempt patriots, Royal Gov John Murray, Earl Dunmore, orders Royal Navy sailors to seize colonial powder from the magazine. They transported 15 half-barrels to be loaded aboard the HMS Magdalen in the James River. image
    • 21 Apr 1775 Cambridge, MA. New Hampshire militia arrives to join the rapidly forming New England Army in the aftermath of Lexington & Concord. image
    • 22 Apr 1775 New London, CT. Yale graduate &19-year-old schoolmaster Nathan Hale received word that #RevWar had broken out in Mass. That evening, Nathan asked to be let out of his teaching contract because he considered it his duty to fight for his country. image
    • 23 Apr 1775 Concord, MA. The Mass. Provincial Congress reconvenes & calls for an army of some 30K men to be commanded by Artemus Ward. As a result, Nathanael Greene from NH, John Stark from NH, and David Wooster from CT arrive with volunteers. image
    • 23 Apr 1775 NYC Learning of the actions at Lexington & Concord, a mob under Marinus Willet stormed the city arsenal and took weapons for the Cause. image
    • 25 Apr 1775 Philadelphia, PA. Around 5:00 pm, a fast rider arrived in the city with word of the actions at Lexington & Concord. image
    • 29 Apr 1776 Montreal, Canada. Benjamin Franklin leads a delegation, including Samuel Chase & Charles Carroll, to encourage Canadians to desert the crown. The Canadians, mostly French Catholics, demurred as the Protestant Americans were long-standing enemies image
    • 20 Apr 1777 Deliberately disobeying King Louis XVI, Marquis de Lafayette left France with Baron Johann DeKalb. They set sail from Spain in Lafayette’s ship la Victoire, reportedly heading for Santa Domingo. But the real destination is South Carolina. image
    • 21 Apr 1777 Danbury, CT. British troops under Gen William Tryon attacked the town and rampaged, setting fire to homes, farmhouses, storehouses & more than .,5K tents. The destruction continued for nearly a week before word reached Continental Army leaders image
    • 25 Apr 1777 Gov William Tryon lands a force of 1,500 Loyalists & British at Compo Beach, CT, on the Saugatuck River & begins a 23-mile march to Danbury. image
    • 26 Apr 1777 Sybil Ludington began her midnight ride to rouse the militia as the British Troops were burning Danbury. Her ride (not documented) was longer than Paul Revere’s. The 400 men who responded would turn the British back at Ridgefield. image
    • 22 Apr 1778 Continental Congress brands anyone who agrees to the terms of Britain’s Carlisle Commission as an enemy of the US. image
    • 23 Apr 1778 King of Prussia, PA. American Gen Charles Lee is formally exchanged for Gen Richard Prescott. Lee denigrates Gen Washington & goes to Congress to complain about other officers promoted over him. image
    • 24 April 1778 Carrickfergus, Ireland. As Captain John Paul Jones, commanding the 18-gun sloop, the USS Ranger continued his raging through the British Isles. His ship sights a British vessel, HMS Drake, a 20-gun sloop cautiously tacking against the wind toward them in the early morning mist. Jones’s crew of hard and plunder-hungry New Englanders wanted a prize vessel, so Jones taunted the approaching ship, hoping to force the encounter. When the two ships closed, Ranger had the upper hand as Drake’s unstable cannon tilted once powder and shot were rammed home. The forward lean sent most of its rounds into the water, missing Ranger’s hull. Poor preparation of cartridges by the British meant Ranger dominated in musket fire too, which plunged from sailors placed high in her rigging. For an hour, broadsides of cannon balls punched the ship while bullets splattered the deck, toppling sailors at their stations. Drake began losing sails, masts, and yardarms. One by one, crew members dropped, including its Lieutenant, and finally, a shot struck Drake’s commander, Captain George Burton, killing him. Ranger’s guns had blasted Drake’s colors away so she could not strike them. Instead, the senior officer alive desperately waved his hat, screaming for quarter as the pop of muskets and boom of guns drowned his voice. Finally, Ranger ceased firing, and when the thick cloud of smoke began dissolving into the sea breeze, the Continental Navy had its first military prize in British waters. More importantly, John Paul Jones had made a statement. image
    • 24 Apr 1778 Ocracoke Inlet, NC. The 10-gun sloop USS Independence, under Capt John Young, runs aground & wrecks. Commissioned in 1776 & spent that year guarding the merchant trade. In 1777, she carried diplomatic dispatches to France & captured 2 prizes. image
    • 27 Apr 1778 Continental Congress approves the construction of 12 additional ships for the Continental Navy. image
    • 27 Apr 1778 London. Lord Germain receives intelligence from the Netherlands of a French fleet leaving for America & requests Lord North send elements of the Home Fleet in pursuit. image
    • 20 Apr 1779 Onondaga Creek, NY Maj Gose Van Schaik leads a brigade of continentals in a raid that sends most villagers fleeing but kills 17 warriors & captures 37. Many homes burned before Van Schaik marched back to Ft Schuyler. image
    • 20 Apr 1780 Charleston, SC. With British siege trenches now 250 yards off, American commander Gen Benjamin Lincoln calls a council of war. Lieut Gov Christopher Gadsden urges continued resistance and warns of a civilian uprising if they surrender. image
    • 21 Apr 1780 Charleston, SC American general Benjamin Lincoln parleys with British Gen Henry Clinton but is refused a surrender with “honors of war.” image
    • 25 Apr 1780 Charleston, SC. Gen Henry Clinton’s forces begin a third series of parallels (trenches), closing to within 30 yards of the defenders. image
    • 24 Apr 1781, British Gen William Phillips lands on the banks of the James River at City Port, VA. He joins forces with British Gen Benedict Arnold, the former American general & notorious traitor, to attack the town of Petersburg, some 12 miles distant. image
    • 25 April 1781 Camden, SC. Lt Col Lord Francis Rawdon surprises Gen Nathanael Greene’s larger force at Hobkirk’s Hil. After stiff fighting, Green’s forces are driven from the field but in good order. Rawdon loses nearly ¼ of his force & does not pursue. image
    • 24 Apr 1783 Fort Carlos, AR (Spanish Territory) When news of the peace treaty arrives, British Capt James Colbert abandons his siege of the Spanish garrison and releases his prisoners. image
  • Clothing and Related:
    • Late 18th c unpicked homespun linen bodice silk thread embroidery detail.
    • Spent time a few weeks ago with a pair of early 17th-century gloves at @Witney_Antiques. I got so excited I only remembered to photograph one, but both are in brilliant condition! The embroidery, bobbin lace, & salmon pink silk survive in great shape
    • Stepping into Monday with Gorgeous Georgian brocaded silk buckle shoes by William Hose, London cordwainer, c. 1760s. From @HistDeerfield
    • SackBack Saturday: Robe à la Française, 1750-60, of gray & green silk, lining, striped taffeta, green and purple silk, applications of green silk chenille
    • A primrose yellow silk brocade gown, c.1760s. The pattern features floral springs and baskets. The gown was probably worn with a matching petticoat, which has not survived.
    • Thursday spotlight. Woman’s straw hat. This finely made sun-hat dates from c1770. Blue silk taffeta, blonde straw & straw lace appliqué.
    • Pair of mules, c1730, for Tuesday shoes. Formerly part of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s private collection, the pair is especially notable for its sablé or ‘pearl-embroidered’ ornamentation.
  • Miscellaneous
    • The physical environment has shaped history and in return people have made a lasting impact on the landscape. When the English first settled at Jamestown, George Percy described the James River as the “famousest river” ever found by a Christian.
      Four months later Percy stated, “our drink cold water taken out of the River, which was at a flood very salt, at low tide full of slime and filth.” The river’s brackish water contributed to the illnesses and diseases early English colonists experienced at Jamestown.
      Over time the English adapted to life in Tsenacommacah, even renaming the area Virginia. The English reshaped the land to meet their needs, such as supporting the growing tobacco industry.
      Over 400 years later, we have a responsibility to care for our environment rather than simply exploiting it. Earth Day reminds us to act as stewards to protect the environment for another 400 years. What will you do this Earth Day?

Last Post: RICKETTS UE, David Gordon Poyntz
22 October, 1943 – 21 April, 2024
With great sadness, his family announces that David passed away peacefully, while surrounded by his loving family, at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Hamilton, on Sunday, April 21, 2024 in his 81st year.
Beloved husband of Susan (nee Ford) for 56 years. Loving father of Jennifer (Shaun) Vince and Wendy (Michael) Lee.
David was ordained Canon at Christ Church (Anglican) Cathedral Hamilton, also received the Order of Niagara, an honorary Lay Reader and active member of several Niagara Diocesan and St. James’ Church Dundas committees. His commitment to church and community was a vital part of his life.
As the third Great-Grandson of George Hamilton (Founder of Hamilton), he was proud of his heritage and his United Empire Loyalist status. An avid genealogist, he provided continuous historical perspective to his family and the community. David was a member of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of Canada for many years.
An associate of the Insurance Institute of Canada, and a Chartered Insurance Professional, he worked for the Royal Insurance Company of Canada for 32 years before becoming the Insurance Broker for the Anglican Diocese of Niagara until retirement.
David struggled for the past few years with kidney disease, as well as mobility and quality of life. Through it all, he did his best to stay positive for himself and his family.
In accordance with his wishes, cremation has taken place. Details of Visitation (2 May) and Service (3 May) at Marlatt Funeral Home – Swackhamer Chapel.
David was a member of Hamilton Branch.

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