In this issue:

 

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November 11, Remembrance Day in Canada
At the Canadian War Museum
Canadians recognize Remembrance Day, originally called Armistice Day, every 11 November at 11 a.m. It marks the end of hostilities during the First World War and an opportunity to recall all those who have served in the nation’s defence.
Armistice Day
Armistice Day was inaugurated in 1919 throughout much of the British Empire, but on the second Monday in November. In 1921, the Canadian Parliament passed an Armistice Day bill to observe ceremonies on the first Monday in the week of 11 November, but this combined the event with the Thanksgiving Day holiday. For much of the 1920s, Canadians observed the date with little public demonstration. Veterans and their families gathered in churches and around local memorials, but observances involved few other Canadians.
In 1928, some prominent citizens, many of them veterans, pushed for greater recognition and to separate the remembrance of wartime sacrifice from the Thanksgiving holiday. In 1931, the federal government decreed that the newly named Remembrance Day would be observed on 11 November and moved Thanksgiving Day to a different date. Remembrance Day would emphasize the memory of fallen soldiers instead of the political and military events leading to victory in the First World War.
11 November
Remembrance Day rejuvenated interest in recalling the war and military sacrifice, attracting thousands to ceremonies in cities large and small across the country. It remained a day to honour the fallen, but traditional services also witnessed occasional calls to remember the horror of war and to embrace peace. Remembrance Day ceremonies were usually held at community cenotaphs and war memorials, or sometimes at schools or in other public places. Two minutes of silence, the playing of the Last Post, the recitation of In Flanders Fields, and the wearing of poppies quickly became associated with the ceremony.
Remembrance Day has since gone through periods of intense observation and periodic decline. The 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 1995 marked a noticeable upsurge of public interest, which has not ebbed in recent years. It is now a national holiday for federal and many provincial government workers, and the largest ceremonies are attended in major cities by tens of thousands. The ceremony at the National War Memorial in Ottawa is nationally televised, while most media outlets – including newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, and internet sources – run special features, interviews, or investigative reports on military history or remembrance-related themes.
Visit Remembrance Day and reflect with related information.

Nine Blacks in the 104th Regiment of Foot – Part One of Three
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
The War of 1812 allowed the sons of Loyalist refugees to experience something denied their fathers – a victory over Americans. Almost 30 years after the conclusion of the American Revolution, the first generation of settlers born in Upper Canada, Lower Canada, and the Maritime colonies had the opportunity to fight for King George III on British North American soil. Among those young men were the sons of enslaved Blacks taken from the United States by the Loyalists as well as the sons of free Black Loyalists.
The most famous regiment from the Maritimes that saw action during the War of 1812 was the British Army’s 104th Regiment of Foot. It had been formed on July 6, 1803 as His Majesty’s New Brunswick Regiment of Fencibles Infantry, and while it was part of the British regular army, its service was restricted to North America. Its men were recruited from as far away as Montreal to the west and Scotland to the east.
In July of 1805, the men who had been recruited in the Canadas arrived in Fredericton, New Brunswick. A contemporary wrote about “160 fine, tall-looking men of all nations, {who} have with them 14 women and children“. A number of Black soldiers were among those 160 recruits.
In addition to Wolastoqiyik guides (then known as Maliseet), 60% of the regiment’s men were listed as “British Americans,” from the Canadas (both Francophones and Anglophones), Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia as well as Blacks and Acadians from New Brunswick. When war against the United States was declared in June of 1812, the renamed 104th Regiment of Foot posted detachments throughout New Brunswick to defend the loyalist colony from American attacks.
However, the build up of American troops at Sacket’s Harbor on the border between New York State and Upper Canada led Sir George Prevost, the British commander in chief in Canada, to believe that the Americans would launch a spring offensive in 1813.  Woefully lacking in sufficient manpower, he ordered the 104th Regiment of Foot to march from New Brunswick to Upper Canada in February of 1813.
Six of the 104th’s companies made the 730-mile (1,176 km) journey under the command of 18 year-old Lt. John Le Couteur. Thanks to the fact that he kept a journal of his adventures, posterity has insight into this amazing overland trek.
There were at least nine of Le Couteur’s men who were of African descent. Each of the 104th’s companies had within its ranks a “pioneer”, men who were responsible for going ahead of the regiment to prepare shelters for the night. If needed, they would also be responsible for constructing and repairing simple fortifications, road making and bridge building.  All of the regiments’ pioneers were Black. Men of African descent also served as drummers and buglers.
The music of the 104th’s bugles is first referenced in a description of the departure of the regiment as it left Fredericton, New Brunswick on February 16, 1813. Twenty officers and 550 men left the capital on snowshoes as they pulled toboggans.  They marched out to the music of bugles playing “The Girl I Left Behind Me“, a patriotic British song that was traditionally employed when soldiers left for battle.
Although he did not mention his Black pioneers by race or name, Le Couteur described the shelters which the pioneers built as the 104th worked its way toward Upper Canada, leaving posterity a detailed picture of what the pioneers would have constructed.
“While these were at work, some were clearing away spaces for the areas of the hut, which was done by taking off their snow-shoes and using them as shovels to throw back the snow till they got to the soil destined for the floor, four or five feet deep. The snow that was thrown back formed a high wall round it, which served to shelter us somewhat from the chilling wind.
    Within this area, the trimmed branches were placed in a conical or lengthened form and tied at top; they were then covered with pine boughs thickly laid over each, the points of the branches being downwards made it an excellent thatch, quite impervious to the snow, with the exception of the hole at the top which was left for a chimney. A blazing fire was then lit in the centre of the hut, and all around it was strewed a thick layer of small pine branches which formed a delicious and fragrant bed–here were no feather bed soldiers.”
Temperatures dropped to between -27° C and -32° C on some nights, so the work of the regiment’s pioneers was crucial to the soldiers’ survival.  The journey from Fredericton to Kingston took 52 days with the men averaging between 23 and 27 km a day. It is said that the average movement of a regiment during Napoleon’s time was 30 km per day. So the 104th’s soldiers — comprised as they were of the sons of refugees and recent settlers, and marching through a Canadian winter wilderness—moved at a remarkable rate. Add to this the fact that they subsisted on salt pork and biscuits, and it is easy to understand why some historians consider the march as “an incredible feat in world military history“.
Finally, on April 12, 1813, after 52 days of trudging along the banks of the frozen St. John, Madawaska, and St. Lawrence Rivers, the 104th New Brunswick Regiment arrived in Kingston, Upper Canada.  The regiment’s companies soon saw action.  Four companies fought in the Battle of Sacket’s Harbour on May 29 of that year. The Americans were victorious; British forces had 30 of their men killed, 200 wounded, and 35 taken prisoner. How many were from the 104th Regiment is not known.
The New Brunswick regiment was also at the Battle of Chippawa on July 5, 1814 and then at Lundy’s Lane on July 25.  In the latter, two flank companies of the 104th comprised of 120 officers and men fought under the command of Captain Richard Leonard. The battle was a strategic victory for the British forces, shifting the balance of power in the Niagara region from Americans to its Canadian defenders.
The 104th also fought at the Siege of Fort Erie from September 4th to 21st, 1814. Along with 7 other regiments, the 104th was awarded the Niagara Battle Honour to commemorate their service on the Niagara peninsula.
Given the number of casualties and wounded, the number of men in the 104th was greatly reduced during the battles of the War of 1812. In time, the regiment’s Black pioneers, drummers, and buglers would also have assumed fighting roles. Black men are known to have fought at Chippawa and Lundy’s Lane, and may have been involved in combat in the regiment’s other engagements.
New Brunswick’s 104th Regiment of Foot remained in Quebec at the end of the War of 1812, staying there until it was disbanded in 1817. Some of its Black soldiers decided to settle in Upper Canada’s Oro Township while others returned to Fredericton.
To date, just nine of the 104th’s Black soldiers’ names have been discovered in the documents of the early 19th century. What is known of these sons of enslaved Africans and of Black Loyalists will be featured in the next two chapters of this series beginning in next week’s Loyalist Trails.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

Le Roy Van Buskirk, U.E. and the Bear River War Memorial
By Brian McConnell UE, 5 Nov 2024
Some of the names on the Bear River War Memorial are a reminder of the role of United Empire Loyalists in the settlement of Western Nova Scotia. They arrived as refugees to settle in the area of Bear River at the close of the American Revolution in the 1780s. The village is less than 17 kilometers from Digby and 27 kilometers from Annapolis Royal, both of which were entry ports. It is also the location of a cemetery called Loyalist.
Lieutenant Le Roy Ellsworth Van Buskirk, U.E., the fifth great grandson of a United Empire Loyalist, is remembered with 15 other casualties of World War I on the Memorial. His brother Private Frank Van Buskirk, U.E., is listed among the 114 names of men who served during the conflict. They were direct descendants of Captain Lawrence Van Buskirk, an officer with the King’s Orange Rangers during the American Revolution who later settled on a land grant in Annapolis County. The ancestors of the Van Buskirks were among the early settlers from Holland who founded New Amsterdam, later named New York.
The Memorial includes the surnames of others of European background as well as some who were Mi’kmaq and members of the local Bear River First Nation. Among those who served in World War I are three members of the Glode family, Newel, Joseph, and Samuel. Joseph died from illness on May 12, 1916 at age 18 after enlistment in the Canadian Infantry. His grave with headstone is in St. Ann’s Church Cemetery on the Bear River First Nation. Another is Joseph Pictou who enlisted in 1916 and served with the 219th Overseas Highland Battalion.
Lest we forget…  Read more…

Burgoyne’s Hessian Troops and the Hessian Heritage of the Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys
by Mark Stolzenburg
This paper explores how some Hessian soldiers, both prisoners of war and deserters, who had fought for the British under John Burgoyne during the 1777 Saratoga campaign came to reside in the Schoharie Valley (then Albany County) and the Mohawk Valley (Tryon County). It has been adapted from an article by Mr. Stolzenburg first published in the Schoharie County Historical Review, Fall-Winter 2021, Vol. 85, No. 2.
Summary
Several factors during the latter part of the British Saratoga campaign in September and October 1777 contributed to the movement of some of Burgoyne’s Hessian troops to the largely German communities of the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys. The lack of nearby facilities to secure prisoners of war, the proximity of those valleys to the action at Saratoga, and their largely German population made them attractive locations to expeditiously send Hessian prisoners of war. These POWs were the Hessians who immigrated at least at first, involuntarily. Some others, the deserters, found their way to Tryon County and Schoharie on their own, perhaps with some encouragement and knowledge of their intended destination having been fed to them in American propaganda. Prisoners or deserters, some surely were not welcomed and left the valleys leaving little trace in the local historical record. We know others managed to stay and somehow fit in. We know this because they and their descendants have left and continue to leave their mark on the history of the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys. Read more…
The Author:
Mark Stolzenburg is a member of the Schoharie County Historical Society. As part of the research for this article he has compiled a database of over 550 names of potential Hessian soldiers with ties to our area. If you are interested in Hessian immigration he would like to hear from you at: markstolz1014@gmail.com

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: Chesapeake Bay – A Soldier’s Life August 1781
From a Hessian Diary of the American Revolution.
This excerpt from the diary of Johan Conrad Dohla (170 pages).

Major Moves during Johan’s deployment:

  • March 1777:   Depart Germany
  • 3 June 1777:   Arrive New York, then Amboy NJ
  • November 1777:  To Philadelphia
  • June 1778: to Long Island
  • July 1778: To Newport RI
  • October 1779: to New York
  • May 1781: to Chesapeake Bay.

August, 1781: At Chesapeake Bay. (page 100)

Continuation of Occurences in North America During the Fifth Year, 1781

IN THE MONTH OF August [1781]
22 August. A sea  battle  occurred  near  the Chesapeake Bay  between  the  English  Admiral Rodney and  the  French  Admiral Comte Rochambeau,  in which  the  English  were  driven off with the loss of five ships, after which the French fleet entered Chesapeake Bay. [ The Battle of the Virginia Capes occurred on 5 September 1781 between the English fleet, commanded by Rear Admiral Thomas Graves, and a French fleet, commanded by Comte de Grasse. English casualties amounted to about three hundred men, and the French suffered about two hundred casualties. Several English ships were damaged,  and  one  had  to  be  sunk.  After  remaining  in  close  proximity  for  several  days,  Grasse  entered Chesapeake Bay on 11 September and joined forces with the French eight-ship fleet commanded by Admiral de Barras, which had entered the bay the previous day. Graves returned to New York and General Cornwallis was trapped at Yorktown.]
24 August. I went on duty at the defenses during the afternoon.
25 August.  A  bloody  battle  took  place  at Eutaw  Springs  in  South  Carolina,  between the American army under General Greene and the British troops under Major General Stewart, in which the English lost four cannon and more than one thousand men. The Americans lost six hundred men and defeated the English. [The Battle of Eutaw Springs was fought on 8 September 1781 between forces under General Greene and the British Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart. English losses were about seven hundred and American losses about  five  hundred.  The  English  repulsed  an  American  attack,  but  then  retreated  to  Charleston.  Dupuy  and Hammerman, People and Events, p. 252. ]
26 August. In the morning I went on command in the defenses. It is rumored that a French fleet is coming from the West Indies with many troops on board. It is said that this fleet will join with Rochambeau’s fleet in Chesapeake Bay, the troops will be landed, and then we will be shut in on land and by water.
28 August. I went on watch at the hospital in the city as lance corporal.
29 August. We moved our camp forward about one thousand yards and into the line.
30 August.  At  night  I  went  with  a  command  into  the  defenses.  The  defenses  here  at Yorktown, and also at Gloucester, are being strengthened day and night, and fortifications are being made everywhere possible, and everything is being prepared for a brave resistance. This afternoon the French fleet appeared before the James River harbor at Yorktown. Supposedly, it consists of  forty-six men-of-war and  frigates and also a fleet of  transports,  said  to  contain forty-two  sail,  which  put  troops  ashore  at  Hampton  and  took  on  fresh  water.  General Washington  and  his  army  of  thirty  thousand  men  drew  closer  to  us  on  land  from Williamsburg.  The  French  General  Marquis  de  Lafayette  and  the  Prince  of  Nassau-Zweibr†cken have joined them with a corps of ten to twelve thousand Frenchmen, so that we can anticipate an attack by land and sea.
31 August.  I  was  on  detail  unloading  ships.  All  munitions  and  provisions  are  being unloaded from the ships in the harbor. The lower rows of cannon in the warships and frigates have  been  brought  into the  defenses,  and  all  the  ships  have  been  completely  emptied.  Also, some fireships were prepared so that they  could  be  launched  into the  French  fleet,  should  it enter the harbor.
This  month  continued  very  hot,  but  the  nights  were  somewhat  cooler.  There  were  many severe storms which struck our camp several times.
(to be continued)

The Town that became Yorktown
The town that became Yorktown began in the mid-1600s as a small riverside settlement with a port. The town of York was founded in 1691 out of these communities, its port shipping tobacco to England. As tobacco’s importance grew, so did the town.
At the town’s height in 1750, York boasted a population of around 2,000 and 250 to 300 houses. Yorktown also profited from the Atlantic slave trade, with many enslaved people entering the port and enslaved labor driving the tobacco industry.
From Oct. 9, 1781, the town was completely surrounded on land and subjected to a heavy artillery bombardment. Civilians fled since many buildings were caught in the crossfire and reduced to rubble.
Some houses did survive, such as the Nelson House, Cornwallis’ headquarters, and the Morris House, where the surrender was signed on Oct. 19. By 1790, only 70 houses and 600 people remained in Yorktown.

British Revolutionary War Soldiers’ Gravesites
At Freedom’s Way
Approximately 24,000 to 25,000 British soldiers are estimated to have died over the course of the American Revolution. While about half of the British forces were loyalists who lived in the colonies, the other half was composed of soldiers who had traveled overseas. Considering the impossible cost and logistics of sending the deceased soldiers home, British Army regulations called for the dead to be buried onsite at the battlefields. Throughout New England, there are examples of this phenomenon, from mass graves in Arlington and Boston to single burial sites along Concord’s Battle Road. The sites in Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area reflect the casualties of the fighting in Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, and Menotomy (present day Arlington) on April 19, 1775. But it’s the stories of how these graves were treated — whether they went unmarked or memorialized, honored or ignored — that shed light on how feelings about British soldiers have changed with the zeitgeist. Read more…

On Parole: A Story of Honor, Suffering, and Friendship in the American Revolution
by Greg Aaron 7 Nov. 2024 Journal of the American Revolution
June 9, 1776: The colonel and the preacher exchanged concerned glances as they crouched in the swamp. They were spattered in mud, exhausted, and cut off from their unit. Visibility was poor through the trees, but they could hear the crack of musket fire nearby . . . the enemy was getting close. They saw no way out, and had no idea what would happen to them if they were caught by the British. [as they slogged through the swamp trying to evade capture by the British and Canadians following their failed attack on Trois Rivieres.]
As the American colonies and Britain careened into the American Revolutionary War, they faced a dilemma: how to handle prisoners of war. Both sides decided to adopt the tradition of parole, an honor-based system that kept captured officers out of the fighting. The story of two American officers captured together—Col. William Irvine and chaplain Daniel McCalla—illustrates the danger and challenges that parole could impose.
Parole was a promise between the two opposing sides, and a promise that obligated a soldier. The captor would release a prisoner of war “on parole” if the prisoner promised to live up to written obligations—usually a vow not take up arms or carry out military acts until he was formally released from parole through a prisoner exchange agreement. A paroled officer might enjoy a supervised or unsupervised “house arrest”: he could have freedom of movement within a limited area inside enemy territory, or be allowed to return to his army’s lines, or be asked to go home. By the seventeenth century, parole had become a customary practice in Europe. Read more…

Religion of Revolution: Congregational Voices on Liberty
Congregationalists were no strangers to revolution by the late eighteenth century. They first came to New England because of a revolution in religion, which began with the Protestant Reformation. By the end of the seventeenth century, New England puritans had participated in two more revolutions, which took place an ocean away. The English Civil Wars (1642-1649) and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 both had significant consequences for England’s Atlantic empire. The Body of Liberties, a legal code adopted by Massachusetts in 1641, ensured local self-government for churches and towns.
As they established themselves in New England, puritans created independent churches in each town centered on congregations who believed strongly in a right to govern themselves…
The outcome of the Revolutionary War—American independence from the British empire—was far from certain. During the early years of the conflict, much of the fighting took place in New England. When the shot heard around the world rang out in April 1775, it was within steps of the Congregational meetinghouse in Lexington, Massachusetts. It was a long and difficult war, which lasted until 1783. It challenged the convictions of even the most fervent patriots and loyalists, and caused hardship, death, and chaos for those who wished to remain neutral.
The American Revolution brought with it many changes, not just for the new nation, but for Congregationalists. They saw the War’s successful conclusion and independence in religious terms. For some, it seemed providential, as if God had intervened on their behalf. Others cast the separation from Britain as the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy…
For the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the Congregational Library & Archives presents this online exhibition exploring the quest for liberty by New England Congregationalists in an age of revolution. The objects in this exhibition are drawn from the collections of the Congregational Library & Archives and the New England’s Hidden Histories project. They illustrate how Congregationalists attempted to explore and define the meaning of liberty while navigating the violence and destruction of war.
The exhibition is organized chronologically, starting with a sermon from 1750 about the origins of the crisis, and continuing from the outbreak of fighting in 1775 through the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783. The exhibition concludes with several objects which speak to the legacy of the American Revolution and its unfinished business.
Read more and take the tour…

Continental Army Brevets
by William M. Welsch 3 Nov. 2024 Journal of the American Revolution
In his 1877 The History And Legal Effect Of Brevets In The Armies of Great Britain And The United States From Their Origin In 1692 To The Present Time, James B Fry, Assistant Adjutant General of the U. S. Army, defines brevets thusly:
A brevet under the existing laws affecting the regular military service of the United States may be defined as a commission conferring upon an officer a grade in the army additional to and higher than that which, at the time it is bestowed, he holds by virtue of his commission in a particular corps of the legally established military organization. It makes him eligible, with the rank it confers, for assignment to duty by the President in the army at large, but not in his own corps.
Brevets were in effect a specialized promotion, often temporary, for a specific purpose, with no impact in the officer’s own unit. Brevets could either be in the army in general or specific to a branch—artillery, dragoons, foot, etc. Read more…

Advertised on 4 November 1774: “The Proceedings of the Continental Congress”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

November 4

“The Proceedings of the Continental Congress will shortly 
be ready for sale at the Printing Office in New Haven.”

William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, the printers of the Pennsylvania Journal in Philadelphia were the first to advertise the Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings of the American Continental Congress after the First Continental Congress adjourned its meeting in the fall of 1774, but other printers in other towns soon hawked their own editions.  A multiplication of copies produced and disseminated throughout the colonies aided in keeping colonizers informed beyond what they read in newspapers or heard from their friends and neighbors.
The Bradfords announced publication of the Extracts on November 2, a week after the First Continental Congress concluded its meeting.  On November 3, John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, ran a shorter advertisement to the same effect. Read more…

What was a Bourdaloue?
By Sarah Murden 10 Nov 2015 All Things Georgian
Ok, so I have finally lowered the tone of my articles, but a question frequently asked is, ‘how on earth did women relieve themselves when wearing those enormous 18th-century dresses’. Let’s face it when nature calls then there is little choice and public toilets were very limited in the 18th century, so here is how they solved the problem!
Women of the 18th century didn’t wear knickers, they hadn’t been invented, which may have been something of a blessing when you find out that hanging around at court for hours necessitated the need for women to relieve themselves where they stood. Today, when needs must, we have a modern equivalent, the ‘she-wee’, and of course, those Georgians were no different. Just prior to the Georgian era they did have the chamber pot, but that was not very practical to be used in public so they devised an object known as a ‘Bourdaloue’. Personally, I think that the Bourdaloue would have been more discreet, to be honest. Read more…

Native Nations: A Millennium in North America
by Kathleen DuVal 7 Nov 2024 at Ben Franklin’s World
The North American continent is approximately 160 million years old, yet in the United States, we tend to focus on what amounts to 3300 millionths of that history, which is the period between 1492 to the present.
Kathleen DuVal, a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, asks us to widen our view of early North American history to at least 1,000 years. Using details from her book, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, DuVal shows us that long before European colonists and enslaved Africans arrived on North American shores, Indigenous Americans built vibrant cities and civilizations, and adapted to a changing world and climate. Listen in…

UELAC Fall Issue of the Loyalist Gazette – Update
As noted last week, the digital copy of the Loyalist Gazette is available to members at uelac.ca.
Good news. The paper copy was stuffed, labelled, stamped and then delivered to Canada Post on Thursday 7 November.  As you well know, actual delivery to your mailbox depends on many postal factors.
The Gazette team hopes that you will enjoy it, and that you have the opportunity to tell others about it, show it to others, use it in an exhibit – show your pride in Loyalist history.
Bill Russell UE, VP UELAC, Communications@uelac.org

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions

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

  • To Kevin Wisener for for additional information about:
    • David Beattie from New Perth, Charlotte County, New York who served with the 40th Regiment of Foot. He may have received a land grant at at Port Roseway, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, In PEI his grant was on the Pinette River, Lot 58, Queens County but he requested a change to Town Lot #6 and pasture lot in Georgetown, Kings County, PEI as he is a fisherman.
    • Volunteer James Sheen (Sheehan)  of New York was a member of the 1st Battalion of the Kings Rangers. He Received a 100 acre land grant in Lot 47, Kings County, PEI; Received a Land Grant in 1786 at Birchtown Creek, Shelburne County, NS near PEI Loyalists Thomas Alexander and Benjamin Ferrar.

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

Events Upcoming

The American Revolution Institute: From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia Tues 12 Nov 6:30 ET

Author’s Talk: James Wright lived a transatlantic life, taking advantage of every imperial opportunity afforded him. He earned numerous important government posts and amassed an incredible fortune. An England-born grandson of Sir Robert Wright, James Wright was raised in Charleston, South Carolina, following his father’s appointment as the chief justice of that colony. Young James served South Carolina in several capacities, public and ecclesiastical, prior to his admittance to London’s famed Gray’s Inn to study law. Most notably, he was appointed South Carolina’s attorney general and colonial agent to London prior to becoming the governor of Georgia in 1761.
Wright’s long imperial career delicately balanced dual loyalties to Crown and colony and offers new insights into loyalism and the American Revolution. Through this lens, historian Greg Brooking, Ph.D., discusses his new in-depth biography of Wright, which explores his life in the context of imperial and Atlantic history, Indigenous borderlands, race and slavery and popular politics.  Registration.

Toronto Branch: “Land Records in Your Pyjamas” by Linda Corupe UE Wed 13 Nov 7:30

Loyalist Certification often depends on finding the appropriate Land Record(s) for our Loyalist Ancestor. Many of us have struggled from time to time with the LAC website.  At this virtual meeting Linda Corupe provides a step by step explanation of how to access and understand them.
Linda Corupe, U.E., has authored over 50 books on genealogy and history over the past 40 years. She is a descendant of a United Empire Loyalist from the Napanee, Ontario area. She is on the recommended researchers list at the Archives of Ontario.
Register with torontouel@gmail.com and a meeting link will be returned.

Kawartha Branch: “The Lost Villages” by Jim Brownell Sun 17 Nov 2:00

Jim Brownell was 10 when the flooding of 16.2 hectares along the St Lawrence between Iroquois and Cornwall began on July 1st 1958. Seven villages and a farming community on Sheek’s Island were inundated. The Lost Villages Museum was dedicated to documenting the history of the lost villages and the families who once lived there, dating back to the Loyalists who came there in the 1780’s.
Jim’s book, A tour, “Through the Lands of the Lost Villages”, is the result of information gathered and tours he has run. He is a member of The Lost Villages Historical Society.
Join Zoom Meeting
https:// us06web.zoom.us/j/83025983212? pwd=GTIA1e7he6ltaadurUNcnZG1vqW5aI.1
Meeting ID: 830 2598 3212  Passcode: 901920

Sir Guy Carleton Branch Fall Social. Friday, Nov. 22nd, 2024. 1:00-4:00 PM

At the Nepean Museum, Room C, 16 Rowley Avenue, Nepean, ON.
Entry to the Museum is free, donations are welcome. You can visit the Museum before or after the Social. More about the museum…
The Fall Social event is free, and guests are welcome.
…Rosemarie Pleasant, President carletonuel@hotmail.com

From the Social Media and Beyond

  • Paying respects at Monument to Captain John MacDonald of 84th Regiment in Cemetery at Scotchfort, PEI (November 7, 2015)   – Brian McConnell UE
  • Monday I visited St. Ann’s Cemetery on the Bear River First Nation and placed poppies on the graves of men who served during WWI. Lest we forget – Memoriam Eorum Retinebimus      – Brian McConnell UE
  • November 3, 1774, the Boston Overseers of the Poor indentured five-year-old Oliver Blanchard to Samuel and Lucy Williams of Springfield. (Oliver would marry a local girl in 1794 and set up a farm in Longmeadow). image and read more…
  • Townsends, and “anything food”

    • Thanksgiving Cooking Marathon! (3 Hrs+)
      A collection of our best Thanksgiving Videos
    • Jamestown Yorktown Museum: Our interpreter’s at our re-created revolution-era farm at Yorktown love to bake, cook, stew and make all sorts of colonial recipes. Here’s one for the autumn season.
      To bake Apples whole:
      “Put your apples into an earthen pan, with a few cloves, and a little lemon-peel, some coarse sugar, a glass of red wine; put them into a quickoven, and they will take an hour baking.” – Hannah Glasse, “The Art of Cookery”
  • This week in History 
    • 5 Nov 1741 Sir John Johnson, 2d Baronet of NY is born. Son of Sir William Johnson, land baron & Indian Affairs Superintendent. John inherited the title in 1774. He led the King’s Royal Regiment (KRR) of NY in loyalist- campaigns through the Mohawk Valley.  image
    • 8 Nov 1770 Benjamin Franklin writes an OP-Ed piece “To the PRINTER of the LONDON CHRONICLE” on “The Rise and Present State of Our Misunderstanding.” He declares Americans are Loyal Britons … mistreated by policy & mischaracterized by rhetoric in England. image
    • 4 Nov 1775 Continental Congress reorganized the Continental Army at Boston into a force of 20,372 officers and men, the majority remaining in service only through 1776. image
    • 5 Nov 1775 Pope’s Night in Boston Gen Washington admonishes his troops against the anti-Catholic celebration as it is offensive to the French Canadians with whom he hoped to make common cause against the British image
    • 7 Nov 1775 London, House of Commons summarily rejects the Olive Branch Petition, the last attempt by moderate political forces in America to stop the growing split and emerging #RevWar  image
    • 7 Nov 1775 In an unsuccessful attempt to save the British Colony of Virginia from going over to the rebels, Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation calling for martial law because traitorous colonials were raising an army and marching to attack British troops.  image
    • 2 Nov 1777 Gen Washington marches his army to Whitemarsh, PA, where he can better cover British activities in and around Philadelphia while supporting American defense of Ft Mercer and Ft Mifflin on the Delaware R.  image
    • 3 Nov 1777 Gen William Alexander (Lord Stirling) wrote to Gen Washington recounting Gen Thomas Conway’s criticisms of Washington & of Conway’s encouragement of Horatio Gates to replace Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army. image
    • 8 Nov 1775 Continental Congress directs the Secret Committee to purchase arms & ammunition through the West Indies by trading American products, primarily agricultural goods. image
    • 7 Nov 1776 New York Royal Navy ships show their control of the waterways as they navigate the Hudson past Ft Lee & Ft Washington, avoiding artillery fire and sunken hulks. image
    • 6 Nov 1777 Continental Congress appoints Gen Thomas Mifflin, Col Timothy Pickering & Col Robert Harrison to the newly created Board of War. Its new charter included the administration of #RevWar, recruiting, and weapon production.  image
    • 4 Nov 1778 Without informing Gen Washington, the French fleet under Adm d’Estaing sails from Boston to the West Indies.  image
    • 4 Nov 1779 –Quartermaster General Nathanael Greene gives James Abeel, a Deputy Quartermaster in Morristown, the job of beginning the search for campsites in the Morristown/Morris County area. image
    • 5 Nov 1780  November 5, 1780, De la Balme’s Massacre takes place when retired French cavalry officer & ex-Continental Army’s Inspector of Cavalry Augustin de la Balme is killed near present-day Fort Wayne, battling Miami Indians. image
    • 8 Nov 1780 British Gen Cornwallis sends Maj James Wemyss of 63rd Foot from Winnsboro, SC to hunt down partisans under Gen Thomas Sumter. image
    • 6 Nov 1781 Spartanburg SC Settlers @ Gowan’s fort surrender to Capt Wm Bates’s Loyalist militia & Chickamauga warriors after Bates promised safety. But when they opened the gates, Bates ordered his men to kill every man, woman, and child. Only 2 survived. image
    • 3 Nov 1783 After 8 years of struggle, privation, and service, the Continental Army is officially disbanded by order of Congress. image
    •  6 Nov 1789, Pope Pious VI appointed Fr. John Carroll of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, the first Catholic bishop in the United States and selected Baltimore as the seat of the first diocese. Carroll & his family played a prominent role in #RevWar image
    • 3 Nov 1791, the state of Vermont ratified all twelve amendments to the Bill of Rights that were suggested by Congress. Ten of them would be agreed upon by 2/3rds of the states and would become the Bill of Rights. image
  • Clothing and Related:

    • Something soothing in blush pink with an unusual bodice treatment that crosses over the chest in broad straps, a snowy fichu tucked into the #1770s brocade
    • Some early #1810s greenery for evening wear, short puffed sleeves and decorative hems a feature of the era and high waist descending to a smooth A line skirt. Dark pine or fresh beech, which do you prefer?

 

 

Published by the UELAC
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