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Nine Blacks in the 104th Regiment of Foot – Part Two of Three
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
In the same way as most of the names of the nearly 600 men who served with the New Brunswick’s 104th Regiment of Foot during the War of 1812 have been lost to history, so too has posterity lost the names of the Black men who served with this regiment. Thanks to the scholarship of a number of dedicated historians and other brief references to these men, it is possible to piece together the stories of nine Black soldiers of the 104th regiment.
Given that approximately 4,000 free Black Loyalists settled in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 30 years before the War of 1812, it is not surprising that their sons would be among those who enlisted in the New Brunswick Regiment of Foot. What is surprising is to discover that the sons of those brought to British North America as Loyalists’ slaves also came to the defense of their masters’ land of refuge.
Blacks served in one of three important functions within the New Brunswick Regiment: bugler, drummer, or pioneer. (The latter was like a combat engineer who went ahead of the troops and prepared the camps where they would stay, building shelters for the night.)
Besides being able-bodied, only one other requirement had to be met to join the regiment. A recruit had to be a minimum of 5 feet 5 inches in height. (Perhaps this prompted one contemporary writer to note that the regiment had “tall-looking men of all nations“.) It is interesting to learn that the regiment’s pioneers were the only men allowed to sport full beards.
Henry McEvoy was 27 years old when the 104th Regiment made its unprecedented 52-day march from Fredericton, New Brunswick to Kingston, Upper Canada – a distance of 1,176 km. His story has been fleshed out by historian Frank Mackey.
Eleven years earlier, McEvoy had been held in slavery. At 16, he misinterpreted news from Great Britain, and thought that all slaves within the British Empire had been emancipated. Considering himself a free man, he became the indentured servant of a Loyalist name William Bryne and his son Philip. When recruiters for the 104th Regiment arrived in Lower Canada in the summer of 1804, McEvoy jumped at the chance to receive the 200 acres of land in New Brunswick promised to those who enlisted. McEvoy became a private and served as a pioneer. He later transferred to the York Rangers with 9 other Black men.
Frank McKey has also unearthed the details of another Black soldier named Richard Houldin. The latter married his enslaved wife in 1786 and had four children with her. Houldin enlisted with the 104th in Montreal on October 19, 1804. It seems the whole family moved to Fredericton when the regiment was sent there in July 1805.
Houldin’s daughter Marie Anne was just 12 when she met a recruit from Roxbury, Scotland. Andrew Holiday (there are 5 variations on the spelling of his name) was one of 34 Scottish recruits who arrived in Fredericton in the fall of 1805.  The two were married, and so Richard Houldin ended up serving alongside his white son-in-law during the course of the New Brunswick Regiment’s epic journey and subsequent battles.
Houldin’s fate is unknown, but his daughter and son-in-law settled in Berthier, Lower Canada at the end of the war rather than returning to New Brunswick. Marie Anne (Houldin) Holiday, the daughter of a Black soldier, lived well into her late 50s.
Private Henry Clarke was a bugler with the 104th Regiment from November 1809 to May 1817.  Records for a Montreal hospital note the death of a Black man on November 30, 1819. If this were Clarke, then, –according to the same records– he was born in Baltimore, Maryland and died at the age of 42. With a birth year of 1777, the bugler could have been the child either of enslaved parents brought to Lower Canada or Black Loyalists who had made the colony their new home.
Charles Faulkner also hailed from Lower Canada. It is not known if his parents had been slaves or Black Loyalists. While in Montreal, he enlisted in the regiment on April 28, 1804. Private Faulkner served as a drummer until June of 1812 when he transferred to the Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry. It is noted that he married and had a child who died in Sorel, Lower Canada. As a reward for his wartime service, Faulkner was granted land in Upper Canada’s Oro Township.
Established in 1819, the Oro Township was the only government sponsored Black settlement in Upper Canada. It was created to help secure the defence of the colony’s northern frontier. Within 12 years, 9 Black veterans and their families had settled there.
There is evidence that one of the 104th’s drummers was the son of a Black Loyalist who settled in New Brunswick. A man named Pompey Grant travelled to the colony in September of 1783 along with DeLancey’s Brigade, a loyalist militia. Pompey, then 30 years old, had been enslaved in New York.
It may only be a coincidence, but 3 decades later, a Black drummer named Harry Grant was part of the 104th Regiment.  Due to a reference in the journal of the Lt. John Le Couteur, the 18 year-old commander of the regiment, Grant enters the historical record in a moment of levity on a long and treacherous journey.
The 104th’s 52-day trek between February and April of 1813 subjected them to low temperatures and inclement weather, making their journey a difficult one even though each soldier marched along in snowshoes. When they came to hills, the temptation to use the toboggans that carried their supplies was overpowering.
Le Couteur wrote, “Some of the men would run the toboggans down the hills sitting on them, and would frequently capsize. Our big Black drummer straddled the big drum which was lashed to a toboggan, to try the experiment, but it got off the track, shooting him off at high velocity, and the sable African came up some distance from where he disappeared {covered in snow from head to foot}.”
Aside from this moment, the Black drummer’s wartime story has been lost to posterity. Following the disbandment of the New Brunswick Regiment it is believed that Harry Grant settled in the Fredericton area after the war.
Nothing is known of John Marrion beyond the fact that he was a Black soldier in the 104th.  It is a matter of speculation if he is one of the sons of Abraham Marrian/Marion, a Black Loyalist who arrived in New Brunswick aboard the Lady’s Adventure in May of 1783. The ship, part of the spring fleet that first brought loyalist refugees to what is now Saint John, carried members of the King’s American Dragoons. Marion’s fellow Black Loyalist passengers included 6 trumpeters and 7 pioneers. Just 25 when he arrived in the colony, Abraham Marion could very well have become the father of John Marrion who served with the 104th.
Not all stories of the regiment’s troops were happy ones. In November of 1812, The New Brunswick Royal Gazette, a Fredericton newspaper, reported that Private Barry Young of the 104th Regiment had been convicted of wilful murder. Whether Young had been recruited in the Canadas or New Brunswick goes unrecorded, as do the details of Young’s service and his crime. His conviction demonstrates that homicides could occur within the colony’s military.
This series concludes in next week’s Loyalist Trails as we consider Upper Canada’s John Baker and New Brunswick’s George Lawrence.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

St. Lawrence Branch Plaques Cemetery by St. Andrews West Catholic Church
A Loyalist plaque was unveiled in the cemetery across from St. Andrews West Catholic Church,
in South Stormont on Saturday, August 31.
This represents the fourth plaque being placed by St. Lawrence Branch UELAC at cemeteries where United Empire Loyalists are buried
Read more with photos…
Submitted by Darlene Fawcett UE

Joseph Galloway and His War of the Howe Brothers
by Richard J. Werther 12 Nov 2024 Journal of the American Revolution
When a country is losing a war, especially a war it was expected to win easily, explanations acceptable to the powers-that-be, and the general population, can be hard to come by. Often there is a primary protagonist, or antagonist, depending on who is seeking answers. In the American Revolution, one such person was Joseph Galloway, who proposed a Plan of Union at the First Continental Congress. This plan failed by a single vote and propelled Galloway into a loyalist stance which only hardened as time passed, to the point where he was almost unhinged in his conspiratorial thinking as to the cascading British downfall in the war.
Galloway, born in 1731, was a lawyer, politician, and member of the American Philosophical Society. He moved to Philadelphia to practice law in 1747, and entered politics in 1756 as a member of Pennsylvania’s Provincial Assembly and ally and mentee of Benjamin Franklin. He was a member of the First Continental Congress, but after his Plan of Union proposal failed, he declined an invitation to the Second Continental Congress. Now a committed Loyalist, he joined the British army, serving Gen. William Howe as superintendent-general for the maintenance of civic peace and civil governor of occupied Philadelphia during the winter of 1777-1778. When the British surrendered the city, Galloway evacuated to New York, abandoning his wife in Philadelphia, and moved to London early in 1779, never to return to America.
Galloway quickly became disillusioned by British military failures in the colonies. From his perch in London, he engaged in a furious pamphlet campaign from 1777 through 1782 analyzing the war missteps and largely heaping blame on Sir William Howe and his brother Admiral Lord Richard Howe.  Read more…

Cruel Bedlam: Bankruptcies and the Break with Britain
by Robert E. Wright 14 Nov
2024 Journal of the American Revolution
America will celebrate the Semiquincentennial anniversary of its independence from Great Britain in 2026. The causes of that world-changing event were many and complexly intertwined, so new conjectures unsurprisingly continue to emerge from the archival mists.
Because disputed taxes were objectively light, the current consensus stresses a narrative rooted in ideas to explain why many colonists sought to break with London. That view, however, fails to account for the economic distress that British policies caused the colonists. As a resident of one of the Middle Colonies, whose anonymous thoughts from 1768 have just resurfaced after being lost for over a quarter millennium, put it: “it is not the Stamp Act or New Duty [Sugar] Act alone that had put the Colonies so much out of humour tho the principal Clamour has been on that Head but their distressed Situation had prepared them so generally to lay hold of these Occasions.” The same author then detailed the economic woes that fueled colonists’ discontent with the Mother Country’s policies, a discontent later elided into “taxation without representation.”
The Middle Colonist’s 1768 economic explanation of the Imperial Crisis can be summarized as follows: Privateering, smuggling, and military payments brought about French and Indian War prosperity, which led to an ample money supply, low interest rates, and high real estate prices. That, in turn, increased colonial borrowing. Read more…

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: Chesapeake Bay – A Soldier’s Life September 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.

September, 1781: At Chesapeake Bay. (page 101)

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

IN THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER [1781]
1 September.  Today  four  warships  from  the  French  fleet  moved  to  the  harbor  entrance, about two English miles from us; dropped anchor; and so closed the passage to us.
3 September. Private [Georg] Hachtel,  of  the  Colonel’s Company, died  in  our  regimental hospital.
4 September. Two men deserted  from  our  regiment,  Private  [Abert]  Falk,  of  the  Major’s Company,  and  Private  [Johann]  Fr€lich,  of  Eyb’s  Company.  I  went  on  work  detail  in  the morning at the defenses and during the evening to chop wood. All the roads between our lines and the camp were barricaded with an abatis made of trees lying sideways, on and over one another, so that the enemy could not easily march against us.
Today Second Lieutenant [Karl Gottlieb] von Schuchard, of our Grenadier Company, died at Yorktown. He had only been sick three days.
5 September. During the morning we again moved our camp a bit  forward  in  order to be safer from the enemy ships. In the evening I again went on wood-cutting detail.
6 September. I celebrated my birthday, as with God’s gracious help, I have survived thirty-one years.
9 September.  I  went  to  work  at  the  defenses  in  the  morning.  Today  Private  [Andreas] Becker, of Eyb’s Company, died in the field hospital.
10 September.  This  morning  I  attended  punishment  for  the  deserter  Fr€lich.  He  ran  a gauntlet of three hundred men sixteen times.
11 September. Again this morning I attended punishment. Fr€lich was to run the gauntlet sixteen  times,  but  six  were  pardoned  and  he  had  to  run  only  ten  times.  He  was  beaten unmercifully and so cut that today he had to be led by two noncommissioned officers because he could no longer walk.
The French fleet now stands in a triple line on our right, from Cape Henry to Cape Charles, except  for  the  four  men-of-war  that  guard  the  entrance  to  our  harbor.  According  to  several deserters, the Marquis de Lafayette and the Prince of Zweibr†cken are only a few miles from us, strongly entrenched and already working on a second line.
We  received  bad  rations  of  rotted  ships’  meat  and  wormy  zwieback,  which  had  spoiled aboard ship. Therefore, many troops were sick with dysentery and diarrhea. Also, putrid fever was prevalent, partly  because of the great fatigue due to the troops’  having  little  rest  day  or night, partly because of the bad rations, but mostly because of the saltpeter in the water.
(to be continued)

Book: Defending Fort Stanwix: A Story of the New York Frontier in the American Revolution
By William Larry Kidder  (publication date of 15 Nov)
In Defending Fort Stanwix, William L. Kidder tells the dramatic story of “the fort that never surrendered” and the crucial role it played in the American War for Independence. After a series of military defeats over the winter of 1776–1777, British military leaders developed a bold plan to gain control of the Hudson River and divide New England from the rest of the colonies. Three armies would converge on Albany: one under Lieutenant General John Burgoyne moving south from Quebec, one under General William Howe moving north from New York City, and a third under Lieutenant Colonel Barrimore St. Leger cutting east from Lake Ontario along the Mohawk River. Fort Stanwix lay directly on the path of St. Leger’s force, making it a key defensive position for the Continental Army. By delaying St. Leger’s troops and forcing a retreat, the garrison’s stand at Fort Stanwix contributed to Burgoyne’s surrender at the Battles of Saratoga a month later, a major turning point in the course of the war.
Kidder offers an engaging account of life in and around the fort in the months leading up to the siege, detailing the lives of soldiers and their families, civilians, and the Haudenosaunee peoples with a focus on both the mundane aspects of military life and the courageous actions that earned distinction. Defending Fort Stanwix relates the stories of local men and women, both white and Indian, who helped with the fort’s defense before, during, and after the siege and showcases an exciting, overlooked story of bravery and cooperation on New York’s frontier during the American Revolution.

Advertised on 10 November 1774: “A WOOLEN and WORSTED MANUFACTORY”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

November 10

“A WOOLEN and WORSTED MANUFACTORY … American manufactures.“

As John Pinkney published updates from the First Continental Congress in the Virginia Gazette in November 1774, Elisha White and Robert White ran an advertisement to announce that they were “engaged in the erection of a WOOLLEN and WORSTED MANUFACTORY” that they anticipated would meet with great success.  They had already been “encouraged by many of the most patriotic gentlemen of the country,” yet sought even greater support for “so beneficial an undertaking” among the public.  In other words, they sought investors to defray the costs of this endeavor, addressing those “who may incline to promote American manufactures” as alternatives to goods imported from Britain.  The Whites had already gone to some expense, recruiting “a number of the best workmen,” though they still needed to “compleat the works, and procure the necessary utensils.”  Their enterprise would have even greater urgency as colonizers learned more about the Continental Association, a nonimportation pact, adopted by the First Continental Congress.
To raise the necessary funds to make their “MANUFACTORY” viable, the Whites established a subscription and designated local agents in several towns who collected the money on their behalf.  Read more…

Celebrating Inuit Nunangat
An Invitation to Celebrate the Inuit Homeland in Canada
Inuit Nunangat means the Inuit homeland, and is a vast area that encompasses land, water, and ice. It is a source from which Inuit draw unity, strength, resilience, and identity.
The new commemorative $2 circulation coin invites all people living in Canada to celebrate and learn more about Inuit Nunangat, as well as the distinct ways of life and rich and vital culture of Inuit.
Inuit Nunangat Commemorative Circulation Coin
At once an expression of Inuit unity and regional diversity, the Celebrating Inuit Nunangat commemorative coin design was created jointly by four Inuit artists, each representing one of the four regions of Inuit Nunangat: Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut, and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region.
A first for a Canadian circulation coin, these four artistic voices worked closely with the Royal Canadian Mint and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), in real time, to create a seamless piece of art.
Read more about…

  • Strength of Tradition
  • Connected by Culture: The Geography of Inuit Nunangat
  • Discover the Four Regions of Inuit Nunangat
  • An Expression of Inuit Unity and Regional Diversity
  • Inuktut: The Language of Inuit Nunangat
  • United in Celebrating Inuit Nunangat

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

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions

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

  • To Kevin Wisener for for additional information about:
    • First Lieut. Benjamin Wood from Charleston, South Carolina served in Major William Stark’s Corps, commanded by John McKinnon at Philadelphia.  Benjamin Wood was a merchant in Charleston, South Carolina and most likely left Charleston with his family after the first Siege of Charleston. S.C. by the British. He calculated his losses at £700.
      Received a Town lot and water lot [and a Warehouse Lot?] in Shelburne, Nova Scotia in 1784 and 500 acres at Port Roseway West in 1785, which was escheated in 1819. Received 100 acres at Lot 65, Queens County, Prince Edward Island

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

For Members: Schedule of Events and Deadlines for 2025
Members can log in at https:// uelac.ca/ and see the list of events and deadlines for 2025, including the deadlines to nominate people for various awards, Deadlines for submissions for the Spring and Fall Gazette and the expected dates for them to be published, Dates for UELAC AGM (May) and Conference (July) and more.

Events Upcoming

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

Hamilton Branch: “WWII Polish military who trained at NOTL” Thurs 21 Nov 7:30

At St. Matthew On-The-Plain, 126 Plains Rd. E., Burlington.
With speaker Zig Misiak, a WWII Polish baby refugee to Canada and a highly respected award winning author of First Nations books who has been received awards within the Indigenous, Polish and Canadian cultures.  (See Google: Zig Misiak Biography)
The talk will be on the Polish military who trained at NOTL (Niagara-on-the-Lake) during WWII.
Available also through Zoom at https:// us06web.zoom.us/j/83604303275? pwd=aJ8EIkCbEbLwBucHwoK6k5a6ERf6wY.1  Meeting ID: 836 0430 3275 with Passcode:  086086

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

Victoria Branch: Quebec Genealogy: Beyond the basics – Denis Fortier Sat 30 Nov 10:00 PT

November 30, 2024, 10:00 AM until 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada) (UTC-08:00)
This engaging workshop will show you the best resources and proven techniques for tracing your Quebec ancestors. Whether you’re just beginning your family history journey or seeking to deepen your research, this workshop will show you how to identify and document your Quebec family story. We’ll start with the basics, church records, census records, naming conventions then we’ll explore less known records to give deeper insights into our ancestor’s live
Denis Fortier has been pursuing genealogy for about 15 years. He is currently a member of the VGS, Ontario Ancestors and UELAC. He serves as the Victoria UELAC branch genealogist. Denis was born in Quebec and most of his own family research centers on that Province. Branches of his family trace back to early settlers of New France, including Louis Hébert who is the very first settler to bring his family to New France (in 1617). Much to his surprise, Denis also discovered he had Acadian, Scottish, English and American Loyalist ancestors, all of whom settled in the Province of Quebec.
Registration and details (small fee): https:// www.victoriags.org/content.aspx? page_id=4091&club_id=554933&item_id=2399074

 

From Social Media and Beyond

  • Townsends, and “anything food”

    • How To Make Candles In The 18th Century (12+ min)
      Making candles was a huge part of 18th century life. It’s the light source, plain and simple, candles are how you are able to live once the sun goes down. Candles are needed for everyday tasks, and were made as a profession and as a household chore.

Editor’s Note – vacation time. It was time for a vacation so we are away, but still in North America. As a result, this week’s issue is rather shorter than usual. Sorry if I have missed your favourite part, and sorry if I have missed an item that you sent to me to include – you might send it again if appropriate for next week.  Next week’s issue will be short as well, most likely.

 

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