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2025 UELAC Conference: More to See
The conference has lots to do — see Conference 2025 details — but consider spending some extra time with the history and natural events in and around Saint John.

Home to the Highest Tides on the Planet
New Brunswick boasts the highest tides in the world in the Bay of Fundy. These colossal tides rise and fall up to 16 meters (52.5 feet) daily, moving approximately 160 billion tonnes of water each cycle. Experiencing this natural phenomenon is an absolute must when visiting the province. Stand in awe at the breathtaking Hopewell Rocks as you walk along the ocean floor during low tide, and marvel at the dramatic transformation as the tides rise right before your eyes.

The Reversing Falls Rapids
The Saint John River, known as Wolastoq, flows 673 kilometers from the northern border of New Brunswick to the Bay of Fundy in Saint John, where it creates the Reversing Falls Rapids. This natural wonder is a spectacular sight where the river’s flow reverses due to the powerful tides of the Bay of Fundy.

Hope to see you there…

Norfolk No More: Part One of Three
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
For two men from the southern colonies, the spring of 1783 was a particularly stressful –but for two very different reasons.
Boston King, a Black Loyalist from South Carolina, remembered that a report “prevailed at New York” that “all the slaves, in number 2,000, were to be delivered up to their masters altho’ some of them had been three or four years among the English.”
On the other hand, John Willoughby, a slave owner from Virginia, had written to Sir Guy Carleton, the British commander in chief, on behalf of “sundry inhabitants of the counties of Norfolk and Princess Anne”. He complained that “they have lost at least three hundred Negroes, and have come to New York in hopes of regaining their property.” They had learned that “passports have been granted to several Negroes to embark for Port Roseway; apprehending a total loss if a stop is not put to such embarkation.”
John Willoughby and his associates were aware that emancipated Blacks were leaving the new United States despite the fact that the peace treaty ending the American Revolution forbid the removal of slaves. Their concern was that they would lose thousands of dollars worth of “property” if they could not reclaim “their” African chattel.
Boston King was aware that “our old masters coming from Virginia, North Carolina, and other parts, and seizing upon their slaves in the streets of New York, or even dragging them out of their beds. Many of the slaves had very cruel masters, so that the thoughts of returning home with them embittered life to us. For some days we lost our appetite for food, and sleep departed from our eyes.”
Willoughby was horrified that “passports” had been given to Blacks to resettle in Nova Scotia. King, on the other hand, would later remember “The English had compassion upon us in the day of distress, and issued out a Proclamation… respecting the security and protection of Negroes. In consequence of this, each of us received a certificate from the commanding officer at New York, which dispelled all our fears, and filled us with joy and gratitude. Soon after, ships were fitted out, and furnished with every necessary for conveying us to Nova Scotia.”
By the time that Sir Guy Carleton had received John Willoughby’s letter demanding the return of 300 freed slaves, 40 ships had already left New York City, taking white and Black Loyalists to sanctuary in what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. 36 of the Black passengers aboard those ships had once been enslaved by Willoughby and those “sundry inhabitants of the counties of Norfolk and Princess Anne” who appealed in vain to Carleton.
Carleton had stayed true to the various proclamations that the British had issued to emancipate Patriot slaves during the revolution, and rather than turning his back on Black Loyalists, the commander in chief ignored the Virginian slave masters instead. As the frustrated slave owners had learned to their dismay, eleven ships of the April evacuation fleets (Polly, London, Ann, Esther, Apollo, Kingston, Blacket, Elizabeth, Montague, Providence, and Mary) were transporting “their” slaves for Port Roseway, Nova Scotia.
In the months that followed, no less than 292 other Black Loyalists who had once been enslaved in Norfolk and Princess Anne Counties would find sanctuary in the West Indies, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, England, and Belgium. The 36 who sailed off in April would be followed by a steady stream over the summer and fall of 1783. There would be 11 in June, 179 in July, 4 in August, 5 in September, 23 in October, and finally 72 in November.
These numbers only tell part of the story of the Black Loyalists from Virginia’s two eastern counties. Who were Willoughby and his “sundry inhabitants”? What stories of their enslaved Africans have survived to this day?
To infuse the humanity of these two diverse groups into the story, one must consult data pertaining to Virginia’s involvement in the revolution and carefully examine a ledger compiled in New York City during 1783.
John Willoughby was one of 162 known slave owners based in Norfolk and Princess Anne Counties. During the course of the revolution, local Patriots heard “very unfavourable and injurious reports” against Willoughby that made them suspect that he may have been a Loyalist. The Virginian hoped to “acquit himself” when the state would grant him a hearing. Eventually Willoughby’s name was cleared. But one wonders if his spear-heading of the attempt to recoup lost slaves in New York was more than just a mission to reclaim property. Was he also trying to show his opposition to British policies as a good Patriot would?
Willoughby had 90 of his slaves run away and was “thereby ruined”. As well as 3 sawyers, a carpenter, a shoemaker, and a house servant among the 16 male escapees, there were 20 women and 46 children who had fled the Willoughby plantation. They were among the first enslaved Africans to take advantage of Lord Dunmore’s offer of emancipation in November of 1775.
The oldest made his escape when he was 60; the youngest must have been carried off in someone’s arms. She had only been 3 in 1776. Some of Willoughby’s former slaves would faithfully serve the British for seven years — longer than most white loyalists had spent fighting for their king. Just ten of Willoughby’s enslaved Africans are listed in the Book of Negroes, the ledger that recorded the names and situations of all Blacks leaving on evacuation vessels from New York in 1783.
While details about Willoughby are few, much has been found about Mary Perth, one of his former slaves. Noted simply as “Marey” on Willoughby’s list of slaves, Perth was 36 years old when she and her three daughters (Zilpah, Hannah, and Patience) “went off with Dunmore”. After seven years within the protection of the British lines, she set sail for Port Roseway on L’Abondance on July 31st. Among her fellow passengers was Boston King who remembered, “We arrived at Birch Town in the month of August, where we all safely landed. Every family had a lot of land, and we exerted all our strength in order to build comfortable huts before the cold weather set in.”
The historian Jada Similton has pieced together a detailed account of Perth’s life as a free woman. She notes that in addition to being a house slave in the Willoughby home prior to her escape, Mary preached to fellow slaves, sometimes going ten miles into the woods to minister to her congregation. After relocating to New York City, Mary became a valued member of the Black Loyalist community, as she was someone who could read and write. She eventually married Caesar Perth, an emancipated tradesman who was six years her junior.
Mary and Caesar lived in Birchtown until the fall of 1791 when they joined over a thousand Black Loyalists bound for Sierra Leone in January of 1792. Following the founding of Freetown, Caesar built a two-story house and established a farm. He died soon after. Mary sold the farm and changed her home into a boarding house. She also taught several dozen African children who lived nearby.
In September of 1794, the 54-year-old woman watched in horror as five French warships fired upon Freetown. After a vicious looting spree, the French sailors set fire to every building in the loyalist settlement. Mary Perth escaped to the outskirts of Freetown, taking her students with her. There she met the ruler of a nearby Temne village. Perth must have done something in her earlier dealings with the Temne to earn the chief’s respect, as he generously offered to shelter both the “Nova Scotian school mistress” and her students.
Mary lived a very devout life, so much so that even though she was a Methodist, a Scottish Presbyterian published a story about her in a Christian magazine, praising her as someone who had “come down out of heaven to earth”.
In 1799, Mary and her youngest daughter Susan accompanied the governor of Sierra Leone to London where she supervised African children who were training to become Christian missionaries. After Susan died in 1800, Mary returned to Freetown. She died at age 73 in 1813.
Mary Perth’s story illustrates the potential of men and women whose talents and abilities could finally be realized once they had escaped the debilitating constraints of slavery. The stories of other Black Loyalists who had once been slaves in the counties of Norfolk and Princess Anne will be featured in next week’s Loyalist Trails.
 To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

Tolerance or Tyranny? The Quebec Act of 1774
The Quebec Act of 1774 mollified the conquered citizens of New France but provoked American colonists to revolution.
Written by François Furstenberg — Posted January 29, 2025 at Canada’s History
It was the fall of 1774. Somewhere in Mohawk territory, along the well-travelled corridor that ran from Canada, along Lake Champlain, down the Hudson River to New York, Mohawk leader Thayendanegea — also known as Joseph Brant — could see the birch, oak, and maple trees turning bright shades of red and gold. The beauty and tranquility of the season, however, belied the growing political turbulence roiling Anglo-American settlers in Massachusetts, directly to the east. Thayendanegea and other First Nations leaders were hearing disquieting rumours about a possible confrontation between New Englanders and the British Crown.
Within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy — an Indigenous alliance whose territory spanned an expanse of land to the south and east of Lake Ontario — the Mohawk, or Kanien’keha:ka, lived on the easternmost lands and were known as the Keepers of the Eastern Door. They had long found themselves at the centre of the region’s geopolitics, occupying an ancient trade route that divided the French settlers and their allied Indigenous villages along the St. Lawrence River valley from the Dutch, English, and Haudenosaunee people to the south. For generations, Haudenosaunee leaders like Thayendanegea had fought to maintain their autonomy amidst the recurring conflicts that had left so many scars on the land and its people.
With the fall of New France in 1760 and the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, the British had asserted their sovereignty over the territory previously claimed by the king of France. The end of the war between the two European powers had driven hopes among many in the region for a new era of peace and prosperity.
A mere decade later, however, such hopes had been upended. Now, disputes between British-American settlers and British Crown officials were turning into a crisis. The events would pull the Haudenosaunee Confederacy apart — extinguishing the Council Fire that had long symbolized unity among the six confederated nations. And they would break up Britain’s North American empire, unleashing a chain of consequences that would lead to the creation of the United States of America and, later, to Canada. Those momentous events were fuelled, in part, by an act of British Parliament that aimed to appease Canada’s French Catholic settlers and to formally recognize Indigenous lands. It was called An Act for making more effectual provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in North America and known more concisely as the Quebec Act.
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the Quebec Act of 1774. Unlike the Battle of the Plains of Abraham or the War of 1812, the Quebec Act has not found a place in the Canadian popular imagination. And yet its role in North American history was more significant than most people, including most historians, realize. The story of the Quebec Act focuses not just on French-speaking settlers in the St. Lawrence River valley and their English colonial governors; it also incorporates imperial officials in London, First Nations across the Great Lakes watershed and the Ohio Valley, rebellious colonists, ambitious land speculators in Virginia, Scotland, and England, and many others. In its broadest frame, the act was more than a North American event: It was a turning point in the history of a globalizing British Empire — the result of an overextended empire facing demographic, legal, religious, and cultural diversity unprecedented in its history.
Our story begins in 1759, when French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm’s army fell to British forces in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, presaging the end of French power in North America. By the time France ceded its claims on Canada to the British Empire in the Treaty of Paris in 1763, French-speaking people had lived along the St. Lawrence River for more than 150 years. Read more…
[Editor: A must read.]

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: POW: on the March – A Soldier’s Life Nvember 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 (Yorktown)
  • October 1781: to Williamsburg

October, 1781: POW: On the March. (page 117)

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

IN THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER [1781]
page 117

4 November. We arrived at a main river, the Shenandoah, which, because we were captives, and in spite of the cold, we had to wade across. We took off our gaiters, shoes, and socks, and entered the water, which was ice cold and at places reached to our chest. We had to take careful steps and not raise the legs, but move only with the feet. Otherwise the water would carry us away, as it ran very swiftly. It would have been no wonder if we had caught cold, because this march through the river lasted nearly a quarter of an hour. This great cold later caused all sorts of sickness. The escorting militia, just like us, had to cross the river, but their and our officers rode their horses. Nevertheless, they found it necessary to have half of their legs in the water, and in many places the water splashed over the backs of the horses. The Shenandoah River has its source not far from Staunton, the county seat of Augusta County, in the province of Virginia, among the Alleghenys, or so-called Blue Mountains. From there, it flows a long way to northward and finally empties into the large Potomac River. Since Fredericksburg, we have passed only deciduous forests of oak, palm, and walnut trees, and occasionally isolated plantations and poorly built houses were encountered.

5 November. We arrived in Winchester. It is a small city of about three hundred houses, including a courthouse and two churches with steeples, three Mennonite prayerhouses, and a Quaker meetinghouse. Also, in the middle of this place is a secure jail, that is, a prison surrounded by a high and strong wall. Recently also, two store, or provision houses have been built in Winchester.
Winchester, from its buildings and situation on a flat and sandy plain, presents no splendid view. Most residents speak German and are descendants of German families. Virginia tobacco provides the greatest source of livelihood because the soil is better suited to that than for raising grain.
We marched through the place and another four Virginia miles, over two hours farther, to an old and large barracks with two levels, called the New Frederick Barracks, where both our regiments were lodged on the lower level. The English troops still with us were placed on the upper level.
If this is to be our winter quarters, may God have mercy upon us: numerous wretched huts built of wood and clay, most of which have no roofs or poor roofs, no cots, only poor fireplaces, neither doors nor windows, and lie in the middle of a forest. We already had many sick and fatigued people, which was not surprising.
During this move we spent sixteen days and made a march inland of 240 Virginia miles.
Here the command that had escorted us here was relieved by a fresh command of Virginia militia numbering about two thousand men under the orders of General [Peter] Muhlenberg and Colonel Cannada. On this march they had treated us captives, and especially the German troops, well and had allowed us much freedom.
The guard command was quartered behind our barracks, in the woods, and also had small huts, which were as bad as ours.

6 November. We were divided among our barracks, twenty or thirty men in a hut, where we did not have room enough to stand. We were also locked in like dogs, and our rooms were worse than the pig stalls and doghouses are in Germany.

7 November. Quartermaster Sergeant Knoll, of Quesnoy’s Company, who until now had been under arrest with the Americans, was again released. On the orders of Major Beust, he was punished with thirty-one strokes of the broadsword, delivered by the adjutant, Lieutenant Lindemeyer.

(to be continued)

My Loyalist Ancestor – Antonius Ostrander KIA at Bennington, His Daughter Eva and Hessian Christian Ortlip
My 6th great grandfather’s name was Antonius, aka “Thunis”, Ostrander (1736-1777). He was from Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York. He served in the loyalist Provincial Corps of Mckay. He was “kia” at Bennington.
After his death, his wife, Elizabeth Proper (1741-), took her six children, one of which was Eva Ostrander (1767-1835) my 5th great grandmother, to live on the Livingston lands north of Rhinebeck where she had grown up. She was soon hauled before the Committee to Detect and Defeat Conspiracies against the United States in Albany. She was dismissed after the committee received a letter from one of the Livingston’s regarding her case.
Eva Ostrander later married Christian Ortlip who about this time changed his time to Artlip, a German soldier serving with British forces in New York. He had deserted his military unit and was accepted for asylum in Albany on 29th June 1778 before “Commissioners for Detecting Conspiracies in the State of New York”. Volume 1: 1778 -1781 Albany County.
Eva and Christopher Artlip later married and were the parents of ten children between 1788 and 1811.
We don’t know where Christian Ortlip was between 1778 and 1788. Some folks in the Ostrander family think he joined the American army, but I don’t believe it.
The first time we hear about Christian and Eva together was in 1788 when they had their first child, Betsy, in Rensselaer, NY.
We don’t know the year they were married, but Eva was 17 years younger than Christopher. He had to wait for her to grow up.
In the census of 1790 for Hoosick NY our name changed from Ortlip to Artlip. It simply looks like a census taker’s mistake.
Also, in 1790 Christopher and Eva were members of Gilead Lutheran Church in Centre Brunswick, Rensselaer County., NY
In 1811 their last child Asa was born in Pompey, Onondaga, NY. I have no clue why they were there.
In the 1830 census they lived in Springwater, Livingston NY.
Finally, without any doubt, we know they lived, bought land, and died in Sparta, Livingston County New York.
I have searched that area but have not yet found their graves and probably never will.

My dear wife Lois told me to tell you the name of the other German deserter who appeared along with Christian before the Commissioners on 29th June 1778. His name was Hemligh Streligh. Both men were given passes and “permitted to go at large in this Country”.
…Ken Artlip

Resource: Experiencing the Neutral Ground of the American Revolution
Westchester County Historical Society has released this digital collection.
This collection contains over 400 firsthand accounts of the Revolutionary War in Westchester County, New York (which at the time also included all of present-day Bronx County, New York), and parts of Fairfield County, Connecticut. During the American Revolution, this area was considered a “Neutral Ground” due to its location between the British lines “below” near New York City and the American lines “above” in northern Westchester and eastern Fairfield counties. Although the area was not securely held by either side during the war, it was certainly not “neutral,” and was the scene of numerous raids, skirmishes, and depredations between 1776 and 1783.
From 1844 to 1851 lawyer-turned-historian John M. Macdonald (1790-1863), whose surname was usually recorded as “McDonald” by later historians, travelled through the former Neutral Ground to conduct interviews with residents who had either lived during the American Revolution or were born shortly after. Read more…

NOTE: This was passed along by Ken MacCallum UE who writes: “There is a reference in one interview to one of my ancestors which enabled me to identify exactly where he lived before going over to the British. (“When Captain Jacob Van Wart commanded the Guard at the Bridge (Pines), he went one day to see his wife who lived over the hill on the North Castle corner road above Flewellings. All at once he saw the Refugees coming on a gallop. Wheeling about he descended the hill at full speed calling out in broken English and flourishing his arms: –‘ De Pritish is coming! Run Poys like de dyvil or dey will kill you!’ They pursued him furiously across the river but he escaped.”)

Advertised on 25 February 1775: “A HEALTHY” strong young Negro [Woman]…”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

25 February 1775

“A HEALTHY strong young Negro [Woman] … with her male child, one year old.”

Five issues. It took only five issues for an advertisement offering enslaved people for sale to appear in the Pennsylvania Ledger. James Humphreys, Jr., launched the newspaper on January 28, 1775. Four weeks later, he printed an advertisement about a “HEALTHY strong young Negro [Woman], about twenty-four years of age,” to be sold “with her male child, one year old.” The Pennsylvania Ledger was still such a new publication when it carried this advertisement that the proposals and conditions for subscribing appeared as the first item in the first column on the first page. An advertisement for a political pamphlet ran immediately below the proposals, followed by the advertisement for the enslaved young woman and her child. Readers encountered them before news reprinted from the Maryland Gazette or any of the other content in that issue. Read more…

Cricket Hill and Gwynn’s Island: Captain Arundel’s Only Fight
by Patrick H. Hannum 26 Feb 2025 Jpurnal of the American Revolution
In researching the little-known Battle of Cricket Hill/Gwynn’s Island that took place on July 9-10, 1776, in what was then Gloucester County and today Matthews County, Virginia, available surviving records document only one Patriot casualty. While this is not unusual for many of the smaller, lesser known and infrequently studied engagements, the details of this casualty are worth highlighting.
The Battle of Cricket Hill/Gwynn’s Island is interesting and important, both politically and militarily, because it is often referred to as Governor Dunmore’s last stand in Virginia. Virginia’s last royal governor, Lord Dunmore, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, threatened by Patriot militia, departed Williamsburg on June 8, 1775 after the gunpowder incident in April. Dunmore sought refuge on British warships in an effort to continue to exercise royal authority in the largest and most important of the thirteen rebelling colonies. Dunmore would not leave the colony without a fight; ultimately, the Patriot government would need to drive him away. Dunmore’s eventual departure from the colony allowed Virginia to send forces to support the Continental Army and sustain the war effort with her important resources.
Throughout the summer of 1775 Dunmore assembled a small army and navy, and employed an amphibious based raiding strategy to keep the newly forming Patriot military forces off balance. His goal was to prevent residents in the Tidewater region from fully aligning with the extra-legal Patriot government. Read more…

Samuel Mason: Revolutionary Turncoat or Opportunistic Pirate?
by Carter F. Smith 25 Feb 2025 Journal of the American Revolution
In the chaotic aftermath of the American Revolution, the boundaries between heroism and villainy were often obscured by economic hardship, social instability, and territorial disputes. One figure who epitomizes this ambiguity is Samuel Mason, a Revolutionary War captain who later became infamous as a river pirate preying on trade along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. His life, marked by contradiction and complexity, provides a unique lens through which to explore the turbulent transition from colonial rebellion to nation-building.
Revolutionary Beginnings: Mason as a Patriot
Samuel Mason’s early life, much like the American colonies themselves, was defined by struggle and ambition. Born in Frederick County, Virginia, in November of 1739, Mason came of age during heightened tensions between the British Crown and its American colonies. While Mason’s role as a captain during the Revolutionary War is well-documented, his earlier military service is informative. Mason served under Col. George Washington at Fort Necessity, about 100 miles west of Frederick County. He was listed in the Frederick County Company roster in 1760 and was on Capt. John Stevenson’s roll under Frederick County. Mason’s name also appeared in the 1760 records of Capt. Thomas Speke. That positioned Mason as a seasoned soldier with years of experience before his Revolutionary War service. It also added another layer to the complex narrative of Mason’s life, his early military career laying the foundation of his later exploits…

Post-War Instability and the Frontier
The Revolutionary War may have ended in 1783, but its aftermath brought new challenges for veterans like Mason. Many soldiers returned to civilian life only to find limited opportunities and unfulfilled promises of compensation. The fledgling American government often issued land grants in unsettled territories as payment. Still, surveying errors, competing claims, and conflicts with Native American tribes left many veterans unable to benefit from this arrangement…

Mason and the Ohio River
Mason became a dominant figure along the Ohio River. Two locations—Red Banks, Kentucky, and Cave-in-Rock, Illinois—played pivotal roles in Mason’s rise as a criminal mastermind. Red Banks (now Henderson, Kentucky) was a growing frontier settlement in the late eighteenth century. The area’s strategic position made it a critical point for merchants transporting goods by flatboat. It was also an ideal staging ground for the counterfeiting operations of Mason and his gang.
Francois Derousse, a resident of New Madrid, told of a 1791 incident near Red Banks, where Mason held him at gunpoint, accused him of horse theft, and detained him. Despite Derousse’s denials and offers to provide references, Mason kept him under guard for an entire day,…

The Mississippi as a Frontier Battleground
The Mississippi River, a critical artery of trade and transportation, was central to the economic aspirations of both the United States and its European neighbors. Following the war, the river became a contested zone between American settlers, Native American tribes, and Spanish authorities who controlled Louisiana. This lack of clear jurisdiction made the region a haven for outlaws and opportunists; for men like Sam Mason, the Mississippi offered both risk and reward. Flatboats carrying goods and settlers navigated the river’s treacherous waters, vulnerable to piracy and smuggling operations. Mason likely recognized that the frontier’s fragmented governance provided ample opportunity for criminal activity…

Land Piracy on the Natchez Trace
The Natchez Trace, a vital trade and travel route connecting the Mississippi River port of Natchez to Nashville, Tennessee, was notorious for its lawlessness in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Stretching over 400 miles through dense forests and isolated terrain, the Trace became a magnet for bandits, including Mason, whose land-based piracy mirrored his exploits along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Read more…

Book Review: Washington’s Marines: The Origin of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775–1777
Author: Jason Q. Bohm. Savas Beatie, 2023
Review by William Edmund Fahey 24 Feb 2025 Jpournal of the American Revolution
“In December [1776] he [Major Samuel Nicholas] was ordered to march with three companies of Marines to the Jerseys to be under his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, and continue in the field until the men’s times of Inlistment expired.”—Journals of the Continental Congress, volume 21
Reading congressional memoranda is hard business. Historians of the War for American Independence can be excused if they miss the import of those words. Even historians who specialize in the deeds United States Marine Corps have proceeded quickly on to later decades, or lingered only briefly with wistful remarks about the lack of details that prevent a writer from telling any story that might be there. But that dry statement found in the early records of the Continental Congress reveals a monumental change in the history of warfare and the history of America. American Marines were born from the British naval practices and traditions, and sea-soldiers are even older than the British (later Royal) Marines. Yet something happened in 1776 that changed everything for all Marines. That change was the deployment of Continental Marines to provide critical assistance to their Nation’s cause—on land, deep in the interior and away from the historic protection (and limitations) of the navy. Jason Bohm’s recent book allows novice and specialist alike a chance to appreciate the significance of that moment. Read more…

The Romantic Poets in Bristol
by Dr Paul Main 24 Feb 2025 All Things Georgian
On Tuesday 7 April 2020, the Royal Mail issued ten new first class postage stamps to mark the 250th anniversary, to the very day, of the birth of William Wordsworth. The stamps, in fact, commemorate the Romantic Poets as a group, and include from the first generation of Romantic poets (1798) Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Blake, Mary Robinson and William Wordsworth. And from the second generation (1820) Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and John Keats are recognised. Bristol was central to the Romantic Movement, as we will see later.
Romanticism is the term that historians have given to a movement of cultural change that swept across Europe in the late C18th and early C19th. This coincided with developments like the French Revolution and, in Britain, the Industrial Revolution and the birth of mass urbanisation. The movement showed an interest in things Gothic, in Medieval art, and in nature. It was a movement in which poetry played a major role in changing people’s attitudes towards the natural world, childhood and the very idea of self-expression. Read more…

Podcast: African Americans in Early New York City
By Leslie M. Harris 25 Feb 2025 Ben Franklin’s World
Leslie is an historian and professor of history at Northwestern University. She specializes in African American history, urban studies, and the impact of slavery in the North, particularly in New York City.
Leslie reveals the arrival of Africans in New Amsterdam and the early history of slavery in New York City. The contributions Africans and African Americans made to the construction and development of New York City. And the journey New York City and New York State took to end slavery. Listen in…

Podcast: Skywalkers: the Kahnawá:ke Mohawks who built New York City
Canadian Geographic 25 Feb 2025 (25 min)
 You’ve seen them: the black and white image of ironworkers eating lunch on a beam in the skies above New York City. Meet the Kahnawá:ke Mohawks who, over the past century, have helped build America’s most iconic skyline. In this episode, we learn about their storied home across the bridge from Montreal in Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, a place that could not be more different than the city they helped build.
Every July, the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory comes alive with an exciting annual event: the Echoes of a Proud Nation Powwow. For more than three decades, this powwow has been held to honour the Oka Crisis, a land dispute that shone light on Indigenous sovereignty and social justice. Today, this powwow is a lively, colourful weekend-long celebration drawing in thousands of tourists as the biggest influx of visitors Kahnawake sees all year.
But during a quieter time and you will be rewarded because there’s another story in Kahnawake — one that’s touched virtually every local family in one way or another. And once you know that story, you’ll begin to find evidence of it all over town. It’s a story that has allowed the people of Kahnawake to reach far beyond the borders of their nation and shape worlds far, far away. Listen in… (additional references)

Events Upcoming

American Revolution Institute: Threshold to Valley Forge: The Six Days of the Gulph Mills Encampment Tues. 4 March 6:30ET

Between December 12–19, 1777, Gen. George Washington and his Continental Army encamped in the towering hills of Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania, fifteen miles from Philadelphia. Known as the threshold to Valley Forge, the Gulph Mills Encampment is often forgotten or minimized, falling between the more famous military engagements of the Philadelphia Campaign and the well-known experience of the army at Valley Forge. Yet, the Gulph Mills Encampment was a pivotal microcosm of the Revolutionary War and the issues that confronted the Continental Army, the Continental Congress, state governments and the American citizens who suddenly found themselves on the front lines of the war. By Author, Historian and Attorney Sheilah Vance. More details and registration…

Gov. Simcoe Branch: “The Last Moments of Mallory Deschamps” by Tom More Wed 5 Mar 7:30 (in-person and on zoom)

Tom has experience in film production and writing. His new film is outlined as “A single mother flees political persecution in France disguised as one of the ‘Filles Du Roi.’ Upon her arrival, she faces ostracization, the harsh winter environment of 17th-century Quebec and the foreboding sense that her family may have attracted an ancient deity.” The project represents a mythologized historically-accurate yet fictional account of life within what is now modern-day Canada. More details and registration…

American Revolution Institute: Exhibit: Revolutionary Beginnings: War and Remembrance in the First Year of America’s Fight for Independence 1 Mar 2025 – 4 Jan 2026 (Reception 6 Mar)

The War for American Independence began on April 19, 1775 — 250 years ago this spring — with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. These initial engagements gave way to the Patriots’ Siege of Boston, a nearly year-long effort to drive the British from the city. But the fighting during the first year of the Revolution did not just take place in Massachusetts. From April 1775 to June 1776, Patriot, Loyalist, and British forces clashed in most of the thirteen American colonies, as well as Canada and the Caribbean. This exhibition explores three of those conflicts — the Battle of Bunker Hill outside Boston (June 1775), the Siege of Quebec in Canada (December 1775), and the Battle of Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina (June 1776), which took place just days before the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Read more…

The Fort Plain Museum’s American Revolutionary War Conference 250, May 29-June 1, 2025

Speakers and Topics Include:
Pulitzer Prize Winner Rick Atkinson – The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780
Bus Tour – We Stood Our Ground: Battles of Lexington & Concord, April 19, 1775 – Led by Alexander R. Cain – Thursday, May 29, 2025
Read more…

From the Social Media and Beyond

  • Location of land granted to my UEL ancestor James Humphrey in 1784. It was lot 12 c. II. This map of the United Counties of Leeds & Grenville, Ontario from 1861 shows it still in the family as partly occupied by his grandson Hugh Humphrey. Brian McConnell UE
  • Personal stories often help us see history in a clearer light. Here’s one from a British spy during the American Revolution.
    “I was a free man, living on my father’s farm on Long Island when the revolution swept the colonies.”
    “I was very successful, until 1778, when I was captured. They hanged me for sedition; and I swung from the gallows for three minutes. I thought that this would surely be the end, but the final moment, British calvary appeared and chased off the Patriots.”
    They cut me down before the bloody work was finished. Despite this brush with death, I remained a spy in service of the king.”
  • Many African Americans used the chaos caused by the American Revolution to pursue freedom. Mary Perth joined and followed Lord Dunmore’s loyalist forces; however, the governor’s promise of freedom to enslaved people did not apply to Mary because her enslaver was a loyalist.
    Mary likely worked as a domestic laborer for the British Army throughout the war even though legally she remained enslaved. Despite her legal status, Mary used the confusion surrounding the war’s end to secure certificates of freedom for herself and her family.
    They moved to Nova Scotia and eventually settled in Freetown, Sierra Leone as free people.
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  • Event/Resource/Quote of the Day – Revolution 250
    • Feb 22, 1775, Gen. Thomas Gage wrote instructions for Capt. William Brown and Ens. Henry de Berniere to scout the roads to Worcester while dressed in civilian clothing. Those instructions and the army officers’ report Read more…
    • February 26, 1775, after Patriots faced off against British troops in Salem, men came to the Worcester tavern where British spies Capt. William Brown & Ens. Henry de Berniere were staying and said they knew those men were “officers of the army.”
    • February 28, 1775, the Suffolk County Convention met in Milton and resolved that towns should send tax revenue to Thomas Cushing to pay the province’s delegates to the Continental Congress.
  • This week in History
    • 25 February 1754 Setauket (Brookhaven) New York. Benjamin Tallmadge is born on Long Island to clergyman Reverend Benjamin Tallmadge Sr. and Susannah Smith. His family moved to Connecticut, where he would attend Yale, and he was a classmate and close friend of Nathan Hale. After Yale, Tallmadge had a brief stint as headmaster of Wethersfield High School. The death of his cousin at the hands of the British caused him to join the Connecticut Continental Line in 1776. Later, Tallmadge would command a troop of 2nd Continental Line Dragoons, conduct intelligence for General George Washington, and most famously, establish and manage the Culper Spy Ring. But Tallmadge was also with Washington at many key events and battles throughout the war and finished with the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war, he served as the Postmaster for Litchfield, Connecticut, until he was elected to Congress from Connecticut and served eight terms. image
    • 24 February 1761, James Otis Jr. argued in Massachusetts court that granting the Customs Service’s Writs of Assistance (warrantless searches) was illegal. Such arguments over unlimited government power and tyranny would evolve into the issues that ignited the Revolution. During his time, Otis, a brilliant lawyer, became one of the most vocal critics of taxation without representation in America. He initially supported British colonial policies and held positions in the colonial government but later became disillusioned with Parliament. Otis was cantankerous, controversial, and often at odds with various family members, including his Loyalist wife. The lawyer played no part in events after April 1775, as he suffered from bouts of mental illness. Curiously, he died at his home in Andover in 1783, just a few months before the British departed, when a bolt of lightning struck him. image
    • 27 Feb 1765 London. The Stamp Act was passed in the House of Commons. The Bill was then sent on to the (upper) House of Lords. In an interesting twist, on the same day in 1782, the House of Commons voted against continued war in America. image
    • 28 Feb 1772 Boston, MA. The Boston Assembly threatens Britain with separation unless the traditional rights of Englishmen are upheld and respected. image
    • 26 Feb 1775 Salem, MA British Col Alexander Leslie marches a detachment of 64th Regt to the North Bridge to seize a rebel arms cache. A group of townspeople blocks his advance. He negotiates a peaceful crossing but finds no arms.. He returns peacefully image
    • 23 Feb 1776 Loyalists under Lt Col Donald McDonald, marching to Brunswick, NC, encounter rebel militia under Col Richard Caswell entrenched behind Rockfish Creek. MacDonald builds a bridge over the Black R. & continues but gets sick & is replaced. image
    • 27 February 1776, Moores Creek Bridge, North Carolina. Around 1,500 Scottish Loyalist Highlanders, led by Captain James MacCleod, clashed with 1,900 lowland patriots under Colonel James Moore, John Ashe, and Richard Cashwell. The Highlanders, who were recent immigrants from Scotland, responded to Royal Governor Josiah Martin’s call for Loyalists to gather at Wilmington, where a British fleet was anticipated. The low country was firmly in support of the patriots, and upon learning of the Highlanders’ approach, they marched to the nearby Moores Creek Bridge, tore up the planks, and took positions in the woods with a few guns and muskets ready. When the Highlanders arrived, they wasted no time and charged at the rebels, shouting, “King George and Broadswords!” Devastating volleys from well-placed artillery and musket fire mowed them down like wheat. MacCleod was killed, along with 30 others, and 850 were captured. The patriots suffered one dead and one wounded. British plans to seize Wilmington and Governor Josiah Martin’s hope of gaining control of North Carolina were thwarted in a battle that lasted three minutes. image 1
    • 27 Feb 1776 Congress establishes the Northern, Middle & Southern departments of the Continental Army. Reporting through Gen Washington, department commanders had tactical authority over the deployment of troops, logistics, and intelligence. image
    • 28 Feb 1776 Gen George Washington writes to African American poet Phyllis Wheatley thanking her for a poem written in his honor. She was celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic after the 1773 publication of her book Poems on Various Subjects. image
    • 1 March 1776 Commodore Esek Hopkins’s squadron gathered off the island of Abaco in the Bahamas in preparation for an attack on New Providence in Nassau.
      The Rhode Island-born Hopkins disregarded Congress’s mandate to patrol and clear the Atlantic coast of British vessels and instead sailed south, where he successfully raided the Bahamas. During this raid, he captured guns, munitions, the governor, and two British ships, although he failed to capture a third.
      Initially lauded for his efforts, Hopkins later encountered severe criticism for defying orders. Allegations of misconduct by some of his subordinate officers resulted in a congressional censure, his suspension from command, and, ultimately, his dismissal from service in January 1778. image
    • 1 Mar 1776 Philadelphia. Continental Congress orders Gen Charles Lee to give up command of the Northern Department to Gen Phillip Schuyler and take command of the Southern Department with headquarters at Charleston, SC. image
    • 23 Feb 1777 Rahway, NJ. The Forage War: William Maxwell leads a successful attack on a British foraging party, inflicting many casualties. These escalated throughout the winter, sapping British strength. image
    • 22 Jan 1778 Continental Congress begins to discuss another campaign in Canada with Marquis de Lafayette in command. image
    • 23 February 1778, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Baron von Steuben arrived, and General Washington appointed him Acting Inspector-General due to his experience in European armies. He reorganized the camp, improved conditions, and established a strict drill regimen, creating a new American Army. His understanding of the differences between the American soldier and his European counterpart (the need to grasp the why, not just the what and how) and his ability to “train the trainer” were crucial in quickly forming well-drilled companies and regiments. By summer, the new army had the capability and, more importantly, the confidence to successfully confront the British regulars and their German allies in open battle. His Regulations for the Order and Discipline, known as The Blue Book, became the standard training manual for the American Army for decades to come. image
    • 26 Feb 1778 Irish-born American Captain John Barry, with a boat carrying 27 men, surprised and captured the British schooner HMS Alert and 4 transports, plus 119 prisoners. An ironic victory given the schooner’s name. image
    • 23 Feb 1779 Ft Laurens, Ohio. A detachment of the 13th Virginia Regiment is ambushed by British Indian allies, killing 16 soldiers. But the Indian attacks on the fort are repulsed. image
    • 25 Feb 1779 British Lt Col Henry Hamilton surrenders Ft Vincennes & 79-man garrison to Col George Rogers Clark. Clark’s victory secured the Illinois Territory for the US, opening it to settlers, who would number some 20,000 by the end of the #RevWar. image
    • 26 Feb 1779 Horseneck Landing, CT. NY Royal Gov William Tryon leads 600 troops in a rout of 150 militia under Gen Israel Putnam. Putnam escapes, riding down a cliff. Tryon plunders & burns the village. British losses 2 dead & 20 captured. image
    • 28 February 1780 St. Petersburg, Russia. Czarina Catherine II formed the League of Armed Neutrality with Sweden and Denmark, a form of “soft power” that weakened British maritime strategy against the Americans. Prussia, Portugal, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies would later join. Catherine, an Enlightenment-era monarch and thinker, initially supported the American Revolution. Still, the stressors within her own empire caused her to become more opposed to liberty and the rights of man and focused on developing national power. image
    • 24 Feb 1781 Alamance Co, NC. Pyle’s Massacre. Continental Army Col. Henry Lee’s Legion surprised Loyalist militia under Dr. John Pyle, who thought Lee was the British cavalry commander Banastre Tarleton. Lee’s men open fire, scattering Pyle’s force. image
    • 27 Feb 1782 London. Stunned by Gen Cornwallis’s defeat at Yorktown the previous Oct, Parliament’s House of Commons passed a resolution urging King George III to accept peace with the Americans, now termed “the former colonies.” image
    • 22 Jan 1832, Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, or “Molly Pitcher,” dies. She is believed to have served with her husband at the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778, fetching water for thirsty soldiers and possibly serving in a gun crew. History or Legend? image
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