In this issue:

 

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2025 UELAC Conference:
The conference has lots to do — see Conference 2025 details.

Drumhead Church service, Sunday 13 July @10:30
The Drumhead Service is a tradition that dates back to the 1700’s. On the battlefields, there was often no way for soldiers to attend church, to worship and pray. Instead, the Padre or Chaplain would hold a “Drumhead Service” – creating a temporary altar on the field, using military drums draped with the regimental or National flags. Drumhead Services are still held, as a salute to those who fought on battlefields around the world, and made the ultimate sacrifice. See more…

Sat. 12 July 6:00 pm — Gala Banquet reception & dinner. Loyalist period clothing is encouraged. Dorchester Award and Sue Morris Hines Award winners will be honoured. With a speaker presentation by Dr. Bonnie Hoskins.
Special Guest: the Lt. Gov. Honourable Louise Imbeault, will attend the Gala dinner at the Conference.
Hope to see you there…

Benjamin Baynton: An Observer of Mankind. Part Two of Two
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Despite having been wounded in action in West Florida and spending a year as a prisoner of war, Benjamin Baynton is remembered by posterity for his writing rather than for his service as a loyalist soldier.
In July of 1782, Baynton and the men in the Pennsylvania Loyalists were once again free to serve the crown. But during their time as prisoners of war, the British had lost the Battle of Yorktown. Peace negotiations were underway. There were no military actions that required the services of the provincial regiment. Sir Guy Carleton, the last commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, had suspended all offensive operations during the drafting of the peace treaty in Paris.
Baynton and the rest of his regiment now had to decide whether to risk remaining in the new United States of America, find sanctuary in what remained of British North America, or pursue a new life in Great Britain. In the end, Baynton, his former commanding officer William Allen, his old friend John Young, and James Chalmers, the commander of the Maryland Loyalists, all opted to sail for Britain during the summer of 1783.
As was the experience of so many Loyalists who tried to build new lives for themselves in England, Baynton found himself in impoverished circumstances. Once described as a gentleman from Philadelphia, the loyalist veteran was now anything but a member of high society.
In a petition seeking compensation for his wartime service, Baynton wrote that he had “greatly involved himself in debt (besides being under the necessity of mortgaging the half of his pay)”. He begged that the compensation board “consider the active part he has taken in the war, and that he has no profession or means of living besides his half pay, … your Lordships will think him worthy of further support, by allowing him a small sum to pay his debts.”
Besides revealing his troubling circumstances, Baynton’s request for compensation demonstrated that he maintained contact with his former military commanders after settling in Britain. His 1787 petition for aid included a glowing recommendation from William Allen, the former commander of the Pennsylvania Loyalists. Allen reported that Baynton “received a shot through the arm and a wound from a Bayonet; and that during the Siege of Pensacola he narrowly escaped with his life being on Duty in a Redoubt, which was blown up by the Spaniards and in which great part of the men were destroyed.”
Two years later, James Chalmers, the former commander of the Maryland Loyalists who fought alongside Baynton’s regiment testified that Baynton “was amongst the very first who repaired to the Kings Standard during the War.”
Baynton’s financial situation had been exacerbated by his several attempts to be compensated for land in Virginia that had been seized by the Patriot government. His expenses mounted by “by crossing and recrossing the Atlantic, in hopes of obtaining justice from the American Congress.” Valued at “one Hundred Thousand Pounds Pennsylvania Currency”, compensation for this loss would have allowed him to live comfortably. But after spending two years in the United States, he returned to Britain with the government that he had served as his only hope for a prosperous future.
The records of the era do not reveal if Baynton was successful in his 1789 bid for compensation from the British government. Within two years, the Pennsylvania Loyalist turned his hand to writing, taking as his subject a man that he met in West Florida and had come to see as a loyalist hero.
In circumstances not revealed, Baynton met William Augustus Bowles in England. The two men forged a friendship back in 1780 when they were members of an offensive against a fortified Spanish town in what is now Alabama. Bowles was just a teenager at the time and had allied himself with Indigenous warriors. Now, at age 26, Bowles sat down with Baynton and shared his life story. The resulting publication was titled Authentic Memoirs of William Augustus Bowles, Esquire, Ambassador from the United Nations of Creeks and Cherokees to the Court of London.
Baynton introduced his subject knowing that his audience might have a hard time believing all that Bowles had done.
“When the writer of the following narrative first took up his pen to give an account of the extraordinary man whom he has attempted to describe, he intended it should make its appearance in a newspaper. But his memory retracing a number of circumstances of which he was a spectator, and having heard of others from undoubted authority, he was imperceptibly led forward, until the narrative became of too great length to appear in a public print. The partiality of a few friends … who think it not unworthy of public curiosity, has induced the author thus to offer it in the shape of a small pamphlet. To the graces of diction the author pretends not, the vicissitudes of his own life having unfortunately left him but little opportunity of cultivating them. …
The ambition therefore of appearing in print, was certainly not the motive, which has influenced him. …
The heart of the author, therefore, warms with the recollection of heroic actions, is alone in fault; which is the only apology he offers for his temerity. But as there are some things which glance at the character of individuals who are unknown to the public, the writer takes this opportunity of declaring, that is there be any man who fancies his conduct misstated, or feels himself injured in the following sheets, or who shall be hardy enough to say that he has misrepresented things — and will either publicly, or by a note addressed to the publisher, sign his real name, and state his complaints — the writer, at all times ready to retract his errors, but never willing to desert the cause of truth, will most cheerfully step forward and avow himself. … He has, however, but little apprehensions on this score; as the facts are stubborn, and will stand the test of the strictest enquiry.”
Baynton was clearly star-struck as he wrote about Bowles. Today we’d call his pamphlet a puff piece. Bowles is never shown to have made a mistake and throughout the pamphlet’s account always acts in the most heroic and noble fashion. Although he sometimes relied on his own memory of events that he and Bowles experienced together, Baynton never questioned the accuracy of events known only to Bowles.
A modest man, Baynton used the pseudonym of “observer of mankind” in place of his own name as author of the pamphlet. And with that final literary flourish, Benjamin Baynton disappears from the historical records of his era.
And who was William A. Bowles? And why did Baynton feel that he deserved to be known by the British public? That is the subject of next week’s article in Loyalist Trails.
 To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

When Benjamin Franklin failed to make Canada the 14th colony
Canadians weren’t enticed by the colonists’ noble goals. Why would they want to join now?
By Madelaine Drohan 25 March 2025 Washington Post
Madelaine Drohan is a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and author of the forthcoming “He Did Not Conquer: Benjamin Franklin’s Failure to Annex Canada.”
NOTE: My apologies if this turns out to be behind a paywall.
 Why would Canadians want to join a country whose leaders no longer believe in its founding values?
I recently reread a letter Congress sent to Canadians, inviting them to join the emerging American union. Aside from the veiled threats about what would happen if Canadians did not accept the offer, as well as a couple of digs about their inferior status, it contains some stirring stuff about what Americans stood for and hoped to achieve. I use the past tense because the country’s current political leadership does not appear to support these ideals.
For those of you scratching your heads — letter? what letter? — it was written in 1774, when Canadians and Americans were fellow British colonists. (Yes, some Americans have been eyeing Canada for that long.) It was sent to the Province of Quebec by delegates to the First Continental Congress, including Founding Fathers George Washington, John Adams and John Jay. In it, they described in glowing terms the country they sought to build and the values that would serve as its foundation.
They thought — wrongly, as it turned out — that the Canadians of that era, who were overwhelmingly French-speaking and Catholic, could not help but see that it was in their best interests to join a group of English-speaking Protestants in their fight with the British government. (The Declaration of Independence was still on the horizon.) Read more…


Archeologists find surprise signs of British rule in Florida
St. Augustine had a 20-year British period
By David Fischer, 28 March 2025 in the Independent
Centuries-old buildings and a massive stone fort in St. Augustine, Florida, serve as enduring reminders of Spain’s long history in the region, predating the United States by generations.
However, for two decades in the 18th century, Great Britain held control, and archaeologists have recently unearthed evidence of their presence.
City archaeologists in St. Augustine uncovered a dry moat belonging to a British redoubt, a fortified military outpost, dating back to 1781. The discovery, made last fall, came during excavations completed last month in the city’s Lincolnville neighborhood, prior to the construction of a new home. This find sheds light on a lesser-known chapter of St. Augustine’s rich history, highlighting the brief but significant period of British rule.
“St. Augustine had a 20-year British period,” city archeologist Andrea White said. “They came, and they built seven of these redoubts, and nobody has ever found any archeologically. Read more… Submitted by Kevin Wisener UE, Abegweit Branch

The Bill for Regulating the Government of Massachusetts
by Bob Ruppert 27 March 2025 Journal of the American Revolution
Following the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed three Acts that would become known as the Coercive Acts. The first was the Boston Port Bill; it ordered the port of Boston to be shut down until all of the damages incurred at “the Party” were paid for in full. This bill was introduced in the House of Commons on March 7, 1774. It was read and discussed three times before it was passed on March 25. The following day the Bill was sent to the House Lords where it underwent the same process and on March 30 secured the same result. The Bill officially became an Act of Parliament on March 31 when King George gave his assent.
The Boston Port Act was to go into effect on June 1. But instead of waiting to see the Act’s impact, Parliament introduced a second bill, this time for the improvement of the government of the colony of Massachusetts. It was entitled “The Bill for Regulating the Government of Massachusetts.” The bill was introduced in the House of Commons on March 28, while the Boston Port Bill was being read for the second time in the House of Lords. What follows here is the debate about this bill among members of the House of Commons, as recorded at the time. Read more…

A Forgotten Patriot: Lt. Col. Thomas Williams, Jr. of Stockbridge, Massachusetts
by Tim Abbott 25 March 2025 Jpurnal of the American Revolution
NOTE: Williams participated in the Invasion of Canada in 1775
The American Revolution ended many lives and cut short many promising futures. A few of the fallen became celebrated martyrs in the cause of liberty, but most died in obscurity and are unremembered today. Thomas Williams, Jr. of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, was one who died, after considerable military service, less than a week after the Declaration of Independence. If it were not for an extraordinary commemorative powder horn from the siege of Boston that belonged to Williams, he might have remained virtually unknown. His story may stand for countless others.
Williams was born in 1746 into a prominent family numbered among the “River Gods” of western Massachusetts: powerful interests allied by marriage and dominating political and economic life in Hampshire and Berkshire counties during the eighteenth century.[1] His father Thomas Williams, Sr. was minister in Deerfield and his uncle Ephraim Williams, for whom Williams College is named, died leading Massachusetts provincial troops and their Mohawk allies during the 1755 Battle of Lake George. For decades, several members of the Williams family were actively involved in displacing and dispossessing indigenous Mohicans from their individual and tribal lands in the region. Thomas Williams, Jr. became the first lawyer in Stockbridge, itself established as a Christianized Mohican settlement and chartered in 1737 as “Indian Town.” Read more…

Book Review: Robert Rogers, Ranger: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon
Author: Martin Klotz. (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2024)
Review by Michael Barbieri 24 March 2025 Journal of the American Revolution
In 1940, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movies released “Northwest Passage,” a rather loose adaptation of Kenneth Roberts’ book by the same name.[1] In it, well-liked and respected hero-figure Robert Rogers leads a skilled and disciplined corps of rangers on a raid deep into Quebec to destroy the Indian village of St. Francis, and then takes the corps west to search for the passage. This movie has provided the basis for what, if anything, most modern Americans know of Rogers and his rangers. However, history on the screen—be it movie, tv, or smartphone—is not necessarily accurate and the portrayal of Rogers and his corps in this movie can be classed as a role model for inaccuracy.
For those who wish to learn more about Robert Rogers, there are not a lot of biographies available, and most are rather dated. While a handful of editions of Rogers’ Journals have more recently been published, they do not offer a broad view of his life. In the first book-length biography of Rogers to be published since Gary Zaboly’s A True Ranger came out in 2004, Martin Klotz sets out to correct that situation. Read more…

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: POW: Marching again – A Soldier’s Life. January 1782
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

1782: Continuation of the Noteworthy Occurences in Our North American Campaign, and Especially the Captivity in the Sixth Year. Or the Year of our Lord 1782. Page 120

In the Month of January 1782

27 January. At nine o’clock in the morning, our two regiments marched from the New Frederick Barracks, escorted by the still-assigned-here Virginia militia, under orders of Colonels Hamson and New-Swanger and the Brigade Major Woods. Remaining behind were our sick, fatigued, and those who had gone out from here to work in the country, so that from each regiment a sergeant and some men remained here. From our regiment, Sergeant Rosensch€n, of Quesnoy’s Company, remained in charge here, with a few men.
We went to Winchester, marched through the city, and then twelve Virginia miles farther, and rested in a woods near to a mill, where we had to lie under the open sky in snow. The inhabitants of Virginia were not happy that we left them, because they received good, hard cash from us. However, we could easily forget them and the terrible quarters here in the Frederick Barracks, but later found little better. The Virginians tried several times, ith written requests to Congress and also to Washington, to keep the Germans here, but were unsuccessful. Before we leave Virginia, however, I must mention something briefly.
On the north and west Virginia borders on the wild Canada; on the southeast, Florida; and on the east, the North Atlantic, which here is called the Virginia Sea. The English knight Sir Walter Raleigh settled the first colony in 1584 and named this province Virginia in honor of Queen Elizabeth of England. The climate here is moderate and healthy. The soil, for the most part, is black and rich. Found here are the grain called „pagatowe“ from the roots, „okecpenaukund tfina,“ of which is baked the finest bread; the Virginia tobacco; and also a plant from which the finest silk is prepared. There is no shortage of domestic or wild animals in the land. Especially noteworthy is the animal „assapanick,“ which is called the flying squirrel and seems similar to it except that it has two wings and can spring forty rods in one leap. The foxes in Virginia are white and silvery. Among the many rivers in the land, only three are navigable and noteworthy.

  1. The James, or Jacob River, which flows 140 miles into the land;
  2. The York River, which is navigable for sixty miles and for one hundred miles has the same course as the previous one;
  3. The Potomac River where it runs into the Chesapeake Bay is seven miles wide, and from the mouth to the waterfall is 140 miles long.

The native Virginians appear reddish in the face and on the body, are strong and agile in frame, but deceitful, false, and vengeful, also generous and hospitable. Their houses stand open to all travelers and anyone who shuns this custom of the land is treated with contempt. They also shun theft. A few of them grow very tall, and all live to a ripe old age. A hunchback or crooked-legged individual, or one with any deformity, is seldom seen among them. They seldom have a beard and, to prevent one, use ingenious means which they do not expose to anyone. The trade in Virginia consists of tobacco, cotton, silk, beaver, and other animal furs.
The strength of the Indians is still great here. They still have their kings and princes. Tragabizanda is a great city of the savages. Pomejock was formerly their capital city; now, however, it is only a large settlement whose huts are made from the branches of trees woven together and whose walls are strong palisades

28 January. We marched nine English miles. Although it was so cold that we believed we would surely freeze the marrow in our legs, we had to wade through the water to cross the Opequon, a creek or small river. No one would believe what a man can tolerate.

29 January. Our march continued for another nine miles to a small city called Shepherdstown, which lies on the Potomac River. Here we were to be taken across with boats, but as it was very cold and the river was half frozen, we remained lying on the bank overnight. To be sure, we made large fires, but the cold was so great that we were unable to sleep. It was, God grant us pity, as much because of our bad clothing, which was completely tattered and torn, as because of the cold. This little city is really not small, consisting of about two hundred houses and two churches, lying just on the Potomac River, and carrying on trade in tobacco, hemp, grain, and livestock. There is also much limestone here. A few miles from here lies another small city, Hagerstown. It is a pleasant place and has mostly stone houses. The Potomac, by Shepherdstown, is rather broad and deep. Also, here it forms the border between the provinces of Virginia and Maryland.
(to be continued)

Advertised on 28 March 1775: ‘A remarkable fine breeding MARE to be SOLD.’

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

28 March 1775

“A remarkable fine breeding MARE to be SOLD.”

It was not exactly front-page news, at least not as twenty-first-century readers think about how newspapers are organized. The first item in the first column on the first page of the March 28, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post was an advertisement for a “remarkable fine breeding MARE to be SOLD.” Immediately below, Benjamin Towne, the printer inserted an excerpt about the “right and capacity of the people to judge of government” from “CATO’s LETTERS, No. 38.” It continued onto the second page, followed by news from Annapolis, Boston, Newport, and New York. Local news from Philadelphia ran on the third and fourth pages, with advertisements completing the issue. Read more…

A doctor and his patients in late Georgian Pembroke
by R. M. Healey 24 March 2025 at All Things Georgian
He has recently been researching a late Georgian doctor from Pembroke and is going to share some findings with you.
Ryce Jones was not a prominent figure in medicine. Not for him the glamour of an operating theatre in a London hospital or the well paid post of a private physician to some member of the aristocracy. Jones was a humble country doctor with a practice in Pembroke.
However, it would be wrong to see Jones as a trained GP as we define the term nowadays. The majority of those attending to the needs of patients, especially in rural areas, were not skilled surgeons, but ‘surgeon apothecaries’.
Most earned a fraction of the fee that their city colleagues, many of whom were equally unskilled, could command and many were obliged to look for patients well away from their home in order to make a living.
Apothecaries, in the words of one authority on the incomes of medical practitioners in this period, were allowed, following the famous Rose case of 1704, ‘to practise medicine rather than merely dispense it’.
These surgeon-apothecaries had no clinic as such, but often operated from their home and in isolated rural districts were as likely to mount a horse to bring their nostrums to patients as to wait for them to visit their premises. Read more…

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions

Entries which have been added, or revised, this week.
Thanks to Kevin Wisener for:

Thanks to Michael Mallery for

Events Upcoming

Château Ramezay Museum, Montreal, “United Empire Loyalists” in-person Monday, 31 March 1:30

Robert Wilkins, U.E., President of Heritage Branch Montreal of The United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada (UELAC). He will provide an overview of the Loyalists, who they were, why they remained loyal to the Crown during the American Revolution, and their resettlement in different parts of present-day Canada, as well as some personal reflections on our Loyalist heritage as Canadians. Robert will speak in English, but will answer in French any questions posed in that language.
Michel Racicot, Acting President and Genealogist of the Sir Johnson Branch of the UELAC, and President of the Cowansville Historical Society. Michel will focus on the Loyalists who settled in different parts of Quebec’s Eastern Townships and will also mention the American settlers who followed them (sometimes referred to as the “Late Loyalists”). Michel will give his presentation in French, but, being fluently bilingual, will easily respond to any questions posed in English.
Details at Chateau Ramezay Museum (in French)

Gov. Simcoe Branch: John Graves Simcoe and Queen’s York Rangers (1st American Regiment) by Larry Waters. In-person, Sat 5 April 12:30 in Aurora ON

John Graves Simcoe, as part of his military career, commanded the Queen’s Rangers for a period during the American Revolution. Later he was the first Lt. Governor of Upper Canada, now Ontario. He is of course our branch’s namesake.
Larry Waters first became involved with the Queen’s York Rangers as a cadet in Aurora. This, as well as his family’s active involvement in the militia regiments of Toronto, generated his passion for studying Canadian Hisatory , with focus on Upper Canada and its militia regiments.
Arrivals and mingling at 12:30pm; meeting at 1:00pm; tea and dessert to follow.
If you plan to attend in person, RSVP to Anne Neuman at heath.neuman@hotmail.com. More details, location etc.

Col John Butler Branch: ” John Butler: Loyalist Hero or Traitorous Demon?” by Ron Dale Sat 5 April 11:45

In Ontario, and particularly in Niagara, Butler is remembered, if he is remembered at all, as a hero of the American Revolution, a brave and loyal man who forged and maintained crucial alliances with the Haudenosaunee. In the United States, he is still considered a murderous villain. Who was John Butler?
Ron Dale, retired from Parks Canada National Historic Sites, has been actively involved in the War of 1812 Bicentennial, the Friends of Fort George, and the Niagara Historical Society.
The Branch meets at Betty’s Restaurant, 8921 Sodom Road, Chippawa (Niagara Falls), at 11:45 for a lunch meeting. This meeting will be both in person and by ZOOM.
For those attending in person, the cost of the lunch is $30 for UELAC members and $35 for guests. Cash only, payable at the meeting. No credit cards.
If you plan to attend either in person or by ZOOM, please let us know in advance. RSVP to 283corvette@gmail.com

American Revolution Institute – Lecture—The Realities of Infantry in Combat During the American Revolution, 8 Apr 2025 @ 6:30

Historian Alex Burns, Ph.D., assistant professor of history at Franciscan University of Steubenville, places the common enlisted man during the American Revolution at center stage by discussing their experiences during the war. Drawing from his archival research on the American, British and Prussian armies, Dr. Burns shows how the infantryman throughout the eighteenth century played an important role by asserting tactical reforms from below and places the tactical experiences of the Continental Army in a European context. More and registration…

From the Social Media and Beyond

  • Phillips Cosby, born in Annapolis Royal, NS joined Royal Navy in 1747 as an ordinary seaman at age 15 & through a naval career which included commanding ships during Seven Years War & American Revolution attained rank of Admiral. Remembered at Fort Anne National Historic Site. Brian McConnell UE
  • Two Loyalists originally from Ireland on Sept. 10, 1784 applied to Provincial Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia for formation of first Masonic Lodge in Digby. The first Master was John Hill and Secretary of Lodge was Robert Timpany. (Brian McConnell UE)
  • Food and Related
    • Townsends:
  • Event/Resource/Quote of the Day – Revolution 250
  • This week in History
  • Clothing and Related:
  • Miscellaneous

Editor’s Note: Early on Saturday 29 March we once again saw the Black Sea, at Constanta, Romania. It is our third glimpse, but only one of those included time on the sea. Towards the end of the coming week we are scheduled to return home.

. …doug

Published by the UELAC
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