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Scholarship Challenge 2025: Great News… Update on 17 Aug
You did it!  More donations this week as of Friday 15 Aug, and the Challenge tally rises to $5,303.
Your donations have now achieved our basic goal of $5,000.  At Challenge 2025 see the status, who has donated and how to donate. Huzzah!
To top that, based on these donations, our Matching Benefactor will add another $$1,303
And word from another Branch of UELAC that another $100 is in the mail.
Another challenge:
Can we?
Dare we hope!
You can help….see Taking Advantage

Words from previous Award Recipients  = Yes scholarships are of real value

In 2018, Dr. Sophie Jones passed the PhD Viva – oral examination, successfully defending her doctoral dissertation. Sophie shared the good news on social media, extending “huge thanks” to the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada, along with other organizations, “who have all provided generous financial assistance & invaluable access to the expertise of their communities.”
– Sophie Jones, UELAC Loyalist Scholar 2016

“In the 2011-2012 academic year, the support of the UELAC Graduate Scholarship has provided me with the financial flexibility to acquire resources from archives that have costly reproduction or photocopying fees and contribute to the payment of my tuition fees. I am very grateful for the support of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada.”
Denise McGuire, UELAC Loyalist Scholar 2011

At the moment, the UELAC program is supporting six Scholars in their research programs. Your donations make a big difference in our ability to help them. At Scholarship Challenge 2025, please make your contribution today.  We – and the scholars – appreciate your assistance.

Taking Advantage….and hit $10,000 – only $1,400 more needed
Only $1,400 more needed. How can that be, you ask?
Our matching benefactor is on the hook now for donations above $3,500 (50%) with a multiplier starting at $4,500 (100%) meaning that (s)he as of today will contribute $1,300.
Bigger leverage to come with any donations over $6,000 being matched at 150%.
The arithmetic indicates that when your donations total $6,800, the benefactor will contribute $3,200, which would bring the total contributions to $10,000!
Your donations can help us do it. Our benefactor is in big time; would you donate even a little?

Auchmuty: A Loyalist’s Legacy 
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
The Rev. Samuel Auchmuty died in March of 1777 never knowing which side would be victorious in the American Revolution. His life was once summarized in a sentence: “He was a good man who fell on evil times“. Like many other Loyalists, the Anglican minister left behind a widow and children who were faced with deciding whether to follow in his footsteps as a supporter of King George III or to side with the Patriot cause.
Born in Boston in 1725, Auchmuty (ock-MEW-tee) moved to New York City following his ordination as an Anglican minister in England.  By the time he was 24 years old, he had married Mary (Nichols) Tucker, a widow with a five year-old daughter named Frances. The couple would go on to have two sons (Samuel Jr. and Robert Nichols) as well four other daughters (only Jane and Juliana are known by name). A contemporary source notes that the minister’s family was “one of the most distinguished of the times. Their portraits and miniatures show marked beauty and aristocratic bearing. ” The family lived in “a large and elegant mansion” near New York’s Trinity Church.
But for all of their status within New York society, the Auchmuty family could not escape the consequences of being Loyalists. After having sought sanctuary in New Jersey, Samuel’s wife and daughters were “in the hands of rebels” in November of 1776. He only managed to secure their freedom thanks to General George Washington, who signed a pass to allow the women to pass through American lines, and return to their home in New York City.
By that time, Rev. Auchmuty had caught a cold in making his return to a church and parsonage destroyed by fire. His exposure to the elements would eventually worsen and bring about his death four months later.
Writing of the Auchmuty family, the historian John D. Grainger said, “The family was of some prominence in the British American colonies at the time and … generally {of} the Loyalist persuasion, and so was eventually persecuted, imprisoned, impoverished, and scattered by its political (and religious) enemies.
The fate of Mary Auchmuty, the clergyman’s widow, is not known beyond the fact that she was successful in receiving compensation from the British government – an indication that she was recognized as the wife of a Loyalist. Having sustained losses of $25,000, she received just $8,000.00.
The Rev. Auchmuty’s stepdaughter Frances would have been 37 at the time of his death, but nothing more is known of her life or whom she may have married. His daughter Jane Auchmuty left the United States and married Richard Tylden, a widower from County Kent in England.
Jane’s oldest brother, Samuel Junior, had been studying for the Anglican ministry at the beginning of the revolution. But after he graduated in 1776, he joined the 45th Regiment of the royal Army. His service as a Loyalist in the war was just the beginning of a military career that spanned the globe.
In 1780, young Samuel was stationed in the East Indies where he commanded a company of the 75th Highland Regiment of Foot. It seems that he never returned to the United States. Before retiring to an estate in Kent, he saw action in Egypt, South America, and India.  In summing up the life of the Anglican minister’s son, the historian Grainger wrote, “he rose to the rank of General in the British Army, and so was the most successful of all the Loyalists; and yet his life and achievements are ignored; histories of the Loyalists are generally more inclined to dwell on the unpleasant experiences of the Loyalists in their home colonies and their difficulties after their expulsion than on one of them who adapted well to his new life and made a success of it.”
Samuel Auchmuty Jr. died in Ireland at the age of 64 in 1822.
The Rev. Auchmuty’s second son, Robert Nichols Auchmuty, also graduated from King’s College and served as a volunteer in the British Army during the revolution – a fact that would no doubt have made his father proud. However, following the war, Robert was able to avoid banishment as a Loyalist and settled in Newport, Rhode Island where he married Henrietta Overing. Robert died there in 1813.
So those within the immediate family of the Rev. Auchmuty – as far as can be known—remained loyal to the crown following the death of the Anglican clergyman.
Auchmuty’s two brothers were also Loyalists of note.
Robert Auchmuty once called Boston his home. Before the revolution he had been the judge of the vice-admiralty of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In 1771, he and John Adams were part of the defence team for Captain Thomas Preston, the British officer charged with ordering his men to fine on colonists in what became known as the Boston Massacre.
Some of Robert’s correspondence to friends in England fell into the hands of Benjamin Franklin, revealing his loyalist politics. Such a commotion resulted that Robert felt it best to seek refuge in England in 1776. A diary of the era notes that “Mr. Robert… Auchmuty, {is} lately arrived in this island, having narrowly escaped from {his} pursuers.
Robert joined London’s New England Club, which was comprised of Loyalists from Massachusetts who met for a weekly dinner. Despite being able to rub shoulders with other Loyalists, the former judge and his wife Deborah lived in what were described as “distressed circumstances“. Nevertheless, he and his wife were able to live on Brompton Row in Knightsbridge, which was almost entirely comprised of New England residents living in adjacent homes. His property in Roxbury was confiscated, and he never returned to Massachusetts. Judging by the data in his last will and testament, Robert and Deborah had no children who survived until adulthood.
Robert died in Marylebone, England on December 11, 1788. Nine years later, John Adams, his partner at the Boston Massacre trial, became the second president of the United States.
The final brother to maintain the Auchmuty family loyalty to the crown was James Smith Auchmuty. After fleeing Boston to find refuge in Nova Scotia, he served as the storekeeper in the Engineer Department.  James, his wife Ann, and their son Robert became prisoners of war on June 10, 1776, when a Patriot privateer named Captain Rogers captured the Charlotte, the transport sloop that was taking the family to New York from Halifax. After being tried in White Plains, New York, James was eventually given his freedom on the condition that he move to Danbury, Connecticut  (a rebel stronghold) and remain neutral until he was “exchanged or discharged“.
At the end of the war, Sir Guy Carleton, the British commander in chief, made James the storekeeper of ordnance at Port Roseway (today’s Shelburne), the Loyalist’s new home. He later became a judge of Nova Scotia’s supreme court. However, James died after only seven years in the northern colony. His son Robert joined the British Army and died in battle in the West Indies.
The British crown lost a valuable supporter when the Rev. Samuel Auchmuty died in early 1777, but he left a legacy of loyalty. The clergyman’s brothers, sons, and wife maintained their attachment to King George III, serving their beloved monarch in Nova Scotia, Egypt, South America, England, and India.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

Sailing to Sanctuary: The Loyalists and their Evacuation Vessels
By Stephen Davidson UE, July 2025, Text transcription from UELAC Conference 2025
New Brunswick is the only province to have a refugee evacuation ship in its coat of arms and on its provincial flag.
The ship on the flag looks nothing like an 18th century sailing vessel. Rather, New Brunswick’s flag and coat of arms feature a galley, but that is because that is the conventional heraldic representation of a ship in the same way that the lion atop the flag is the standard form for a lion in coats of arms.
This design is based on the province’s Great Seal, which – like New Brunswick– was created in 1784. It shows a Loyalist evacuation ship sailing up the St. John River. Along the river’s edge are the log cabins of loyalist refugees.
It’s easy to forget that the majority of Loyalists who sought refuge in safer parts of the British Empire were North America’s first “boat people”.
Like the refugees of the 21st century, they fled persecution, imprisonment, and torture, relying entirely on the help of others to take them to sanctuary. They lost land, homes, and livestock, were separated from family and friends. Some even faced execution if they were to return to the colony they had known as home all of their lives.
This presentation considers the loyalist evacuee experience:

  • The Necessity for Evacuation
  • Where and When evacuations occurred,
  • Evacuation vessels and how they were acquired,
  • Dangers at Sea, Refugee passenger experiences,
  • Arrivals, Destinations, Shelter after disembarkation,
  • Sources for passenger information: manifests & more

Read the transcription of Sailing to Sanctuary.

Loyalist Ships
Many Loyalists came to Canada by ship, especially those who settled in the Maritime provinces and, to a lesser extent, in Quebec.
When the terms of peace became known, tens of thousands of the Loyalists shook the dust of their ungrateful country from their feet, never to return. The party sailed from New York, in nine transport ships, on October 19, 1782, and arrived a few days later at Annapolis Royal.
On April 26, 1783, the first or ‘spring’ fleet set sail. It had on board no less than seven thousand persons, men, women, children, and servants. Half of these went to the mouth of the river St John, and about half to Port Roseway, at the south-west end of the Nova Scotian peninsula. All summer and autumn the ships kept plying to and fro.
In June, the ‘summer fleet’ brought about 2,500 colonists to St John River, Annapolis, Port Roseway, and Fort Cumberland. By August 23 John Parr, the governor of Nova Scotia, wrote that ‘upward of 12,000 souls have already arrived from New York,’ and that as many more were expected. By the end of September he estimated that 18,000 had arrived, and stated that 10,000 more were still to come. By the end of the year he computed the total immigration to have amounted to 30,000. As late as January 15, 1784, the refugees were still arriving.
In this section we are developing a list of ships with some basic details about each voyage, along with secondary details including passenger lists etc. Check out “Loyalist Ships


Vandalia Colony: American Triumph or Folly?

by Jason A. Cherry 14 Aug 2025 Journal of the AMerican revolution
The genteel glass rattled through the windows of the “flying machine” as Maj. William Trent tried to stay awake on the coach ride from Bristol to London. The passage across the ocean had been anything but accommodating after he was delayed a week off the coast of Ireland to wait out the angry winds of the Celtic Sea. Finally on May 25, 1769, he arrived in the center of London at Charing Cross and boarded another coach by the statue of Charles I. Then the coach went up the Strand and turned onto Craven Street, stepping out near the house marked number 27. This was the residence of Margaret Stevenson and her renter, the renowned Dr. Benjamin Franklin.
Trent, along with his Philadelphia counterpart Quaker merchant Samuel Wharton, wasted no time in discussing business with Franklin over supper in the guest parlor. Even before Trent arrived, Wharton had already established powerful friends in Parliament who seemed optimistic the “Americans” could get their land tract from the Six Nations loosely called “Indiana” recognized as a charter or colony. Wharton had waited patiently for Trent to bring the necessary papers from their 1768 Treaty of Stanwix conditional sale of land for the Privy Council, but most importantly these gentlemen needed his writing prowess and secretarial skills. That summer of 1769, Franklin and Wharton would address the Privy Council after His Majesty King George III’s birthday on June 4 and Trent would be amused by Wharton’s style of fashion for this event. “You would love to see him dressed,” Trent wrote, “As he has not the least sign of Quaker about him and wears his sword and with much ease as if he had always done it.”
But during this lobbying with President of the Board of Trade Wills Hills, the 1st Marquis of Downshire also known as Lord Hillsborough, it was suggested to them to propose a larger area for a royal colony, not just what they had petitioned originally as “Indiana.” So, they discussed it in secret at the “Crown and Anchor Tavern” at the corner of the Strand and Arundel Street across from the St. Clement Danes church. This first meeting where Trent documented the minutes on December 27, 1769, had sixteen potential shareholders, including important London gentlemen like Thomas Pownall, Anthony Todd, and the Honorable Thomas Walpole.
This looked very promising for those who traveled across the ocean, but they had much to contend with. Franklin, their designated chairperson, had mentioned that summer that he had been contracted out for scientific projects all around the city. In a letter Trent wrote to George Croghan on June 10, 1769, he mentioned what Franklin was up to: Read more…

Book: A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis That Spurred the American Revolution
by Andrew Lawler, Published by Atlantic Monthly Press Feb 2025, 544 pages
From the nationally bestselling author of The Secret Token, the largely untold story of rebellion in Virginia that will forever change our understanding of the American Revolution.
As the American Revolution broke out in New England in the spring of 1775, dramatic events unfolded in Virginia that proved every bit as decisive as the battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill in uniting the colonies against Britain. Virginia, the largest, wealthiest, and most populous province in British North America, was led by Lord Dunmore, who counted George Washington as his close friend. But the Scottish earl lacked troops, so when patriots imperiled the capital of Williamsburg, he threatened to free and arm enslaved Africans—two of every five Virginians—to fight for the Crown.
Virginia’s tobacco elite was reluctant to go to war with Britain but outraged at this threat to their human property. Dunmore fled the capital to build a stronghold in the colony’s largest city, the port of Norfolk. As enslaved people flocked to his camp, skirmishes broke out. “Lord Dunmore has commenced hostilities in Virginia,” wrote Thomas Jefferson. “It has raised our countrymen into a perfect frenzy.” With a patriot army marching on Norfolk, the royal governor freed those enslaved and sent them into battle against their former owners. In retribution, and with Jefferson’s encouragement, furious rebels burned Norfolk to the ground on January 1, 1776, blaming the crime on Dunmore.
The port’s destruction and Dunmore’s emancipation prompted Virginia’s patriot leaders to urge the Continental Congress to split from Britain, breaking the deadlock among the colonies and leading to adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Days later, Dunmore and his Black allies withdrew from Virginia, but the legacy of their fight would lead, ultimately, to Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.
Chronicling these stunning and widely overlooked events in full for the first time, A Perfect Frenzy offers a striking new perspective on the American Revolution that reorients our understanding of its causes, highlights the radically different motivations between patriots in the North and South, and reveals the seeds of the nation’s racial divide.

Black Patriots of the American Revolution: A Guide for Teachers
by Linda J. Rice 11 Aug 2025 Journal of the American Revolution
As America enters its semiquincentennial year in 2026, there will be numerous celebrations and remembrances of the nation’s founding. The names George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and others will ring familiar as patriots who drafted key documents such as the Declaration of Independence, rode across the countryside to alert colonists that “the British are coming,” and organized and led a grass-roots army to fight for American independence. Lesser known but of tremendous importance in telling the full story of the Revolution are Crispus Attucks, William Lee, Agrippa Hull, and other Black patriots. This article focuses on Black patriots of the American Revolution in order to increase awareness of their crucial role, presenting an overview of key individuals, resources to guide readers in where to learn more, and three specific teaching strategies, each supported by a model that teachers can use in or adapt to their own teaching context.
The Role of Black Patriots in the American Revolution
It is important that study of the American Revolution be inclusive of Black patriots and make visible the key role that African Americans, both enslaved and free, played in the Revolutionary War. Historians estimate that five thousand African Americans, some while still enslaved, fought for the new nation’s independence from Great Britain. Crispus Attucks, for example, was the first man to die for the American rebellion against the British. Attucks was a sailor of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry who was in a group protesting against British troops quartered in Boston. Read more…

The Slave Driver’s Story
By Randy Browne Aug 2025 at Ben Franklin’s World
Randy Browne is an award-winning historian and a Professor of History at Xavier University.
During our investigation of plantation slavery and its driver system, Randy reveals how the labor regime of plantation slavery developed and how it functioned from the bottom up, especially through the system of enslaved drivers. Why enslavers placed such high demands—and brutal expectations—on drivers to control and punish their fellow enslaved people. And, how drivers negotiated impossible choices as they tried to survive within, and sometimes subvert, a system designed to dehumanize them. Listen in…

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: in Captivity at Springfield, Long Island. August 1783
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
  • January 1782: to Frederick MD (about 40 km west of Baltimore)
  • May 1783: departed Frederick MD for Springfield, Long Island
  • August 1783: Boarded ship at Denys’s Ferry

1783: Continuation of the Notable Occurences in the North American Field Campaign; Marching out of Captivity to Springfield on Long Island, in the Seventh and Last Year, Page 141

In the Month of August 1783
1 August. The day arrived when we left Long Island and America. At three o’clock in the morning  we  marched  from  Springfield,  ninety-three  men  in  all:  fifty-four  from  Quesnoy’s Company,  thirty-seven  from  Eyb’s  Company,  and  two  from  Major  von  Beust’s  Company. Our Captain von Quesnoy had the command.
We marched through Jamaica, Flatbush, Blackstump, and New Utrecht, to Denys’s Ferry, a march of eighteen miles, where we halted and rested. At sunset we went on board the frigate Emerald, which lay in the Hudson River and harbor.
Emerald, forty-two guns of twelve and eighteen pounds, was a beautiful frigate. The ship’s captain was Sir Shipper; the  lieutenant, Mister Gordens, was commodore; the  first mate was called  Abel  Brintons.  There  were  148  sailors  and  52  marines  on  board,  as  well  as  General Browne, Colonel Emmerich, and a few English staff officers and a Hessian major. Our other companies  and  the  Ansbach  Regiment  were  embarked  on  4  and  6  August  on  two  frigates named Sibylle and Quebec. [Note: The Sibylle was a French frigate captured by the British frigate Hussar, Captain Thomas M. Russell, in late 1782 or early 1783. Baurmeister, Revolution in America, p. 547. ]
2 August. We lay at anchor. We have  a  miserable  berthing  arrangement on  our  frigate  in the bow by  the  cutwater, on  the  middle  deck  above  the  kitchen, where  there  was  very  little room. Two men received one hammock in which to sleep. Our bed and quarters were where the sheep, swine, oxen, and cows had their stalls — all of these being in good supply, as well as the feathered animals. The water closet and privy were also in this area, so that it was truly a  dismal,  stinking  place  where  we  made  our  quarters,  day  and  night.  And,  what  was  still worse, when the wind was unfavorable, the smoke from the kitchen was very bad and the coal fumes highly dangerous. During stormy weather, when large waves pounded, there was plenty of water on our ship and in this place where we lay, because it beat on the breakwater where the anchor eyes are and the anchor lines lie. So much water came in that we could bath on the ship and had to walk, sit, lie, and stand in a foot of water, which gradually ran out through the water  holes  in  the  privy.  Also,  water  was  pumped  out  every  morning  by  two  large  pumps, which shot out a stream as  large as a man’s body, because the ship constantly took water in below.
We  did  not  supply  a  watch  on  the  ship,  but  the  marines  did  this  duty.  Every  day  a command of twenty men from among us had to help pull on  lines and sails, pump the water from the ship, and work with the crew, so that we were not completely useless.
3 August. We raised anchor early and sailed to Sandy Hook, passing Staten Island with a good wind. During the evening we dropped anchor near the lighthouse not far from the Hook. One anchor, of which we had six on board, weighed twenty-four hundred pounds.
(to be continued)

Advertised on 11 August 1775: ‘The Doctrine of Projectiles, or Art of GUNNERY.’

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

“The Doctrine of Projectiles, or Art of GUNNERY.”

In the spring of 1775, John Vinal advertised a “private School for the Youth of both Sexes” to open in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on April 3.  His notice in the March 29 edition of the Essex Journal specified two locations, “the room he improved last Summer, nearly opposite Mr. Davenport’s Tavern,” with lessons commencing “at 11 o’Clock, A.M.” and “the Town School-House” from “5 to 7 o’Clock, P.M.” for “those who can best attend in the Afternoon.”  The term began just two weeks before the battles at Lexington and Concord.  Four months later, Vinal advertised a very different kind of instruction: “the Doctrine of Projectiles, or Art of GUNNERY.”
Circumstances had certainly changed in Newburyport, in Massachusetts, and throughout the colonies since Vinal announced the opening of his school.  The siege of Boston and the Battle of Bunker Hill followed the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord.  The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia and appointed George Washington to command the Continental Army.  Colonizers from New England to Georgia held local and provincial meetings to determine their own responses.  “AT a Time when our Enemies are endeavouring our Ruin,” Vinal proclaimed, “it is highly proper to qualify ourselves in the best Manner we can to defend out injured Country.”  To that end, some colonizers advertised military manuals and others recruited men to join artillery companies or other regiments to defend their liberties.  Making his own contribution to those efforts, Vinal offered to “instruct those who may incline” to learn about the “Art of GUNNERY.”  Read more…

Thomas Luny: Great Naval Artist, Heroic Soul
In this article I want to write of a hero,  Thomas Luny, who is known as a great naval painter – but other details of whose life are less familiar. Two sorts of courage move me. The first is the sort of bravery that is called upon for a finite period, for minutes, hours, days or even on occasion months, and which demands a disregard for personal safety and a willingness to risk life and limb of the sake of others.  The second is “fortitude”, the determination to endure suffering, privation or personal misfortune over an indefinite period, and still not be defeated. The latter is expressed, unforgettably, by the crippled poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903):

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

These words come to mind – for reasons that will emerge later in this article – when looking at the career of the marine artist, Thomas Luny (1759–1837). His work is familiar to many of us, even if we don’t know his name, if we have seen illustration of the Age of Fighting Sail. At a time before photography, Luny was one of the artists who had defined our perception of how that age looked and felt.
Luny was born in Cornwall – most appropriately in the famed “Year of Victories” when British forces were triumphant on land and sea In Europe and North America. He came to London at the age of eleven and was apprenticed to the marine painter Francis Holman (1729–1784), who was himself son of a master mariner. This apprenticeship proved significant in determining the course of Luny’s career since Holman’s younger brother, Captain John Holman (1733–1816), maintained the family shipping business. The relationship between the brothers appears to have been a close one.  Francis would therefore have been in close contact with the maritime world and this showed in the wealth of detail and accuracy in his later work. Talented as Holman was however, it is partly because of his mentorship of the more illustrious Luny that he is now most remembered.  Read more…

Westchester’s Revolutionary War Era History: Rev Fest 250
REV FEST 250 is taking over Croton Point Park. Immerse yourself in the people, passion, and power that shaped a nation. Experience military demonstrations, cavalry maneuvers, cannon firing, period craft demonstrations and working oxen. Engage with performances and hear live music on two outdoor stages.
And now you can also get in on the action by ENLISTING IN THE CONTINENTAL ARMY!

Recruits will wear military garb, set up encampments and tents, assemble, march and parade under the direction of the commanding officer, interact with civilian visitors, and become immersed in the living history of an 18th century revolutionary soldier. Recruits can opt to enlist for one day or for both days. RECRUITS ARE ORDERED TO HAVE AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE!
Living History Education Foundation, Inc. will supply gear, garb, and directions to each new recruit.
See more details.
General Information about Revolutionary Westchester 250
noted by Ken MacCallum UE

Acadian Bonnet
by Anne-Gaëlle Weber 14 February 2023 at Canada’s History
A jaunty head covering became the symbol of a persecuted people.
This bonnet, shaped with two points and adorned with red floral fabric, is an example of traditional Acadian fashion. Covering both the head and the ears, these bonnets were most often made from dyed or printed cotton or fine woolen fabrics, decorated with ribbons. The Acadians generally wore brightly coloured bonnets during the working week and white bonnets for church on Sundays.
Originally hailing from the Atlantic coast of France, the Acadians set up their first North American colony in 1604 on Île Sainte-Croix, on the border of present-day Maine and New Brunswick. They then developed several permanent settlements along the coast of Acadia, an area that now comprises Canada’s Maritime provinces. Read more… (short)

Patriotes Down Under
by Deke Richards 2 November 2022 at Canada’s History
After fighting for democracy in the Rebellions of 1837–38, political prisoners were condemned to exile and forced labour in Australian penal colonies.
In February 26,1840, Louis-Léandre Ducharme stood on the deck of the sailing ship HMS Buffalo and gazed at a gang of prisoners working onshore. “Looking down from the deck we saw miserable wretches harnessed to carts, engaged in dragging blocks of stone for some Public Buildings; others were unloading them,” he wrote in his memoirs. “The sight of this brought us many sad thoughts, for we believed that within a few days we, too, would be employed exactly as they were.”
Ducharme and his fifty-seven shipmates had just arrived at Port Jackson in Sydney, New South Wales, after enduring a five-month voyage from Montreal to this far-flung penal colony on the Australian continent. Although they were prisoners, Ducharme and his companions were no common criminals. They were Patriotes — Lower Canadian revolutionaries who had taken up arms to fight for democracy against autocratic British colonial rule.
Then as today, the Patriotes were widely revered as heroes in their homeland. Although they did not gain the same recognition elsewhere, their actions had consequences that extended far beyond Canada. “By the sacrifices they made by fighting bravely for their ideals, these French-Canadian Patriotes … helped build responsible government and democracy both in Canada and Australia,” Australian historian Tony Moore, author of Death or Liberty: Rebel Exiles in Australia 1788–1868, said in an interview. “For in Australia we did not need that revolution to get responsible government because of what had happened in Canada. So, in a way these people are Australian patriots, too.” Read more…

Cause of Deaths in London 1632
Long before the time period of the Loyalist era, but interesting to look at. Note that Roger Finlay’s Population and Metropolis: The Demography of London 1580-1650 gives the population of London in 1631 as 76,615.
See the chart of “The Diseases, and Casualties this year being 1632“.
The chart covers London with 122 parishes plus the Pest house.
This was not a plague year, so a more “normal” year. There were 9,535 burials, but they were slightly exceeded by the number of christenings at 9,584.
Some causes of death we would recognize today:

  • Aged 628
  • Cold and cough 55
  • Drowned 34
  • Gangrene 5
  • Jaundies 43
  • Measles 80

but there are many terms or numbers that would make us wonder

  • teeth 470
  • Quinsie 7
  • Livergrown 87
  • Over-laid and starved at nurse 7
  • Purples and spotted fever 38

In Reddit a question “What is the truth behind this image about 1632 London?” brought a response from dhowlett1692 with more explanation and detail.
This image is an annual Bill of Mortality regarding the deaths in London. Between 1603 and 1752, London collected weekly data to track plague and other deaths by parish. At the end of the year, the sum totals were aggregated into these general bills. The image only shows the diseases side, but the reverse probably included the parishes of London and the number of burials and plague deaths within each parish. These weekly broadsides were publicly posted to provide general information about disease, but also allowed people to track plague’s geography. If you saw a spike of plague in nearby parishes, it was your sign to get out of town (assuming you had the resources to leave).  Read more…

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions

    Entries which have been added, or revised, this week. 

  • From a certificate application submitted by Neil Summers for Ancestor Andrew Summers born in Germany in 1729, but settled Albany County, New York province before the war. He served in the King’s Royal Regiment of New York (KRRNY) and settled in the Eastern District: W1/2 L8 C1, Charlottenburgh, Upper Canada. He married Catherine Anderson and they had six children.
  • From a certificate application by Marcia D McLean for James Warrington born in Ireland, but sett;led in New York Province before the war.  He served in Hinchman’s (company, regiment?) and settled in Digby NS. He married Parthenia Fowler b. 1772 d 22 July 1847 m. 28 Sept 1803 at Digby NS. They had six children.



Events Upcoming

Grand River Branch: Tour of Canadian Military Heritage Museum, Sun. 17 August 1:30

At 347 Greenwich St.,Brantford PRESERVING OUR MILITARY HERITAGE. We invite you to visit a first-class, updated, 13,000 sq. foot facility that honours, preserves, and displays our rich Canadian military heritage with a special focus on the Brantford, Brant County and Six Nations area. Our enthusiastic volunteers will greet you at our museum where every artifact tells a story, a story we are dedicated to share with you.

American Revolution Institute:  Author’s Talk—The Last Men Standing: The 8th Virginia Regiment in the American Revolution  Tues 26 Aug @ 6:30

Independent historian Gabriel Neville highlights the Revolutionary War service of a unique detachment of the Continental Army: the Eighth Virginia Regiment. In colonial America, thousands of German and Irish immigrants settled in Virginia’s western reaches. The Eighth Virginia Regiment was conceived to recruit them, and as they were sent into some of the hardest service of the war, only a few remained after the Siege of Yorktown. Drawing from his new book, Neville traces the lives of the immigrant recruits from the terrors of the French and Indian War, through the Revolution, to the settlement of the American frontier. Details…

Old Hay Bay Church Annual Pilgrimage Service and exploration time, Sunday, 24 Aug 2:00 pm

Canada’s oldest surviving Methodist Church was built in 1792 in the rural township of Adolphustown. It was built on the farm of Paul Huff, UE as the first meeting house in the new settlement. It was built on a family farm, as the Methodists could not own property under the rules of Great Britain.
starting at 2pm will be our exploration time.
Service at 3:00, The liturgist for the service is Rev. David King, a Council of Elders representative.  Our guest speaker is Rev. Wanda Stride who was ordained by Toronto Conference of the United Church of Canada in 2009.  Her timely message is entitled”And can it be? finding the future in our roots”. Following the service there will be refreshments and additional time to share stories, and purchase items.  See website and follow the link to the press release with details.

Calling all Mabee and Secord  Descendants Sat 27 Sept @1:00

The Grand River Branch  is holding a special event to unveil a plaque honouring our Loyalist ancestors, the Mabee & Secord families. See the poster which outlines the details and we would be so very pleased if interested people would attend. See poster…
We do hope some of the descendants of these families will join interested others.
Please let me know should you require any further information. Bill Terry UE terrybill766@gmail.com

From the Social Media and Beyond

  • Loyalist Flag flying at Fort Anne National Historic Site in Annapolis Royal, NS:  Brian McConnell UE
  • Nice information board about Loyalist Homes on Lower St. George Street in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia: Brian McConnell UE
  • Food and Related : Townsends

  • This week in History
    • 14 Aug 1755 Williamsburg, VA.  Planter & surveyor George Washington was appointed colonel and commander of the Virginia Regiment. His leadership during the French and Indian War would place him first in line to command the Continental Army 20 years later. image
    • 14 Aug 1765 Protestors in Boston hung an effigy of Andrew Oliver (The Stamp Act Commissioner) from a large elm tree. One of the first protests in what would within ten years become the Revolutionary War. The elm would go on to be known as The Liberty Tree. image
    • 10 Aug 1774 Savannah, GA. Thirty patriots from Georgia met at Tondee’s Tavern & adopted a series of eight resolutions, which affirmed the colonists’ loyalty to the King while also affirming their rights as British citizens. image
    • 11 Aug 1775, Gen. George Washington wrote to Gen. Thomas Gage inside besieged Boston complaining about reports of prisoners wounded in the Battle of Bunker Hill being badly treated. Read more…
    • 14 Aug 1775: Maj. John Brown reports to Gen. Schuyler that there are only 300 British regulars in Canada and the population will not oppose an American invasion.
    • 13 Aug 1775 Massachusetts militia captain Micah Chapman’s commission signed #OTD August 13, 1775, by all the members of the rebel Council, which was still acting in the name of the king: image  Read more…
    • 14 Aug 1775 Ft Ticonderoga, NY Patriot scout Maj John Brown returns from a mission and reports that the French settlers & Indians are neutral & that St Johns has a small garrison of 300 men. Gen Phillip Schuyler judges Quebec ripe for invasion. image
    • 15 Aig 1775, BOSTON: The redcoats and civilians in the besieged town are resupplied with “1900 Sheep, 101 head of Cattle, 70 Hogs, some Cheese, Butter, Eggs, and Wood” by the return of the small fleet sent out about a fortnight ago to gather provisions along the coast.
    • 10 Aug 1776, London. News reaches the British capital that the Americans had drafted the Declaration of Independence. Until then, both Americans & British saw the conflict centered in Massachusetts as a local uprising. image
    • 11 Aug 1776 Tamassee, SC Maj Andrew Williamson’s SC militia attack & defeat a large Cherokee war party. Some 17 warriors are left dead on the field of battle. image
    • 12 Aug 1776, Gen George Washington writes to Gen. Charles Lee that the Continental Army’s situation has worsened due to an outbreak of smallpox and desertion. Washington fears the British navy might blockade NYC, isolating it from other states. image
    • 16 Aug 1776 Staten Island, New York. From his flagship, HMS Eagle, Adm Richard Howe writes to his friend Benjamin Franklin, informing him of his authority to conduct peace negotiations. It would come to naught.  image
    • 12 Aug 1776 Philadelphia, PA. The Continental Congress attempted to lure soldiers from the British Army by granting land bounties to deserters. image
    • 10 Aug 1777 Gen Phillip Schuyler dispatches an 800-strong force from Stillwater, NY to relieve the beleaguered garrison at Ft Stanwix. Some A-Teamers led it: Gen Benedict Arnold and Ebenezer Learned. image
    • 11 Aug 1777: British Gen. Burgoyne dispatches a mixed brigade of Germans, Loyalists & Indians under Lt. Col. Friedrich Baum to seize the needed supplies at Bennington, VT. image
    • 12 Aug 1777 General Orders issued by Gen Washington approved 50 lashes for a soldier found drunk on duty.  Luckily, he was acquitted of allowing a prisoner to escape.  Fifty lashes were often a death sentence. image
    • 13 Aug 1777 Engineer David Bushnell launches a surprise attack on the HMS Cerebrus in Black Point Bay near New London, CT, with a floating contact mine. It gets caught up in a small schooner and explodes, killing 3. Cerebrus redeploys to Newport. image
    • 13 Aug 1777 Machias, MA (today’s ME) Capt George Collier sails upriver with two ships and 120 Marines to break up the rebel base. But a strong defense by the local militia forced him to withdraw. image
    • 13 Aug 1777 Gen Burgoyne crosses North River (Hudson) and prepares his army for the march on Saratoga and then Albany. image
    • 14 Aug 1777 Sancoik (Van Schaik’s Mill) NY. Lt Col Friederich Baum’s Germans & Loyalists scatter a force of 300 militia. Intent on attacking any other rebels in the area, Baum requests reinforcements from British Gen John Burgoyne. image
    • 15 Aug 1777 Bennington, VT. Gen John Stark gathers his militia with Col Seth Warner’s  – a combined  2K men.  German Lt Col Friederich von Baum, who realized the strength of the rebel forces before him, built breastworks & sent for reinforcements. image
    • 16 Aug 1777 Walloomsac, NY. Rebel force of NH & MA militia, led by Gen. John Stark, reinforced by Col. Seth Warner, decisively defeated Brunswick dragoons, Canadians, Loyalists, and Indians led by Lt. Col. Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington. image
    • 9 Aug 1778 Gen John Sullivan awaits reinforcements in prep for his campaign against Newport, RI. When the British suddenly abandon some of the northern defenses, his troops quickly fill in the void. image
    • 11 Aug 1778 Paramus, NJ. Gen Charles Lee is convicted by a court-martial of insubordination & suspended from the Continental Army for one year. image
    • 12 Aug 1778 Newport, RI: As the British fleet under Admiral Richard Howe & the French fleet under Admiral D’Estaing close for combat, a sudden storm disperses the ships. image
    • 3 Aug 1779 L’Orient, France. Capt John Paul Jones, in command of Bonhomme Richard, sails with a fleet that includes frigates Alliance & Pallas, brig Vengeance & cutter le Cerf. His goal is to raid British home waters & send a signal to Britons. image
    • 15 Aug 1779 Upper Allegheny River, Western PA. Capt Sam Brady leads Col Daniel Brodhead’s advance guard in an attack on Chief Bald Eagle’s 40-brave war party, killing the chief &several braves without a loss.  image
    • 11 Aug 1780 Gen Horatio Gates’s forces cross Lynches Creek, some 15 mi north of Camden, SC. The British under Lt Col Francis Rawdon are flanked and withdraw after a short skirmish. image
    • 15 Aug 1780 Reinforced by 400 MD & NC Continentals, Gen Horatio Gates’s army marches on Camden. After receiving a ration of molasses, the troops get sick. The advance guard clashes with British troops in pre-dawn darkness & both sides prepare for battle. image
    • 10 Aug 1781 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Confederation Congress appoints Robert R. Livingston as America’s 1st Secretary of Foreign Affairs.  image
    • 15 Aug 1790 Dorset, England. John Carroll was consecrated as the first Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. He & his family played a major role in the struggle for independence.  image
    • 15 August 1824, Staten Island, New York. The Marquis de Lafayette, that revered and last-surviving Continental Army general of the American Revolution, returned to America for the last time. He stepped onto New York’s shores, igniting a firestorm of patriotic fervor. At 67, the last surviving hero of Yorktown embarked on a grand 6,000-mile tour across 24 states, on steamships, coaches, and horseback—a spectacle that became the cultural touchstone of early 19th-century America. Crowds swarmed, hailing the “Nation’s Guest” with parades, feasts, and toasts, as if the Spirit of ’76 itself had returned. From bustling cities to frontier hamlets, Lafayette’s journey helped reignite patriotism and national unity by rekindling memories of the sacrifices of the Revolutionary times and celebrating liberty. His presence, a living link to the Founding, stirred hearts to reflect on America’s promise. He greeted the powerful and ordinary man with equal fervor. His engaging manner and stirring speeches cemented his legacy as America’s beloved friend, proving that the bonds forged during the revolution endured. This wasn’t just a tour—it was a triumph of the national spirit.  image
  • Clothing and Related:
    •  Dress, 1735-1775. Chinese silk damask with motif of pagoda, chrysanthemums, birds & bamboo shoots. Cotton lining, metal hooks, cotton eyes.  Worn by Elizabeth Park of Concord, Massachusetts at her wedding to Nicholas Baylies in 1738. DAR Museum, Washington.
    • The sartorial details in this (probably) self portrait of Adèle Romany c. 1799 are breathtaking. See the clocked stockings, blue slipper tied with ribbons at the ankle and the neoclassical decorations at the hem of the robe à la grecque. From the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen.
    • Formal evening dress with spencer and fichu, 1795-1800, This fine linen is lavishly embroidered with a pineapple and swag border pattern that predetermined the hem, and with an overall oval sprig pattern intended for the body of the dress.  The same textile was used to make the small shawl called a fichu and for the matching short vest, called a spencer. At ROM Toronto.
    • Probably American, Dress, 1795-99. Silk taffeta, silk ribbon drawstrings, linen lining. DAR Museum

 

 

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