Loyalist Trails 2024-16 (2024)

In this issue:

• Loyalist Gazette Spring Issue. Digital copy is now available for members
• “The Story Continues…” at the UELAC 2024 Conference
• AGM for All UELAC Members: The Annual General Meeting on Sat. 11 May – Register today
• Piecing Together a Passenger List: The Commerce. Part Three, by Stephen Davidson UE
• William Paine UEL
• Book Review: North of America: Loyalists, Indigenous Nations, and the Borders of the Long American Revolution
• John Dickinson and His Letters
• Dr. Warren’s Crucial Informant
• Hessians in the American Revolutionary War (Poscast)
• Book: No Longer Subjects of the British King: The Political Transformation of Royal Subjects to Republican Citizens, 1774–1776
• Advertised on 19 April 1774: “BOHEA, GREEN, and HYSON TEA.”
• Pattens Protected Women’s Shoes
• Parliamentary Culture and Library History in Britain (and US)
• Wearing the white sheet – Act of Penance
• The Big Chill
• Caroline’s Clothes: The Life and Loss of an Antebellum Woman
• UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions
• Guardians of the glacial past – the Spirit Bear
• National Trust for Canada: Vote for the Next Great Save!
• Happy 90th Birthday to June Klassen UE
• Events Upcoming
  • Kawartha Branch: “The Rise and Fall of J.C. Dale: A Family, a House and the Madoc Bank Bust of 1914” Sun. 21 Apr @2:00
  • American Revolution Institute: Lord Fairfax and George Washington, Wed 24 Apr 6:30
  • Kingston and District Branch: “Early Loyalists of Ontario” Sat. 27 April 27 at 1:00 ET
  • Drumhill DAR, Wilton CT “British March Through Redding” Sat 27 April 2024
  • Gov. Simcoe Branch: “The Young George Washington” by Sam Davis Wed 1 May 7:30
  • Saratoga: Women in War Symposium and Bus Tour 4 and 5 May
  • Col. John Butler Branch: the John Butler Homestead Sat. 4 May 11:45 at Betty’s Restaurant
• From the Social Media and Beyond
• Last Post: NORRIS UE, Jacqueline Lucinda (nee McDonald)

Twitter: http://twitter.com/uelac
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2303178326/?ref=share

Loyalist Gazette Spring Issue. Digital copy is now available for Members
The Spring 2024 Issue of the Loyalist Gazette is now completed – the content decisions, editing, review, layout and design are are all done and delivered to the printer.

Print copy: The printer and mailing house will now do their things: print, dry, bind, stuff and deliver to Canada Post for distribution. That could happen by early May, but will hope to have a better target date in next issue of Loyalist Trails. Once at Canada Post, it is just a matter of the travel time to your mailbox.

Digital Copy: This is now posted at the website where current members can retrieve it by logging in at uelac.ca, going to the members section and follow the link to the Loyalist Gazette recent issues. From there download this current issue.

Featured: This Spring issue is focused primarily on the Loyalist experience in what is now Quebec.
Some articles in this issue:

• Loyalist Settlement in Quebec
• Siege of Fort St. [Jean] John 1775
• Africans bound for Quebec City
• The Personal Exodus of a Jewish Loyalist
• The Amazing Escape of Dr. John Henry Aussem
• The Spy from Saratoga: John Platt, UEL
• The Rev. John Doty and the Loyalist Church of Sorel
• and one from the theme of the previous issue Suffering & Services – Recovering the lives of Military Loyalists in New Brunswick

Enjoy
Note: One paper copy is sent to each family which requested one, But each member of a family who has their own email address can log in and access the digital copy.

“The Story Continues…” at the UELAC 2024 Conference
June 4-9, 2024 at Cornwall, Ontario
The conference has three main groupings of events:

• Pre-Conference day-tours: Tues June 4 to Thurs June 6
• UELAC Conference: Evening Thurs June 6 through Sunday June 9
• 240th Anniversary of New Johnstown & The Royal Townships: Fri June 7 through Sunday June 9
  • UELAC has scheduled Sat daytime for conference attendees to visit and learn.

And so “The [Loyalist] Story Continues….”

• visit the Cornwall history in person;
• meet up with old Loyalist friends, and make new ones;
• learn more about New Johnstown (now Cornwall) and surrounding settlement areas in then western Quebec Province (becoming in 1791 part of eastern Upper Canada and today part of eastern Ontario);
• stand on the ground where our Loyalists of this area drew their lots;
• visit the encampment and live the reenactment taking place at Lamoureux Park;
• visit Pioneer museums in the area and tour the Woodhouse & Lost Villages;
• see the museum where the UELAC Dominion Office and UELAC Archives are now located.

For more details

• Introduction
• Itinerary/agenda
• Registration
• Tours
• Hotel

and registration, see “The Story Continues…”

Remarkable Cornwall & SDG – Religious Milestones
By Ian Bowering 16 April 2024 in in Discover SD&G
Given the emphasis on Scottish traditions in SD & G, it is easy to forget that the United Empire Loyalists, consisted of a number of ethnic and religious groups.
At their request, the Loyalists were broadly settled east to west according to nationality, language and religion. This resulted in Catholic Scottish Highlanders settling adjacent to the present day Quebec border, followed by Scottish Presbyterians, German Calvinists, German Lutherans and finally Anglicans. As Eastern Ontario can justifiably claim to be where “modern” Ontario was settled, these pioneers also founded many of Ontario’s historically dominant religions.
St. Andrews West is home to Upper Canada’s first English (and likely Gaelic) speaking Catholic Church when the parish was formed in the mid 1780s by United Empire Loyalists. The first log structure was replaced by the stone parish hall built between 1797 – 1801. Serving as a hospital during the War of 1812, The steeple was removed after the congregation moved into the present church in 1860. Read more about different religions and churches…

All UELAC Members: The Annual General Meeting on Sat. 11 May – Register today
At 11:30 AM EDT, this meeting is a fundamental event for our association.
The purpose of the Meeting is:

• To consider the financial statements and reports of the UELAC
• To elect directors
• To receive the report of the auditor and appoint an auditor
• To transact such other business as may properly be brought before the Meeting or as required by legislation

The meeting is virtual. Registration in advance is required. Log in at https://uelac.ca/ and see the details for the meeting and registration at https://uelac.ca/members/ Do join us, register today.

Piecing Together a Passenger List: The Commerce. Part Three of Three
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Thanks to the information recorded in the victualing returns for Saint John’s Fort Howe, historians have a starting point to reconstruct the passenger lists of at least 13 loyalist evacuation vessels. The reference for a carpenter named Lewis Heustis/Huestis reveals that he and his wife had lived in New York’s Westchester County, and had sailed on the Commerce with two children 10 and older and one child under ten.
Huestis’ 1827 will and a handful of notices in Saint John’s newspapers provide more insight into the story of this Loyalist. Lewis eventually became the superintendent of the lighthouse on Partridge Island. Situated at the mouth of Saint John’s harbor, this island would later become a quarantine site for Irish immigrants in the 19th century.
Some time after his first wife died. Lewis married Sarah, the widow of Captain William Roden in September of 1808. Sarah died in February of 1827; in little over a year, 78 year-old Lewis followed her to the grave. His brief obituary noted that he had been on Partridge Island for 19 years.
Lewis Huestis’ will provides posterity with the name of his children and stepchildren. He distributed his worldly goods to John Martha (James Goyer), Ruth (Benjamin Brymer), Ann (James Miller), Sarah, (unmarried) and his stepchildren: George Roden and Elizabeth (Richard Duff).
Following the alphabetical order of the victualing musters, Peter Huggeford is the next Loyalist noted as a passenger aboard the Commerce. The New York surgeon sailed with his wife, four children over 10, and 3 servants. As the latter are not listed in the Book of Negroes, one must assume that they were white employees or indentured servants. Huggeford was the captain of Militia Company #7, the largest group of Loyalists who sailed on the Commerce. However, his place in New Brunswick’s history was the consequence of his role as a political leader in December 1784.
Huggeford’s name was the first of 345 Loyalists who had signed a petition of grievance against New Brunswick’s lieutenant governor, Thomas Carleton. The petitioners accused Carleton’s administration of granting land to “a certain number of people” unfairly, and charged that government surveyors were keeping the best land for themselves. It concluded, “your Petitioners feel themselves much aggrieved and injured; they submit the same to your Excellency’s justice and hope you will be pleased to examine the premises and grant them such redress as to your Excellency’s wisdom may seem meet.”
William Lawrence was a farmer from Dutchess County, New York who accompanied his wife Mary and their (adopted?) son Marcus Palmer on the Commerce. His 1787 compensation claim and 1805 will flesh out the rest of his story. Lawrence joined the British at New York in 1777. He “was obliged to quit home, because he would not serve with the Rebels. Did Duty as a Guard at the out Post for about a month or 6 weeks.”
In his will, Lawrence bequeathed “all the legacy that was left” to him by his brother Isaac to two brothers who still lived in New York: Richard and John Lawrence. Having settled on the Kennebecasis River, the Loyalist still retained a connection with his American relatives.
Ann McGibbon was one of two widows who sailed on the Commerce. The victualing muster is unclear in describing her family as one other person is indicated as being with her a year later. Either this Connecticut Loyalist came with a child or she acquired a husband within a year of arriving in New Brunswick – perhaps a fellow passenger who was a bachelor or widower. The other widow on board was Jane Maskline of New York. She brought three children with her, but one died within a year’s time.
John Ogden was a cooper from New York’s Westchester County who came to the mouth of the St. John River with his wife Mary, 3 children aged 10 and older and one younger than 10. His compensation claim reveals that he had been drafted by the rebel militia, which compelled him to go into the British lines. Rebels took his family from their rented farm and would not let his wife have anything. Lorenzo Sabine’s brief biography of Ogden notes “They were both among the faithful and intrepid band of Loyalists, who, for their unshaken attachment to the Throne and Constitution of Great Britain, suffered much in their early days.” John Ogden died at age 97 in Greenwich, King’s County in November of 1845. Mary Ogden died a year later at age 81.
John Pigett was a carpenter from Connecticut who sailed on the Commerce with his wife. All that is known about this Loyalist is that his wife died within their first year as refugees.
Thomas Renshaw had been a shoemaker in New York at the outbreak of the revolution. What little is known about him beyond the data in the victualing muster was discovered by this historian R. Wallace Hale. At age 28, Renshaw married Mary Kenrich just a week before they set sail on the Commerce — so their honeymoon was two weeks of travelling on a refugee evacuation vessel. Thomas Renshaw died at age 80 in August 1835.
Three Commerce passengers are found in no other documents of the era other than Fort Howe’s victualing muster. David Sandford was a bachelor shoemaker from New York; Jacob Shurman Sr. and his son Jacob Shurman Jr. were both farmers from Westchester County. The latter sailed as a single man: his father arrived in New Brunswick with a wife, 2 older children, 2 younger children and 2 servants. Within a year the senior Shurmans no longer had servants and had suffered the loss of one of their young children.
Philip Shurman was a carpenter from New Rochelle, New York. Upon arrival in New Brunswick he was a 20 year-old bachelor. He later married a woman named Magdalen. Their son carried on his father’s first name and profession. Philip Senior died at age 69 in Saint John in 1822. Joseph Tidd came to New Brunswick from Westchester County as a shoemaker. He brought with him a wife and 5 children over the age of 10, but that is all that is known of these Commerce passengers.
The last Commerce passenger listed in Fort Howe’s victualing muster is Henry Traphager, a shoemaker from New Jersey. A child was born to his wife Jemima shortly after their arrival, but one of their four older children died before the first year in Saint John was over. The names of the Traphager children are found in Henry’s 1817 will: Jane (Thomas Sancton), Cornelius, Henry, Martha, and Mary. Traphager died “old and infirm” at 74 in 1817. Jemima preceded him in death at age 65 on January 12, 1813.
These, then, are the known passengers of the evacuation vessel Commerce. While posterity has access to the names of those who were slaves, Black Loyalists, and heads of households, we may never discover the names of the wives, children, and white servants who also sailed aboard the transport vessel. Nevertheless, the names and stories of those known to have boarded the Commerce provide another fascinating glimpse into the experiences of those who found sanctuary in New Brunswick in the summer of 1783.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

William Paine UEL
By Carol Anne Janzen 1987 in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Reposted by Brian McConnell UE: He remains an intriguing loyalist figure because of his uncommon decision to return permanently to his native home, where he not only achieved social acceptance but acquired wealth, honour, and dignity as well.” (here)
PAINE, WILLIAM, physician, office holder, and politician; b. 5 June 1750 in Worcester, Mass., son of Timothy Paine and Sarah Chandler; m. 23 Sept. 1773 Lois Orne of Salem, Mass., and they had six children; d. 19 April 1833 in Worcester.
Born into the prominent Paine–Chandler family, William Paine acquired his lifelong interest in the arts and sciences as a young man at Harvard College. After graduating in 1768, he took up the study of medicine with the eminent Dr Edward Augustus Holyoke of Salem, and in 1771 he began his practice in Worcester, where he later brought his bride.
Although Paine apparently remained aloof from pre-revolutionary political debate, in favour of his studies, he was led by increasing disturbances to sign a protest on 20 June 1774 “against all riotous, disorderly, and seditious practices,” especially against the “dark and pernicious proceedings” of the committees of correspondence. The town meeting rejected the protest and censured the signatories, forcing men such as Paine to make an unequivocal political stand, the determinant of which in his case lay more in the social and political position of his family, with its interest in maintaining the status quo, than in any ideological conviction. To avoid persecution, Paine sailed for England in 1774 to pursue medical studies, and in November 1775 he received an MD from Marischal College in Aberdeen, Scotland. Subsequently, he served until 1781 as apothecary to the British forces in the Carolinas, Rhode Island, and New York. Commissioned a physician in 1782, he was shortly thereafter ordered to Halifax, N.S. The following year, with the conclusion of peace, he was placed on half pay. Since he had forfeited his personal estate in 1779, Paine and his family joined the stream of refugees seeking new homes in British North America. Read more…

Book Review: North of America: Loyalists, Indigenous Nations, and the Borders of the Long American Revolution
Author: Jeffers Lennox (Yale University Press, 2022)
Review by Al Dickenson 15 April 2024 in Journal of the American Revolution
When thinking about the American Revolution and its succeeding Founding Era, two nations first come to mind: the British Empire and the fledgling new nation, the United States of America. While there is a lot of discussion on how the parent nation influenced its child, there is comparatively little acknowledgement of how Britain’s other North American child, Canada, influenced its sibling, the United States. In his book North of America: Loyalists, Indigenous Nations, and the Borders of the Long American Revolution, Wesleyan University professor Jeffers Lennox illustrates the influences that the sibling nations had on one another between 1770 and 1810. In this manner, Lennox reminds readers that it is false to assume that the War for Independence was only close to home and not an international affair. While of course most major events occurred on American (that is, New World) soil, there were various international elements of the war, including those involving the United States’ northern neighbor. One of the first steps Lennox takes to illustrate to readers how Americans and Canadians saw each other is to show the similarities their shared: the sense of home the colonial natives felt in their respective countries, the general dislike of Catholics (p. 35), and their disregard for set colonial boundaries between what would become states and provinces, to name a few. More than that, Lennox shows readers how the British Imperialists looked askance at not only Americans, but also Canadians, which drew the two nations closer together in many ways. It is vitally important to remember that, like the American colonies, Canada faced internal strife among Patriots, Loyalists, and those relatively indifferent to the cause(s), though to a lesser degree. Read more…

John Dickinson and His Letters
by Jude M. Pfister 16 April 2024 Journal of the American Revolution
On December 2, 1767, there appeared in the Pennsylvania Chronicle the first letter in a series collectively called “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania.” The anonymous first letter came at a critical time in the growing debate between Britain and her colonies over colonial policy. By late 1767, when the first of the letters appeared, America and Britain had already argued over the Stamp Act, which was repealed, causing the passage of the Declaratory Act of 1766. The two other acts from the 1760s which caused distress in the colonies were the Sugar Act of 1764, and the Townshend Duties of 1767. These acts, and the threat of more acts, led to the first colony-wide gathering of delegates in 1765 for what was known as the Stamp Act Congress.
These events were significant individually. They represented a formal questioning of colonial policy as conducted by Britain. Together, these developments put the American colonies in a place of formal dispute with Parliament and the king—the newly crowned George III. Disputes had certainly occurred before in the one hundred and sixty years since Jamestown was founded. But this was different. The colonies were more organized, had better colonial leadership, and stronger economies. Further, the development of a colonial legal system, within the boundaries outlined by British common law, ensured the colonies had a necessary framework established for questioning broader British policy through a functioning legal system. Additionally, the colonies had many leaders with several generations’ occupancy of the “new world” and these leaders had a vested interest.
One such promising leader was John Dickinson (1732-1808). Son of a long-established Maryland family, young John moved with his parents to Delaware in the early 1740s. His father, Samuel, was a wealthy planter with large plantations staffed by enslaved Africans. Dickinson would continue this practice on his own lands later as an adult before manumitting his enslaved workers by 1788. As a young boy in Dover, Dickinson received an excellent education. He showed much promise and his parents felt him worthy of a classical English education at one of Britain’s oldest seats of legal learning: the Inns of Court (Middle Temple). Read more…

Dr. Warren’s Crucial Informant
by J. L. Bell 18 April 2024 Journal of the American Revolution
On April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren, leader of the Patriots still inside Boston, gathered information about a possible British army march from many sources. Nineteenth-century accounts spoke of hints coming in from a groom in the governor’s stable, a boy who held horses for redcoat officers, a woman who employed a soldier’s wife as a maid, sailors gossiping about boats being prepared. But an early chronicler said that Warren turned to one source of intelligence in particular. This article proposes to identify that person by tracing two statements back to the same Patriot insider and by searching newspaper and vital records.
Warren’s crucial informant was first described by the Rev. Jeremy Belknap (1744–1798), minister of Dover, New Hampshire. Already collecting information for his History of New-Hampshire (published 1784–1792), Belknap kept notes on the events unfolding around him. In the fall of 1775 he visited the Continental Army camps surrounding Boston to check on the New Hampshire troops and observe the siege. He wrote a diary during that trip, published in 1860 by the Massachusetts Historical Society.
A few days after returning to Dover, on October 25, Belknap added an entry to his travel diary:

Mr. Waters informed me, that the design of the regular troops, when they marched out of Boston the night of April 18, was discovered to Dr. Warren by a person kept in pay for that purpose. . . .

Read more…

Hessians in the American Revolutionary War (Podcast)
By Friederike Baer 16 April 2024 in Ben Franklin’s World
Our guest is an Associate Professor of History and the Division Head for Arts and Humanities at Penn State Abbington College. Her research expertise is in the American Revolution and Early American Republic eras, and she has a particular interest in the experiences of German-speaking people during those periods. She’s also the author of two books, including Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, which won the 2023 Society of the Cincinnati Prize.
During our exploration of the German soldiers in the American War for Independence, Friederike reveals why we should refer to the German soldiers who fought in the American Revolution as “German soldiers” instead of “Hessians”; Information about why German rulers agreed to hire out their young men as mercenaries to King George III and Great Britain; And details about the contributions the German soldiers made to the British military effort during the American War for Independence, as well as details about how some German soldiers experienced the Revolution and war in North America. Listen in…

Book: No Longer Subjects of the British King: The Political Transformation of Royal Subjects to Republican Citizens, 1774–1776
By Shawn McGhee Westholme Publishing (April 4, 2024)
When news reached Parliament of the Boston radicals’ destruction of the Royal East India Company’s tea, it passed the Coercive Acts, a collection of punitive measures designed to rein in that insubordinate seaport town. The Coercive Acts unleashed a political firestorm as communities from Massachusetts to Georgia drafted resistance resolutions condemning Parliament’s perceived encroachment upon American liberty. Local leaders also directed colonists to refrain from purchasing British merchandise and forego theater, horse racing, and other perceived debauched traditions. Local activists next convened the Continental Congress to coordinate a pancolonial resistance movement to pressure Parliament into repealing the Coercive Acts and settling American rights on a constitutional foundation. Once convened, Congress deftly drafted the Articles of Association. Traditionally understood as primarily an economic response by the colonies to Parliament’s actions, the Continental Association called for public demonstrations of commercial and cultural restraint, conduct delegates hoped would both heal the empire and restore colonial virtue.
Historian Shawn McGhee offers a fresh perspective on the origins of American political identity. No Longer Subjects of the British King: The Political Transformation of Royal Subjects to Republican Citizens, 1774-1776reveals the crucial process by which the Continental Association organized American towns and counties into a protonational community of suffering to protect political identities they felt under threat. This work further demonstrates how those sacrificing for the common cause severed their bonds of allegiance to the British king and separated from the broader imperial nation. In this crucible of austerity, they formed an American political community, completing the political transformation from subject to citizen.
Shawn David McGhee is a historian of eighteenth-century America and professional educator in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. He earned his PhD from Temple University and lives in New Jersey .

Advertised on 19 April 1774: “BOHEA, GREEN, and HYSON TEA”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

“BOHEA, GREEN, and HYSON TEA.”

Not all colonizers dispensed with advertising, selling, and drinking tea as an immediate response to the Boston Tea Party, especially if the tea in question had not been subject to import duties. In April 1774, Pott Shaw advertised “BOHEA, GREEN, and HYSON TEA, warranted of the finest Quality,” in the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal. Shaw did not reveal when the tea arrived in the colony, by what means, or its origins, leaving those details to prospective customers to ask about, if they chose to do so, when they made their purchases. Buying and selling this particular commodity occurred in the context of conversations about the politics of tea.
The April 19 edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal carried some of the same updates about possible reactions to the Boston Tea Party that appeared in the Connecticut Courant a week earlier. Read more…

Pattens Protected Women’s Shoes
Pattens were worn by women in Europe from the 12th century through the 19th to keep shoes high and dry. Basic forms were used by working women while mopping floors and finer designs were used by the genteel to keep dress shoes clean as they walked through streets or gardens.
These utilitarian items didn’t stand the test of time due to rough use or disregard. In many cases, the wooden soles and leather straps rotted away, leaving only the iron rings and supports. Iron components of pattens have been found at archaeological sites around Williamsburg.
One such site is the former home of Sarah Drummond, a woman who deserves a post all her own. You can see a variety of archaeological finds from the Drummond Site at Jamestown Settlement.
Jamestown Youngstown Foundation Museums @jyfmuseums

Parliamentary Culture and Library History in Britain (and US)
Max Skjönsberg & Mark Towsey 7 January 2022
How did provincial men and women in the early modern period (roughly from 1600 until 1800) experience parliamentary culture? The history of the ‘public sphere’ will direct us towards pamphlet literature and newspapers in coffee houses and taverns. A different eighteenth-century institution which has received less attention – but one that became increasingly important for allowing the middling sort to educate themselves about politics, debates and political institution – was the subscription library.
Inspired on the one hand by rising literacy rates and the increasing cultural capital of reading amongst the middling sort, and on the other by the continuing high price of new books, the subscription library was essentially a book club which allowed members to pool their resources to acquire a larger permanent collection of books than any of them could afford individually. As we shall see, these collections often included parliamentary records and history. Read more…(another first by Benjamin Franklin)

Wearing the white sheet – Act of Penance
By Sarah Murden 15 April 2024, All Things Georgian
Many of you may have watched the TV series, Game of Thrones, in which Cersei Lannister was required to perform the naked walk of shame through the streets to repent for her sins.
This and similar practices were carried out in previous centuries, most famously the walk of shame by Jane Shore, as can be seen in this 18th century depiction of it (painting):
Even into the early 19th century this form of punishment, albeit slightly amended, still took place as a form of public humiliation and here are a few examples. Read more…

The Big Chill
Written by Alan MacEachern — 19 May 2016 at Canada’s History
Two centuries ago, much of the world was left in the cold during what became known as the Year Without a Summer.
Giving a historical event a name — especially a catchy name — has its drawbacks. A name can give an event too defined a shape, solidify it while making it smaller, like water beading on a surface. So it is with the name given to 1816 — the Year Without a Summer.
The Year Without a Summer refers to what followed the global impact of a volcanic eruption on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. When Mount Tambora erupted in the spring of 1815, it spewed about fifty cubic kilometres of rock, ash, and dust high into the air. Some of the particles remained suspended in the atmosphere for months, even years, effectively blocking some of the sun’s heat. What was by far the largest eruption in recorded history had the effect of cooling the planet’s surface. This led to widespread crop failures around the world. Read more…

Caroline’s Clothes: The Life and Loss of an Antebellum Woman
By Erika Holst April 2024 in Common Place
Centering material culture when researching those with scant documentary evidence of their lives can help fill in the gaps of their experience.
In Chatham Center, New York, it is said that the ghost of Caroline Sutherland Layton, a beautiful young woman who died in the 1850s, can sometimes be seen in her wedding dress walking the fields and picking flowers near her childhood home.
Caroline’s wedding gown happens to be in the historic textile collections of the Illinois State Museum, and her ghost tale was the first thing I learned while researching its provenance for an upcoming exhibition. It wouldn’t be the last. Caroline’s story, teased out of her artifacts and a few fleeting written references, represents a powerful, if brief, window into the life of a woman whose trajectory was all too common in her time: someone who married, moved west, and died young. In Caroline’s case, all of this happened within twelve months.
Analyzing these garments and the scant historical record against the backdrop of her social and historical context produces a poignant view of a westward migrant. It shows how she invested emotional, social, and physical work in building a life and family in a new state. Like many young brides who went west with their husbands, Caroline gambled the comfort of the familiar on the promise of the new. And like many young brides, Caroline lost that gamble, dying young despite her advantages of class and wealth. Read more…

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions
Entries which have been added, or revised, this week, with thanks:

• to Andrew Payzant who contributed information about:
  • Joshua de St. Croix from New York. John married Leah Gallaudet 11 Jan 1759 at New York City. He served with the Loyalist Corps. They had seven children: son Joshua Temple Jr. was also a Loyalist and daughter Leah married Loyalist Samuel Willett. In 1784 received a 450 acre Loyalist Land Grant in Wilmot Township, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia.
  • Samuel Willett born 1756 from New York, served in Bucks County Light Dragoons, British Legion, and Tarleton’s Dragoons. He resettled in Wilmot Twp, NS and married in 1786 at Nova Scotia to Leah De St. Croix and they had a family of twelve. During the war, Samuel and fellow Loyalist Thomas Embree, Quarter Master of the British Legion, were captured and held together as POWs by the Americans for more than a year.
• to Kevin Wisener who contributed information about Corporal John Cowen (Cowan), born in the UK, and served in the Duke of Cumberland’s Regiment. He received a land grant in Manchester Township, Sydney County, Nova Scotia, then two grants in Guysborough, Sydney County, NS and by 1800 was in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island He married Mary Heath and they had a family of six.
  The Duke of Cumberland’s Regiment, also known as Montagu’s Corps, South Carolina Rangers, and the Loyal American Rangers, was a British Loyalist provincial unit raised from American colonists and rebel prisoners by the former British Royal Governor of the Province of South Carolina, Lord Charles Montagu

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

Guardians of the glacial past
By Brett Huson 29 Dec 2023 Canadian Geographic
How ‘maas ol, the spirit bear, connects us to the last glacial maximum of the Pacific Northwest
I was about five when I first first encountered ‘maas ol (white bear). I was in our community van on my way to nursery school when the driver pulled over on the side of the road and pointed out a white bear with a white cub. I was amazed to see this enigmatic being walking along the roadside foraging on huk (our word for cow parsnip, a plant the Gitxsan people enjoy as food and medicine). I was enthralled with this first encounter: little was known to the western world about these bears, so we never learned much about them in public schools. Typically, the stories, films and books revolved around black-coloured bears, brown bears and polar bears.
As a teenager, I heard stories about the white bear that showed me the importance of ‘maas ol to our cultures in the Pacific Northwest. This being was our connection to our lands before the last glacial maximum carved out the landscapes we know today. Many of the observations that coastal peoples made about the existence of ‘mass ol shaped the stories that, until recently, were deemed to be myths by the newcomers to these lands. Read more…

National Trust for Canada: Vote for the Next Great Save!
April 18 – May 6, 2024
Twelve heritage places are vying for your vote to win $65,000 in prizes to help their community save a treasured heritage place at risk. The competing groups have plans to protect, adapt, renew, or improve a heritage place for the future, and inspire us all in the process!
Vote online for your favourite heritage place from April 18 – May 6.

Happy 90th Birthday to June Klassen UE
June is celebrating her 90th Birthday on Saturday but it’s actually on the 22 of April. She served 10 years as our London and Western Ontario Branch President from 2004 until 2013. She moved from her home to a retirement residence this past year.
June received her Loyalist Certificate as a descendant of Loyalists John Brown UEL and Henry Smith UEL in 2004.
If anyone would like to send June best wishes they can through an email to me at president.london@uelac.org
Carol Childs UE <president.london@uelac.org> President, London and Western Ontario Branch

Events Upcoming

Kawartha Branch: “The Rise and Fall of J.C. Dale: A Family, a House and the Madoc Bank Bust of 1914” Sun. 21 Apr @2:00

The story stems from a significant event at the Madoc Dale Bank, a financial institution that the community had come to trust and rely on. On April Fool’s Day, April 1, 1914, the bank did not open at its usual hour, with a sign on the door reading “payment stopped for 10 days”. That sign generated ominous feelings amongst the bank’s 1,400 depositors. J.C. (Jimmy) Dale, was a man who had earned community trust in numerous roles for many years.
In-person at Peterborough Activity Haven (Contact Bob McBride uelbob@nexicom.net for directions. Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87117433590?pwd=oxxiwndwvT04Brivw40XfDCLrjJNnB.1
Meeting ID: 871 1743 3590 Passcode: 501885

American Revolution Institute: Lord Fairfax and George Washington Wed 24 Apr 6:30

Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, played an influential role throughout the life of George Washington. Having been introduced to Washington shortly after settling in Belvoir, Va., in 1747, Fairfax became Washington’s first employer when he hired the sixteen-year-old Virginian to survey his lands west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Although a professed Loyalist throughout the American Revolution, Fairfax was quiet about his sentiments and remained a close friend of Washington until Fairfax’s death in 1781. In this lecture, Nicholas Fairfax, 14th Lord Fairfax of Cameron and descendant of Thomas Fairfax, discusses the early history of the Fairfax family in America and the relationship between the Fairfax and Washington families before and after the Revolution. Details and registration…

Kingston and District Branch: “Early Loyalists of Ontario” Sat. 27 April 27 at 1:00 ET

Kingston and District Branch will meet on Saturday, April 27 at 1:00 p.m. at St. Paul’s Anglican Church Hall, 137 Queen Street (doors open at noon); or if you prefer on Zoom (open at 12:30 p.m.). Jo Ann Tuskin will speak on “Early Loyalists of Ontario”, including maps. Jo Ann is the longstanding Dominion Secretary of the UELAC, and active in genealogy. For the Zoom link for the meeting, visit the website www.uelac.org/Kingston-Branch. All welcome!

Drumhill DAR, Wilton CT “British March Through Redding” Sat 27 April 2024

Join us to commemorate the 1777 March of the Crown Forces through Redding, on a mission to dismantle the Continental Army Supply Depot in Danbury. This one-day educational Living History event will be presented by The Brigade of the American Revolution at Historic Onion Field, Redding, CT 06876.
See the graphic. https://www.wiltondar.org/
For details, schedule of activities and registration

Gov. Simcoe Branch: “The Young George Washington” by Sam Davis Wed 1 May 7:30

“Before 1770, George Washington was a surveyor, farmer, and landowner in Virginia. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, advocating for colonial rights. As a militia colonel during the French and Indian War, his leadership and bravery gained recognition. These experiences laid the groundwork for his future leadership roles.”
There was more to Washington’s youth than being a militia colonel. One might wonder:

• Mt. Vernon was a large estate. How did he come by it?
• Did he cut down a cherry tree, and not lie about it?
• What was his life like before and after his Seven Years War military role?
• How well did he really do as an officer in that war?

Samuel Davis SAR, from Trenton NJ, like George Washington, a Freemason frequently portrays George Washington for groups and events.
Details. The meeting is virtual: Registration.

Saratoga: Women in War Symposium and Bus Tour 4 and 5 May

Saratoga: America’s Turning Point. The 3rd Annual Women in War Symposium returns to Saratoga County in 2024. Featuring noted authors & historians, the event will offer optional tours of the Saratoga Revolutionary heritage sites, compelling speaker panels, breakfast & lunch, plus time to enjoy the amenities Saratoga has to offer. For program and details…

Col. John Butler Branch: the John Butler Homestead Sat. 4 May 11:45 at Betty’s Restaurant

Dr. Ron Williamson. The Discovery and Investigation of the John Butler Homestead: Perspectives from Two Decades Later.
The foundations of the John Butler Homestead can now be seen clearly in the Butler Parkette in Niagara-in-the-Lake, thanks to archeological excavations led by Ron Williamson. Those investigations yielded over 50,000 ceramic shreds and over 14,000 animal bones. These finds allowed archaeologists to reconstruct the family’s meal systems and to interpret life in the Butler home, especially at the dining table. An analysis of almost 100 artifacts related to flint-lock firearms and military-uniform accoutrements helped to identify the archaeological evidence of the War of 1812 skirmishes at the site. John Butler was well known for his relationship with Indigenous peoples but what he might not have realised is that he situated his homestead on a location that had been host to Indigenous peoples periodically for more than 8,000 years! Dr. Ron Williamson will summarise all these findings in his presentation.
The Colonel John Butler (Niagara) Branch meets at Betty’s Restaurant, Chippawa, at 11:45 for a lunch meeting. Cost of the lunch is $30 for UELAC members and $35 for guests. Cash only. No credit cards. If you plan to attend, RSVP to 283corvette@gmail.com in advance so that the restaurant can prepare.

From the Social Media and Beyond

• Townsends
  • Keeping Animals Aboard Ship
• This week in History
  • 16 Apr 1738, Newfoundland. Henry Clinton, the future CIC of British forces in North America, is born. His father, George, was the royal gov of Newfoundland. Henry spent 8 years there before moving to England & taking a commission in the Coldstream Guards. Image
  • 14 April 1740. Patriot & Spy Anna “Nancy” Strong is born. A key member of the Culper Spy Ring in Setauket, NY, during the British occupation of NY & LI. The ring, though still shrouded in mystery, played a role in informing Gen Washington of British plans. Image
  • 15 Apr 1774 London. Benjamin Franklin writes an open letter to Great Britain’s PM, Lord North, from the Smyrna Coffee House. He tongue-in-cheeks suggested the British impose martial law on the colonies & appoint a King’s Viceroy of all North America.” Image
  • 14 Apr 1775 Boston, MA Royal Gov Gen Thomas Gage receives instructions from Secretary for the Colonies, William Legge, Lord Dartmouth, allowing the use of whatever force necessary to subdue the insurrectionists & enforce the Coercive Acts. Image
  • 16 Apr 1775 Dr Joseph Warren dispatches Paul Revere to Lexington to warn John Hanco*ck & Sam Adams of possible British activity. Then Revere arranges for lanterns in the steeple of Boston’s Old Church to signal British moves. Image
  • 17 Apr 1775 The last “Novanglus” (New Englander) letter by John Adams to the Colony of Massachusetts Bay was printed in the Boston Gazette. Outlined the dispute with Britain using Adams’ legal skills to show why the colonies should be autonomous. Image
  • 18 April 1775 Boston, Massachussetts. British General Thomas Gage orders the elite flying column under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, along with Maj John Pitcairn’s marines, on a raid to seize an arms cache at Concord. Dr. Joseph Warren gets wind of it through his spies and launches three-night riders to warn patriot leaders. John Hanco*ck and Samuel Adams. Paul Revere, William Dawes & Samuel Prescott began their midnight ride to warn of approaching British forces – an elite flying column targeting patriot leaders and munitions/weaponry at Lexington and Concord. Paul Revere did not yell the celebrated “The British are coming” but rather “The regulars are coming out,” as the British soldiers were known as “regular troops.” At the time, all Americans felt they were British. Image
  • 19 April 1775 Lexington, Massachusetts. Captain John Parker and the Lexington militia face a British column marching on Concord. Parker orders his men to depart the field. A shot erupts. British open fire and charge with bayonets. The action ends with eight militia killed and ten wounded. Later, at Concord, Massachusetts, Colonel Francis Smith’s column begins to search for contraband and sets fire to the courthouse and other buildings. A detachment sent to North Bridge is driven back by militia fire. With more militia gathering, Smith’s weary regulars tramp back to Boston. That evening, at Charlestown, a tired and dejected force of 1,800 regulars under Colonel Hugh Percy arrives after a harrowing march from Concord under withering volleys and sniping by swarms of militia. Colonel Smith is injured, and Major Pitcairn is unhorsed. The British lost 73 killed and 201 wounded. News of the action quickly spread through the colonies. Years of political agitation, insurrection, and rebellion had now become a war between the American colonies and Great Britain. Image
  • 20 Apr 1775 Boston, MA Patriot militia surround British garrison in Boston & a long siege ensues. News of Lex & Con brought thousands from across New England. This would morph into the Continental Army when Congress adopted them in June 1775. Image
  • 13 Apr 1776 NYC. Gen Washington arrives from Boston to assess & prepare the city’s defense. He recognizes the strategic value of the city’s location & sees it as a key link between the northern & southern states & would maintain this throughout the war. Image
  • 13 Apr 1777 Bound Brook, NJ Gen Benjamin Lincoln’s brigade is completely surprised in camp by a sudden attack from British forces under Gen Charles Cornwallis. Lincoln maintains a stout defense and withdraws, losing three cannons, 6 KIA & 20 POWs. Image
  • 17 Apr 1777 Philadelphia, PA. Congress reorganized the Committee of Secret Correspondence, making it the Committee of Foreign Affairs & appointed pamphleteer Thomas Paine as secretary. A maturing of America’s approach to diplomacy, as well as intelligence. Image
  • 20 Apr 1777 Deliberately disobeying King Louis XVI, Marquis de Lafayette left France with Baron Johann DeKalb. They set sail from Spain in Lafayette’s ship la Victoire, reportedly heading for Santa Domingo. But the real destination is South Carolina. Image
  • 13 Apr 1778 Toulon, France. A French fleet sets sail with sealed orders to open after it reaches the Atlantic. The secret orders told them they were at war with England, to attack British ships & head to Boston for further orders. Image
  • 16 Apr 1778 Portsmouth, England. Members of the Carlisle Committee depart for North America accompanied by the new 2nd in command of British forces, Gen Lord Charles Cornwallis. Image
  • 13 Apr 1780 Charleston, SC British artillery & naval batteries begin bombarding the city’s defenses, commencing a month-long siege. Image
  • 14 Apr 1780 Monks Corner, SC Lt Col Banastre Tarleton & Maj Patrick Ferguson lead infantry & cavalry brigade against the last American outpost near Charleston. They raid Gen Isaac Huger’s 500-strong garrison, inflicting major casualties Image
  • 17 Apr 1780 Dominica, W. Indies Adm Rodney’s sqdn encounters French fleet under Adm Luc Urbain. A battle ensues. But misunderstood orders by Rodney’s captains lead to a bloody but indecisive battle & both withdraw with almost 1300 casualties on both sides. Image
  • 15 Apr 1781 Delaware Capes. Seth Harding’s 32-gun frigate USS Confederacy is captured by the 32-gun British frigate Orpheus & 44-gun frigate Roebuck. British renamed the ship HMS Confederate. Image
  • 19 Apr 1781 Camden, SC. Gen Nathanael Greene, leading a force of 1,500 men, encamps on the site of the great American defeat. He prepares his army for a march on Charleston. Image
  • 19 Apr 1782 Amsterdam, NL. Sent to secure a loan, John Adams first negotiated a Treaty of Peace and Amity with the United Provinces of the Netherlands, bringing Dutch recognition of the US. He then secures a loan for $!M. Image
  • 15 Apr 1783 The Confederation Congress ratified a provisional draft of The Treaty of Paris & ordered all naval prisoners to be released. This is a big Huzzah after 8 long years of war. Image
  • 17 Apr 1783 Ft Carlos, Arkansas (Spanish Terr.) Capt James Colbert 150 Loyalists & Indians. But garrison of 40 under Capt Rayundo Du Breul defend fort with Quapaw Indian allies. After a 6-hour battle, Du Breuil orders a sortie, forcing Colbert’s retreat. Image
  • 17 April 1790 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin died after a long battle with pleurisy. His death was mourned in Europe, especially France, and, of course, in the United States, especially Philadelphia. Sadly, many of the other founders were conflicted on whether to mourn Franklin officially. Franklin’s funeral was on April 21, 1790—attended by some 20,000 in a city whose estimated population was 28,000.
    Naturally, the prolific thinker and writer composed his own epitaph many decades earlier. “The Body of B. Franklin, Printer; like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost; For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended By the Author.” Image
• Clothing and Related:
  • Gown with a diamond-shaped back panel, anonymous, c. 1790 – c. 1810. Silk. At the end of the 18th century a new dye came onto the European market, namely an extract from the bark of the American black oak. This made it easier and cheaper to dye fabrics yellow. This colour consequently became fashionable in Paris. It also remained popular in the Netherlands until the early 19th century.
  • Tuesday shoes. Straw, silk & horsehair from 1830-40.
• Miscellaneous

Last Post: NORRIS UE, Jacqueline Lucinda (nee McDonald – Dame Domhnall Mac Raghnuill of the Norse Gaelic Clan Donald (honoris) and Lady (honoris))
Of Guelph, passed away peacefully at St. Joseph’s Health Centre on Thursday, April 18th, 2024, in her 92nd year.
Beloved wife of the late Ernie Norris (2005) and parents Max and Elsie Duvall McDonald. Loved mother of Darryl A. Norris (Julie) of Kitchener, and Alanna N. Norris (Geoffrey Cutting) of Coquitlam, BC.
Jacquie was a Life Member of United Empire Loyalist Association, Past Provincial Treasurer and Life Member of the Ontario Genealogical Society, and executive or founding member of many other groups.
Visitation at on Friday, April 26th and Funeral service Saturday, April 27th. Further details at Wall-Custance Funeral Home

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