Our original branch website was created in the spring of 2004 with the help of Selwyn Wesley MacDiarmid, UE, who served as our first Web Master.
Wes received the first of his six UELAC certificates in 2000. He has compiled over 55 genealogy publications of his ancestors. Many are in the UELAC archives. His Loyalists include: John Cameron, John Everson, Angus Grant, John McMartin, William Simmonds Place and Fredrick Schaeffer.
His health has prevented him from further involvement, but we thank him for his initiative and foresight.
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2025 UELAC Conference:
Our Heritage:
“Those Loyalists who have adhered to the Unity of the Empire,
and joined the Royal Standard before the Treaty of Separation in the
year 1783, and all their Children, and their Descendants by either sex,
are to be distinguished by the following capitals affixed to their names U.E. .
Alluding to their great principle The Unity of the Empire”– Gov. Guy Carleton
Nov. 9, 1789
Union Flag (the Loyalists’ Flag)
Days before she died in 1603. Queen Elizabeth I, who never married, named James VI of Scotland, son of her cousin Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, as her heir. He became James I of England. On his accession, he declared his intention to be the first British Monarch to be known as King of Great Britain. Consequently, he ordered a flag to be devised to mark the union of the two thrones. This was called the Union Flag and was introduced in 1606.
So as not to give priority to either flag, (the Banner of Saint George or the Banner of Saint Andrew) the field of the new flag was made blue and the Red Cross of Saint George, edged in White, was imposed on the White Saltier of Saint Andrew.
This was the flag under which the United Empire Loyalists' entered Prince Edward County after leaving the Thirteen Colonies following the American Revolution in 1776. Hence, the term "Loyalist Flag".
Loyalists' Arrival in Canada
On May 18th 1783 the Spring Fleet arrived in Saint John, New Brunswick, formerly Parr Town, Nova Scotia.
This is often recognized as the first Loyalist Landing but it should be noted that there was a previous landing in Nova Scotia. The first shipload of Loyalists' left the Thirteen Colonies for Nova Scotia in the Spring of 1776. Another landing of note took place May 4th 1783 when 30 ships with 3000+ souls landed at Port Roseway (Shelburne), Nova Scotia.
Ships similar to the one depicted above were used to transport the Loyalists to their new homes in Canada.