Deadline for Christmas Certificates

Hoping to get a UE certificate for yourself or a family member for Christmas? If the answer is yes, be sure to get your application in by Halloween!

In order for the applications to be processed by Dominion in time for Christmas, applications and fees must be submitted by October 31st at the latest. Any applications submitted after that date will be completed in the new year. Applicants must be current members of the branch where they are applying to.

For more information, visit the Membership & Certificate page of our website.

Book Launch a Success

The launch of our new cookbook, Loyalists at Table, was a success! Thank you to those who joined us for our book launch yesterday, and to MP Eric Duncan for allowing us to host the event at his constituency office in Cornwall!

Copies of the book are still available for purchase from Darlene Montgomery Fawcett. Print copies are $20 and digital copies are $15. Contact Darlene at (613) 989-5489 or email her at dmfawcett@ripnet.com. Books can also be purchased by sending a message to our Facebook page: St. Lawrence Branch UELAC.

Launch of the St. Lawrence Branch UELAC’s new cookbook, Loyalists at Table. Pictured (left to right) are branch secretary Darlene Fawcett and president Lorraine Reoch, along with Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry MP Eric Duncan at Duncan’s Constituency Office, 691 Brookdale Ave., Cornwall. 19 September 2020.
Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry MP Eric Duncan at Duncan’s Constituency Office, 691 Brookdale Ave., Cornwall. 19 September 2020.
Left to right: St. Lawrence Branch president Lorraine Reoch and Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry MP Eric Duncan at Duncan’s Constituency Office, 691 Brookdale Ave., Cornwall. 19 September 2020.
St. Lawrence Branch’s table on display at the book launch, which took place at Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry MP Eric Duncan’s Constituency Office, 691 Brookdale Ave., Cornwall. 19 September 2020.
Pictured (left to right) are branch secretary Darlene Fawcett and president Lorraine Reoch, along with Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry MP Eric Duncan at Duncan’s Constituency Office, 691 Brookdale Ave., Cornwall. 19 September 2020.

Book Launch

Come celebrate with us! The St. Lawrence Branch of the UELAC is having a book launch to mark the publication of our new cookbook, Loyalists at Table.

Compiled by Darlene Montgomery Fawcett and Laurie McDonald, this volume contains 150 recipes from the 18th century that have been adapted for the modern kitchen. Copies can be purchased by contacting branch secretary Darlene Fawcett at (613) 989-5489 or dmfawcett@ripnet.com. Orders can also be placed by messaging the branch’s Facebook page: St. Lawrence Branch UELAC. Print books at $20.00 and digital copies are $15.00.

Join us at the book launch on Saturday, September 19th, 2020 at MP Eric Duncan’s Constituency Office (691 Brookdale Ave., Unit C) in Cornwall from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

As per the public health directive issued by the Eastern Ontario Health Unit on July 7th, 2020, face masks will be mandatory to attend this event. We also ask that all attendees do their best to maintain a physical distance of two (2) meters.

We hope to see you there!

Hot Off The Press!

St. Lawrence Branch secretary Darlene Montgomery Fawcett (left) and president Lorraine Reoch hold the newly printed Loyalists at Table. September 2020

Have history at your fingertips with our new cookbook, Loyalists at Table. This book contains 150 recipes from the 18th-century adapted for the modern kitchen.

Print copies are $20 (plus shipping) and digital copies are $15. Get yours today! Contact Darlene Montgomery Fawcett at (613) 989-5489 or dmfawcett@ripnet.com, or message us through our Facebook page: St. Lawrence Branch UELAC

New Loyalist Cookbook Published by the St. Lawrence Branch UELAC

Have you ever wanted to step back into time and see how your Loyalist ancestors lived? Well, our new cookbook, Loyalists at Table, can bring you one step closer to achieving that! Feast like a Loyalist with these 18th-century recipes adapted for the 21st-century kitchen. There are 150 recipes to chose from in this volume, compiled by branch secretary Darlene Montgomery Fawcett and member Laurie McDonald. Print books are $20 and digital files are $15.
Copies can be ordered by contacting Darlene Montgomery Fawcett:
Email: dmfawcett@ripnet.com
Phone: (613) 989-5489
Orders can also be placed by sending a message to our Facebook page: St. Lawrence Branch UELAC

The Jews of the Loyalist Diaspora

The month of May celebrates Jewish heritage in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. One often-overlooked chapter in their rich history is the role of Jews who supported the British crown during the American Revolution.

This article was a collaborative effort by three researchers and writers: Stephen Davidson UE, Stuart Manson UE, and Stephen McDonald UE.  All are members of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada, and the latter two are members of the St. Lawrence Branch.

The American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) was a vicious civil war pitting Rebels against Loyalists.  At the beginning of the conflict those living in the colonies were divided in sentiment. Having sided with the defeated British, approximately 60,000 Loyalists left the new United States and sought refuge within King George III’s reduced empire.  This ‘Loyalist Diaspora’ resulted in about 7,500 coming to what is now Ontario.

The Loyalist refugees fleeing the United States were a diverse group representing many ethnic, racial and religious groups including the Jewish community. Research has now shown that, like many religious and cultural groups, Jews were found in both Rebel and Loyalist camps. Often they are not identified as Jews in historical documents. Some historians have had to make educated guesses based on predominantly Jewish surnames.

Hart is a common surname among Jews of colonial America and also among those who remained loyal to the Crown during the American Revolutionary War. The Hart family of Newport, Rhode Island were Jewish Loyalists some of whose members did not survive the American Revolution. A period  map of Newport is illustrated above. When the British evacuated that city in 1779, the loyal Harts followed them to the New York City area, settling on Long Island. The Rebels later attacked this settlement. Despite a spirited defence in a makeshift fort, Isaac Hart was killed “with the greatest brutality by the rebels for his attachment to Great Britain.”

Samuel Hart was a merchant and politician who lived in Philadelphia and New York City. Hart set up shop in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1785, where his business initially prospered.  His biographer notes: “Not content with material success, Samuel Hart aspired to social recognition, even if that required suppression of his Jewish identity”. In March 1793, he was baptised as an Anglican. However, Hart’s mercantile business failed. The subsequent stress was too much, and in 1809 he was declared insane. He died the next year, “a pathetic figure who spent the last days of his life chained to the floor of a room in his Preston mansion.”

Abraham Florentine, a Jew of Italian origin, was a dry goods merchant before the revolution. He had establishments in New Jersey and New York City. A Loyalist, he joined the migration northward, settling in Digby, Nova Scotia. He soon left for England to seek compensation from the government. Unsuccessful, he returned to the United States of America where he appears to have been reintegrated into American society, a rarity for Loyalists who were usually unwelcome in their native colonies.

Barrak (Baruch) Hays was a Loyalist Jew who fled to Montréal from New York City in the spring of 1783 where he was reunited with his brother Andrew. Their father, Solomon Hays had emigrated from the Netherlands to the colony of New York in the 1720s. Solomon ran a mercantile business and became a prominent member of New York City’s Jewish community.

Barrak followed in his father’s footsteps, establishing a business based in both New York and Newport, Rhode Island. Andrew, a younger son, decided to take advantage of new business opportunities in Montréal. He settled there sometime after 1769 and became involved in the city’s thriving fur trade.

Colonial Jewish businessmen had a record of providing the British forces with needed provisions during the Seven Years War and did so again during the American Revolution. Some sold military provisions to the British troops and German mercenaries in Canada as early as 1775, while others did the same within the rebellious colonies following the British occupation of New York City in August of 1776.  Barrak Hays was one of those businessmen, describing himself as an “auctioneer in the city of New York”.

Hays had taken a strong Loyalist stance in the fall of 1776 when he and 500 other New Yorkers signed their names to a petition to the British for “restoring peace in His Majesty’s colonies”. Hays not only sided with the Crown, he also came to the aid of his synagogue when he learned that the British had plans to turn it into a military hospital. Hays was one of three men who “prevailed on the British not [to] do with the synagogue as they had with most of the other churches in the city. They had turned them into hospitals, riding academies, barracks and things of that kind.”

However, the synagogue did not escape vandalism. British soldiers broke into it, destroyed some of the furnishings, and damaged the Torah and other holy writings. To its credit, the British army publicly whipped the vandals who desecrated the synagogue.

In addition to his business connections with the British army, Hays was employed as an “officer of guides,” receiving five shillings a day for his services until June of 1783. Sensing the inevitable victory of the Patriots in August 1782, Hays decided to go to Montréal. He was there a year later, where he stayed for at least a decade. It seems most likely that he resumed his career as an auctioneer.

Upon his arrival in Montréal sometime after 1769, Hays’ brother Andrew had joined the local Jewish congregation, becoming one of its leading members. In 1777, Montréal’s Jews built themselves a synagogue, Shearith Israel Congregation — the first in Canada.

Montréal’s Jewish community — which now included Loyalist refugees as well as those who remained loyal throughout the revolution—was made up of businessmen, fur traders, and army personnel. It is estimated that 10% of Montréal’s merchants were Jewish. Andrew Hays’ son, Moses Judah Hays, would later become a municipal leader, serving as Montréal’s chief commissioner of police and organizing the city’s first water-works.

Details about the lives of the Loyalists, Barrak and Andrew Hays, begin to peter out after the massive refugee resettlement that followed in the wake of the American Revolution. A list of 113 members of a Masonic Lodge in Newport, Rhode Island “previous to the 24th of June, 1791” includes Barrak Hays’ name. Given that there was a large Jewish community in Rhode Island and that Hays once had a business in Newport, he may have moved there in the hope of establishing a new life in a more promising economic climate.

There are also references to the death of a Baruch Hays in the West Indies on April 13, 1845. This British colony had a fairly large community of Jewish businessmen; it would make sense for the New York Loyalist to have settled in the West Indies. Barrak Hays may have moved from New York to Montreal to Rhode Island and then to the West Indies before the conclusion of a tumultuous life.

David Franks was a merchant from Philadelphia who spent the American Revolution supplying troops — both Patriot and British — with provisions. However, he eventually gave his allegiance to the British crown.  Phila, Franks’ socialite daughter, eloped with Oliver Delancey, a prominent Loyalist who had established a three-battalion regiment operating out of New York City. Phila converted to Christianity at the time of her marriage.

During the war, David Franks migrated to Montréal, and joined its Jewish community. He contributed to the construction fund for Montréal’s first synagogue. Seeking compensation for the sizeable losses he sustained during the war, Franks left Montreal for England. There he died there within ten years of the revolution’s end, still suffering financially. A key biographer claims: “David Franks deserves to be numbered among Loyal Americans who suffered greatly during the American Revolution, and his story is an example of the tribulations that could befall a civilian Loyalist in those difficult times”.

St. Lawrence Branch Annual General Meeting (Virtual)

Normally, our first public branch meeting of the calendar year is the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Due to COVID-19, we cannot meet in-person. But fear not! In order to continue our operations, this AGM will be held virtually, using the video-conferencing website ZOOM.

The meeting will take place on Saturday, June 13 at 1:30 p.m.

Branch members will soon receive information by email on how to join this meeting.

Important agenda items include a vote on a proposed amendment to our branch bylaws, and the election of the new branch executive.

KRRNY Soldier and Family Migration Routes to Canada

For your reading pleasure – since we suspect that many have time on their hands, at present – our website now features a new historical article written by Vicki Holmes. The piece is titled “King’s Royal Regiment of New York: Soldier and Family Migration Routes to Canada” and is illustrated with some great maps.

Holmes’ article, just like her recent book Three River Valleys Called Home, is saturated with the names of specific loyalist families. We’re sure you’ll enjoy it. A link to the article can be found at the end of our Wartime & Settlement page.

A huge “thank you” to Vicki Holmes for preparing this article for us.

Loyalist Resource Centre CLOSED

Due to concerns over COVID-19 (coronavirus), our Loyalist Resource Centre is now closed until further notice.

We are still available to answer your queries, however, via email or telephone. Please consult our Loyalist Resource Centre page for more information.

We will provide further updates here on our website, and on our social media accounts.