Loyalist Trails UELAC Newsletter, 2008 Archive

In this issue:
- "Saint John 225" Saturday Banquet: Speaker Peter Larocque & Guest The Hon. Herménégilde Chiasson
- The Jewish Loyalists of New York, by Stephen Davidson
- Two New Loyalist Websites - Experiences of Women and Black Loyalists - Launched by UNB
- New Web Site for The Friends of the Loyalist Collection at Brock University
- Last Post: Jean Darrah McCaw Sir John Johnson Branch
- Last Post: Reta (Pyke) Marquette
- Addition to Loyalist Directory: John Morrell
- Queries
      + Response re Name of ship which took William Hayman and the Royal North Carolina Regiment
      + Response re Names of Ships Bringing Loyalists to Canada

"Saint John 225" Saturday Banquet: Speaker & Guest

The traditional Saturday Night Banquet has often been the highlight of past conferences and this year should be no exception.

Saturday evening you are encouraged to present yourself in period dress in the Loyalist Room at the Saint John Trade & Convention Center. You just can't beat the atmosphere as an enormous paining of the landing of the Loyalists decorates this large room.

While menu details have not yet been fixed the food prepared by the Hilton kitchens is always excellent.

In attendance will be several dignitaries including the Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick the Hon. Herménégilde Chiasson. A New Brunswicker of Acadian roots, Dr Chiasson has been a university professor and radio broadcaster, is the author of some 20 plays, and been both an artist and supporter of the arts all his life. His appearance at the Banquet will be one of his last official functions as his term expires in August. During his term he has been an active and popular representative of the Queen and he will be missed. Local dignitaries will be present as well but with a civic election between now and July it's difficult to list names!

The guest speaker at the banquet will be Peter Larocque, Curator of New Brunswick Cultural History at the New Brunswick Museum. He will be speaking on and presenting a very visual display of the Loyalist holdings of the Museum.

Expect a bit of fun as well! But we will keep that part a surprise.

(Thursday July 10 - Sunday July 13): "Saint John 225" hosted by New Brunswick Branch in Saint John NB.

...Stephen Bolton UE, Conference Chair {steve DOT bolton AT gnb DOT ca} how do I email him?

The Jewish Loyalists of New York, by Stephen Davidson

In April 1816, David Gabel was laid to rest in the Saint John Burial ground alongside fellow loyalist refugees who had made the New Brunswick city their home. The baker's tombstone noted that Gabel had died at 83 years of age and had been born in Frankfort, Germany. Seventy years later, vandals attacked graves near the cemetery's fountain, carrying Gabel's tombstone away from his resting place and throwing it on the ground. Seventy more years passed. Twentieth century visitors who walked by the Loyalist Burial Ground's fountain just might happen to see a twenty inch fragment of stone jutting out of the ground that bore the weathered lettering "Dav…..bel Sen".

Just as David Gabel's tombstone slowly disappeared from view, so too have the stories of Canada's Jewish loyalists faded from view. The Saint John baker was a Jewish loyalist from New York, one of a handful of men and women whose stories form the chapters of a lost loyalist heritage.

The largest majority of loyalists who made their homes in New Brunswick hailed from New York. It was also the home to many of the 2,500 souls who made up the Jewish population of the Thirteen Colonies. It should come as no surprise, then, that a number of those who worshipped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should also be loyal to King George III.

Two of the children of Jacob Franks, New York City's leading Jewish merchant, were prominent loyalists. David Frank set up a brokerage business in Philadelphia, became part of the city's elite society, and married a daughter of a prominent Christian family. Franks openly supported the British cause throughout the revolution. As the royal purveyor and commissary-general, it was Franks' job to supply much needed provisions for the king's troops. He was eventually imprisoned by Congress for being an enemy to the patriot cause.

Upon his release, Franks fled to England, returning to Philadelphia when the British gained up upper hand. At some point during the revolution, Franks celebrated the marriage of his daughter to an English officer who would later be knighted for meritorious service. But the Jewish loyalist's happiness did not last long. In the wake of a patriot victory, David Franks once again sailed for England where he died in 1794.

David's sister, Phila Frank, caused a scandal in the Jewish community by secretly marrying outside of her faith. Her new husband was Oliver deLancey, a member of a prominent New York family, a wealthy merchant, and a powerful politician. At the outbreak of the war, deLancey recruited 1500 loyalists to serve in the three battalions of DeLancey's Brigade, one of the most famous colonial military units of the revolution. When New York City reverted to patriot control, Phila, Oliver, and their children fled to England. Oliver died within two years, but Phila stayed in Great Britain, living long enough to see her sons become prominent members of English society and her daughters marry men of good income.

Other Jews who served King George III had far humbler origins. Many of the German mercenaries --or Hessians-- that fought for Britain during the revolution worshipped their God in a synagogue. The young Jewish women of New York were thrilled to have an influx of so many eligible men poring into their city during the course of the war. Given the fact that many German soldiers settled among the loyalist refugees in Canada, it is entirely possible that the descendants of Jewish soldiers and their New York brides comprise a small part of Ontario's loyalist population to this day.

Some Jewish loyalists came to the Thirteen Colonies as immigrants before the outbreak of the revolution. David and Catherine Gabel were married in Holland, moved to England, and eventually immigrated to New York where David established a bakery and butcher's shop. Gabel's loyalty forced him to flee New York City when he was fifty years old -- a difficult time to begin a new life. The Gabels and their son David sailed for the mouth of the St. John River aboard a ship whose manifest listed the family as "German Hebrews".

After the streets of Saint John were laid out and its log shelters replaced by more substantial buildings, the Gabels built a brick, two-story bakery and butcher shop on the corner of Sydney and King Street North, just above King Square. Well into the 20th century this juncture was known as Gables Corner. Built in the Georgian style, the Jewish butcher shop was at street level while the bakery was in the basement. The Gables and their son lived in an apartment on the second floor.

Life in New Brunswick proved to be good for David Gabel and his family. Upon his death on April 10, 1816, Gabel left half of his real estate and personal effects to Catherine, providing her with enough income to see her through the remaining fifteen years of her life. The other half of Gabel's estate was given to his son David who carried on the family business.

The Gabel's brick store was a fixture in the landscape of Saint John for over 150 years. It weathered the War of 1812, Confederation, the Great Saint John Fire, the Depression, and two World Wars. When the bakery was finally demolished in 1956, David Gabel's oven was found in the midst of the building's rubble. It was a mute testimony to the loyalty of a Jewish couple from New York and their ability to create a new home in British North America.

Two New Loyalist Websites

On 2 April 2008 the University of New Brunswick launched two new websites celebrating the province's Loyalist heritage. Designed with students in mind-- but of interest to the general public-- these websites are devoted to exploring the experiences of women and African Americans in the Loyalist migration to New Brunswick. The two websites complement an earlier site featuring the correspondence of Loyalist Edward Winslow which is already featured on the Atlantic Canada Virtual Archives.

"Black Loyalists in New Brunswick" is constructed around more than 70 petitions, housed in the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, relating to land grants in which African Americans were either the petitioners or the land granted to African Americans is the subject of attention. Photographs of artifacts and maps pertaining to Black Loyalists (and the slaves of loyalists) are just one of the site's interesting features.

"Loyalist Women in New Brunswick" features the letters and other primary documents relating to the Revolution's female refugees. Chief among these stories are the accounts of three generations of women in the family of Edward and Mary Winslow, who settled in New Brunswick in 1785. Photographs of female handicrafts and tools are available to view on the site.

Part of the website project also includes the publication of a map of the loyalist dispersion from the 13 Colonies to modern day Canada, England, and the Caribbean.

Margaret Conrad, Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Studies at UNB, who co-directed this project noted:

"The New Brunswick that we know today is rooted in the difficult adjustments made among various peoples in the Maritimes ?Aboriginal, Acadian, and Anglo-American ? in the second half of the eighteenth century. While the Loyalists are often mentioned in Canadian history texts, little attention has been paid until recently to the fact that African Americans, both slave and free, comprised a significant proportion of the Loyalist migration, or that women and children made up over half of those counted as Loyalists. By making these documents freely available online, with learning resources for people of all ages, we hope to reach a wide audience, including people outside of Canada, who share an interest in this complicated and important period in the history of our nation."

Readers of this newsletter will be interested to know that Stephen Davidson, a regular contributor to "Loyalist Trails", was a member of the team of scholars who compiled data for both websites. He researched two female loyalist biographies and three Black Loyalist biographies for the project.

These two websites, funded by a grant of $99,956 from Heritage Canada and support from the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick and the University of New Brunswick, were launched on Wednesday, 2 April 2008.

At the launch, Dr. Margaret Conrad commented

"Today is a highlight for me in my 7-year term as Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Studies....

The New Brunswick that we know today is a product of two world wars, not the 20th-century wars we commonly think of when we use this term, but of two 18th-century world wars fought on our own soil: The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) and the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). These were mean and dirty wars that resulted in the expulsion of the Acadians, the arrival of nearly 15,000 Loyalist refugees from the United States, and the confinement of Aboriginal peoples to reserves. In these days of diasporas and mass refugee movements, New Brunswick's troubled history is of interest to people outside of our borders, who are eager to understand the behaviour of human beings in times of war and peace. It is our job to tell our story. No one else will do it for us. And the Web is an ideal vehicle for making our story accessible to everyone.

The Loyalists played a key role in shaping the New Brunswick we know today. As a result of their arrival in the old colony of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick came into existence as a separate British colony in 1784. Indeed, our own university is rooted in the Loyalist respect for higher education - we celebrate our 225th anniversary in 2010. The tensions among Aboriginal, francophone, and anglophone peoples that shape many of our public policies are the result of developments set in motion by the Loyalist migration. It is essential that every generation of New Brunswickers revisit and come to grips with our founding stories.

In older histories of New Brunswick, the Loyalists are presented in various ways - victims of unspeakable hardship, founding fathers (rarely mothers), men of admirable traits - but always as the 'good guys' who helped to lay the political, social, and economic foundations of our province. Only recently have they been accorded a less flattering assessment, their greed, arrogance, and sheer cussedness clear for all to see in the documentary record as they encroached illegally on Native reserves, scorned Acadian culture, discriminated against people whose skin was black, and generally sought to define the province and its history in their own narrow image. Loyalists, or at least their leaders, are now the 'bad guys.' It is time to move beyond the 'good guys, bad guys' approach to the past and to look at the Loyalists in all of their complexity."

New Web Site for The Friends of the Loyalist Collection at Brock University

The Friends of the Loyalist Collection at Brock University, are pleased to announce that they have just launched a new web page on April 1, with more pictures, more colour, and much more information than the original.

The original was designed to sell "Butlers Rangers Annotated Roll", and it did that, now we are shifting away from book sales, and providing more information about the Organization, the Loyalists, and of course the collection, which has just recently been expanded with some 300 rolls of microfilm of Upper Canada, and New Brunswick Land Petitions.

Click here to check out the web site. We would appreciate your comments, there is a email contact form on the web page.

...Edward Scott UE Chairman {escott5 AT cogeco DOT ca} how do I email him?

Last Post: Jean Darrah McCaw Sir John Johnson Branch

The Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch of the UELAC are mourning the loss of one of their most loyal and dedicated members, Mrs. Jean McCaw, who passed away suddenly at her home in Sutton, Quebec on February 4th, 2008. Jean was born in Sutton in 1921, educated there and then continued her education to graduate as a registered nurse from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Montreal Quebec. Jean was married to the late Syndey McCaw who predeceased her in 1992. She leaves to mourn her passing 4 children, 9 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren and a sister.

Jean and her husband returned to Sutton after their retirement and joined the Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch in 1982. Jean was a regular documented member, descended from Loyalist Adam Best, and soon after joining took on the duties of the Branch Genealogist. An office that she diligently carried out until the Fall of 2007 when due to diminishing eyesight she reluctantly resigned from the post. A large number of the branch members, as well as those of the beginning of Little Forks Branch, owe their documentation to Jean's dedicated research.

To celebrate the Bicentennial of the settlement of the United Empire Loyalists in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, the branch undertook to create a book, which was a collection of articles recording the history of these Loyalists. Jean was one of the most active participants of this project, and the book, "Loyalists of the Eastern Townships" was published in 1984.

On June 8, 2001, Heritage Branch invested Jean as a 'Companion of the Most Honorable Order of Meritorious Heritage' in recognition of her contribution to the United Empire Loyalist Association.

Jean was active in her Community and Sutton's Grace Anglican Church, as well as a dedicated volunteer of Brome County Historical Society in Knowlton, Quebec. Her guiding hand and advice will be greatly missed by her friends in the Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch.

A memorial service for Jean McCaw is scheduled to be held in Grace Anglican Church in Sutton at 2 p.m. on June 21, 2008.

...Adelaide Lanktree UE, Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch

Last Post: Reta (Pyke) Marquette

United Empire Loyalist - At the Cornwall Community Hospital on Thursday April 3, 2008. She was 88. She leaves her loving husband of 48 years, George Marquette and son Robert Belanger (Yvette) of Cornwall, 5 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren, and brother, Irvin Elwood Pyke of Hawkesbury, sister Jean Henry (Omer) of Ottawa and many nieces and nephews. Predeceased by her previous husband Gerard Belanger, son Donald (Don) Belanger (Darleen), parents, Hubert E. and Eva D. (Cole) Pyke, sister Myrla Scott (Albert) and brothers, Donald, Herbert and Gerald Pyke.

[submitted by Lynne Cook UE, St.Lawrence Branch]

Addition to Loyalist Directory: John Morrell

Information about Loyalist John Morrell, contributed by James Fosdyck, has been added to the Directory of Loyalists.

Responses re Names of Ships Bringing Loyalists to Canada

Here are the names of some ships. I don't remember the source but I think I was reading about Huntington NY. They sailed out of the Harbour there. Some excerpts from what I was reading.

CHAPTER VI: THE EXODUS TO NOVA SCOTIA

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.

As I remember the Union was the 1st to sail in April 1783. Click here for the passenger list.

One sailing consisted of twenty square-rigged ships: The Camel, Thames, Emmett, Lord Townshend, Union, Spring,

William, King George, Aurora, Ann, Cyprus, Favourite, Hope, Spence, Britain, Bridgewater, Otter, Sall, Sovereign, and Commerce

For more on the Fleet.-- LXIV - THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS

...Jack Dedrick

Response re Name of ship which took Hayman & RNC Regiment

Not unusual to find different accounts for the same event, and here are more notes.

I also have further notes on the query about the ship that brought William HAYMAN to Nova Scotia (I am copying Todd Braisted as so much of my information and curiosity about the Rev. war has been fueled by his "Loyalist Institute".)

On 10 May 1783 Lt. Col John Hamilton petitioned for his regiment, the Royal NC Regiment, to go to Britain, Halifax or the West Indies. (letter to Brg. Gen. McArthur)

On the Ships List the ARGO is listed as bringing Loyalists to Nova Scotia in July of 1784. This is too late for William HAYMAN as he was discharged in 1783 and was among the last of the regiment to come to Nova Scotia. (The ship ARGO in 1784 was named in a 1974 GANS newsletter by Mrs. Fred McInnes as the transportation)

According to The Loyalist Institute Timeline of the Royal NC Regiment, the regiment set sail from St. Augustine, FL to Country Harbor, NS in October 1783, landed in Nova Scotia in November and was disbanded there. (William Hayman's discharge papers are dated 1783.)

Another source: Robert K. Proctor of Nova Scotia wrote "William Hayman of the Royal NC Regiment left St. Augustine FL for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the British transport DIANA on the 17th of December 1783 and went ashore at Country Harbour in a snowstorm on 24 December 1783". Perhaps they landed at Halifax and then went on in another ship to Country Harbour???

Another source: "Loyalists in N. C. During the Revolution" by Robert Demond, PhD. Duke University Press. 1940 pg. 192 states that three regiments arrived in Nova Scotia on the DIANA on 3 Dec 1783 from St. Augustine, Florida - The South Carolina Regiment, King's Carolina Regiment, and the Royal North Carolina Regiment.

Perhaps somewhere there are more archived proof/source documents with all the information. A Loyalist Ships List would be a great addition to our studies.

...Claire Lincoln

Here is a list of "Men, Women, Children and Servants Belonging to the late Royal North Carolina Regt. Settled and carrying Country Harbour 12th June 1784." I didn’t see a William Hayman on the list, but did see a William Hayes on the list, perhaps there was a transcription error.

The Argo Transport, from St. Augustine, Florida destined to Chedabucto, Guysborough County, arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia July 13th 1784.

...Lark Szick Volunteer Coordinator for the N.S. Genweb project