Loyalist Trails UELAC Newsletter, 2012 Archive

In this issue:
- Fifteen Loyalists and Benedict Arnold: Part One -- by Stephen Davidson
- Richard Carman (1757 - 1817) by George McNeillie
- "Vignettes of Winnipeg: Past and Present" — Broadway
- 300 Years: St Peter's Anglican/Episcopal Church, Albany, New York
- The Diamond Queen — A Resource for the Jubilee
- Biggest Loyalist Families — Alexander Rose (14 children) by John McLeod
- The Tech Side: Genealogy Resources – by Wayne Scott, UE
- Last Post: Iva Eamer Wylie, UE
- Queries
      + Speaker about War of 1812

Fifteen Loyalists and Benedict Arnold: Part One -- by Stephen Davidson

Every lifetime has its memorable moments, those occasions when people ask "Where were you when--?" For one generation, it was V-E Day in 1945, for another it was Kennedy's assassination in 1963, and for yet another it was the Attack on America in 2001. A generational milestone for the loyalists of the American Revolution was September of 1780. The greatest patriot general after George Washington --the man who brought about General Burgoyne's disastrous defeat-- abandoned the rebel caused and sided with the loyalists. His name was Benedict Arnold, and his rejection of the patriot cause sent shockwaves through the Thirteen Colonies.

The date of Arnold's defection to the British side was how William Underhill remembered where he was in the fall of 1780. In appealing for financial compensation at a 1787 hearing in Saint John, New Brunswick, Underhill cited Arnold in his testimony.

The Westchester County loyalist had joined the British army as soon as it conquered Long Island in the summer of 1776; Underhill then encouraged 162 other men to enlist along with him. As he went off to join Burgoyne's forces in their trek down the Hudson River, rebels captured the loyalist. After two years and nine months in a patriot jail, he was granted parole. It was, Underhill remembered, during the same time frame as Arnold's discussions with Major Andre.

To look at Underhill, the loyalist compensation board commissioners would never have guessed that he played a minor role in one of the greatest loyalty-reversals in Western history. Underhill knew Major Andre, the British officer who was the courier between Arnold and the British. Underhill also knew the dangerous nature of Andre's mission and cautioned him to seek refuge with a Captain Kips. This loyal commander could escort the British major through the New York forests and deliver him to the British lines. However, rebels captured Major Andre soon after Underhill's warning, and had him hanged as a spy.

Somehow the patriots discovered that Underhill had counselled Andre. They beat him so fiercely that he was left for dead on the ground. Delancey's loyalist corps found Underhill, and carried him to safety within the British lines. He stayed there for the next three years until he set sail for New Brunswick in 1783. Underhill settled on Spoon Island just below Hampstead on the St. John River. When he recounted his wartime stories to the loyalist compensation board in 1787, it was the memory of Arnold's defection that helped him to remember where he was in 1780.

Underhill's testimony was just one "untold tale" of Benedict Arnold. When loyalist compensation commissioners held hearings in England and throughout British North America, fifteen other loyalists came forward with their own stories about Benedict Arnold. They had each had their own encounter with the general during the course of the Revolution. Five of them knew him as a brigadier-general in the British Army, but ten of them remembered Arnold as the leader of the rebel forces. Their stories are as varied as the events in the chequered career of Benedict Arnold.

David Ives was a loyalist from Vermont. His encounter with the patriot general was at the very beginning of Arnold's career. In May of 1776, Arnold led a rebel army against Fort Ticonderoga in northern New York. David Ives' first service to his king was to alert the fort's commander of Arnold's approach. General Carleton later employed Ives as a messenger in Quebec. When rebels captured Ives in the spring, they put him on trial at Fort Ticonderoga which was under the command of the rebel General Wayne. Ives was sentenced to be hanged, but with General Burgoyne's forces advancing, the rebels took their prisoner west to Litchfield. Ives was eventually released on 1,000 pounds sterling bail.

Before he settled in Burton, New Brunswick, Ives worked for the quarter master in New York City, was imprisoned by rebels for three months, and then served with the Associated Loyalists on Long Island until the end of the war. His seven years of service all began with the warning of Benedict Arnold's impending attack on Fort Ticonderoga.

At the beginning of the Revolution, Joseph Kingsbury was a rebel living in Plainfield, Connecticut. He joined Arnold's forces as they marched north to Quebec. But after several months as a soldier in the ill-fated mission to capture Canada, Kingsbury deserted the patriot army. In 1780, he enlisted in Jessup's regiment and served the crown for the next three years. Like his first general, Kingsbury switched sides during the Revolution. But where Arnold settled in New Brunswick and then England, Kingsbury settled at "Yamosca" in Canada.

While Arnold's army suffered desertions as it returned to the Thirteen Colonies, it also acquired prisoners. Robert McAuley was an Irishman who had worked in the lumber trade near Lake Champlain for nine years. The Willsbrough patriots knew that he was also a loyalist. As Arnold's army proceeded back to New York, they took McAuley prisoner, seized some of his effects, and took him to Crown Point.

After being released on parole, the loyalist returned to his home, but instead of joining the rebels, he gathered intelligence for the British. When the patriots discovered who was leaking information, they arrested McAuley and put him in the Albany jail for six months. A fellow loyalist posted bail for him and he escaped to Canada. By 1788, McAuley had settled with other loyalists at Cataraqui.

Among those at Cataraqui was another who had once encountered Benedict Arnold. Thomas Sparham had once been a surgeon's mate with two different British regiments. His timing to leave England and settle at Crown Point, New York in 1775 could not have been worse. Suddenly a revolution was in progress. Aware of Sparham's previous military service, General Arnold tried to recruit the Englishman, but he refused. Sparham allied himself with General Carleton and once again served the crown as a surgeon's mate, working at Oswegatchie until 1783.

Eleven stories remain to be told -- in next week's Loyalist Trails.

To secure permission to reprint this article, email Stephen Davidson.

Richard Carman (1757 - 1817) © George McNeillie

Richard Carman removed from Maugerville in 1815 to Manawagonish (or Mahogany) about 2 ½ miles from Fairville near West St. John, where he died about two years later.

He sold the farm in Maugerville to John Brown, father of the late Dr. T. Clowes Brown of Fredericton. The family record is here given:

Name:	Born:	Married:	Died:
Richard Carman	Nov. 11, 1757	Feb. 25, 1779	July 7, 1817
Sarah Horsfield	Nov. 5, 1761	" " "	November 3, 1835
Children:	Born:	Married:	Died:
1. William	Jan. 11, 1780	Ann Sherman, Oct. 27, 1803	Dec. 4, 1857
2. Samuel	Sept. 7, 1782	Maria Moore, April 6th, 1811	Nov. 3, 1864
3. Benjamin	Sep. 2, 1785	---	Jan. 19, 1795
4. Maria	Jan. 2, 1788	1. Amos Perley, Oct. 10, 1815 2. Archibald Shields	Nov. 5, 1828
5. Sarah Ann	Dec. 13, 1784	Thos. Odber Miles, Mar. 11, 1815	Aug. 17, 1859
6. Thomas Horsfield	Nov. 23, 1792	Helen Walton, Dec. 13, 1824	Oct. 7, 1852
7. Gerhardus Clowes	Oct. 4, 1794	Eliza Mount, Nov. 16, 1819	Nov. 15, 1866
8. Fanny Louisa Sophia	Sep. 6, 1797	1. Francis Peabody Perley, Oct. 30, 1824 2. John Massinet	June 29, 1845
9. Betsy	April 19, 1800	George Miles, Oct. 18, 1823	Feb. 23, 1858
10. Richard H.	March 16, 1803	1. Ann Scott, May 17, 1825 2. Mary Ann White	?
11. Stephen	April 7, 1805	Ann Tilton	?

It may readily be imagined that the number of my mother's cousins resulting from the marriages specified above was legion. It would be wearisome to attempt to trace them in detail. I shall not attempt it but only make a few general observations. The oldest son, William, was the first sheriff of Gloucester County, N.B. -- 1828 to 1837 -- when he removed to Chatham, N.B. His wife was the oldest daughter of Ambrose Sherman, who during the American War was a surgeon in the Royal Fencible American Regiment. The oldest son of Wm. Carman, Sr. bore his father's name of William and was known to my mother as "Cousin William Carman." He was greatly esteemed by his relatives and friends. In his appearance he was a remarkably fine looking man and was a perfect gentleman. Bishop Medley greatly valued him as a member of the Cathedral congregation, and in his M.S. Annals of the Diocese of Fredericton writes on January 3rd, 1885:- "On this day Mr. William Carman, an old and most faithful communicant, an upright, generous, honourable man, and the oldest barrister in the province was called to rest, to the great sorrow of all who knew his worth."

Excerpt from Book of Family History, by The Ven. William Odber Raymond, LL.D, FRSC. © 2009 George McNeillie - all rights reserved [published here with permission; see footnote].

...George McNeillie

"Vignettes of Winnipeg: Past and Present" — Broadway

[Manitoba Branch is hosting Conference at the Confluence 2012, the UELAC annual gathering and annual meeting from June 7 to 10 in Winnipeg. These vignettes will provide some of the local history and whet your appetite for more. Now is a good time to plan your trip to the conference, and join us there.]

Broadway curves from Main Street to Portage Avenue. Today it is a busy thoroughfare of triple lanes divided by a broad tree-lined boulevard. In summer food-vendors' carts line the north side, catering to the many office workers from the government and financial buildings that now dominate the area.

It was not always so. Broadway began as a dream of Hudson's Bay Company officials to create a model village, "The Town of Broadway', carved out of its 500 acre Hudson's Bay Reserve, which the company had retained around Upper Fort Garry when it sold Rupert's Land to Canada.

"Broadway" was to be an upscale enclave for the affluent, extending from the Assiniboine River to Portage Avenue and from Kennedy Street to Main Street. Lots were spacious, 120 feet by 50 feet on broad streets with boulevards in front and lanes behind. These were expensive, beyond the means of most newcomers to Winnipeg in the 1870s and 1880s.

Development accelerated in the 1890s and by 1900 the Broadway area was the most fashionable residential neighbourhood in Winnipeg.

Merchant princes like James H. Ashdown and mining magnate Thomas Black built three storey mansions. Banker William Alloway and lawyers Hugh John Macdonald and J.Stewart and William Tupper called the district home. In 1913 there were thirteen millionaires in the Broadway area.

This was about to change. By 1913 many of the wealthiest were moving to newly fashionable Crescentwood, Wellington Crescent, and Armstrong's Point. The grand mansions became private schools and rooming houses.

In the 1960s these once gracious monuments to turn of the century wealth were demolished to make way for the office buildings that now dominate this still beautiful boulevard.

In the same decade most of the homes on the cross streets, like Carlton and Edmonton, rooming houses for decades, were demolished to make way for apartments and surface parking lots. A few remain, like 61 Carlton, Dalnavert Museum, the home of Hugh John Macdonald, standing like ghostly ladies of a more gracious past.

Broadway is still a gem. On summer weekdays it teems with life as office workers come out to lunch in the sun.

It has seen such events as Bears on Broadway, a 2005 fundraising event by Cancer Care Manitoba, which saw some 62 concrete bears decorated by local artists placed up and down the boulevard - see photo. At the end of the exhibition many bears were purchased by various businesses and can still be seen around the city. Several are on the south grounds of the Manitoba Legislature.

More recently, in 2010 and 2011, Broadway has hosted Lights on Broadway, a three day street fair, featuring performances, dancing, local craft and food vendors.

Broadway may not be what the Hudson's Bay Company dreamed of, a mini " Versailles "on the prairie, but it retains a modern vitality and a vestiges of the elegance of the past.

Mary F. Steinhoff, Secretary, Manitoba Branch, UEL

(Source: Street of Dreams: The Story of Broadway, by Marjorie Gillies)

300 Years: St Peter's Anglican/Episcopal Church, Albany, New York

A cordial invitation is extended to join a year long commemoration of the birth of the roots of the Albany Episcopal Diocese at St Peter's Episcopal Church on State Street in Albany, New York. St. Peters (1712 - 2012) One congregation. Founded in a city of 2 cultures. Ministering to the people of 3 nations. The first outpost of the Anglican/Episcopal Church in upstate New York.

To begin a service of celebration will be held on Sunday, 5 February, 2012, 10:30 AM. St. Peter's Church, 105 State Street, Albany, New York. There will be additional Tri-Centennial Events during the year.

However, I would like to suggest St. Peter's Heritage Weekend on Sunday, 10 June, 10:15 AM. The congregation will be piped in a procession from the original location down State Street with a left turn through the front doors of the present church. This ceremony has not been held in recent years. Various genealogical societies took part in previous years. Following 300 years of tradition, the 17th Rector of Trinity Church, New York, will preach.

Read a brief history of St. Peter's Parish.

...Bill Glidden

The Diamond Queen — A Resource for the Jubilee

On the sixth of February, Canada will observe the sixtieth anniversary of the first proclamation of the Queen's accession by the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. That declaration established "our only lawful and rightful Liege Lady Elizabeth the Second by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas Queen, Defender of the Faith, Supreme Liege Lady in and over Canada." No doubt there will be many opportunities throughout the year to reflect on her integral part of our system of government but there was one book released in 2011 that gives an excellent overview of "Elizabeth and Her People."

The Diamond Queen was written by Andrew Marr while he was writing and filming a three part BBC television series about the Queen to be broadcast in February 2012. (It is being released in the U.S. as The Real Elizabeth: an Intimate Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.) Marr's credentials for this unauthorized biography include his position as the BBC's Political Editor from 2000 to 2005 and the writing of "A History of Modern Britain" and "The Making of Modern Britain". He does indicate that the "text has been read by the palace to correct errors of fact but there has been no access to the Royal Archive, nor any restrictions about what 'I' can say". Readers will quickly discover that as a respected British political journalist, he has much to offer to our understanding of what has transpired in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth during Her Majesty's reign.

The text can be divided into five main sections:

1. Dynasty is Destiny & How the British Monarchy Remade Itself

2. Lilibet & The Queen of the World

3. Queen at work & Britannica and the Waves

4. The Queen in the Sixties & Money

5. Into the Maelstrom & the Future

As one reviewer in New Zealand put it, "most of us who are 70 or over remember where we were and what we were doing the day we learned that George VI was dead and we had a young Queen." Younger readers will find that their memories will be stimulated by the references to Christmas broadcasts, British prime ministers, Britannica, Royal Tours and the "annus horribilus". As noted by Andrew Marr, "Britain, without her, would have been a greyer, shriller, more meagre place."

In support of Canadian content, readers are reminded of Nathan Tidridge's Canada's Constitutional Monarchy, chapter 3, entitled "The Queen of Canada." (LT Review)

...FHH

Marr, Andrew. The Diamond Queen, London: MacMillan, 2011. ISBN 978-0-230-74852-1

Biggest Loyalist Families — Alexander Rose (14 children) by John McLeod

Alexander Rose, with 14 children, has been added to the List of the largest Loyalist families – submitted by multiple sources. See more of the Loyalists' biggest families – four entries so far – and note the submission guidelines if you have a large family you would like to contribute.

The Tech Side: Genealogy Resources – by Wayne Scott, UE

Many genealogists have their favourite programs where their genealogy information is stored. Programs are updated regularly. New features are tested and webinars are given to help the genealogist get the most from these mainstream programs.

Once in a while researchers may wish for specialized programs to do tasks that aren't done every day such as determining the dimensions of a farm when given in archaic land measurements. You may wish to easily remove personal data from a file that contains living relatives. How do you create a gedcom file from your regular ancestry software? How do you save a gedcom file to your ancestral files? The website genealogy.about.com may have a few tools that you haven't seen before but will find handy: Genealogy Research Tools – Software, Forms, Maps and Calendars.

By drilling down through the many links, the researcher will find clumps of resources for Windows software, Mac software and Genealogy utilities. Links are given to the software where some are free, some commercial and others are shareware. Many allow you to download a program and use it on a trial basis before deciding to add the software or utility to your resources.

The Software category lists many favourites as well as some not so common. With each software title comes a brief description. In the Windows category, you will find Doro Tree, a program for Jewish genealogy. Heredis is one of several programs for French genealogy. Other programs listed include Ancestral Quest, Brother's Keeper, Family Historian, GenWeb, WinFamily, just to name a few. What I found interesting was that some of the software used for Windows 95 is still available and there are updates also available.

This website also offers reviews of the more common software titles. Family Tree Maker, Legacy Family Tree and Roots Magic are among the 6 programs what are reviewed.

Mac software is also mentioned, some titles for older Macintosh operating systems. The listing includes: GEDitCOM, Gene, Genscribe, Heredis for Mac, Mac Family Tree, Personal Ancestral Files, Reunion -- considered to be one of the best, and Sparrowhawk which converts gedcom files to html. The listed programs have a brief description and links for additional information.

Utilities are treated in the same manner. Some may come in handy once in awhile. Some programs are Deed Mapper, Family Reunion Organizer, Farmer's Plotter (Mac), and Gedcom Families 1.1 -- (reads gedcom files and exports them as text documents). Gedclean32 is mentioned. This program will clean personal information about living relatives from Gedcom files. Smart Draw will help you create professional looking family trees, charts and diagrams in a 'drag and drop', easy to use manner.

This website also looks at online genealogy resources, both free and fee-based. Among the 6 services you will find Ancestry.com Online Family Tree, Family Pursuit, Find My Past, Pedigreesoft, Shared Tree -- one of the free sites, and We Relate -- another free service.

There are many resource sites on the web. My wife offered the following suggestions: Randy's List of Archaic Medical Terms, Glossary of Old Names (Diseases), Birth Date Calculator, Old Occupations, a very extensive list of research aids from the Alberta Family Histories Society, and the Roots Dictionary of Genealogy and Archaic Terms.

You can email Wayne Scott to get in touch with questions or comments.

Last Post: Iva Eamer Wylie, UE

Peacefully at Cornwall Hospice on Wednesday February 1, 2012 age 83 years. Iva Eamer Wylie nee Loverin of Ingleside. Wife of the late John Wylie and the late Sterling Eamer. Mother of Michael Eamer (Pamela) of Cornwall, Jennifer Hutt (David) of Chesterville, Beverly Eamer (Denis Charron)) of North Bay and Pamela Norman (Terry Gibson) of Ingleside.

Step-mother of Pat Wylie of Casselman, Carol Tremblay (Chris) of Long Sault, David Wylie (Bernadette) of Lunenburg and Tim Wylie (Tara) of Cornwall. Sister of Russell Loverin of Colburg, Jean Casey of Ottawa, Elaine Hutchinson (Jim) of Lunenburg and Connie Murdoch (Alex) of Victoria B.C. Sadly missed by her grandchildren and step grandchildren. Predeceased by her parents Arnold and Leita Loverin.

Iva was a member of St. Lawrence Branch UELAC. Her son Michael is the treasurer of St. Lawrence Branch.

A service in celebration of Iva's life Sat. Feb 4 at Trinity United Church Ingleside. Spring interment St. Lawrence Valley Cemetery. Memorial donations to Cornwall Hospice would be appreciated. Online condolences may be made at www.brownleefuneralhomes.com. from the CORNWALL STANDARD-FREEHOLDER.

...Lynne Cooke, UE

Speaker about War of 1812

I am program chairman for the Jefferson County New York Genealogical Society. We meet in Watertown, New York. Sackets Harbor, which saw some battles in the War of 1812, is part of Jefferson County so we are interested in that war. I would very much like to have a Canadian speaker talk to us about the War of 1812.

Watertown is about a 2 hour drive from Kingston, Ontario, so that would be a consideration in someone choosing to do this presentation. Also the dates that I have are, Monday evening, September 10th; Saturday afternoon October 6th, at 1:00; and Saturday, November 10th at 1:00. Other times and dates could be arranged.

...Phyllis Putnam