Loyalist Trails UELAC Newsletter, 2014 Archive

In this issue:
- The Summer of 1778: A Loyalist in the Big Apple (Part Two), by Stephen Davidson
- Benjamin Becraft UEL (Part 7), by Doug Massey
- Burial Vault of the Sir John Johnson Family Re-Consecrated
- Sir JJ Re-Consecration Ceremony: A Royal Yorker's View
- "White Peter" Klingensmith, by Roger Harris
- What do You Know about the Hessians? 8 Fast Facts
- Albany NY In the Seven Years War (Part 1), by Bill Glidden
- Where in the World?
- War of 1812: Bicentenary of the Battle of Plattsburgh
- From the Twittersphere and Beyond
- Additions to the Loyalist Directory
- Queries
      + The Conundrum of John and John Diamond

The Summer of 1778: A Loyalist in the Big Apple (Part Two), by Stephen Davidson

Being stranded in New York City and far away from her parents and fiance, Louisa Wells wouldn't be blamed if she felt that the universe had turned against her. However, rather than dwelling on the fact that her ship had been wrongly captured by a British captain and held as a prize of war, this 22 year-old loyalist immediately went to work on making the best of a bad situation.

Louisa's memoir of the summer of 1778 notes that within days of her arrival in the city, Mr. Lowther, an acquaintance of her father's, invited her to "make his house my home during my stay in New York." Although she would only live in what she described as "one fourth of an apartment", it could have been worse. Many houses, she noted, contained as many as 100 inhabitants.

Leaving the Providence at its berth in the East River, Louisa and her maid Bella went ashore to a part of Manhattan Island that is now bordered by the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. A servant was waiting for her with a cart to take her baggage to 70 Cherry Street, the home of the Lowthers. Her memoir notes "I could not help feeling myself a little awkward as I walked through the streets as my dress was so different from other ladies whom I mete. The pavement hurt my feet, and the motion of the ship was still in my head . . . My spirits were so high and I felt myself so happy at being in a country where I could hear so much about Great Britain that I believe they thought me half-crazy. . . Mr. and Mrs. Lowther received me with as much tenderness and affection as if I had been a returning daughter."

Louisa had only been settled for a day when four gentlemen invited her and Margaret, the Lowthers' 17 year-old daughter, for a walk about New York. The 1778 version of a tour of downtown Manhattan included a visit to the King's Dockyard, the Royal Artillery's encampment of British and Hessian troops, various redoubts, a hospital and two burying grounds --one for German soldiers and one for local Jews.

Over the next week, other displaced loyalists "from all parts of America" --including passengers from the Providence-- stopped by the Lowther home to visit Louisa. When she wasn't socializing, the young loyalist darned her uncle's stockings as "we had little money to buy more". There were no credit cards, traveller's cheques or banking machines to be had in the New York of 1778. Louisa chaffed at the fact that her best clothes were in a chest that had been claimed by the captain who captured their ship. In "distress for clothes and want of money" in "this theatre of fashion", Louisa had to draw a "bill of exchange" on her father to provide her with spending money.

By late July, Louisa's concerns shifted from being out of fashion to simply staying alive. A "dreadful fire" swept through the city, destroying 120 houses over several days. Even the residents at 70 Cherry Street feared that they would be in the fire's path. Louisa later wrote that she "packed up my little all, fearing that at last we must ... dwell in tents." The fire did not progress further, but New Yorkers lived in fear of arsonists for the rest of the summer.

After things calmed down, "a party consisting of all our passengers with several other loyalists" passed the time by taking walks around lower Manhattan. Their "poverty" prevented them from hiring carriages to explore the countryside, but they could manage a visit to a teahouse and garden in nearby Greenwich by foot.

A thunderstorm in early August forced Louisa and her companions to stay indoors, an inconvenience that may have saved their lives. Her memoir recounts how they escaped a 1778 version of the events of 9-11.

"We were reconciling ourselves to the bad weather, we saw one or two flashes of Lightning, and instantaneously, there was a sudden Crash as if the universe had been dissolved. Every person in the room with me was Struck motionless. I was thrown from my chair to the floor, and my basket of work I had been doing, over me. I soon recovered and looked at my friends to see if any of them were killed, or rather, if any were alive to speak to me. . . ."

"I cast my eyes to the opposite side of the street, and ... I saw a column of Smoke ascending behind Waltons large house, which reached the Clouds. I was almost suffocated and the cry of Fire from all quarters spread terror and dismay around me . . . a Gentleman coming from a Wharf, informed us that a Vessel called the Morning Star containing 200 Barrels of Gunpowder had been struck by the Lightning and had blown up. . . . The explosion was so great as to unroof most of the houses in the Town. At least that side towards the East. You know all the roofs in York have two sides, being Dutch roof, and covered with tiles or slates. The Glass in all the East windows in our House were shattered, excepting those in the room I slept in. . . . The Bed of the River was seen and the Shipping much damaged. Happily there was but one Man on board of the vessel."

The summer of 1778 had certainly been a dangerous time to be a loyalist tourist in New York City. By September, the fate of the Providence and its stranded passengers was still waiting to be resolved by the court of vice-admiralty. Having imposed upon the hospitality of the Lowthers for two months, Louisa decided to accept an invitation to stay with a loyalist family that lived in Flushing on Long Island. How her summer ended will be the subject of next week's Loyalist Trails.

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

Benjamin Becraft UEL (Part 7), by Doug Massey

So is Patchin in error when he paints Benjamin Becraft as the murderer of the Vrooman boy? Freegift Patchin's narrative is a fascinating and unique account of the Harpersfield Raid and the journey back to Niagara. However, one must question his charge that Becraft murdered Peter Vrooman, just as we must disbelieve Simms and Roscoe when they accuse Benjamin of killing Janet Vrooman. Patchin, like Simms and Roscoe, hardly provides a balanced account of events. Indeed, the old patriot's characterization of Benjamin Becraft as a "treacherous villain" whose skin "shrouded a heart in which dwelt a spirit as bad as the devil's worst", pretty much sums up his treatment of all "Tories" in his account. (25) Patchin's anger is understandable. The point is though that his treatment of his former enemies is very much influenced by that enmity. And it must be said that his account was written down in 1830, shortly before his death, and published by Josiah Priest,

an itinerant spectacle and nostrum peddler [who] wrote, published and sold
many highly covered narratives of Indian captivities, all notoriously garbled
and inaccurate26

In the light of this description, one might ask how much of Patchin's narrative was edited by Josiah Priest.

Freegift Patchin ends his narrative by describing the actions of a group of ten neighbours who took it into their own hands to get retribution. They whipped Becraft, giving him fifty lashes for his alledged crimes. These men, says Patchin, formed a "jury" though "they lacked two of the legal quantum". He goes on to say that after punishment was administered, Becraft was ordered to "flee the country and never more return, to blast with his presence so pure an atmosphere as that where liberty and independence breathe and triumph". (27) Thereupon, Patchin maintains that Becraft thanked them for having been so "gently dealt with, acknowledging his conduct to have been worthy of capital punishment." This is most interesting in that the story so much echoes the treatment meted out to another Tory by the name of Foster who also returned to his home after the war, only to be attacked by his neighbours. In the midst of buffeting, "he [Foster] was compelled to thank his tormentors for their kind treatment; promising to leave the valley and never return to it. . . ." (28) Many loyalists did try to return to their homes after the Revolution only to be driven out by their former neighbours. But this duplicated progression of confessions, followed by beatings, followed by thanksgiving for leniency, followed by expulsion seems too much of a set-piece, and is therefore as questionable as it is biased. Moreover, a number of patriots, such as Freegift Patchin, who take to the moral high ground in these narratives, also benefited by scooping up confiscated loyalist property after the war. (29)

After August 9, 1780, the documentation on Benjamin Becraft largely goes dark once more. He continued his war, no doubt. Perhaps he was part of Sir John Johnston's second, devastating raid into the Mohawk Valley in October of 1780. Or he might have been one of the six Brant Volunteers in the raid to Coxsackie led by either Hendrick or John Huff in May of 1781 (30). Or he may have gone on raids with Captain Hendrick Nelles of the Indian Department. There were many small raids into the Schoharie Valley in 1781 that may have included Benjamin Becraft. But there is no documentation to back up his part in any of these actions. What is for sure is that Benjamin did not raid with Joseph Brant in 1781, as Brant was transferred to Fort Detroit, taking with him some young warriors, but no white volunteers. Officially, Brant was in the west to fight George Rogers Clark, a Virginian who was bent on destroying the British alliance with the "Western Indians".

However, we get a tantalizing glimpse of Benjamin in May of 1781. John Dease, an Indian Department official at Fort Niagara writes to Captain Nelles at Karaghhyadirrha:

The Bearer has brought in a small bay mare belonging to Ben. BEACROFT my Servt.– he Borrowed her from an Indn. in Youcasito. I wish you'd Apply to the Indn. to Restore her to B. Ben who can prove his property to her. (31)

This brief reference indicates Becraft's continuing war, and reminds us of his close association with the indigenous soldiers who were his companions on raids that left Niagara for the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys. Benjamin was a forester in the Indian Department but also an interpreter. (32) That meant that he had a good working knowledge of the Mohawk language and therefore a close relationship with the indigenous fighters, such as the Schoharie chief Seth's Henry, who, like Benjamin, was a determined and tireless partisan.

Notes:

25. Josiah Priest, op. cit., pg. 306

26. H. C. Matthews, op. cit., pg. 70 quoting John D Monroe, History of Delaware County, pg. 79

27. Josiah Priest, op. cit., pg. 307

28. Jeptha R.Simms, Frontiersmen of New York, Albany New York, 1883, Vol. I, pg, 342

29. Freegift Patchin settled in Blenheim in 1798. He purchased confiscated loyalist property in Pittstown,Schoharie County along with Abraham Sternbergh. See: Name Index of Loyalist Land Sales, P | New York State Archives ... Pittstown (NY). Volume 9, Page 192 ad. purchaser: Patchin, Freegift purchaser: Sternbergh, Abraham, Schoharie County (NY). Volume 9, Page 46. ... www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/indexes/A4016/A4016i16.shtml - Cached

30. Benjamin Becraft and Henry Huff had fought together on the Harperfield raid of April 7, 1780. See Matthews , pg. 70 citing P.A.C., Haldiman Trascripts, B. 105, p. 395A; B. 110, p.103 where Benjamin Becraft is listed as 22, forester and interpreter and as a Brant volunteer along with Henry Huff.

31. Henry Nelles Papers, Archives of Ontario, MU 3296.5 as quoted at http://www.royalprovincial.com/military/rhist/dian/dianlet9.htm

32. P.A.C., Haldiman Trascripts, B. 105, p. 395A; B. 110, p.103

...Doug Massey, UE, Hamilton Branch

Burial Vault of the Sir John Johnson Family Re-Consecrated

Like a hike to the top of Mont-Saint-Gregoire last weekend, the efforts to restore the burial vault of the Sir John Johnson family located in the Verger Monnoir apple orchard on the property of CIME Haut Richelieu (centre d'interpretation du milieu ecologique du Haut-Richelieu) have taken more time than was anticipated back in 1998. Thanks to the determination of the Societe de restauration du Patrimoine Johnson (SRPJ), the final resting place for the Johnson family now has been reconstructed, meeting the requirements of the ministere de la Culture, des Communications et le la Condition feminine du Quebec. Initially the SRPJ anticipated the complete reconstruction of the vault on the existing foundations. However, after numerous consultations, a new approach received the authorization of the Ministry. To protect the original foundations they were to be covered over. An exact flagstone reproduction of the foundations was constructed over top of them to permanently reflect their location and extent. At the north end of this reproduction a block front wall of the same dimensions as the original vault was constructed in front of a new and smaller vault designed to receive the remains of those originally interred there. While the door and the lock were rebuilt, the plaque above the door was refashioned with the same inscription as the original stone installed at the Missisquoi Museum in Stanbridge East in 1971.

With the installation of informative plaques with images and histories of both the site and Sir John Johnson, the burial vault of the Sir John Johnson Family was ready for both visitors to the CIME Haut Richelieu and the re-consecration ceremony on August 23, 2014. Details and photographs of this key UELAC centenary celebration event can be seen here.

...fhh/pr

Sir JJ Re-Consecration Ceremony: A Royal Yorker's View

The Sir John Johnson Family Burial Crypt was re-consecrated on Saturday August 23. A photo montage.

Members of the recreated 84th Regiment, Royal Highland Emigrants and of Sir John's 1st and 2nd battalions of The King's Royal Yorkers participated in the ceremony. Both regiments were key participants in that War. A piper of the 78th Fraser Highlanders provided suitable martial musick.

In the photo montage are several photos of those who participated. From Gavin Watt, Honorary Vice President of UELAC:

"The ceremony to honour the rebuilt family tomb of Sir John Johnson went very well. Blistering hot, speeches in both languages, but a wonderful, very well attended affair and excellent reception afterwards. Adelaide Lanktree and Ray Ostiguy deserve many kudos as well as do a great many other workers and researchers.

As reenactors, we had Sjt Bram Blenk, his son Pte Bram Jr. and Pte Mike Stanton, three 84th Royal Highland Emigrants. Of the Royal Yorkers, SjtMjr Dave Putnam UE, Pte Mike LeBlanc UE and Pte Marcio DaCuhna in 1st battalion uniform and Pte Shaun Wallace and myself as Ptes in 2bn uniform. As well, Debra Turrall UE and Patricia and Alfonzo DaCuhna of the Royal Yorkers and Lynn Blenk and Irene O'Grady of the Highland Emigrants appeared in 18C clothing with Gill Watt and Alan Joyner of the Yorkers in civvies.

The Royal Yorker Colours were artfully arranged outside the tomb by Sjt Mjr Putnam and feature in the photo and TV coverage."

See more coverage en francais: Sir John Johnson de retour au caveau funeraire

"White Peter" Klingensmith, by Roger Harris

"Peter Klingensmith" modernization of surname Klingenschmidt

Raid:

Our story commences at the time of the Revolutionary War, about 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at Bushy Run (now known as Jeannette). A Prussian family named Klingelschmidt had been in Pennsylvania for four generations. They owned a blockhouse, which became the object of a Seneca Indian raid. Christina Klingelschmidt strapped her newborn to her back, had her two strong boys, Peter age 8 and Casper age 13, carry the water pails, and then they headed to the spring outside the blockhouse walls of Fort Klingenschmidt. The Senacas fired at the house and mortally wounded Phillip, the head of the family.

The Senecas were fighting on the side of the British. They attacked, tomahawked the mother and baby, snatched the two boys, and took off. On their way, they also picked up another neighbour's little girl. On the very first night, Casper was able to escape and return to the blockhouse to report the happenings, but Peter and the girl were taken back to the Seneca camp. It was a custom that if the Indians had lost a child through war or sickness, they would capture a white child and raise it as their own. Thus Peter lived and learned Indian ways until age 22. He was then given the opportunity to stay with the tribe or go out on his own. By this time the First Nations people were settled along the Grand River.

Peter now had an Indian wife who was from the Montreal area. He chose to settle them around Nanticoke at Lot 6 of the Broken Front of Walpole Township, immediately across the road from the present Ontario Hydro Generating Station, Haldimand County.

Peter in Canadian History:

During the War of 1812-14, Peter played an important part in the "Battle of Nanticoke." Possibly because of his connections with the Indians, he had heard that attacks were to be made on Canadian military leaders. According to an official military document, "he was instrumental in saving the lives of Colonels Talbot, Salmon, Nichols and others. . . . by warning them of their danger on several occasions, to the imminent danger of his own pate [head]."

Friends:

Among Peter's many friends were two whom he treated as special. One was his next door neighbor, David Mcfall Field, Herbert Field's great grandfather, who had nine children. One Christmas, Peter presented a double ended egg cup that he had made on his whip lathe, to each of the children. These wooden egg cups were made from a chestnut tree that had grown on Peter's acreage. One of these egg cups was given to David McFall Field's son Colin. He, in tum, passed it down to his grandson, Herbert Field, an Insurance Man who lived his whole life in Nanticoke. That grandfather, Colin Field, was also the instigator of the group who eventually transported a huge rock from the Lake Erie shoreline to mark the grave of "White Peter - First Settler of Nanticoke, Captured by Indians." It was erected by the Women's Institute in the Nanticoke Cemetery, close to where Peter had lived. The egg cup was eventually given to another of White Peter's descendants, Patricia Harris, who guards it proudly today.

The other special friend was Abraham Winger. He lived on fourth concession of Rainham, directly south of Fisherville {1842) located just four side roads to the east of Peter's place. Abraham spoke fluently in high-German, and was the age of Peter's grandchildren. This may have recalled for Peter the language of his Pennsylvania relatives. After the birth of Abraham's second child Elias in 1844, Abraham moved to fourteenth of Walpole {thirteen concessions north of Peter's place). There he farmed, built a stone house {still a family residence in 2014) and sired 12 more children. There is a story from Abraham's grandchildren about the "Indian" who helped Abraham develop his farmland and construct his new house.

See pictures of White Peter and Abraham Winger.

A very interesting outcome occurred when White Peter's 4x Great granddaughter Patricia married Abraham's 2x Great grandson Roger! Together, Patricia and Roger were two of the ten charter members of the Perth County Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society which was formed in 1984.

Peter's Line	Abraham's Line
Peter 1773 - 1855 (81)
George 1799 - 1885 (85)
Henry 1831 - 1918 (86)	Abraham 1822 - 1904 (82)
Margaret 1863 - 1940 (76)	Peter 1848 - 1914 (66)
Charles 1889 - 1945 (55)	Minnie 1872 - 1898 (26)
Ruth 1917 - 1956 (38)	Ada 1895 - 1983 (87)
Patricia	Roger

Roger Harris wrote this article in an attempt to finalize and honour the wonderful family legend that has come down in his family about White Peter's descendants, as well as his white settler and Native American Indian heritage. Roger mentioned, "Some feel certain details are "sort of stretched slightly, as I guess all good stories become with repeated telling." Such is the homage to oral history, and it is a wonderful tribute to his ancestors. He utilized a variety of sources including The Klingensmith Massacre, PA Archives Vol. ix, 1781-1783, pages 240-241, and James Perry to President 2 July 1781, Frontier Forte of Pa, Vol. 2, page 379.

Source: From the Perth County Profiles newsletter, Vol. 32, No. 3, Aug. 2014, Perth County Branch OGS. Reprinted with permission.

...Roger Harris

What do You Know about the Hessians? 8 Fast Facts

By the start of the American Revolution, the British military was spread thinly across their global empire. Despite having tens of thousands of troops in America throughout the war, it was still necessary to supplement their numbers by hiring foreign troops. By 1776 thousands of soldiers from Hesse-Cassel were pouring into New York. They served the big names like Charles, Earl Cornwallis, Sir William Howe, and even Benedict Arnold.

Despite their good reputation among their contemporaries, these soldiers are largely forgotten. Of course, this is not a fitting legacy for these well trained soldiers who fought, died, and were a part of the American experience. They were from the culturally and religiously diverse regions of what is now southwest Germany. Research into these soldiers contracted to fight in the war gives us an enlightening history that shows just how global a war the American Revolution really was. Here are a few important facts about the Hessians who served in American by Bethany Collins in the Journal of the American Revolution.

Albany NY In the Seven Years War: Part 1, by Bill Glidden

Abstract: Albany's Defenses Expand

In 1758, as the French and Indian War progressed, the size of the community of Albany changed. The British ordered new accommodations and fortifications to be built, while John Bradstreet's mission, similar to that of Chief of Staff (Operations) in today's army, now involved British expeditions to Fort Carillon on Lake Champlain and a diversion on Lake Ontario.

Whitehall – By November 1757 England planned to quarter British troops at a number of different locations outside the protective walls of the fort in Albany. The British, dissatisfied with their quarters in the fort, ordered a barracks hall to be built near the Delaware Turnpike and the Normanskill Creek. The hall, located approximately two miles southwest of the fort, measured thirty by forty feet. One could enter through the middle of the building, leading to five rooms. Three separate staircases led to rooms on the second floor; and several large fireplaces provided heat. The hall eventually became Bradstreet's residence and headquarters for the Northern Department of the British army, receiving the name "Whitehall" after the British military headquarters in London. To the back of the headquarters, a barn measuring one hundred and twenty feet in length held up to 150 horses.

Fort Frederick – The size of the community of Albany changed. Visitors now gained entrance and exit by means of three main gates and two or three smaller postern gates. Strong gate houses guarded the main gates close to the river, the North and South Gates, while the Schenectady Gate had a position on the high ground to the west and just south of the fort. Along the palisade wall, which enclosed the settlement to a degree, eight blockhouses were located about 200 feet apart at angles and intervals including the North and South Gates. From the North Gate ran a thick stone wall down to the river, 200 feet in length at each end of which existed a blockhouse. The blockhouses contained twelve fireplaces and in wartime the blockhouses provided billets for the troops. They were equipped with small cannon, probably swivel guns. A new guardhouse, constructed in the middle of Junkers Street (State Street) and Pearl Street, resulted in moving the Main Guard from the South Gatehouse.

From Fort Frederick the palisade ran due north to a new bastion located at the edge of the bluff. The bastion, of a horizontal log crib construction, eight logs in height and filled with earth, mounted eight cannons. A powder magazine, an underground room thirty feet long by sixteen feet wide, existed beneath the bastion. It could hold 400 barrels of black powder.

The Hospital – A new hospital, built to accommodate four hundred sick, existed next to the new bastion. The main building had a cupola and balcony. Four wings were attached to the main building, with two wings on the west side elongated and abutting the palisade. The northwest wing included a kitchen, and an apothecary's shop existed in the northeast wing. A medicinal herb garden fenced in by the two east wings. The hospital contained forty wards besides the rooms appropriated for the use of surgeons and other officers, stores and etc.

King's Gardens – The King's Gardens existed adjacent to the north side of the fort with the old barracks next to the gardens. The old barracks, build during King George's War, was a rectangular two-story structure with twelve fireplaces. A new H-shaped barracks took shape along the west side of Chapel Street, north of Maiden Lane, containing a stone foundation and cellar, exterior staircases and balconies, and thirty-two fireplaces. Designed for five hundred men, it had 300 double bedsteads with 20 tables and 40 benches for the troops to eat and work along its central aisles. A cupola adorned the roof.

King's Stables – The King's Stables, the most odorous and offensive of the new buildings, existed in the vicinity of present South Pearl Street between Beaver Street and Hudson Avenue. The stables, a long, rectangular, one story wooden structure built to provide quarters for up to a hundred horses, stood on low ground. Often mud built up with the refuse of the stable.

Additional new buildings included two subsidiary powder magazines in Maiden Lane and Junkers Street (State Street) near the blockhouse church; and three market pavilions, fitted with a number of stalls and tables for the selling of produce, located on Junkers and Broadway. At times troops built make shift wooden sides on the market pavilion stalls to use them as supply rooms. The construction on Junkers Street blocked up the gravity-operated water conduit system to the annoyance of the community. Their major concern was sabotage and fire.

Fort Frontenac Falls – John Bradsteet, together with Thomas Gage, Robert Rogers and their men led point on the march up Lake George against Fort Carillon in July of 1758. Following the defeat of General Abercromby on 8 July 1758, a council of war, held on the banks of Lake George on 13 July, decided to send a force under Bradstreet's command to strengthen Brigadier General Stanwix in the building of a new fort at the Oneida or the Great Carrying Place in the upper regions of the Mohawk Valley. The mission included bateau men who were waiting on the banks of the Mohawk River in Schenectady for Bradstreet's return from Fort Carillon, and seamen who would help sail the bateau on Lake Ontario. The objective of the expedition would be to set up a diversion on Lake Ontario which would favor operations in Pennsylvania.

A provincial force of 2000 remained at Fort Stanwix. A remaining force of 3600 continued on, all, but a handful of British gunners and Highlanders, provincials from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Except for the Scots, the 135 regulars were Royal Americans. With Bradstreet were Horatio Gates, then a Captain afterward a General in the Revolution; Nathaniel Woodhull, then a Major afterward first president of the New York Provincial Congress, and a General in the Revolution; and Charles Clinton, then a Colonel, commandant at Fort Herkimer, father of future Governor George Clinton and General James Clinton, and grandfather of De Witt Clinton. It is possible that one of the foundations of the American Revolution formulated in this campaign.

On the 27th of August 1758 Fort Frontenac on the north shore of Lake Ontario capitulated. Bradstreet accomplished his mission in less than two months from the defeat at Fort Carillon. The offense broke the back of the French supply line into the upper Midwest, and hastened the end of the war.

Note: This is from Liberty Corridor – Chapter 24, #B

...G. William Glidden, Registered Historian, Assoc. of Public Historians

Where in the World?

Where are Barb and Murray Johnson?

To participate, submit a photo of yourself in UELAC promotional gear at a place of some note and tell us where it is. If you are a member of a branch, please indicate that as well – send to Jennifer Childs.

War of 1812: Bicentenary of the Battle of Plattsburgh

Today, Saturday, 30 August 2014, begins 14 days of activities, planned on for the past 17 years, on the 200th anniversary (11 September 1814) of the Battle of Plattsburgh. High points will come on Thursday, 11 September, at 4 PM, with the Riverside Cemetery Memorial Service; on Saturday, 13 September, at 1 PM, with the parade featuring the 42nd Infantry Division (The Rainbow Division), NYARNG; the U. S. Navy Band Northeast; the Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines; and the Norwich University Marching Band ; and over a half dozen fife and drum corps; and on Sunday, 14 September, a naval engagement with tall ships in action.

See more details for this and next weekend activities.

General Wellington's veterans of the Napoleonic War in Spain and southern France arrive in Canada during the summer of 1814 to join the army commanded by Governor-General Sir George Prevost in an advance across the border between Canada and the United States. Read the First to Greet.

In September of 1814 General Prevost positions the British Army for advance from the Canadian frontier on Plattsburgh while militiamen prepare to defend the countryside. Read the Advance.

...Bill Glidden

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

• The King's Royal Regiment of New York was raised at Chambly, Quebec in 1776 from Loyalist refugees from New York. View from the upper window at Fort Chambly of the inner square. This plaque on St. Stephen's Anglican Church describes its founding and that it served the Chambly community and the troops at the nearby Fort.
• The death of Joseph Warren at Bunker Hill reverberated among his closest friends and foes, and the English newspaper-reading public. While its meaning varied greatly among individuals, one aspect in common was the sad realization that the struggle between American Patriots and British Colonial overlords had escalated into a war, and, regardless of how hostilities might conclude, "many of our friends may be laid in their graves."
• Maybe the first ever maker's mark found on 18th century Charlestown redware - huge find! We see u/n, 2/u, or u/u. And you?

Additions to the Loyalist Directory

As time permits, we add information to the Loyalist Directory. The latest additions and updates are as follows:
- Jackson, James - from Catherine Harradence (volunteer Linda McClelland)
- Orser, Joseph - from Evelyn D. Orser de Mille (Volunteer Linda McClelland)
- Petrie, Sgt. Johan Jost - from David Clark
- Petrie Jr., Joseph - from David Clark

Please help us build the directory by contributing more information for it. Contact loyalist.trails@uelac.org for instructions and guidance.

The Conundrum of John and John Diamond

I am preparing a Loyalist certificate application for people who live in Michigan. They are descendants of Jacob Diamond and his son John Diamond.

Jacob Diamond had settled and farmed in Saratoga Co., New York Province prior to the Revolutionary War. It was said that he was a British Spy. His son John Diamond fought for the King in the same Kings Rangers Regiment that was under the command of James Rogers based on the same Virtualization Records as his cousin John Diamond. The two John Diamonds who settled in Fredericksburgh and neighboring town, Earnestown, Lennox & Addington Co., ON, Canada were cousins. Not only had their parents named both boys John Diamond but also each in turn then named a son John Diamond.

The only way I know of to identify which branch of the John Diamonds that someone is descended from is through yDNA testing of those descendants. With the family, this has been done. We now know who each member of the modern Diamond family is descended from.

Now I need documentation to identify these men for UEL recognition. The easiest way at this point in time to separate the two is by listing the names of the wives of each John Diamond. One was married to Christiana Loyst and the other to Katreen Garnire. I am looking for documentation for John Diamond and Katreen Garnire. Any documentation which relates to them will be helpful.

I am not interested in re-inventing the wheel. If anyone can refer me to someone who also descends from Jacob Diamond and his son John Diamond and is willing to compare proven notes/documentation with me I would appreciate your help.

I have documentation on the Michigan Diamonds who have also y-DNA tested and want to file for UEL recognition. I have hired two researchers to look for Birth & Baptismal information on both Jacob Diamond and his son John Diamond in New York and Ontario. I believe the British Discharge Document for John Diamond, that was provided o me, is the documentation for the John Diamond married to Christiana Loyst based on his Birth & Baptismal documentation. Jacob Diamond & his son John Diamond Birth & Baptismal documentation should be different based on their migration in the Hudson River Valley.

I would appreciate any assistance to resolve this enigma and delineate who is who with these two John Diamonds. Science, by comparing the y-DNA results of the descendants of both men, gives us a much better chance to do that. Best wishes and thanks i advance for any help.

...J W (Jack) Diamond, UE, in Anchorage, Alaska. Tel: 907-727-1119