Loyalist Trails UELAC Newsletter, 2016 Archive

In this issue:
- We're Half Way There! Week Four: UELAC Scholarship Fund Challenge
- Conference 2016
- The Grant Family Saga: Part II, by Stephen Davidson
- Borealia: Drums, Bugles, and Bagpipes in the Seven Years' War
- JAR: Arnold, Hazen and the Mysterious Major Scott
- Where in the World?
- Region and Branch Bits
- From the Twittersphere and Beyond
- Queries
      + Black Loyalists in Niagara Area
      + Heraldry Protocol

Week Four Update: Loyalist Scholarship Fund Challenge 2016

Exactly four weeks into the campaign we have raised $2,186.00 toward our goal of $5000.00. This week we are highlighting the UELAC branches who accepted the Scholarship challenge. Donations have been received from Kingston Branch, Grand River Branch, Chilliwack Branch, and Vancouver Branch. Thank you so much for your generous support. With your help, UELAC is proud to offer financial assistance to dedicated graduate students.

Today (February 28) is the deadline for Loyalist scholarship applications. This week our committee will be reviewing submissions from a number of excellent candidates. Since 2005, eight graduate students have furthered their academic careers in Loyalist history research through the United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada Loyalist Scholarship. We can do more. Give Now.

This week's featured scholar is Dr. Gregory Wigmore. As a PhD candidate in 2008, Gregory conducted his research at University of California, Davis under the supervision of Dr. Alan Taylor, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of Early America and Upper Canada. His dissertation entitled "The Limits of Empire: Allegiance, Opportunity, and Imperial Rivalry in the Detroit River Borderland" examined the emergence of the Canadian-American border during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. You can read more about Greg's research here.

Murray Barkley UE (St. Lawrence Branch), a member of the UELAC Loyalist Scholarship committee, understands the importance of supporting scholarly historical research on the Loyalists and the American Revolution.

"Serious scholarly historical research on the Loyalists and the American Revolution is of the utmost importance to the writing and reinterpretation of both American and Canadian history. The intertwining of the Revolution with patriotism on both sides of the struggle and the border has been a serious impediment to impartial and objective scholarship on the subject during a major part of the two centuries following 1783. The American Revolution was a colonial rebellion, but it was also a civil war, part of a global struggle, and in some respects a social revolution.

There is so much we still have to learn about it and in particular the role and perspective of the loyal Americans who participated, debated, fought, and suffered in it. The UELAC has this wonderful opportunity to encourage and to be a part of this cutting-edge research on this important subject."

Murray will be sharing his thoughts on 'The Influence of Loyalists on Upper Canada' at the Sir Guy Carleton Branch UELAC Spring Social on Saturday, April 23, 2016 in Ottawa. I'm sure he will also be happy to answer any scholarship questions. Go Murray!

Are you on twitter? The project uses the hashtag #UEscholars.

...Bonnie Schepers, UE, Scholarship Committee

[Editor's Note 1: Dr. Taylor Stoermer is contributing any proceeds from this talks about Loyalists during this campaign. Last week he spoke at The Golden Ball Tavern, near Boston, about “Isaac Jones and the Loyalist Experience.” Photo of Taylor at the Museum. Watch the video of his presentation.]

[Editor's Note 2: Tim Compeau, recently noted here as a UELAC scholarship recipient, has published this week in the Age of Revolutions an article "Dishonoring the Loyalists". A crowd of Boston revolutionaries insulted the loyalist James Murray and snatched the wig from his head. Another New England crowd tarred and feathered Captain John Malcolm and made him renounce the King. Cadwallader Colden Jr. was shackled to an African American slave; Peter Guire was branded with the letters "GR" (George Rex); Thomas Brown was scalped; Dr. Abner Beebe was rolled in pig manure and paraded before a group of women; Edward Brimley's home was invaded and his wife put on display for the townspeople. Read more.]

Conference 2016

The 2016 UELAC Conference in Summerside PEI will be hosted by the Branches of the Atlantic Region: Abegweit, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on July 7-10. Information about the conference is now available – read here.

A "welcome" stands by the gate to the Loyalist Country Inn.

The Grant Family Saga: Part II

© Stephen Davidson, UE

While the three Grant sisters began to settle down in New Brunswick, Robert Grant decided to return to the United States to seek his education. Given that Amos Botsford had taught law at Yale, he may have encouraged Robert to attend his old alma mater. Family stories say that Robert went to Yale (or perhaps Harvard).

Those same family stories recall that "his residence was not rendered very agreeable, from the violent hatred that still existed against all who had sided with the Tories, as the Loyalists were then called. Though he succeeded in distinguishing himself at his university by his attainments, the state of his health, which had been undermined by the exposure he had undergone, and a too close application to his studies, compelled him to leave Harvard for Savannah, where he died, soon after, of consumption."

During his time in the States, Robert kept in touch with his sisters in New Brunswick. A great-nephew recalled, "In his last letter, {Robert} calmly announces his approaching death, to which he tells them to be resigned; and he then devotes the remainder of his letter to parting advice as to their future life – how the elder sister should educate the younger (where schools were yet unknown) ... A casual reader would suppose it was the production of an aged father, who, having lived out the allotted period of human existence, was resigned to his fate – his only anxiety or regret being absorbed in the welfare of those whom he was about to leave behind." According to family lore, Robert died before his 21st birthday.

In the year following her brother's death, Helen Grant married Deacon Silas Morse. Only two children of their children are known by name. Robert Grant Morse (his uncle's namesake) went to sea, dying at 26 years of age in the East Indies in 1820. William Haliburton Morse (born May 1796) married Catherine Troop in 1824. Their three children were Charlotte, Henrietta and Robert. (He was the third Grant descendant to carry Robert's name.)

Three years after Helen's marriage, Lucy Grant married William Hersey Haliburton. How they met has not been recorded, but the couple settled in Windsor, Nova Scotia after their wedding. In 1796, Lucy gave birth to a son, Thomas Chandler Haliburton. (Note the boy's middle name.) Lucy died three years later, never to know of the fame that her husband would achieve as Nova Scotia's Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. Her son's prestige would eventually surpass her husband's, becoming the most illustrious member of the Grant and Haliburton descendants.

Thomas Chandler Haliburton, as noted in his 1865 obituary was "educated at King's College, Windsor; adopted the law as a profession; entered the House of Assembly; and was made a Judge of the Common Pleas in 1829 and of the Supreme Court in 1840. In 1850 he retired from the bench and went to live in England. In 1858 he was made a D.C.L. of Oxford and in 1859 was elected M.P. for Launceston {Great Britain}, in the Tory interest, in which seat he held until the recent general election. The deceased gentleman is best known by his 'Sam Slick' writings which have been translated into several of the Continental languages and by his 'History of Nova Scotia'."

Later biographers attributed Thomas Chandler Haliburton's "animosity towards the American people" to the suffering of his mother and the other Grant siblings. Given that he was only three when his mother died, this seems to be an unlikely inheritance. However, if he regularly visited with the Chandlers and his Grant aunts, Haliburton would no doubt have heard the tragic stories of his loyalist relatives.

Young Haliburton was named for his Uncle Thomas Chandler, the husband of Elizabeth Grant. This couple had six other children besides the son born to them in 1786. Eliza (born 1788), William (1790), Sarah (born circa 1791, and the future Mrs. George Chapman), Thomas E. Chandler (born 1796 and the husband of Maria Herbert), Lucy (1798), and Ann (1800) completed the family. Ann married Silas Hibbert Crane and had two girls by him. Daughter Helen Grant Crane married John Stubs while Susan Haliburton Crane died unmarried at 23. (Again, note the middle names.)

Thomas and Elizabeth's son William Chandler deserves to have his story told. He went to sea when only twelve years old, sailing on the Duke of Kent out of the port of Saint John. A French privateer captured the ship. Her captain kept all of the crew prisoners, releasing only young Chandler. William returned to Saint John and joined the crew of another vessel. On this voyage, both the captain and the first mate contracted yellow fever and died at sea. William took charge of the ship. Eight days before it returned to Saint John, William died of yellow fever and was buried at sea.

The four Grant siblings lost their father to war in 1777 and their mother to a shipwreck in 1787. Robert, Elizabeth, Helen and Lucy did not live to see much beyond the 18th century. Robert Grant died in Savannah, Georgia before he was twenty-one. Lucy Grant Haliburton died in Windsor, Nova Scotia when she was twenty-three. Helen Grant Morse died in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia at 31 years of age in 1801. A few years later, Elizabeth Grant Chandler died in Pictou, Nova Scotia. Family notes record that she "has been gradually wasting since the death of {her sister} Mrs. Morse but the loss of {daughter} Eliza hastens her end, and she will leave a most distressed family." Elizabeth died of tuberculosis.

Elizabeth's loyalist husband, Thomas Chandler, died in 1806. Hated by the rebels for guiding Governor Tryon's troops to New Haven, Connecticut to burn down the town, Chandler was remembered in Nova Scotia for being a respected member of the provincial assembly. "He was a lawyer and had great talents. He was a good classical scholar; elegant in personal appearance; of middle size, rather slight in figure; remarkable for his colloquial powers; very eloquent at the bar; excelled in the pathetic; could move a jury to tears at his will."

The saga of Major Alexander Grant's family is one of the more tragic stories in loyalist history. Robert Grant Haliburton (again, note the name!) – Lucy Grant Haliburton's grandson – tried to sum it up when he gave an address on Nova Scotia's history in 1862. We will let his words bring their story to an end.

"Hundreds of instances of the sacrifices of loyalists might be collected, but the information respecting the different persons who forfeited valuable properties and went through great privations and sufferings ... can only be obtained from their relatives and descendants. The instance referred to is introduced here, not because it is in any way distinguishable from the case of others, who adhered to the British Crown; but because the writer, having had all the original correspondence relating to Major Grant's family in his possession, can speak with some confidence as to the correctness of most of the occurrences here alluded to ... This is but one instance of Loyalist sufferings; but we may well say, Ab uno disce omnes {“From one, learn all”}! Volumes filled with thrilling adventures of heroism, danger and suffering, might be devoted to the subject."

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

Borealia: Drums, Bugles, and Bagpipes in the Seven Years' War

By Daniel Laxer, published at Borealia on 22 Feb, 2016.

Historians tend to overlook the role of musical instruments in the Seven Years' War. Few devote much attention to explaining how armies operated or battles played-out. Fred Anderson's Crucible of War, for instance, does a terrific job explaining the origins and unfolding of events, but hardly assesses the experiences of soldiers on the ground. Other writers geared more towards a more popular audience such as Walter Borneman invoke military music to set the scene and add colour, but neglect to stress music's prominent and indeed integral position in the conflict.

Read the post.

JAR: Arnold, Hazen and the Mysterious Major Scott

By Ennis Duling, February 23, 2016

In July 1776, Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold brought charges against Col. Moses Hazen for disobeying orders and neglecting merchandise seized in Montréal. Hazen was a Massachusetts-born Québec landowner and merchant who commanded a small regiment of Canadians in the Continental army. In April when Arnold took command in Montréal, he called Hazen "a sensible judicious officer, and well acquainted with this country," but soon the two men despised each other.

In the French and Indian War, Hazen had been a lieutenant and captain in Roger's Rangers and then a lieutenant in the 44th Regiment of Foot. As a ranger, he led brutal raids against the Acadians in present-day New Brunswick. He fought in the major battles along the St. Lawrence River, and Gen. James Murray commented that he had seen so much "bravery and good conduct" in Hazen "as would justly entitle him to every military reward he could ask or demand." At the start of the American invasion of Canada in the late summer and fall of 1775, Hazen was caught between the warring sides: his property along the Richelieu River was plundered by the Americans, who considered him an enemy, and then he was imprisoned by the British. With the fall of Montréal in November, he committed wholeheartedly to the American cause. He was forty-three in the summer of 1776, eight years older than Arnold.

Read the posting.

Where in the World?

Where are Marlene Dance (Chilliwack Branch), Carl Stymiest and Diane Faris (Vancouver Branch) and Joyce Lidster (Assiniboine Branch)?

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 your submission to the editor at loyalist.trails@uelac.org.

Region and Branch Bits

From the UELAC branches, news and events of interest to others.

• Different branches undertake outreach in their own ways. Some make presentations to school classes. This retweet by Nathan Tidridge @tidridge from Mrs. King @mrskingfm Thx United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada for teaching our Gr 3s about Early Settlers and First Nations! Photo

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

• Remembering Our Yesterdays: Old letters shed a different light on our ancestors (17th century trunk found in the Hague - references Huguenots)
• England's 'First Refugees'. Robin Gwynn examines the arrival of Huguenot French to England in the 17th century. Published by History Today 5 May 1985. (Note: Other than the first paragraph and an engraving, the article is only available to subscribers/members.)
• The Pennsylvania Gazette was one North America's most prominent newspapers from 1728 until 1800. On October 2, 1729, Benjamin Franklin and Hugh Meredith bought the paper. Franklin not only printed the paper but also often contributed pieces under aliases. These crime reports appeared in the January 12, 1731 issue.
• U.S. History; Colonial Era & Revolution. 60 public domain books, published 1770-1975
• Descendants of black loyalists in Nova Scotia seek land titles. Residents of a black community in Nova Scotia say they're hoping for progress this week in gaining title to their land, 200 years after their ancestors were handed rocky plots without clear ownership. Globe & Mail.
• Might not look like much, but this step stone and loose bricks are all that exists above ground of a Loyalist landmark: the home of Beverly Robinson in Garrison, NY. (at Highlands Country Club)
• Dreary weather & good company! Eric the gunsmith & Eleanor the cat, warming up by the fire. Photo at Colonial Williamsburg.
• And you though maybe high heels were a recent phenomenon. The Persistence of High Heels.
• Good storage practices for most anything make a difference. See the importance of conservation. Pair of 18th century shoes, one conserved, the other not.
• Something bright to start the day! Jacket & neckerchief, chintz; skirt, glazed printed cotton 1770-1800 (photo)

Black Loyalists in Niagara Area

I think this is a great idea "looking for black Loyalists" as noted in last week's Loyalist Trails in “Ontario's Lost Black Loyalists,” by Jay Young.

In the past I did research on Harriet Ross Tubman who brought escaped slaves to Niagara area "St. Catharines" in the mid 1800s. This was before Harriet was well recognized.

We have Richard Pierpoint as a Black Loyalist in the Niagara area. I wonder if there were more who reached Niagara during the revolution and worked with the British side, or who arrived after the conflict as Loyalist refugees.

Does anyone have information about others who came to the area?

...Elizabeth Robbins

Heraldry Protocol

A question of protocol has arisen. I have read that UEs are entitled to a crown on their arms, mural/civil, or military, depending on whether the ancestor fought or was a civilian.

Lt. Robert Melvin fought in the Colonial Wars before going to Canada. He is recorded as having said, "I have fought for the King and cannot in conscience fight against him."

Would his descendants be entitled to a military crown or a civil crown? Thank you.

...Howard Browne UE, Williamsburg, Virginia hstormb@cox.net

(Editor's Note: In History of the UELAC, there is a subsection, “The UELAC Armorial Bearings and Badge,” where you can read more, including The Canadian Heraldic Authority and the Loyalists, by John E. Ruch, UE.)