Loyalist Trails UELAC Newsletter, 2016 Archive

In this issue:
- Conference 2016: Loyalists, Lighthouses & Lobsters
- Unpacking the Name in a Loyalist Diary: Stocktons and Cougles, by Stephen Davidson
- Libraries and Bicycles and Scholarship, oh my!
- Newfoundland and the American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783
- Niagara Families Research Resource
- Borealia: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America
- JAR: Musket Ball and Small Shot Identification: A Guide
- Where in the World?
- Region and Branch Bits
- From the Twittersphere and Beyond
- Queries
      + 1787 New Jersey to Niagara Loyalist Caravan

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, including the registration form, is now available read here.

Unpacking the Name in a Loyalist Diary: Stocktons and Cougles

© Stephen Davidson, UE

John Barbarie was a loyalist soldier from Perth-Amboy, New Jersey. In November of 1780, he entertained an escaped prisoner of war named Anthony Allaire at a fort in South Carolina. The brief reference to Barbarie in Allaire's diary has taken us on a quest to learn more about this New Jersey loyalist. We began with one piece of the puzzle; let's see what other “pieces” can tell us about the life of John Barbarie in British North America.

By the end of the American Revolution, Barbarie had lost one brother in the conflict and had joined another brother as a passenger on an evacuation ship seeking sanctuary in Nova Scotia.

Thanks to the records found in the Book of Negroes, we know that John Barbarie and members of his New Jersey Volunteers regiment left New York City on the Duke of Richmond on September 18, 1783, bound for the mouth of the St. John River. Ten of those veterans travelled in the company of Africans who were either Black Loyalists or the property of white loyalists.

Though still a bachelor, Barbarie did not sail alone. With him was Plato, an eighteen year-old slave who had been “born in the captain's family”. Given that rebels had seized all of the Barbarie family's land, Plato may have been the only “inheritance” that the loyalist captain was able to take with him.

Captain John Cougle and his nineteen year-old slave, Vaughan Covenhaven, were fellow passengers on the Duke of Richmond. Vaughan was a boy of African descent that loyalist soldiers had captured in New Jersey when he was just fifteen. Cougle purchased him sometime during the intervening four years. (And so the diary reference to John Barbarie now connects us to the names of those in the Book of Negroes and to a loyalist fellow officer. Barbarie and Cougle would eventually be related through the marriage of their children. )

We’ll pause here to learn more about John Cougle. Cougle (sometimes spelled Cowgill or Coggle) told his story to the Royal Commission on the Losses and Services of American Loyalists when it convened in Saint John, New Brunswick on January 19, 1786. One history of Cougle's regiment says that he was a native of Pennsylvania, but his opening testimony to the RCLSAL commissioner is that he was, like John Barbarie, a native of New Jersey. In 1776, he had been forced to sign an “association”, giving allegiance to the rebel cause, but he only did this to that he would not be “prevented from executing the business he was about.”

In February, 1777, Cougle recruited 51 other loyalists to serve with him in the New Jersey Volunteers. For his recruiting efforts, he was given a captain's commission and served “the whole war” with this regiment. Cougle and his wife Susanna Farnsworth found sanctuary in Parrtown where they received two town lots. The couple had at least one son – Joseph Cougle. He would later marry Mary Ann/Jane, one of John Barberie's daughters.

Within three years, the Cougle family was living in Sussex Vale on the Kennebecasis River. Captain John Cougle died on February 8, 1819 at the age of seventy-three.

Land along the shores of the Kennebecasis River was granted to New Jersey Volunteer veterans in the summer after their arrival in New Brunswick. John Barbarie and eleven of the men who served with him at Fort Ninety-Six made their homes there in 1784. This was also the year that 33 year-old Barbarie married Mary Ann Stockton, the 19 year-old daughter of Major Richard Witham Stockton. Barbarie may have first met members of Mary's family in 1777. Her brother Andrew Stockton was taken prisoner on Staten Island along with Barbarie, and shared the same jail in Trenton, New Jersey. Both Barbarie and Stockton were officers in the New Jersey Volunteers during the revolution.

Once again a single diary reference to Barbarie has connected us with another loyalist family. We’ll pause to learn more about the Stocktons.

Richard Witham Stockton was, like his future son-in-law, an officer in the New Jersey Volunteers. (A relative of Stockton's who shared his first name and hailed from the same colony was the eleventh Founding Father to sign the Declaration of Independence!)

When Stockton was taken prisoner with 59 other loyalists in 1777, the victorious rebel general put the loyalist officer in chains and marched him through the streets of Philadelphia. None other than George Washington felt that this was inappropriate, writing that Stockton had “I believe, been very active and mischievous; but we took him in arms, as an officer of the enemy, and by the rules of war we are obliged to treat him as such, and not as a felon."

Stockton later had occasion to write about his own sense of the “inappropriate”. In the fall of 1777 he petitioned the continental congress to complain about the “uncomfortableness of the gaol, on account of the windows not being glazed”. A resolution was passed to have the jail made "as comfortable as circumstances will admit."

Rebels kept Stockton incarcerated in Philadelphia for two years, until they freed him in a prisoner exchange in 1779. A year later, Stockton and a British officer were accused of the murder of Private Derrick Ammerman (Amberman), a Long Island rebel solider and miller. Stockton was found guilty and was to be hanged, but for unspecified reasons, the sentence was remitted.

By the fall of 1783, Stockton and his wife Mary (Hatfield) and seven of their children had found sanctuary at the mouth of the St. John River. (Charles, who had been a loyalist officer, and two of his siblings remained in the USA.) Ann/Nancy Stockton had married Matthew Richardson in 1780, but the couple later left New Brunswick to settle in Ohio. Andrew Stockton married Hannah Lester after arriving in New Brunswick. Phoebe and Richard Stockton both died unmarried. Jean/Jane Stockton married Major James Cougle of the New Jersey Volunteers, and died in Sussex Vale. Samuel Hatfield Stockton married Caroline Leonard, had seven children, and died in Sussex, surviving all of his loyalist siblings. Mary Ann Stockton, as has already been said, married John Barbarie. Her father, Richard Witham Stockton, died on May 8, 1801 at the age of sixty-seven in Sussex.

What became of John and Mary Ann's children will be told in next week's Loyalist Trails.

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

Libraries and Bicycles and Scholarship, oh my!

"My two favourite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything. The perfect day: riding a bike to the library." – Peter Golkin

We are not on a bike, but moving forward we do have good news for Loyalist scholarship. In addition to the successful outcome of the 2016 Scholarship Challenge we are riding high on scholarship news this week. On June 29th the UELAC Dominion Council voted overwhelmingly in favour of the establishment of the Loyalist Scholarship Endowment Fund. Seed money of $33,580 has been earmarked for investment to generate income in support of UELAC Loyalist Scholarship.

In an email this week Gregory Wigmore, History Department, Santa Clara University, CA, wrote, "I remain very grateful to UELAC for the generous support, which came at a crucial time in my studies. It enabled me to undertake research in Southern Ontario and Ottawa that would not otherwise have been possible on a graduate student's stipend, especially being based in California."

If you wish to join UELAC in investing in the future, please consider a donation to the Loyalist Scholarship Endowment Fund. Help us build a fund that will sustain Loyalist scholarship for years to come. For donations of $10 or more, a tax receipt will be issued by UELAC Head Office. The next time you give please mark your donation Loyalist Scholarship Endowment Fund. How to Give.

Our scholars thank you and UELAC thanks you for your commitment to academic excellence. Perhaps Benjamin Franklin said it best. "An investment in knowledge pays the best dividends."

...Bonnie Schepers, UE, Scholarship Committee

Newfoundland and the American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783

The fisheries and society at Newfoundland always suffered when war broke out in the North Atlantic. The fisheries and the trade depended on secure sea lanes which, in time of war, were threatened by enemy warships and privateers. Moreover, war diverted fishermen into the navy, though the numbers were never close to those promised in peace time by the fishing merchants. As a result, every time that war broke out, people chose or were forced to stay in Newfoundland rather than return to England. The migratory fisheries ( ship fishery, bye boat fishery, bank fishery) decreased, and the sedentary boat fishery increased. When the war ended, the situation reversed itself. Read more.

Niagara Families Research Resource

I have donated about 14 binders of genealogy research to the Niagara Falls History Museum on Ferry Street. Families include: Lundy, Ball, Silverthorn, Wilkerson, Bender, Green, Pew, Shannon, Rysdale, Shriner. The binders have a lot of information and there are more items donated.

FYI – they can be viewed at the museum – right now they are processing the research and it will be available online sooner or later. In the meantime I think it can be reviewed.

...Roxsane Rysdae UE, Col. John Butler Branch

Borealia: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America

Michael A. McDonnell, Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America (New York: Hill and Wang, 2015). Reviewed by Adam Nadeau.

This book is a wonderfully researched microhistory of the Michilimackinac area from the mid-17th to the early 19th century. Situated around the Mackinaw Straits that connect Lakes Huron and Michigan, early modern Michilimackinac was home to a series of multiethnic Odawa and Ojibwe settlements that controlled the trade of that vital part of the Upper Country between what is now northern Ontario and the US state of Michigan. The cosmological centre of the Anishinaabe world and the historical place at which the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi are said to have diverged, Michilimackinac was a key strategic location in controlling access to the American interior, allowing passage west from Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron into Lake Michigan, the Illinois Country, and Upper Louisiana. Highly skilled canoeists, the Michilimackinac Odawa dominated the Canadian fur trade after the Haudenosaunee dispersal of the Wyandot in 1649 removed the latter as intermediaries in the exchange between the Western Nations and New France. Read more.

JAR: Musket Ball and Small Shot Identification: A Guide

(Book review by Don N. Hagist, May 24, 2016.) The title of this book makes it sound like a highly technical tract interesting only to those doing very sophisticated analysis or hoping to attach significance to a relatively featureless object. How much can be said about a metal sphere, besides the material and the size? The staid title hides the fact that it is a rich source of information about the lives of soldiers who used round-ball ammunition during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It sounds like a volume of charts, diagrams, and procedures for weighing, measuring and cataloging artifacts, and although it includes some of that, it has much more to offer. The thousands of pictures of excavated artifacts, and the stories and studies accompanying them, provide a wealth of unexpected insights on how people in a military environment passed their time, not just fighting and training but also seeking food, entertainment, and other activities. Read more.

Where in the World?

Where are Nova Scotia Branch members Gwen Trask Carol Daley Weir?

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.

• After 18 months of preparation, the 100th Anniversary of the 91st Battalion leaving from St. Thomas ON for France was a huge success. With the help of ancestry.com we were able to connect with about 400 family members whose fathers; grandfather; great grandfathers, uncles, etc. were part of the over 900 who left for Europe. See numerous photos and one entry has a short video clip on Facebook.com It is interesting to note that a number of these men were the descendants of Loyalists - Cook; Dowling; Edison; Anger; Buck, etc. I suspect many of the families we connected with may not have had any idea how deep their roots really were in Canada and North America. Sue Hines UE
• Elsie Schneider UE of Grand River Branch reports the arrival this week of her DAR certificate. She proved to William Gage. Born in Ireland, he owned and operated a farm in Greenbush New York, across Hudson River from Albany. Enlisted man, 2nd reg. Ulster Co. Militia in the American Revolution. To Canada in 1789/90, was granted 600 acres Jul 1794 in Saltfleet Twp. In June 1813 the adjoining farms of William Gage and his nephew James were the scene of the decisive Battle of Stoney Creek. James' home has since become Battlefield House Museum (see the monument in the background). The DAR plaque to William Gage a Canadian Pioneer at his grave in Stoney Creek Cemetery.

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

• Cast your memory back to grade-school history: Chances are that in between making tricorn hats out of construction paper and learning about George Washington's heroics, you weren't taught that John Adams began each day with a tankard of cider, that the Mayflower was loaded with barrels of beer, or that after the war, Washington traded his sword for a whiskey still. That's because traditional histories don't usually mention that our colonial forefathers (and mothers) swam in a sea of booze from breakfast till bedtime. Whether they were working, writing, selling goods, getting married, or even fighting, early Americans were often tipsy -- their incessant drinking a cultural extension of Old World beliefs that fermented beverages were safer than water. The colonial-era day didn't begin until after a dram of bitters or stiffener of beer. By the time the Revolutionary War began, the adults of the thirteen colonies drank an impressive amount of alcohol -- the equivalent of several shots every day. Read more, and about five lesser-known colonial-era drinks; simple and sometimes weird: Flip, Stone Fence, Syllabub, Rattle-Skull and Sangaree.
• Fried Chicken In The 18th Century? You are in for a treat today! This fried chicken recipe comes from Nathan Bailey's 1736 cookbook, "Dictionarium Domesticum." This recipe calls for a marinade that is sure to surprise you. Video - 8 minutes.
• WWI Centenary. Canada on vigil for the Somme, Westminster Cathedral - photo. July 1 marked the beginning of the Battle of the Somme. Today we honour +700 soldiers from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment killed, wounded or missing 100 years ago at Beaumont Hamel.
• Flags of former colonial masters flying in Mackinaw Michigan - photo. Old Union Flag is the Loyalist flag.
• Duke and Duchess of Connaught arriving at the Calgary Stampede circa 1912 - photo.
• A conundrum for those of us working to preserve history: Britain may lose historical heritage as archaeologists admit there is not enough storage space for finds. Read more...
• Canada History Week July 1-7. What are you doing to celebrate our history? British Columbia joined Confederation as the sixth province on July 1, 1871; Prince Edward Island as the seventh province on July 1, 1873

1787 New Jersey to Niagara Loyalist Caravan

Jim Lawrason and I are writing books which will include a description of the 1787 caravan mentioned in the title of this email. I have been seriously studying the life of my Loyalist progenitor, Stephen Seburn, who was in this caravan, for more than 6 years. An article a few months ago in the Loyalist Trails on a rose brought from New Jersey on this caravan connected me to Jim. We have met and are collaborating, particularly on securing the Petit journal. Given its size, the Loyalist caravan of 1787 we think was an important event in the early history of Niagara during the settlement period.

We are researching a Loyalist caravan of about 500 persons led by Nathaniel Petit which arrived in Niagara July 1787 after travelling overland from Sussex County, New Jersey. We would like to better understand this caravan and its impact on early Niagara. Help locating the following key documents is requested.

1. Nathaniel Petit kept a journal during the caravan's travel and in 1882 his grandson, Lawrence Lawrason Jr, is believed to have published a manuscript titled "Autobiographical Sketch of Nathaniel Pettit's Emigration and Settlement in Upper Canada" based on this journal.

Help locating either the original journal, resulting manuscript, or a copy of his book is requested. Shortly after Lawrence Lawrason Jr's death in London Ontario in 1882 his daughter Margaret Phoebe Reed (Reid) is believed to have taken either the original journal or the manuscript to Victoria BC, where she died in 1916. The journal or manuscript may have passed down to her grandson Canon W. Baynes-Reed of Toronto since it is known he loaned it in 1936 to Pearl Wilson, a historian from Chatham, Ontario.

2. A group petition titled "107 Petitioners from Sussex County New Jersey" made by this caravan was received in Montreal on the 29th September 1787 and likely numbered 390 or 391. Reviewed by the land committee 11 March, 1788, approved on 14 March, 1788, the petition was then referred to the Executive Committee and approved in their minutes of 20 March, 1788 (Quebec Land Book - page 19, C-100 image 685).

Help locating the actual petition or the list of subscribers signing the petition is requested.

3. John Warren, ferry operator / Customs Collector responsible for crossings of the Niagara River at Black Rock, is known to have kept lists of arriving settlers which are believed to have survived.

Help locating his list of settlers for 1787 is requested.

Any help you can offer with obtaining copies of the above documents would be greatly appreciated. We can be reached by email to 1787NiagaraLoyalistCaravan@gmail.com.

...Jim Lawrason and Tim Seburn