Loyalist Trails UELAC Newsletter, 2017 Archive

Previous Issue | Index | Next Issue

You have reached an outdated URL. You will be redirected to the new Loyalist Trails online archive in 3 seconds. Click here if you do not wish to wait.

“Loyalist Trails” 2017-50: December 10, 2017

In this issue:
- Unpacking an Execution Notice (Part 3 of 3), by Stephen Davidson
- Obituary for William Botsford, 1773-1864
- Battle of Chelsea Creek (May 27-28, 1775)
- Daniel Morgan, Rebel
- Atlantic Loyalist Connections: What Does That Say Again?!
- JAR: Rascally Cousins: Whig or Tory in America's Mother Town
- Ben Franklin's World: The American Revolution in North America
- Reference: Guide to Finding Your Loyalist Ancestor in Upper Canada
- The Georgian Papers Programme: New Releases
- Where in the World?
- Region and Branch Bits
- From the Twittersphere and Beyond
- Queries
+ Coin of Interest to Loyalists

Articles

Unpacking an Execution Notice (Part 3 of 3)

No documentation can be found to shed light on the efforts to save Ezekiel Tilton, an incarcerated Loyalist, for the period between September and December of 1782. In the end, the pleas of a wife, fellow loyalists and the British commander had no effect on New Jersey patriots still seething over the execution of Joshua Huddy.

They hanged Tilton on Friday, December 13, 1782. The charge: high treason. Two other loyalists shared the gallows with Tilton that day: John Lokerson and Peter Eaton. Judah Lippincott and James Fisher had also been sentenced to hang as traitors but received a reprieve. Within eight days, the news crossed Anchor Bay to New York City where Rivington's Royal Gazette printed the sad news.

Elizabeth, Tilton's 36 year old wife, now had four children who were completely dependent upon her. Given that her two brothers-in-law, Clayton and John, were among the loyalist refugees who had sailed for the mouth of the St. John River, the young widow had few resources or family members to support her. Although rebels had confiscated and sold her husband's property, Elizabeth decided to remain in Middletown. She lived for 55 more years, dying on March 9, 1837. Her tombstone and those of other family members can be found in the town's Fairview Cemetery. No doubt only a few --if any-- of Elizabeth's descendants realize that her husband was a committed Loyalist and friend of the king.

But others would remember the service of Ezekiel Tilton. When not engaged in guerilla warfare in New Jersey, Ezekiel's brother, John Tilton, had worked as a carpenter in New York City. In 1783, his family boarded an evacuation ship for the mouth of the St. John River. The victualing muster for Fort Howe shows that John and his wife had two children under the age of ten and two children who were ten or older. At the time the Tilton family was drawing food supplies from the British garrison in Parrtown, John was listed as a millwright. In time, he became a mariner, owning part of a vessel called the Repulse. Captain John Tilton lived in New Brunswick for twenty-two years, dying in 1805.

Clayton Tilton, the last of the three Loyalist brothers, died three years after John. He and his wife Catherine had come to what is now New Brunswick with their children: William, Samuel, Ann and Elizabeth. The family eventually settled in Musquash, a community about 35 km west of Saint John, where they operated an inn.

Clayton died at the relatively young age of fifty-two. He would have lived longer had he not tried to arrest a deserting soldier. But then, Clayton Tilton had a history of capturing deserters.

Back in August of 1782 ---the same summer in which his brother Ezekiel had been imprisoned-- Clayton was a witness at a court martial for a young Loyalist soldier accused of desertion. With the help of another officer, Clayton captured Michael Meany six miles from his post. The deserter blamed his absence on the fact that he was intoxicated. Nevertheless, the military court sentenced Tilton's prisoner to receive 500 lashes with a cat-of-nine-tails.

Twenty-six years later, Clayton Tilton once again gathered local men to round up a deserter. This time the culprits were three privates in the 101st Regiment that was stationed in Saint John. Henry Baldwin, James Lannon and Patrick McEvoy abandoned Fort Howe in October of 1808, heading west for the American border. Six days later, the armed deserters knocked on the door of a house near that of Clayton Tilton's to ask directions to Dipper Harbour. Knowing that there were deserters in the neighbourhood, Tilton called on two servants to help him capture the soldiers.

Tilton confronted the deserters on St. Andrews Road as they were leaving Musquash. Private Baldwin shot and killed Tilton with his musket, and then escaped into the woods with his two companions. The local militia eventually captured the three privates and took them back to Saint John for trial. Lannon and Baldwin were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. Both men testified that they had persuaded Patrick McEvoy, a teenager, to desert with them. Since the youth had no part in Tilton's murder, he received mercy.

The deserters' execution was set for November 23, exactly a month following the murder of Clayton Tilton. Lannon and Baldwin marched to the King Street gallows that Wednesday morning in the company of a Methodist layman who sang hymns in the hope of comforting them. Many who witnessed the men swinging from their nooses must have wondered if there was some form of divine intervention. Both of the deserters' ropes snapped and the men dropped to the ground unharmed. The convicts then had to stand beneath their gallows until new rope could be acquired and put up a second time. With fresh nooses around their necks, Lannon and Baldwin once again stood on the gallows. This time the ropes held, and the men died.

Almost six decades later, while working along King Street, city labourers unearthed some rotten boards and bones. Digging further, they discovered two coffins that contained scraps of red cloth and tarnished military brass buttons. These artifacts were evidence of a speedy burial in 1808. Still dressed in their regiment's uniforms, Lannon and Baldwin had quickly been consigned to shallow, unmarked graves at the foot of their gallows. The discovery of these remains was the final chapter in the story of the men who had murdered Clayton Tilton, the loyalist of Monmouth.

Brass buttons and uniform fragments may not be the only the surviving artifacts to bear witness to the tragic story of the three Tilton brothers. In his last will and testament, Clayton Tilton bequeathed a number of possessions to his children, and these may still exist as heirlooms in some 21st century New Brunswick home. Among other things, the New Jersey loyalist left his heirs a mahogany dining table, six chairs, a china tea set of nine cups and saucers, and a silver coffee pot with six silver spoons.

~*~

This article began with the news of Ezekiel Tilton's death as recorded in a New York City newspaper on December 21, 1782. The very last time that any of the loyalist Tiltons would have his name appear in a newspaper would be over a century later. The February 7, 1891 edition of the Saint John Daily Telegraph carried an article that featured the memoirs of a Loyalist's child. Born in 1796, 95 year-old Henry Melick still had vivid memories of the city's earliest days, including the execution of Clayton Tilton's murderers.

By piecing together oral history, obituaries, probate records, court transcripts, genealogical data, scraps of uniforms, and newspaper articles spanning more than a hundred years, one can discover the amazing story of three loyalist brothers -- a story that started with a single sentence in a New York newspaper.

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

Obituary for William Botsford, 1773-1864

Hon. William Botsford, at West Cock, Sackville, New Brunswick, May 8, 1864 in the 92nd year of his age.

He was born at New Haven Con., April 1773. He was the son of Hon. Amos Botsford, b. at Newtown Con., Jan 1744. Y.C. 1763, whose "adhesion to his allegiance in the Revolutionary war forced him from his native home, but who was appointed, 1782, by Sir. Guy Carleton, an agent for the loyalist who were then embarking at New York, to seek an asylum in Nova Scotia, and arrived at Annapolis, with the first Fleet, in the autumn of that year.

On the erection of the Province, he represented the County of Westmorland, and was elected Speaker by the first House of Assembly in 1786. He was afterwards re-elected by each successive House, until his death, 14 Sept 1812.

The mother of Hon. William Botsford was Sarah Chandler, born at New Haven Con., March 1752, dau. Of Col. Joshua Chandler, Esq, of New Haven Con. (a loyalist and a refugee), by his wife Sarah Miles of New Haven.

Sarah Chandler was grand dau. of Joshua Chandler of Woodstock Con., by his wife Elizabeth Cutler, of Medway, Mass. She was the great grand dau. of Judge John Chandler, of Woodstock by his wife Mary Raymond of New London; and gr. gr. grand dau. of Deacon John Chandler, of Woodstock, Con., son of William and Annis Chandler, of Roxbury, Mass, by his wife Elisabeth Douglas.

At the age of 9 years William Botsford accompanied his parents to Annapolis; but was afterwards sent back to Con., and fitted to enter Yale College under the instruction of Rev. Eleazer Goodrich of Durham. Graduating in 1792, he went home and pursued the study of Law, partly with Hon. Jona Bliss, Chief Justice of the Province of N.B. He was admitted to the bar in 1795, and commenced the practice of his profession at St. John N.B. In 1803 he was appointed Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court, over which he presided until 1807, when at the removal from St. John to West Cock, his father's seat in Westmorland County, resigning this position.

On the death of his father in 1812, he succeeded him in the representation of the country in the Assembly of the Province. In 1817, he was elected Speaker of the House, and continued so by re-election till 1823, when he was promoted to the Executive and Legislative Council. In 1817, he was appointed Solicitor-General, and he held this position till his elevation to the bench of the Supreme Court in 1823. In this office he remained twenty two years. His hearing having then become slightly impaired, he resigned his seat on the bench; and during the remainder of his life, resided on his estate at West Cock, active in promoting the public welfare and especially interested in the advancement of agriculture.

In 1802, Judge Botsford married Sarah Lowell Hazen, dau. of Hon. William Hazen and widow of Thos. Murray, Esq. Her death occurred May 1850, at the age of 74 years, leaving 8 sons and 2 daughters.

"The late Hon. William Botsford was a noble specimen of a man, and his heart was warm with love to all"

...Submitted by Rebecca Grant; from the N.E. Historical Genealogical Society, 1865, p.79

Battle of Chelsea Creek (May 27-28, 1775)

The Battle of Chelsea Creek was the second military engagement of the Boston campaign of the American Revolutionary War. It is also known as the Battle of Noddle's Island, Battle of Hog Island and the Battle of the Chelsea Estuary. This battle was fought on May 27 and 28, 1775, on Chelsea Creek and on salt marshes, mudflats, and islands of Boston Harbor, northeast of the Boston peninsula. Most of these areas have since been united with the mainland by land reclamation and are now part of East Boston, Chelsea, Winthrop, and Revere.

The American colonists met their goal of strengthening the siege of Boston by removing livestock and hay on those islands from the reach of the British regulars. The British armed schooner Diana was also destroyed and its weaponry was appropriated by the Colonial side. This was the first naval capture of the war, and it was a significant boost to the morale of the Colonial forces

Loyalist Trails UELAC Newsletter, 2017 Archive

You have reached an outdated URL. You will be redirected to the new Loyalist Trails online archive in 3 seconds. Click here if you do not wish to wait.