Loyalist Trails UELAC Newsletter, 2020 Archive

In this issue:
- A Universal Despair and Phrenzy: A Loyalist's letter of August 1782
- The Baileys and the Callahans: Friends in Difficult Days (Part 3), by Stephen Davidson
- Clarifying Two Widows Named Grant
- JAR: Longhouse Lost: The Battle of Oriskany and the Iroquois Civil War
- Book About Philip Eamer Family: Three River Valleys Called Home
- Boston 1775: Safe No Where But In His House
- The Enslavement of African People in Canada (c. 1629-1834)
- Those Mysterious 18thc Masks
- How Much Did 18Th-Century Women Know About Their Clothes?
- JAR: Coronavirus 2020? Nope. The Speckled Monster of 1764
- Resource: Webinar on "Researching a Loyalist Soldier"
- Help to Create the New Loyalist Exhibit at the GLNM Before the UELAC 2021 Conference
- Region and Branch Bits
      + Happy Birthday Alfreda Bingle-Jeffries, UE
      + American Revolution Mohawk Valley Conference
- Additions to the Loyalist Directory
- From the Twittersphere and Beyond
- Last Post
      + Rev Charlotte Moore, UE
      + Theodore Alexander Curylo, UE

A Universal Despair and Phrenzy: A Loyalist's letter of August 1782

{From Hugh E. Egerton's introduction to The Royal Commission on the Losses and Services of American Loyalists that was printed for presentation to the members of the Roxburghe Club in 1915.}

Such being the {hostile and vengeful} temper of the Americans, we can understand something of the panic and despair which took hold of the loyalists when they at last realized that peace was to be made with their enemies. A striking picture of their feelings is given in a letter of Benjamin Thompson to Lord Sackville, dated August 6, 1782.

"You cannot conceive nor can any language describe the distress that all ranks of people here (New York) have been thrown into by the intelligence of the independence of America being acknowledged by Great Britain, and the loyalists being given up to the mercy of their enemies.

The militia, who for some weeks have done the whole of the garrison duty in this city, have refused to serve any longer, and the general has been obliged to relieve them by bringing regular troops into town. The loyalists at Lloyds Neck and the other posts are in a state of anarchy and confusion, little short of actual rebellion.

Papers have been stuck up about town, inviting Sir Guy Carleton to take the command of the army here and to oppose by force the measures of the new administration, and promising thousands to assist him. In short a universal despair and phrenzy prevails within these lines, and I should not be very surprised if very alarming consequences were to follow from the temper people are in.

They seem to be as void of prudence as they are destitute of hope, and a kind of language is now spoken publicly in the streets that is enough to make us tremble for what is to follow from these convulsions. The provincial corps will disband of themselves, or what is infinitely more to be dreaded, they will take arms in opposition to these measures. They feel themselves deeply injured."

(The letter quoted above is found in Hist, MSS. Comm., Stopford-Sackville MSS., Vol. II, Papers Relating to the Am. War, pp. 252-3.)

The Baileys and the Callahans: Friends in Difficult Days (Part 3)

© Stephen Davidson, UE

At dawn the next day, several young people took Bailey downriver in a canoe, leaving him at a tavern. Afraid of being recognized and reported by a traveler at the public house, Bailey was finally met by a friend who brought the clergyman his horse. Over the next few days, Bailey made his way to Boston without further incident. He remained there until Christmas, "and though he had endured great anxiety on account of his family, he had the pleasure of finding them in comfortable circumstances, the friends of government {local Loyalists} having liberally contributed towards their support."

As so often happened, the wives of Loyalists such as Sarah Bailey and Rebecca Callahan were the ones who suffered most at the hands of their rebel neighbours. Throughout the fall and early winter of 1777 both women had to look after their dependents, not knowing if – or when – their husbands would ever return to Pownalborough. During this time, Sarah Bailey was "confined to quarters" while her friend Rebecca Callahan had been driven from her home and could only hope to receive justice by travelling all the way to Boston.

When the Supreme Court convened in Boston on March 7, 1778, Rebecca Callahan said that she would not willingly give up her estate as she "had no other Way of supporting her Self & Family and that the said Charles had left an aged Father entirely dependent on said Estate for his living". However, if the court would not return the Callahans' property, she asked that some of its assets be used "to defray the charges of carrying her aged father and family to her said Husband at Halifax." She hoped that she would be allowed to carry their "moveable effects" that were valued at £300.

By April 29th, the court had made its decision. Rebecca was granted £200 and given permission to leave Massachusetts. In retrospect, the timing could not have been better. As Rebecca and the family were making their way to Halifax, her husband Charles was being given command of the General Gage, a 12-gun sloop commissioned to prey on the Patriot towns of the New England coast. It was bad enough that Charles had joined the British, but once it became known that he was actively conducting raids on the United States, Patriots would have taken out their anger on Charles' wife and their 3 children.

Thanks to the journal of the Callahans' friend, Jacob Bailey, a record of Charles' "courage and fidelity" has survived. "He quickly became a terror to the Rebels, took a number of their fishing and coasting vessels, and destroyed several of their privateers."

"In the summer of 1778 the people of ... a settlement on the eastern shore of Penobscot Bay, fired upon his boat... and mortally wounded one of {Callahan's crew}. Having received this inhuman provocation, he immediately landed, and burnt all their habitations, to the number of ten or twelve, and drove the barbarous inhabitants into the woods ... the authorities were so highly enraged that two stout privateers were sent to intercept him, but they were not fortunate enough to accomplish their design."

However, the General Gage's successful string of coastal raids came to an abrupt end on December 26, 1778. As the privateer neared the outer lighthouse of Halifax's harbour, a winter storm shipwrecked the vessel. One of the crew was killed, and Callahan was wounded in making it to shore. The crew were rescued "though some were miserably frozen".

Callahan was not able to take command of another privateer. However, his intimate knowledge of the Maine coast made him a valuable asset, and by the following summer, he was made the pilot for the HMS North when it joined the British flotilla bound for the Penobscot peninsula.

Despite Charles' absence, the reunion of his family with their old friends from Pownalborough was a very happy one. The news of the Baileys' arrival spread quickly throughout Halifax's New England refugee community. The minister and his family had hardly stepped over the Callahans' threshold when two other Loyalists and the local Anglican rector dropped by to welcome them to Nova Scotia. Naturally, they wanted to learn about the Baileys' "fortunate deliverance from tyranny, oppression, and poverty".

Persecution of local Loyalists had been steadily increasing all through 1778. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, the Rev. Jacob Bailey applied for permission to leave Pownalborough for Halifax. When this was finally granted in early November, the Anglican minister could find no ship to transport his family with – as he termed it – "winter advancing in all its horrors".

Hoping to leave in the following spring, Bailey continued to preach to his congregation despite the threats of the local magistrate. The latter warned that if Bailey continued to hold services, he would gather up a posse of men on Christmas Day and "drag him headlong out of the pulpit" and "commit him to prison".

As it turned out, the weather was so severe on December 25th, that no services were held at Bailey's church. Instead, the family shared a Christmas dinner in their home with a handful of friends. Suddenly, the high sheriff and two men entered the Anglican parsonage. The deputy "uttered language marked by profaneness and obscenity", provoking John McNamara, the Bailey's manservant, to threaten him with "personal violence if it should be repeated".

Even when he stayed home, Bailey brought down the wrath of Pownalborough's Patriots. It was definitely time to leave. Many of the experiences of the clergyman's family in their final months along the Kennebec River have been lost due to the fact that portions of Bailey's journal are missing. Among those pages would have been accounts of the death of their two daughters and the death of Charles Callahan's father. These three are completely absent from all accounts of the two families' escapes to Nova Scotia.

The story of two Loyalist couples continues in next week's Loyalist Trails.

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

Clarifying Two Widows Named Grant

In the January 12, 2020 issue of Loyalist Trails, Stephen Davidson recounted the story of Mrs. Penuel Grant, a Loyalist widow. After migrating to New Brunswick, Mrs. Grant's story became, as Davidson confessed, "somewhat murky". Did she marry Henry Cronkhite or remain a widow and settle in England? Mary McCutcheon's research clarifies the confusion:

A Second Widow Grant of New Brunswick, Named Elizabeth

A while ago, Stephen Davidson wrote about women Loyalists in New Brunswick. Among them was Penuel Grant, widow of Major James Grant an officer in the King's American Regiment who died on the retreat to New York after the fall of Charleston. Penuel left her mark by signing a letter to Governor Carleton concerning the plight of the distressed families of officers who died. After she returned to England, a colourful obituary eventually appeared there - with no mention of New Brunswick. (See Penuel Grant, Part 1)

However a second Widow Grant, named Elizabeth, did leave descendants New Brunswick. Some of us are still trying to unearth her comparatively less glamorous history and that of her husband Private John Grant [of Long Island]. No birth or marriage records are known of either from their life, apparently in pre-revolutionary New York province. More than one "private John Grant" appears in military lists; descendant Susan Grant recently found his death, barely legible, in the final listing of the King's American Regiment made in August 1783 at Long Island camp. Soon after that the surviving veterans, wives and children were resettled in the Saint John River Valley in New Brunswick. Elizabeth, who brought 5 children, married a Private Henry Cronkhite from the same Regiment, and had more children.

The story of Elizabeth indeed illustrates of New Brunswick Loyalist women. She was an well known resident of her rural area. Since we have nothing written about or by her, or a picture, I sometimes speculate that she could not write. We have almost given up tracing her origins. More information points towards pre-Revolutionary war John Grant. Efforts spearheaded by Robert Noel Grant of California have tried to identify him using clan histories, Scotland's e-compilations in the Red Book (est.1987) and international Y-DNA (we're Tullochgorm Grants) correspondence. The "Red Books" appear willing to mention Elizabeth as "our" private John Grant's widow although we have not yet precisely identified either!

We would like Loyalist Trails to add this information to Stephen's account of women Loyalists of New Brunswick. Please correct it and to call attention to Elizabeth as the true maritime WIDOW GRANT, in place of Penuel who is frequently erroneously identified as the WIDOW GRANT. They were both widows of Loyalist Grants associated with the King's American Regiment, with children, but probably never met. Typical of the times, when Elizabeth died on July 29, 1815 she was recorded in the Anglican Register as "Mrs. Cronkhite, Sr."

The lack of information about the private and his wife is disappointing for their descendants. It reminds us all of the amount of destruction done to the historical record and disruption to family life that was brought about by the displacement of soldiers and settlers during that period.

Additional Notes and Comments:

"Big Y" genetic marker analysis has linked "our" John Grant to Jacobite days in the highlands and possibly the Tullochgorm Grant branch. Time draws a veil over what brought him to sign up with the King's American Regiment near New York in 17... Descendant John Noel Grant, of California, continues investigations to fill in the genealogical blanks.

She soon remarried, probably in Fredericton, Henry Cronkite of Long Island, another Private in the same Regiment.

No other references have yet been found in pre-revolutionary, revolutionary or military writings about these Grants. There were several John Grants, today a common family name in Maine for example.

Elizabeth was identified from the baptism record of the older Grant boys and young children of her second marriage. Her maiden name is unknown; when she died the local paper identified her only as Henry Cronkhite's widow.

These two Widow Grants of the King's American Regiment have occasionally been confused in the last 200 years. We should now disentangle them. References in family and local histories can be corrected and the two women given their due.

To help identify our Widow Grant, and distinguish hm from the rest of his clan, we are unofficially calling her husband John Grant of Long Island.

...Mary J. McCutcheon

JAR: Longhouse Lost: The Battle of Oriskany and the Iroquois Civil War

by Brady J. Crytzer 30 July 2020

The coming of the American Revolution traumatized the North American frontier, and many old orders were left shattered in its wake. While historians often focus on the establishment of a new nation, few recognize the destruction of one of the continent's oldest superpowers. The battle of Oriskany in New York's Mohawk River Valley stands out for many reasons – it was one of the bloodiest days of the entire war, and one of the few battles that was made up almost entirely of North American participants. But perhaps its greatest legacy is the one discussed the least. On that day, the member nations of the Iroquois Confederacy waged war on one another for the first time, and the gruesome battle marked the beginning of a terrible civil war from which the People of the Longhouse would never recover.

The People of the Longhouse

From the beginning of the American Revolution the vast and mighty Iroquois Confederacy attempted to walk the fine line of neutrality. Made up of six member nations known respectively as the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse), the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Tuscarawas, and Seneca each believed that the rebellion had the potential to disrupt their long-standing alliance with the British Empire. Although each had their own perspectives on the conflict, the Six Nations relied on their ancient system of governance to establish an official policy toward the two warring sides. Employing a pseudo-federal system, sachems representing each tribe met in council to negotiate terms and gather consensus, ultimately developing a confederacy-wide policy of absolute neutrality. From the earliest months of the war, even before the volleys at Lexington Green, the Iroquois Confederacy found themselves balancing on a tightrope of revolutionary proportions.

Tradition was paramount to the Haudenosaunee, but even the weight of history was not immune to the shifting political ground of revolutionary North America. Since the 1740s the Iroquois had been staunch allies with the Crown, and that agreement was instrumental to the British conquest of New France at the end of the Seven Years' War. In the decade leading to the Revolution, though, some member nations had grown in prominence in the new British North America and a strong sense of localized autonomy had weakened the influence of the Great Council Fire. While the tribal elders stressed neutrality, the warriors of the western-most Seneca and Cayuga had flourished alongside the Redcoats, and Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario had become a royal headquarters on the frontier. Thus, with a prominent fort now on Seneca land and a wealth of trading opportunities, the renegade warriors had little interest in remaining impartial despite their tribal leadership's wishes.

Read more.

Book About Philip Eamer Family: Three River Valleys Called Home

by Vicki Holmes

Sometimes people leave their home with the hopes of finding something better. Sometimes they are forced out and chased away. Philip Eamer and his wife, Catrina, experience both in this true story of immigrants searching for a place to call home. The Eamer family's story begins in 1755 as they leave the Rhine Valley for a better life in America. Once there, they move to the Mohawk River Valley in New York, where they build a home and raise 10 children. Despite the effects of the French Indian War, the Eamers flourish and happily find their lives intertwined with their neighbours and fellow immigrants for almost two decades.

However, no family's story occurs in isolation, and eventually the Eamers find themselves at the mercy of the political and historic events of the American Revolution. Choosing to side with the Crown, they are forced to flee their home at the hands of neighbours and soldiers. What follows next is representative of many Loyalists' experiences. The Eamer family is forced to make a 370-km (230-mile) trek to Montreal, where they must live in a refugee camp for three years before finally being granted their own land in the St. Lawrence Valley for their loyalty to the King.

Told by one of Philip and Catrina's descendants, Three River Valleys Called Home is historical fiction based on a real family and true events. Although some of the interactions and dialogue may be imagined, they are firmly planted in the harsh realities that many immigrants faced and pay tribute to the true grit of the settlers who built North America. While this book will have special meaning for the thousands of descendants of the Eamer family (and the other families who made up their community), their story will touch anyone with a history of immigration in their family tree.

Book cover; See details or purchase at FriesenPress. Watch the book trailer.

The book is available as hardcover/paperback/ebook at Friesen Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Itunes.

Boston 1775: Safe No Where But In His House

by J.L. Bell 28 July 2020

On the evening of Wednesday, 1 Mar 1775, Henry Barnes opened the door of his large house in Marlborough (shown above, even larger after nineteenth-century expansion).

Two strangers from England stepped inside. They apologized to Barnes "for taking the liberty to make use of his house" and revealed that they were British army officers in disguise – Capt. William Brown and Ens. Henry DeBerniere.

Read more.

The Enslavement of African People in Canada (c. 1629-1834)

These colonies developed their own systems of enslavement, which distinguished them from slave societies elsewhere in the French and British empires. At the same time, they reaffirmed the interconnectedness of the Atlantic World through their active participation in the trade of enslaved Africans and the goods they produced throughout the Americas. In May 1689, the French monarch Louis XIV officially sanctioned the participation of New France in the centuries-old Atlantic slave trade after the colonial administrator, Jean-Baptiste de Lagny (Sieur des Brigandières), petitioned the governor and intendant to send enslaved Africans, insisting that the economic viability of the colony depended upon their forced labour. The Spaniards, Portuguese, Dutch, British, Danes, Swedes, and other Europeans used similar economic arguments to justify the forcible capture and transportation of approximately 12.5 million sub-Saharan Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to their colonies in the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries. These men, women, and children endured unimaginable horrors. Approximately 15 percent died in the Middle Passage.

British colonies in the Americas were complicit in the Atlantic slave trade, often without ever clearly defining the legal foundations for the enslavement of African people. In 1781, Saint John's Island (Prince Edward Island) became the only colony in British North America to pass legislation that defined the legal parameters of enslavement. However, the largest population of enslaved people of African descent was probably in Nova Scotia. Many United Empire Loyalists fled to that colony after the American Revolution and brought enslaved Africans with them as duty-free "property."

Read more.

Those Mysterious 18thc Masks

by Susan Holloway Scott 26 July 2020

Since masks are back in the news - and also once again making fashion statements as well as being worn for reasons of health, I though I'd revisit this older post about masks in the 18thc. Masks frequently appear in portraits of the time, adding the necessary touch of mystery to fancy-dress costumes and general coquetry. But recent research by Mark Hutter, tailor in the Historic Trades Program, Colonial Williamsburg, and Philippe L.B.Halbert, scholar and doctoral candidate, Yale University, shows that women were wearing masks for far more occasions than masquerades.

Masks as a fashionable accessory most likely originated in Italy, and made their way north to Britain during the 16thc. Samuel Pepys made note of women wearing black masks called visors or vizzards to attend the theater incognito in the 1660s. [Common in America. No straps; how were they held in place? ]

Read more.

How Much Did 18Th-Century Women Know About Their Clothes?

In today's world of fast fashion, consumers might not know much about where their clothing comes from, but that wasn't the case in the eighteenth century. Join Dr Serena Dyer to learn about what eighteenth-century women (and some men) knew about their dress. Georgian dress history meets shopping – what more could you want?

Watch 12-minute video with Dr. Serena Dyer.

JAR: Coronavirus 2020? Nope. The Speckled Monster of 1764

by Katie Turner Getty 28 July 2020

In January 1764, a "speckled monster" struck Boston, forcing businesses to shutter and residents to isolate themselves in their homes or flee the city for months. Not until summer did the threat lift enough to allow Bostonians to resume some semblance of normalcy. So what was this "monster" that disrupted the lives, work and routines of thousands of Bostonians?

It was a virus.

Nicknamed the "speckled monster" due to the oozing eruptions that developed on the skin of sufferers, the smallpox virus reigned unchallenged for centuries. Evoking universal dread for its punishing mortality rate, smallpox also inflicted excruciating pain and sometimes lifelong disfigurement upon its unlucky victims.

Along with the rest of the world in 2020, Boston is battling a new "speckled monster," COVID-19. But this is not the first time Bostonians have confronted the challenges wrought by viral contagion. The current struggle with coronavirus bears striking parallels to the Boston smallpox epidemic of 1764, when city officials and medical professionals worked to #flattenthecurve, eighteenth-century style.

Read more.

Resource: Webinar on "Researching a Loyalist Soldier"

In case you were unable to watch the webinar last week on "Researching a Loyalist soldier," it is still available for free until end of day on Wednesday, August 5th.

...Nancy Conn, UE

Editor's Note: By all accounts the webinar was by an excellent speaker who had quite good content and covered a lot of ground. Different types of Loyalists, sources of information, background, etc. 1.5 hours. Speaker Craig R. Scott, MA, CG, FUGA is a professional genealogical and historical researcher, and is also the CEO of Heritage Books.

Help to Create the New Loyalist Exhibit at the GLNM Before the UELAC 2021 Conference

We're busy at the Glengarry, Nor'Westers & Loyalist Museum in Williamstown, ON redesigning our permanent Loyalist exhibit which houses many treasures from the Loyalists, specifically those who were for the majority Scottish and who followed Sir John Johnson and settled in Glengarry. The exhibit will focus on these Loyalists and their legacy in a more dynamic and comprehensive way than our outdated exhibit was able to. We are seeking to complete this project by the spring of 2021 when the UELAC Annual Conference is set to be held in the neighbouring city of Cornwall and are reaching out to all who recognize the value of the Loyalist narrative in Canadian history and for the Scottish contribution to the building of our nation to support this project.

We realize that times are tough for many institutions amid the pandemic. Please read the letter from the museum president. Any help in the endeavour would be very heartily appreciated!

...Kindest regards, Keleigh Goodfellow-Théorêt GNLM Curator

Region and Branch Bits

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

Happy Birthday Alfreda Bingle-Jeffries, UE

Alfreda, Grimsby Historian, Teacher, Mother, Aunt and Parishioner, celebrates her 99th birthday on Sunday 2 August 2020. A celebration is planned complete with a kilted piper of the Grimsby Pipe Band to pipe down Kidd Avenue from the High School past Alfreda's home.

As a member of the Grand River Branch of UELAC, she received her certificate in 1984 as a descendant of Alan Nixon UEL. She has a number of Loyalist ancestors, including Judge Nathaniel Pettit UEL, Captain John Moore UEL, Allan Nixon Jr. UEL as well as a Hessian soldier, Private Cornelius Voller (Furler).

Read more with photos, as contributed by her niece Catharine Bingle-Gonnsen UE (Hamiton Branch)

American Revolution Mohawk Valley Conference

The current pandemic crisis has forced us all to review our plans this year. We have all been waiting and hoping to see some improvement that will allow us to resume a normal routine. Unfortunately at this time there are still too many unresolved health and safety issues for us to safely gather for our Annual Conference on the American Revolution this year therefore we are cancelling this year's event and looking forward to June 9-13, 2021 and an even bigger and better gathering with some of the best authors and researchers of our shared American Revolutionary War and Colonial History.

Read more.

Additions to the Loyalist Directory

As time permits, we add information to the Loyalist Directory. The latest additions and updates are as follows:

• Matthew Hawley - contributed from Branch records by Jo Ann Tuskin
• Moses Holt - contributed by Pam Wood Waugh
• John London - contributed by Dalton London
• Lodewick Tousack - contributed by John Haynes

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

From the Twittersphere and Beyond

• Learning about man – Rev. John Wiswall MA – whose stone plaque use to be on wall in Old Holy Trinity Church in Middleton, Nova Scotia.  When I visited church it was on floor in a storage area & presumed  was a gravestone however this article mentions how formerly hung inside
• Greetings from the Old Loyalist Cemetery, 1783 in Digby, Nova Scotia
• Found this attractive Pin from the 200th anniversary of arrival of United Empire Loyalists – "United Empire Loyalist Heritage 1783-1983"
• This Week in History
  • 26 Jul 1775 Continental Congress establishes Constitutional Post, forerunner to the US Postal Service.
  • 27 July 1775, Samuel Adams told his friend James Warren of Plymouth that the Congress had appointed him paymaster for the Continental Army and made their colleague Dr. Benjamin Church, Jr., director of the army hospital.
  • 29 July 1775, Peter Edes, in the Boston jail under military authority, complained in his diary about "a continued series of swearing and debauched conversation under our windows, which we have reason to think is done on purpose to insult us."
  • 28 Jul 1776 Declaration of Independence received with cheers by solders when read at Fort Ticonderoga, New-York.
  • 29 Jul 1776 Patriot forces invade Cherokee territory at North-Carolina to discourage alliance with British.
  • 27 Jul 1777 Marquis de Lafayette & Baron Johann de Kalb arrive in Philadelphia to assist Continental Army.
  • 30 Jul 1776 Washington offers exchange of any British officer for return of Col. Ethan Allen, captured at Montreal.
  • 31 Jul 1777 19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette volunteers to lead rebel troops as Major General – without pay.
  • 25 Jul 1783 Final action of the Revolutionary War, Siege of Cuddalore, Carnatic (India), ended by peace agreement.
• Townsend's
  • Venison and Corn – 265 Year Old Party Food!
• Clothing and Related:
  • Needlework sampler stitched by Hannah Child, predominantly cross stitch over one and two threads, accented by areas of satin, eyelet and pulled stitches. Design features a wide geometric border of insects and flowers, with a bowl of fruit at the top. Silk thread on loosely woven flax, 1805
  • In honor of #worldembroideryday, some blingy glass embroidery from my research for the new @corningmuseum  catalogue "In Sparkling Company: Reflections on Glass in the 18th-Century British World." Please note this is *all* MENSWEAR.
  • Like floral armour, this stiffened 18thc bodice supports itself with structure holding it firm. It is a garment of components, lacing front & back making two halves a whole & blue ribbons that attach sleeves to shoulders. She is strapped in & ready to go
  • 18th Century Court Mantua, c.1760, It was probably worn by Mary Holt, wife of the 7th Earl of Haddington and may have been worn at the wedding of King George III to Queen Charlotte in 1761
  • 18th Century dress, Robe à la Française, English; Cream & blue striped brocade, multi-colour floral sprays, Spitalfields, 1765-75, altered 1870-1910 probably for fancy dress
  • 18th Century court dress, detail showing the bodice intricately decorated with a floral pattern made with flattened wire and lacework
  • 18th Century waistcoat, The light colour palette & spare decoration are typical of the neoclassical style, which dominated design in the late 18th & early 19th Cent. Floral motifs with silver spangles replace the naturalistic sprays of flowers.
  • 18th Century waistcoat or vest, silk with images of a water deity, he is shown in the style of those found on Roman mosaics. Italy and its Roman sites were popular stops on a young gentleman's Grand Tour, 1790's
  • 18th Century men's frock coat, silk corduroy in  purple/green colours, with sequins & spangles, c.1780-1790
• Miscellaneous:
  • Fascinating sketch of Digby, Nova Scotia in 1830 by Phoebe Moore Shaw
  • first of the month! I wish all my followers a happy & healthy August. Print from "The Twelve Months" fashion plates, 1781 and one from 1749
  • The Old Pretender doll,  1680, is said to have been given to a family by James Francis Edward Stuart, 'The Old Pretender'. Carved from wood and covered with gesso (a mix of plaster and glue), the doll's wig is human hair. It's one of the oldest dolls in the V&A collection.
  • Practical rope 'tricks'. Jamestown-Yorktown. We thought we'd start by being "knot"ty. Here's one of Ships' Asst Supervisor Don's favorite knots, the flying figure 8. (6 second video)
  • Jamestown-Yorktown: Ships' Interpreter Kelly holds a traverse board, a 17th c. tool for marking a ship's direction and speed.

Rev Charlotte Moore, UE

(November 25, 1942 - July 27, 2020)

Charlotte Ann Moore (née Horning), born November 25, 1942, passed away peacefully on Monday, July 27, 2020 at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington. Charlotte was the caring wife for over 56 years of David Gordon Moore and the loving mother to Gordon Robert Moore, Clifford Peter Moore (Bev) and David Alex Moore (Juanita). Her grandchildren Zachary, Téa and Jessica will remember her always. Charlotte is predeceased by her parents Robert Nelson Horning and Muriel Gladys Horning (née Westbrook) and her dear sister, Donna Jeanne Silver.

Charlotte was a lover of singing, piano, violin, painting, birdwatching, orchids and family history, including tracing the roots of the family as United Empire Loyalists. Perhaps her greatest passion was the church. After serving the church in many ways over the course of her life, Charlotte became a United Church minister after retiring from high school teaching. She will be missed by many congregations including Strabane, Freelton, Kitchener, Red Deer, Hamilton, Burlington and Alberton, where she was raised.

Charlotte will be laid to rest in a small, private ceremony, fittingly held at Strabane United Church which she attended for over 50 years. Due to COVID restrictions, the family will be sharing details later regarding ceremonies that will include the many people who were part of Charlotte's life.

If desired in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Strabane United Church.

Having proven her descent from, Charlotte received Loyalist Certificates for Pater Horning UEL, Ebenzer Jones UEL and Anthony Westbrook UEL

For many years, Charlotte as the Chaplain for the Hamilton Branch, UELAC.

...Pat Blackburn, President, Hamilton Branch

Theodore Alexander Curylo, UE

(August 13, 1968 - April 24, 2020)

Teddy was born in Chilliwack, BC, the son of Ed and Rose Marie Curylo UE and raised on the family farm on Bailey Road. He was active in local 4-H clubs, and he hosted the popular "4-H in Action" TV show, as well as writing the 4-H column "Clover Power" for the Chilliwack Progress newspaper. He loved to travel and completed his grade 12 at West Island College in 1985/86 aboard the 154 ft. Polish barquentine tall ship Poforia visiting 24 countries in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Known as Alex as he grew older, he graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BSc in Computer Science. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his parents, family and friends. Please read the full obituary from the Chilliwack Progress - June 18, 2020.

Alex received his Loyalist Certificate in 1982 as a member of Grand River Branch, proving to ancestor Hermanus House UEL.

...Marlene Dance UE, President, Chilliwack Branch