THE LOYALIST REFUGEES
of
NEW HAMPSHIRE
By
WILBUR H. SIEBERT, A. M,
Professor of European History
Published by
The Ohio State University
Columbus
1916
Contents
Number of Loyalists in New Hampshire
Early flights from the Colony
New Hampshire Refugees with Burgoyne and with the British
at New York
Portsmouth as a Tory Center
Liberty granted Tories to depart
Suspicion of the Quakers and proscription of the Tories
Confiscation of Tory property
Wentworth's Volunteers and the Associated Refugees
The King's American Dragoons
Migration of some of the New Hampshire Loyalists to
Annapolis
The King's American Dragoons on the St. John River
Ex-Governor John Wentworth in Nova Scotia
Amos Botsford and Associates at Digby
Return of Refugees forbidden in New Hampshire
Claremont Loyalists seek admission to Lower Canada, 1784
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The Loyalist Refugees of New Hampshire
The best index of the relative number of LoyaHsts in New
Hampshire in the early months of the Revolution appears in the
figures obtained through the submission of the "association test"
during the summer 1776, in response to the resolution of the Continental
Congress of March 14 of the year named, recommending the
disarming by the local authonties of the several Colonies of all
persons notoriously disaffected to the American cause, or who refused
to associate for the defense of the country "against the hostile
attempts of the British fleets and armies." Eighty-one hundred
and ninety-nine men signed the test, and seven hundred and seventy-three
declined, or neglected, to affix their signatures. That is to
say, over one-eleventh of those to whom the test was submitted
failed to sign it. This fraction included about 200 Quakers of
Brentwood, Gilmantown, Kensington, Richmond, Rochester, and
other towns, who withheld their names chiefly on account of their
scruples. Some of these non-jurors were certainly not Tories, if we
may accept the explanations offered by them to the selectmen of
their respective towns. Thus, the Quakers, of Gilmantown found
no difficulty in accepting the Declaration of Independence or paying
their proportion in support of the United Colonies, but based their
failure to sign the test solely on the ground of their religious principles.
James Caruth, a Scotch inhabitant of Kingstown, declined
to take up arms against either his native or his adopted country,
but announced his readiness to pay his taxes; while others of his
fellow-townsmen professed the fear of infringing their liberties by
signing, although asserting friendliness to the American cause, and
in a few instances demonstrating it by serving in the Continental
army.1
Even allowing for these friendly non-jurors, however, we must
not overlook the fact that some Tories had already fled from New
Hampshire, or were soon to do so. In June, 1775, bodies of armed
men at Portsmouth pursued John Fenton, an expelled member of
the House of Assembly, to the residence of Governor John Wentworth,
and compelled him to surrender. He was then given a
hearing by the Provincial Congress and incarcerated in the jail at
Exeter, but was later allowed to escape and go to England. Woodbury
Langdon, a merchant of Portsmouth who also served in the
Provincial Congress, sailed for the mother country in October, 1775.
In a memorial to Lord North, dated February 7, 1777, he explains
that he had left America after "using his influence for peace and
good order," to the end of preserving his family, his life, and his
property, and that he might "avoid all temptation to take sides
with his disaffected countrymen." Meantime, Governor Wentworth
and his family had retired to Fort William and Henry in Portsmouth
Harbor for safety, whence they embarked on the King's ship Canso,
August 24, 1775, being accompanied by Captain John Cochran, the
commander of the now dismantled fort, and doubtless by other
adherents of the royal cause. After landing at Boston the Wentworths
remained with the British army, going to Halifax in March,
1776, and at length to Philadelphia on their way to London.
They arrived in the British metropolis, March 13, 1778. Other
refugees from New Hampshire also sought protection within the
lines at Boston, including Elijah Williams who with several others
fled from Keene soon after the battle of Lexington, John Morrison
who became attached to the commissary department of the King's
forces after the battle of Bunker Hill, Colonel Edward Goldstone
Lutwyche a member of the Provincial Congress until 1775, William
Stark who received a colonel's commission in the royal army after
being refused one in the New Hampshire contingent, George
Meserve the collector of customs at Portsmouth, Samuel Hale, Jr.,
Gillan Butler, Joseph Stacy Hastings, and probably John Fisher the
naval officer at Portsmouth and supposed to be identical with the
person of the same name who was a brother-in-law of Governor
Wentworth and was later to become, like Benjamin Thompson of
Concord, a secretary in the Colonial Secretary's office in London.
After making himself obnoxious by entertaining two British officers,
Benjamin Thompson withdrew from Woburn, but on discovering
that his presence there was not desired, hastened to Rhode Island
and sailed for Boston in October, 1775. In the following January
he sailed for England.2
However, not all the refugees from New Hampshire went to
England, or even to Boston. At least a few joined Burgoyne during
the fall of 1777, including Levi Warner of Claremont, who testifies
that he served with the British during the entire war and
was at St. Johns at the head of Lake Champlain in 1783, and Captain
Simon Baxter who was condemned to death by the Whigs, but
on the day set for his execution escaped "with the rope around his
neck and succeeded in reaching Burgoyne's army." At the peace
he went to New Brunswick and was living at Norton, King's County,
when death finally overtook him in 1804. Joseph Stacey
Hastings, a Harvard graduate of the class of 1762, sought safety
at Halifax, although he ultimately returned to Boston where he
kept a grocery store. No doubt. New York City and the neighboring
islands became sooner or later during the Revolution the
favorite asylums of the exiles from New Hampshire, as they were
for most of those from the other Northern States. Indeed, some
of them accompanied Howe's army from the Nova Scotian capital
to Staten Island in the fall of 1776. Among these was Governor
Wentworth himself, who spent more or less of his time at Flatbush
on Long Island, only a few miles from New York, until his
departure for Philadelphia and London. In a letter to his sister
written from this point, in January, 1777, the deposed Governor,
referring to a group of his fellow refugees from Portsmouth who
had returned with him to American soil, reports the good health
of Messrs. Meserve, Hale, and Lutwyche, as also of Captain Cochran,
Mr. Macdonough, and Mr. Wentworth, the three last being
with him, as he specifically states. As we have already met most
of these gentlemen it will suffice here to say that Thomas Macdonough
had been Governor Wentworth's secretary and that Benning
Wentworth was to return to Nova Scotia after the peace and
to be honored with several high offices there (a membership in the
Council, and the secretaryship and treasurship of the Province)
during the years 1795 to 1797. The Governor refers in the same
letter to Messrs. Boyd and Traill who were evidently also in exile
the former being undoubtedly George Boyd who had been a member
of the Council of New Hampshire, while the latter was with
equal certainty Robert Traill, until recently comptroller of the
customs at Portsmouth. Where these persons were at the time is
left in doubt.3
The early flights from New Hampshire and particularly from
Portsmouth, which was the seat of the provincial government,
must have been increased by the termination of royal authority
there and also by the action of the Continental Congress, October
6, 1775, in recommending to the various provincial assemblies and
committees of safety the arrest of such persons as were regarded
to be dangerous to the liberties of America. Gen. John Sullivan
violently denounced "that infernal crew of Tories" at Portsmouth
in a letter of October 29th to Washington, who replied November
12th, with an order that all officers of the royal government who
had manifested an unfriendly disposition be seized and dealt with
according to the wishes of the Provincial Congress or Committee
of Safety. The other Tory inhabitants of the town were specifically
omitted from this order, although Washington declared that
they would "meet with this or a worse fate" in the near future, if
they failed to reform their conduct. When, in the middle of November,
the New Hampshire Congress took action in accordance
with Washington's recommendation, it contented itself with designating
six persons only for removal to moderate distances from
Portsmouth, or for confinement in specified towns. The fact that
the penalties imposed were not of a severer nature, or the number of
those condemned larger may be fairly taken as another indication
that the more objectionable officials had already fled. However,
the six victims were let off easily, for they were kept under restraint
less than six weeks.4
As yet New Hampshire had not adopted the policy of expelling
its dangerous inhabitants. On the contrary, it was to become
in the late autumn the custodian of considerable numbers of such
persons from New York, sent over by the Committee of Conspiracies
of that State. One group of these prisoners, which was forwarded
to Exeter in the latter part of October, or later, numbered
117 persons; but in March, 1777, the New Hampshire Committee
of Safety was notified by a new board of Commissioners, recently
appointed by the New York Convention, that all of the latter's
prisoners were to be recalled and given the choice between taking
the oath of allegiance, or seeking the protection of the enemy.
Meanwhile, New Hampshire sought to encourage the departure of
her own Tories, for on January 16th her House of Representatives
adopted a resolution granting full liberty to such of the inhabitants
as were disaffected and desirous of leaving the State with
their families and effects to do so within the next three months
and, in the language of the resolution itself, "go to any other
parts of the Globe they may choose," provided that they would notify
the selectmen of their respective towns 30 days in advance of
their departure.5 Again,
we are confronted by the lack of evidence
that would enable us to determine how many took advantage of
the terms of this resolution. Doubtless, that evidence lies buried
in numerous town records of the period, insofar as these have
survived to the present day. On June 13, 1777, the House of Representatives
itself readily granted permission to John Pierce, of
Portsmouth, who was then in prison, "to repair to the West Indies
or to Great Britain, and not to return to this State nor to any part
of this Continent, without leave had and obtained of the General
Assembly or of the Continental Congress."6
With equal readiness
the New Hampshire Committee of Safety gave its consent on
October 8 to a schooner that had recently arrived at Portsmouth
under a flag of truce to transport the families of Benjamin Hart
and other designated inhabitants to Rhode Island, an exception
being made in the case of one person only, who was held as a
prisoner of war.7
A month later the House of Representatives showed conclusively
that it entertained suspicions toward the non-juring Quakers
of the State by appointing a committee from several counties to
examine the records and papers of the Friends' societies in Dover,
Hampton Falls, Seabrook, and other towns with a view to transmitting
to the House for further inspection any writings of a
political nature that might be disclosed.8 But, after all, it was
not the Quakers against whom the General Assembly directed its
most determined action. This action was embodied in the measure
adopted in November, 1778, to prevent the return of 76 persons
named therein and of others who had left, or might leave, the State
and had joined, or might join, the enemy. These persons were
roundly denounced for deserting the cause of liberty and abetting
that of tyranny by depriving the United States of their personal
services at a time when their utmost assistance was needed; and
since their return might be productive of new dangers the measure
forbade their voluntary reappearance without leave, obtained in
advance, by special act of the Assembly. It also made it the duty
of the inhabitants of any district, as well as of the local officers,
to apprehend and carry before a justice of the peace for commission
to the common jail any absentee who might presume to return.
The person thus committed was to be kept in custody until he
should be sent out of the State. A master of a vessel who knowingly
brought into the State any of the persons above described,
or a person who willingly harbored a return refugee, was to pay
a fine of £500 on conviction, one-half to go to the State and the
other to him who should sue for it. Fugitives who should return
a second time were to suffer death. Of those named in the act 32
had been residents of Portsmouth, 6 of Londonderry, 5 of Keene,
4 of Dunbarton, 3 of Hollis, and a like number of Alstead, while
a dozen or more other towns had contributed the remainder in
smaller numbers.9
Before the end of November, 1778, the Assembly proceeded to
confiscate the real and personal property of 23 of the proscribed,
together with those of two other Loyalists whose names had not
appeared in the act of proscription. These two persons seem to
have been non-residents of the State.10 In each county trustees,
or agents, were appointed to take possession of the sequestered
estates and sell the personal property immediately at public auction,
except such articles as they might deem necessary for the
support of the families of the proscribed. In the case of the furniture
and family pictures of Governor Wentworth, however, it was
not the trustee but the Assembly itself that decided (April 27, 1780)
that these personal effects should be delivered up to the father of
the absent official, namely, Mark Hunting Wentworth. The need
of clothing for the Continental army led the Assembly at the close
of March, 1781, to direct the trustees of the confiscated estates
to pay into the State Treasury at once the money accruing from
sales thus far made. At the same time, the Treasurer was directed
to appropriate this money to the payment of orders for military
clothing which had been, or was yet to be issued by the Board of
War. A few days later (that is, on April 4) a committee of the
Lower House, to which had been referred the question what should
be done with such estates of absentees and subjects of Great Britain
as had not been confiscated hitherto, reported in favor of the
immediate sequestration and sale of these properties, and this was
probably done.11
The history of a considerable number of the New Hampshire
Loyalists after their flight from the State may best be traced by
examining the record of the corps of Volunteers associated by
Governor Wentworth probably after his arrival on Long Island in
the fall of 1776. The Governor himself testified in 1784 that his
men were very respectable persons from their several Provinces
who "supported themselves at their own expense." So far as
known the first muster roll of this company was taken at Flushing,
Long Island, October 16, 1777, when the officers were Captain
Daniel Murray of Rutland, Massachusetts, First Lieutenant
Benjamin Whiting of Hollis, New Hampshire, and Second Lieutenant
Elijah Williams of Keene, New Hampshire, and the number
of men was scarcely more than 20. Six months later the company
was mustered at Hampstead, Long Island, and numbered but
26. In the following month (June, 1778,) 21 of its members, including
the officers named above, petitioned General Sir Henry
Clinton from Bedford, Long Island, for such support as their service
might require, because they had been deprived of their property
and in a few cases of considerable fortunes. Eleven of these
petitioners were from New Hampshire, 6 from Massachusetts, 3
from Connecticut, and 1 from Rhode Island. Of 8 others who belonged
to the company at this time, or later, at least 5 were from
New Hampshire. By the close of June, 1778, Wentworth's Volunteers
had more than doubled in numbers, but during the next
two months they shrunk to 26. We next hear of the company at
Newport, Rhode Island, at the end of March, 1779, whence they
operated with Captain Abraham DePeyster's Grenadier Company
of the King's American Regiment, a detachment of Colonel George
Wightman's Loyal New Englanders, and Captain Martin's
corps, under the name of the Associated Refugees, in an unsuccessful
expedition against New Bedford, Massachusetts, and immediately
afterward in a bombardment of Falmouth, Maine. They
were back at Newport by April 6th. From this time on until
Rhode Island was evacuated by the British in the fall the Associated
Refugees were active in operations in Buzzards Bay, at Nantucket
and Martha's Vineyard, and along the Connecticut coast, as related
at some length in the chapter on "The Refugee Loyalists of
Connecticut." Having retrned to Long Island, Wentworth's Volunteers
were mustered at Jerusalem near the end of May, 1780.
and found to number 41 men. Seven months later they were at
Lloyd's Neck with an equal strength, although it is said that they
reached their maximum enrollment of 83 men at this time (December,
1780.) The last muster was held in March, 1781.12
Whatever the size of the company at the moment, Colonel
Edward Winslow, who had been in command of the Associated
Refugees during a part of their service in Rhode Island, together
with Captain Murray and Major Joshua Upham, was now seeking
to form a Loyalist brigade and trying to obtain Governor Wentworth's
consent to command it. As a part of this plan Murray
had proposed to General Clinton the raising of a troop of Dragoons,
but was meeting with various difficulties, one of which was due
to his failure to obtain a pass from headquarters to bring off certain
recruits with the result, according to Winslow's account, that
"18 men who would have been doing duty as dragoons in the service"
were captured and sent to the Simsbury mines in Connecticut,
Winslow added that he was quite willing to wait until Murray's
corps was completed and Upham's respectable in numbers, and
that he had no reason to suppose that he would fail in securing
an appointment as lieutenant colonel, although admitting himself
unsuccessful in every attempt to secure recognition since Clinton's
accession to the chief command in America. His failure thus far
Colonel Winslow attributed to the "unpardonable inattention" with
which General Timothy Ruggles, his first patron, had been treated
by General Clinton and the disgust which Ruggles had therefore
contracted for "present men and measures," in consequence of
which "he could neither negotiate with confidence or serve with
alacrity." However, a more cogent reason for Winslow's failure
to achieve the military rank he coveted appears in the competing
ambition of Benjamin Thompson who, through the favor of Lord
George Germain, had secured in England an appointment as lieutenant
colonel and was having a refugee corps known as the King's
American Dragoons recruited for him at this very time. It was
in this corps that Captain Murray, Lieutenant Williams and most
of their men — many with commissions — were enrolled, together
with Colonel Wightman's Loyal New Englanders, now numbering
scarcely more than 50 men, and Major Joshua Upham's Volunteers
of New England, who had attained a maximum strength of only 32
men. Altogether these three companies furnished no more than
125 recruits for the new regiment. The opportune arrival at New
York of the Bonetta from Yorktown, Virginia, after the surrender
of Cornwallis, brought in a remnant of the Queen's Rangers and
Tarleton's British Legion, which is said to have been added to
Colonel Thompson's corps. Be this as it may, the muster rolls
show that the corps consisted of 228 men at the close of December,
1781, when it was stationed at New Utrecht, Long Island.
Meanwhile, in the previous autumn. Colonel Thompson had
arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, and after a brief participation
in the British operations in that vicinity, sailed for New York
in the following April to take command of his regiment. In the
latter part of June he was getting ready "to recruit in good earnest,"
as he wrote a friend at the time, although he fails to mention
in his letter the recent addition of 16 volunteers. About a
month later (July 24, 1782) Rivington's Royal Gazette contained
an advertisement offering 10 guineas to volunteers for the King's
American Dragoons, or 5 guineas to any one who would bring in
a recruit and 5 guineas to the recruit himself. It was announced
also that an officer would remain on duty at Lloyd's Neck for the
convenience of those who might cross from the mainland at that
point. By the middle of September the corps was at Ireland
Heights, three miles east of Flushing, and numbered 312 rank and
file, but was marched to Huntington on October 1st, where it built
a fort for the purpose of protecting the trade across the Sound in
that region, according to an item in the Gazette, but which was
probably intended chiefly as a winter shelter for the troops themselves.
By December 1st the corps was reported as consisting of
550 effectives, and 18 days later this figure was increased to 580
in Rivington's columns. That these statements were exaggerations
is conclusively shown by the muster rolls, according to which
the highest number ever in the corps was 332 on April 12, 1783,
when the King's American Dragoons were at Springfield, Long
Island.13 Although most
of the New Hampshire men who entered
the King's service belonged to this regiment, a few are known to
have joined other Loyalist corps. Thus, John Stinson of Hillsboro
served for a period in the Royal American Reformers; Stephen
Holland, probably from Londonderry, was a member of the Prince
of Wales American Volunteers; Robert Robinson became an ensign
in the Loyal American Regiment, and John Stark attained a lieutenancy
in the Royal Guides and Pioneers.14
At the termination of the war the refugees from New Hampshire
were among the first of the American Loyalists to leave Long
Island and New York for their new homes in Nova Scotia. In
March, 1782, Captain Simon Baxter, whose escape to Burgoyne's
army referred to earlier in this paper, arrived at Fort Howe at the
mouth of the St. John River with his family was befriended by
several persons of local importance, and recommended by them to
the authorities in Halifax. Soon afterwards he received a grant
of 5,000 acres in what is now the Parish of Norton, Kings County,
New Brunswick. In the same year in which Mr. Baxter landed
at Fort Howe a paper was circulated among the refugees at
Lloyd's Neck and in Queen's County, Long Island, (probably at
Springfield) to be signed by those approving the terms contained
in the "articles of settlement" by which this paper was accompanied.
The terms suggested were that vessels should be provided
by the British authorities at New York to convey the emigrants,
together with their horses and cattle, to their destination; that
clothing, farming implements, arms and ammunition, mill stones,
medicines, and one year's supply of provisions should be furnished
them, and that lands should be granted to them in the country to
which they were going, including a sufficient acreage for the
support of a church and a school. The authors of these articles
of settlement were Lieutenant Colonel Thompson, Lieutenant
Colonel Edward Winslow, Major Joshua Upham, who was now
commandant of Fort Franklin at Lloyd's Neck, and several others,
including Samuel Cummings, Esq., of Hollis, New Hampshire.
The articles received the general approval of General Sir Guy
Carleton, who in a letter of September 22d solicited the assistance
of the Governor of Nova Scotia for these refugees. Those who
signified their intention of going numbered 177 men, 99 women,
and 316 children. Nine transports were required for their conveyance,
and the Amphitrite and another of the king's frigates acted
as convoys. On October 19th this fleet entered the Annapolis
Basin but did not discharge its passengers until the following day,
when Robert Briggs, the commander of the Amphitrite, who had
treated the exiles under his care with generous consideration, even
spending £200 of his own money to make them comfortable during
the voyage was presented with an address of appreciation and
thanks signed by Amos Botsford, Samuel Cummings, Elijah
Williams, and others.15
When this band of expatriated Americans arrived at their
destination, Annapolis Royal was a mere hamlet of 120 inhabitants,
but already its two best educated, if not most serviceable,
citizens were refugees from the States. One of these was Benjamin
Snow, a graduate of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire,
who had opened a grammar school in the village the preceding
year, and the other was the Reverend Jacob Bailey, a graduate of
Harvard College, who had but recently become the rector of St.
Luke's Parish. In October, 1777, Mr. Bailey had managed to escape
from Pownalsborough, Maine, to Boston, and later with his
family to Halifax. Thence, in October, 1779, he removed to Cornwallis
where he remained as pastor of the Church of England
until 1782, when he came to Annapolis. An eye-witness of the
landing of this first concourse of his fellow-exiles, though the number
of them was much less than of those moving at different times
during the following months, Mr. Bailey has depicted in various
letters, written at the time, the severe experiences of Annapolis
and its numerous guests. The more than 500 newcomers proved
to be "a prodigious addition" to the population of the place, crowding
the houses and barracks beyond their utmost capacity, so that
many were unable to procure lodgings. Both the inhabitants and
the soldiers were "lost among the strangers," who were "a mixture
from every Province on the Continent except Georgia," not a
few of them being "peeple of fashion." Mr. Bailey received into
his own house the family of Mr. Cummings, and was told by this
gentleman that another considerable fleet might be expected in
three weeks and 2,000 more families in the spring. He learned
further that the Loyalists had come well supplied "with clothing
and provisions for a twelve month, besides all instruments for
husbandry," and that those who had belonged to what he called
"the Gentlemen Volunteers" were receiving five shillings per day.
The Whigs up the Annapolis River were so highly displeased with
the arrival of the immigrants that they threatened to petition the
government for their removal and one impecunious inhabitant proclaimed
himself ready to pay £50 towards their deportation.16
Before the withdrawal of these Loyalists from Long Island,
Sir Guy Carleton had advised them to send agents to examine
vacant lands for settlement. These agents, who were Amos Botsford,
Samuel Cummings, and Frederick Hauser, hastened to Halifax
with a letter from the Commander in Chief to Governor Parr, recommending
them to the latter's consideration as persons entitled on
on every account to the grants of land they were seeking and
such other advantages as had been promised by proclamation, or
otherwise, to intending settlers. After a satisfactory interview
with the Governor and the Surveyor General, Charles Morris, the
agents returned and explored the country from Annapolis to St.
Mary's Bay and then crossed the Bay of Fundy to the River St.
John near the end of November, 1782. Finding the river impassable
for boats at this season of the year, they travelled on foot
about 70 miles up-stream to the Oromocto and also went up the
Kennecbeccasis. Returning to Annapolis, the agents wrote to
friends in New York, January 14, 1783, an account of their journey,
in which they expressed a favorable opinion of the lands they had
just viewed on the St. John, because these could be secured sooner
than those near Annapolis, were sufficiently close to the cod fishery
in the Bay of Fundy, and were secure against both the Americans
and the Indians. They added that some of their associates were
in favor of settling on the St. John, while others preferred Conway
(now Digby), but that for the winter all were settled, a part in the
town of Annapolis, a part in the barracks, and a part up the Annapolis
River for a distance of 20 miles under terms made with
the inhabitants, and that while some were already doing well, the
others had nothing to live on but their provisions.17
How many of the associated Loyalists at Annapolis settled on
the St. John River is not known, but certainly some of the refugees
from New Hampshire located in the region north of the Bay of
Fundy. One of these was John Stinson of Hillsboro, who went to
St. John in May, 1783, and became a grantee of the town, although
he spent a year at Maugerville and lived later in Lincoln, Sunbury
County. Captain John Cochran and John Holland also settled in
St. John, the former being able to maintain the style of a gentleman,
while the latter was elected sheriff of the county. Lieutenant
John Davidson, who served as deputy surveyor in the province for
some years, settled in Dumfries, York County, and became a member
of the House of Assembly in 1802. Hugh Ruinton(sic) [Hugh Quinton] of Londonderry
took up his abode in the Province in 1783, and Solomon Stephens
was a resident of Musquash at the time of his death in 1819.18
Although some of the King's American Dragoons accompanied
the large party sailing for Annapolis about October 1, 1782, the
greater part of the regiment did not leave New York for Nova
Scotia until the following spring. Sir Guy Carleton mentions them
in a letter of April 26 to Major General Paterson, in which he enclosed
embarkation returns of the troops and refugees going to
different parts of that province. In this letter he states that he
had consented to the request of the Dragoons to be sent to St.
John River, and that they were to proceed directly to that place.
The corps did not arrive at its destination until the end of June,
when it encamped on Lancaster Height just back of Carleton, and
was employed in cutting and clearing the streets of the town that
was rapidly forming. Colonel Edward Winslow, who saw them
engaged in this work, was impressed by their general cheerfulness
and good humor, and noted that they were enjoying a great variety
of what New Yorkers would call luxuries, such as partridges, wild
pigeons, salmon, bass, and trout. However, these pleasures of the
regiment were soon to be interrupted, for it was found that the
men could not provide themselves with winter quarters where they
were without serious inconvenience to the many Loyalists settling
at the mouth of the river. They were therefore ordered on August
8 to proceed about 100 miles up the St. John to the land allotted
them in the district assigned to the provincial regiments. The
Dragoons were the first to settle here, their grant extending from
Long's Creek, twenty miles above Frederiction, to the "Barony"
at the mouth of the Pokiok, and being christened by them the
township of Prince William, in honor of their royal patron, afterwards
King William IV. It was not long before several officers of
the corps became prominent in the affairs of New Brunswick. Thus,
Major Joshua Upham attained a seat on the supreme bench, as did
also Ward Chipman, the paymaster of the corps; Major Daniel
Murray served some years as a member of the House of Assembly
for York County and as a leading magistrate; Lieutenant John
Davidson, a prominent land surveyor, also represented York County
in the provincial legislature; Captain Jonathan Odell became the
first provincial secretary and held the office for 28 years, and after
him his son, William F. Odell, held the same post for 32 years;
Surgeon Adino Paddock achieved an enviable reputation as a
physician; Quartermaster Edward Sands became a leading merchant
of the City of St. John, and Cornet Arthur Nicholson commanded
the garrison at Presquisle.19
Ex-Governor Wentworth returned from England to Halifax,
September 20, 1783, to take up the duties of surveyor general of
the King's woods in Nova Scotia at a salary of £800 a year and an
allowance of a guinea a day while in actual service. It was
reported at the time that his family would follow him in the
spring. For the next nine years Mr. Wentworth was chiefly
occupied in travelling about the Province and preventing the
cutting of timber on the royal preserves, as also the unlicensed
felling of pine trees which where suitable for masts, whether on
granted or ungranted lands, since these were destined for the use
of the British navy. Toward the close of 1784 he appointed
Benjamin Marston to be his deputy in New Brunswick. In March,
1792, the ex-Governor was again in London. During this visit
he was knighted and also appointed to succeed Mr. Parr as lieutenant
governor of Nova Scotia. On his return to Halifax, May
12, he was welcomed by the civil and military authorities of the
Province and was sworn into office two days later. He continued
to administer the government of Nova Scotia for 16 years, being
retired in April, 1808, on the arrival of Sir George Prevost. In
the following month the Assembly voted him £500 sterling per
annum as a pension for life, in compliance with the wishes of the
King, who announced his intention of making additional provision
for the declining days of his faithful servant. Sir John and Lady
Wentworth now took up their residence at the Prince's Lodge
near Halifax, and continued to live there, except while absent in
England in 1810 and 1811, until Sir John's death, April 8, 1820,
in his 84th year.20
In view of the fact that Amos Botsford accepted a commission
from Governor Parr as soliciting agent for Conway, and together
with 300 others received a patent for a township comprising
100,000 acres at the southern end of the Annapolis Basin, it is probable
that a number of Botsford's associates participated in settling
this locality. Many of the patentees, however, had entered the
Province since the arrival of the first association (or in June, 1783),
and as the vessels that brought them to Conway — seven in number —
had been supplied by Rear Admiral Robert Digby, the newcomers
interceded with the government to change the name of the
township to Digby, and the patent contained a clause carrying their
desire into effect. Among the names appearing in this document,
which was dated February 20, 1784, are those of several men already
familiar to us as refugees from New Hampshire, namely,
Thomas Cummings, Josiah Jones, Enos and Phineas Stevens, and
Elijah Williams. In keeping with the resolution of the patentees
to erect a town. Deputy Surveyor Thomas Milledge laid out a plot
containing about 70 acres, and lots were drawn by the settlers
under the supervision of Surveyors Milledge and John Harris of
Annapolis and Amos Botsford in his capacity as agent for the
colonists. Meantime, the Reverend Edward W. Brudenell, Richard
Hill, and John Stump had been appointed to act with Mr.
Botsford as a land board, and this board located the other settlers
regardless of necessary formalities, except in assigning the numbers
of their respective lots. The colonists labored throughout
the summer in clearing away the forest and erecting log houses,
or in some instances houses built with oak frames that had been
brought from the States. A few of the log structures were afterwards
enlarged, covered with boards and shingles, and survived
for more than a century.21
But although Digby sprang into existence during the year
1783, many of the Loyalists in the neighborhood were reported,
September 16, 1784, as being still unsettled "on account of the negligent
and dilatory conduct of those appointed to lay out lands for
them." Fully one-third of the persons named in the Botsford grant
failed to occupy their lots. Others who were not included in the
patent were nevertheless assigned lands, or went upon them without
authority, even including the common and the glebe. When
complaints were made against this illegal procedure, the squatters
promptly made demands for allotments. While this contention
was in progress a British man-of-war, which had been despatched
with provisions and implements for the colony, was detained by
adverse winds, and the settlers were brought to the verge of starvation
on account of the smallness of the season's crops. During
the disturbances that followed a discharged officer, who had done
much in promoting the settlement and was both a deputy land
surveyor and a justice of the peace, was charged with disloyal acts
by the puisne judges before the Governor and the Council, and suffered
the loss of his justiceship, June 16, 1785. An extensive outbreak
was avoided only by the wise management of certain officials
and the timely arrival of the delayed supplies. But sufficient harm
had already been done to cause many of the best residents to remove
from Digby. Some of these returned to the States, while
others removed to Granville farther up the Annapolis Basin, or
crossed the Bay of Fundy to St. John. A few went to Weymouth,
which lies on the east side of St. Mary's Bay about seventeen miles
south of Digby, among these being Enos and Phineas Stevens and
Josiah Jones who, as we have seen, had come originally from New
Hampshire.22
The departure of these dissatisfied ones only complicated, instead
of relieving, the situation, for they neglected to dispose of
their shares in the township, and left their unimproved lots to be
occupied and cultivated by others having no legal title to them.
The increasing difficulties of the problem were brought to the attention
of the provincial House of Assembly, April 2, 1795, by several
grantees of the township, who urged that commissioners be
appointed to look into the question, on account of the injury that
the settlement was suffering through continued expense and litigation.
Two days later a bill was introduced to quiet the possession
of lands within the township. For some reason, which is not
stated in the official records, action was deferred until the next
session, when a new bill was presented, but with no better success.
In June, 1798, the inhabitants of Digby petitioned the Council, and
a commission of inquiry was appointed. However, this body so
far failed in its duty that a new appeal was presented in October,
and a second board of commissioners was named, and was given
power to employ a clerk and one or more deputy surveyors "at the
expense of those immediately interested." This board took ample
time to accomplish its task with thoroughness, and at length submitted
a report recommending that the landholders, whether claiming
by grant or occupancy, be considered actual owners, and that a
new patent, or "grant of confirmation," be immediately issued assigning
to the 276 real estate proprietors, then residents of Digby
Township, the tracts held by them respectively. This report became
the text of the proposed grant, and on January 31, 1801, was
signed by Sir John Wentworth as lieutenant governor and countersigned
by Benning Wentworth as secretary of the Province of
Nova Scotia. Thus, after 17 years, during which Digby had remained
at a standstill in population, the inhabitants of the town
were freed from their burden of suspense, and given the legal assurance
that the lands which they had cleared and tilled were their
own. It is, of course, obvious that the grievances of people of
Digby did not receive just treatment until they came before the
Council of the Province, and it is worthy of note that the "grant
of confirmation" bears the official signatures of two distinguished
Loyalists from New Hampshire, who were fully able to appreciate
the sad plight in which their fellow refugees at Digby had long
been placed by force of circumstances,23
Not a few of the founders of Digby were educated men,
while others possessed no more than an ordinary education, or only
the rudiments of knowledge. Among their number was William
Barbancks, who is said to have been "a worthy and competent
tutor," and soon began to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic
to the children of the scattered settlement, although he was under
the necessity of going from one homestead to another for the
purpose. As Mr. Barbancks was induced to remove to Gulliver's
Cove before long, the colonists engaged the services of Lieutenant
James Foreman, a graduate of a high school in England, who
opened a "superior school" early in November, 1784, in his own
dwelling, with an enrollment of 75 pupils. During the summers
of 1785 and 1786, Mr. Foreman also conducted a class in the
Anglican catechism and selections from the Scriptures. The need
for more commodious quarters led to the erection of a schoolhouse
in 1789, by voluntary subscriptions. This building, which was
fitted with long desks for both elementary and senior pupils and a
brick furnace, remained the center of education for the residents
of the county until the establishment of an academy at Digby.24
The first religious service held in the new settlement was in
1783, when the Reverend Edward W. Brudenell delivered a sermon.
About two years later the Reverend Jacob Bailey came over from
Annapolis and conducted worship in the house of one ot the residents.
As the Loyalists of Digby and its vicinity were Episcopalians,
and had now made considerable progress with their settlement,
they held their first vestry meeting, September 29, 1785, elected
officers, and instructed their church wardens to petition the Governor
to establish the limits of a parish to be called Trinity Parish.
The name which they suggested is reminiscent of the fact that
many of the pioneers had been members of Trinity Church in New
York City, under the ministrations of the Reverend Charles Inglis,
D.D. Governor Parr fixed the boundaries of the parish, March 3,
1786, and before many months had passed a church was built by
local subscriptions, aided by an appropriation from the provincial
fund for building and repairing established churches, and a generous
contribution from Admiral Digby, who also presented a bell.
This structure and the adjoining burial ground were consecrated
by Dr. Inglis, who was now bishop of Nova Scotia, July 31, 1788.25
It will have been noted that New Hampshire's treatment of
the Tory element in her population was relatively moderate. She
permitted Loyalists to leave the State, and indeed by the resolution
of January 16, 1777, she encouraged them to go, but she did
not expel them, and many of them remained. Those who did go,
however, were forbidden to return by the act of November, 1778.
The ultimate success of the Revolutionists does not seem to have
changed their opinion of their absentee brethren. In the spring
of 1783, the town of Hollis voted to instruct its representatives
against permitting the return of the refugees or the restoration of
"their forfeited estates." About a year later Elijah Williams put
in his appearance at Keene, and was promptly bound over to the
court of sessions at Charlestown, which ordered him to leave the
State as soon as he had transacted his business. After settling
his affairs Williams departed for Nova Scotia, but he was not long
in finding his way back to Deerfield in consequence of ill health,
and there he died.26
Some of the non-jurors who had remained within the borders
of the State during the war were as unforgiving as the Revolutionists,
and showed no inclination to become reconciled to the
outcome of the war. A notable instance of this sort is disclosed
by the petition of Ebenezer Rice and Lieutenant Benjamin Tyler,
March 4, 1784, to Governor General Haldimand at Quebec, requesting
permission for their own and 46 other families of Claremont
to settle on Lake Memphremagog, or on the west bank of the
Connecticut River. They explained that they had always been
loyal subjects of King George III, were members of the Church of
England, but were "overburdened with Usurpation, Tyrene, and
opression from the Hands of Violent Men," who had used every
art to include them among the proscribed in the late Revolution,
and that they were therefore impatient to find an asylum in their
"Royal Master's Dominion." They hoped that after those who
had been meritorious in service should be provided for, their own
petition might receive favorable consideration. Not content to depend
solely on a written plea, the petitioners sent Captain Benjamin
Summer to Quebec with a letter for Surveyor General Samuel
Holland from the clerk wardens and vestrymen of their church
begging his assistance in favor of their request. It is interesting
to note that the list of 48 names submitted with the petition contains
a number that also appear among those of the non-jurors of
Claremont, May 30, 1776.27
The lapse of more time was needed to remove the antipathies
of the past, and in the case of James Sheafe of Portsmouth, who
had suffered imprisonment for his Toryism, a complete restoration
to popular favor occurred, for in 1802 Mr. Sheafe was elected
a United States senator from New Hampshire, and fourteen years
later he came within 2,000 votes of being chosen governor of the
State.28
——————————
1. N. H. State Papers, Documents, and Records from 1776 to 1783, VIII
204-296; Brewster, Rambles about Portsmouth, N. H., 212-215.
2. 'Brewster, Rambles about Portsmouth, 2d Series, 252, 253; Sabine, Am. Loyalists, (1847) 680, 215; Sec. Rep., Bur. of Archives, Ont. Pt. I (1904) 831;
Hutchinson's Diary and Letters, II, 192; Colls. Hist., and Miscel. and Monthly
Lit. Jour., Ill, 44, 220; Colls. Top., Hist., and Biog., l, 55; Colls. N. H. Hist.
Soc, II, 112; Raymond, Winslow Papers, 429; Sabine, Am. Loyalists, 476, 464,
433, 630, 341, 286; Lyford, Hist, of Concord, N. H., I, 252-254.
3. Sec. Rep., Bur. of Archives, Ont.; (1904) Pt. II, 1020; Sabine, Am. Loyalists, 148, 149, 350; N. H. Prov. Papers, Documents, and Records, 1674-1776,
VII, 394; Sabine, Am. Loyalists, 453, 680, 171, 651.
4. N. H. Provincial Papers, Documents, and Records, (1764-1776), VII, 623,
662, 695.
5. Brewster, Rambles about Portsmouth, N. H., 204-296.
6. N. H. State Papers, Documents, and Records from 1776 to 1783, VIII.
379-383, 393, 394, 508, 468, 584.
7. Ibid., 702
8. N. H. State Papers, Documents, and Records, (1776-1 783) VIII, 713.
9. By towns those proscribed were as follows: from Portsmouth, John
Wentworth, Esq., Peter Livius, Esq., John Fisher, Esq., Geo. Meserve, Esq.,
Robt. Traill, Esq., Geo. Boyd, Esq., John Fenton, Esq., (Capt.) John Cochran,
Esq., Samuel Hale, Esq., Edward Parry, Esq., Thos. McDonough, Esq., Maj.
Robt. Rogers, Andrew Pepperell Sparhawk, Esq., Patrick Burn, mariner,
John Smith, mariner, Wm. Johnson Rysam, mariner, Stephen Little, physician,
Thos. and Archibald Achincloss, Robt. Robinson, merchant, Hugh Henderson,
merchant, Gillam Butler, merchant, Jas. and John McMasters, merchants, Jas.
Bixby, yeoman, Wm. Pevey, mariner, Benj. Hart, rope-maker, Bartholomew
Stavers, post-rider, Philip Bayley, trader, Samuel Holland, Esq., Benning
Wentworth, gentleman, Jude Kermison, mariner; from Pembroke, Jonathan
Dix, trader; from Exeter, Robt. Luist Fowler, printer; from Concord, Benj.
Thompson, Esq.; from Londonderry, Stephen Holland, Esq., Richard Holland,
yeoman, John Davidson, yeoman, Jas. Fulton, yeoman, Thos. Smith, yeoman.
Dennis O'Hala, yeoman; from New Market, Geo. Bell, trader, Jacob Brown,
trader; from Merrimack, Edward Goldstone Lutwyche, Esq.; from Hollis,
Samuel Cummings, Esq., Benj. Whiting, Esq., Thos. Cummings, yeoman; from
Dunbarton. Wm. Stark, Esq., John Stark, yeoman, John Stinson, Jr., Samuel
Stinson, Jeremiah Bowen, yeoman; from Amherst, Zaccheus Cutler, trader,
John Holland, gentleman; from New Ipswich, Daniel Farnsworth, yeoman;
from Francestown, John Quigley, Esq.; from Peterborough, John Morrison,
clerk; from Keene, Josiah Pompoy, physician, Elijah Williams, Esq., Thos.
Cutler, gentleman, Eleazer Sawyer, yeoman, Robt. Gillmore, yeoman; from
Packersfield, Breed Batchelder, gentleman; from Alstead, Simon and Wm.
Baxter, yeomen; from Winchester, Solomon Willard, gentleman; from Rindge,
Jesse Rice, physician; from Charlestown, Enos Stevens, gentleman, Phineas
Stevens, physician, Solomon Stevens, yeoman, Levi Willard, gentleman; from
Claremont, John Brooks, yeoman; and from Hinsdale. Josiah and Simon Jones,
gentlemen. (N. H. State Papers, Documents, and Records, 1776-1783, VIII,
810-812; Belnap, Hist, of N. H., I, 380, 381.)
10. The names appearing in the act of confiscation (Nov. 28, 1778) are as
follows: John Wentworth, Esq., Samuel Holland, Esq., Geo. Meserve, Esq.,
(Capt.) John Cochran, Esq., Thomas McDonough, Esq., Wm. Johnson Rysam,
Jas. McMasters, John McMasters, Benning Wentworth, gentleman, Robt.
Luist Fowle, Stephen Holland, gentleman, Edward Goldstone Lutwyche, Esq.,
John Stinson, Zaccheus Cutler, John Quigley, Esq., Daniel Farnsworth, Josiah
Pomroy, Elijah Williams, Esq., Breed Batchelder, Enos Stevens, Simon Baxter,
John Brooks, Crean Brush (of Cumberland County, N. Y.), Samuel Tarbell,
and Jas. Rogers.
11. N.H. State Papers, Documents, and Records, (1776-1783) VIII, 813, 814,
857, 893, 896.
12. Second Rep., Bur. of Archives, Ont., Pt. I, (1904), 567; Muster Rolls of the
Loyalist Battalions (at St. John, N. B.); Raymond, Winslow Papers, 20.
13. Raymond, Winslow Papers, 51, 57, 69, 70; Winslow's Muster Rolls (in
the possession of the N. B. Hist. Soc, St. John, N. B. ); Ellis, Life of Rumford,
124, 125, 129, 131, 136, 139-141, 143.
14. Sabine, Am. Loyalists, (1847) 570. 363, 6,30; Sec. Rep., Bur. of Archives,
Ont., Pt. 272.
15. Raymond, The River St. John, 506; N. B. Courier, Mar. 28, 1835; Rep.
on the Am. Mss. in the Roy. Inst, of G. Brit., Ill, 144, 159, 207; Savary, Hist,
of the Co. of Annapolis Supplement, 36.
16. Sabine, Am. Loyalists (1864) I, 201; Bartlet, Frontier Missionary, 191-193;
Calnek and Savary, Co. of Annapolis, 604, 66-68; Polit. Magazine (London,
Eng.), 1783; Campbell, Hist, of Nova Scotia, 170, 171; Rev. W. O. Raymond's
Notebook (unpublished). Rev. J. Bailey to Thos. Robie, Oct. 19 1782, Rev.
Bailey to Capt. Farrel, Oct. 21, 1782.
17. Raymond, The River St. John, 510, 511; Murdoch. Hist, of Nova Scotia,
III, 13-15; Wilson, Hist, of the Co. of Digby, N. S., 46.
18. Second Rep., Bur. of Archives, Ont., Pt. I, 101, 272; Sabine, Am. Loyalists,
635, 216, 363; Raymond, Winslow Papers, 95, n.; Sabine, Am. Loyalists, 551,
19. Report on Am. Mss. in the Roy. Inst, of G. Brit., IV, 55; Raymond.Winslow
Papers. 102, 123, 183; Raymond, The Dispatch of Woodstock, N. B., Nov.
28. 1906.
20. Raymond, Winslow Papers, 133, 134, 258, n., 388, 389, 391, 394, 615, n.,
632, 646, 656, 663; Murdoch, Hist, of Nova Scotia, III, 277, 281-283.
21. Wilson Hist, of the Co. of Digby, N. S., 52, 48. 49, 50, 64, 65.
22. Raymond, Winslow Papers, 189; Wilson, Hist, of the Co. of Digby, N. S..
76, 77, 75.
23. Wilson, Hist, of the Co. of Digby, N. S., 77-81, 111.
24. Ibid., 92, 93.
25. Wilson, Hist, of the Co. of Digby, N. S., 88, 87, 89, 90.
26. Worcester, The Town of Hollis, N. H., in the War of the Rev. (a reprint
from the N. E. Hist, and Gen. Reg., July, 1876); Colls. N. H. Hist. Soc. II,
134, 135.
27. Haldimand Papers, B. 175. pp. 251, 253-255; N. H. State Papers, Docs.,
and Records from 1776 to 1783, VIII, 218-220.
28 McClinntock, Hist, of N. H., 510, 511.