The Flight of American Loyalists
to the
British Isles
by
Wilbur H. Siebert
Columbus, Ohio;
The F. J. Heer Printing Company,
November, 1911
THE FLIGHT OF AMERICAN LOYALISTS
TO THE BRITISH ISLES.
—————
It is well known that during the American Revolution thousands of Tories or loyalists withdrew from the scene of conflict and settled for longer or shorter periods in the British Isles, or
in some of the British possessions. By the end of the war, these
refugees were to be found in large numbers in Upper and Lower
Canada and in the Maritime Provinces, in East Florida, the Bahama Islands and the West Indies, and in Great Britain. The general conditions of denunciation and persecution, and later of
banishment and confiscation of property, under which this dispersion occurred are too familiar to warrant consideration here. It is the object of this paper to throw light on the local conditions
under which the migration to Great Britain took place, to point
out the chief centres of embarkation, and in veiw of the evidence
to say what may be said of the magnitude of the movement.
Boston was of course the natural port of departure for
the loyalists of Massachusetts. It was the headquarters of the
provincial aristocracy, which supported the crown, and also of
the British until the evacuation in March, 1776. For this brief
time it was the sanctuary of numerous loyalists flocking in from
all parts of the province.1 Not a few of these embarked for
Britain as opportunity afforded, among them Col. Richard Saltonstall,
of Haverhill, who escaped to the city of refuge in the fall
of 1774, and sailed soon after.2 Governor Thomas Hutchinson
made this voyage earlier in the same year, sailing June 1st in
the ship "Minerva," Capt. Callahan, commander.3 In his Diary
the governor tells of a letter from his provincial seat, written the
following summer, in which it is said that the Boston people
delivered up 4,000 arms on condition that they and their families
should have leave to depart from the town.4 This letter further
reported that the Vassall families had gone to Halifax, that
Callahan had 80 passengers, and that Coffin was "also coming
[to England] with passengers, among them Mr. J. Green and
lady".5 These constant flights are confirmed by the testimony
of Curwen, who was then in London. Writing July 7, 1775, he
remarked: "There is an army of New Englanders here," and
about a month later in a letter to a friend at Halifax he declared: "A whole army * * are here lamenting their own and their country's unhappy fate"6 At almost the same time
a lady writing from Boston to her friend in Chester said:
"Everybody that can is quitting this place; many families are
embarking for England to settle there."7 This rush to foreign
shores is easily explained, for Boston had been under siege by
Washington and his army ever since the early part of July, and
during the three months previous the American patriots had been
giving an account of themselves well suited to convince New
England Tories of the dangers of their situation. From this
time on London newspapers are full of items noting the arrival
of numbers of refugee Americans at various British ports.
It cannot be supposed, however, that the embarkations
ceased after the first flurries were over. Single individuals, and
probably occasional groups, did not rest content until they saw
the capital of Massachusetts Bay receding in the distance
as they sped on their eastward course. Thus, to cite a few instances of more than ordinary interest, Richard Clarke, one of the consignees of the tea destroyed in Boston harbor and father-in-law of Copley, the artist and loyalist, took his departure, December 4, 1775, Curwen recording his arrival in London twenty-one
days later.8 Toward the end of the following month, the
Rev. John Wiswall, A. M., sailed in the "Preston", landing on
the 27th of February.9 The wife and children of one Fenton
(probably John Fenton of New Hampshire, who was voted in
provincial congress "an enemy to the liberties of America", then
imprisoned, but later allowed to escape to England)10 arrived
at their destination about November i, 1776, along with others
from Boston.11 John Gray, one of the sons of Harrison Gray,
the treasurer of Massachusetts, appears not to have sailed until
May or June of 79,12 while Robert Temple, the "high-flying
Tory," was unable to take flight before the summer of 1780
on account of his confinement at Cambridge. He arrived at
Bristol with his family in August of that year.13 Besides numerous other known instances, there must have been a great
many that never were recorded.
It is of course well ascertained that the great body of the
loyalists who left Boston at the evacuation were removed with
Howe's army to Halifax.14 A fact often overlooked is that a
few of them were permitted to go directly to England. On the
day that the first division of the fleet sailed for Nova Scotia,
the "Lord Hyde" packet, crowded with passengers, sailed for
London carrying Thomas Hutchinson, eldest son of the governor, and Dr. Peter Oliver, with their families, besides Col. William Browne of Salem, who afterward became governor of the Bermudas.15
Other ports of Massachusetts became convenient places of
departure for loyalists seeking refuge across the water. For
example, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Peters, missionary at Hebron,
Connecticut, appears to have sailed from Newburyport, which
he reached by way of the Piscataqua River. He took ship in the
latter part of I774.16 From the same harbor embarked the Hon.
Isaac Royall of Medford, a representative of the General Court
and long a member of the Council of the colony.17 Col. Benjamin Pickman of Salem left that town in March, 1775, and arrived at Bristol five weeks later.18 Probably from Marblehead,
which was the place of his residence, Joseph Hooper went to
England in the same year.18 This list of Massachusetts ports
of embarkation might easily be lengthened ; and doubtless it
might be supplemented with the names of ports of neighboring
colonies similarly made use of. It must suffice to mention only
one of the latter. It was at Newport, R. I., that Benjamin
Thompson, afterwards famous as Count Rumford, was taken
aboard the British frigate "Scarborough" about the middle of
October, 1775. He had already fixed on England as his destination, but the frigate carried him round to Boston, whence he departed at the evacuation in the following March.19
As we have already seen, the evacuation of Boston did not
result in a direct removal of many refugees to Great Britain.
Indeed, its effect was chiefly indirect in this particular. On the
3Oth of March and 1st of April, 1776, Halifax received the concourse of more than a thousand loyalists from Boston and four or five times as many soldiers in addition.20 The disembarking multitude sadly overtaxed the capacity of the Nova Scotian capital, which was a primitive town with a population of several thousand only.21 Under such conditions scores and even hundreds of the loyalists, who only a few weeks before had expected
to settle permanently in the country to which they were going,
now hastened to re-embark for England, whither not a few of
their friends and fellow-sufferers had preceded them.
The diaries kept by Samuel Curwen and Governor Hutchinson
during their long exiles in the mother country contain frequent references to arrivals of these New England people from Halifax. On June 10, 1776, Curwen records the arrival of as
many as six vessels laden with refugees from this harbor, and
names a few of the passengers.22 Hutchinson refers to the same
fleet, and supplies the names of additional passengers.23 Another
entry by Curwen, under date of June 26, tells that two or three
companies of Bostonians have lately come from Halifax;24 a
few days later a newspaper reports that the "Unity," from
Georgia and Halifax, landed several families at the port of
London who had run away from the troubles in America;25 and
from various sources we learn that the ship "Aston Hall", which
sailed from Halifax in July with the commissioners of the customs and a large contingent of refugees, landed at Dover towards the middle of August.26 While the "Aston Hall" was still in mid-ocean, we hear, through Hutchinson (July 26), of another
party of twelve or more passengers from the chief Nova Scotian
port; and as their names are given, they are seen to be former
residents of Boston.27
Again, it was from Halifax that Dr. Stockbridge and a number of other refugees arrived off Marshfield
about the middle of August.28
The circumstances of this movement to England suggest
that it was of brief duration. Only a fraction of the Tory host
borne to Halifax by the 150 sail of Howe's fleet29 were caught
in the trans-Atlantic current. Most of those who remained behind became settlers in other parts of Nova Scotia. After August, 1776, our serviceable witnesses, Curwen and Hutchinson, have
little to say about fresh parties from Halifax, although they
often chronicle the arrival of individuals and families from other
quarters through subsequent years. It cannot be supposed, however, that there was a complete cessation of arrivals from the
Nova Scotian capital. In August, 1778, while Col. Daniel Leonard, afterward appointed chief justice of the Bermudas, lay sick in London, he was joined by his wife and children from Halifax.30 If our information were less fragmentary, other instances
might readily be found no doubt. Nevertheless, we have sufficient data for estimating that several hundred New England refugees reached the British Isles by way of Halifax.
How numerous the departures from Philadelphia may have
been, it is impossible to say. When Samuel Curwen arrived there
from Beverly, Massachusetts, at the end of April 1775, Philadelphia was already a city of refuge for New Englanders.31 Nevertheless, Curwen's friends advised him against remaining,
and he sailed for Dover on May I2th.32 Early in the following
October, a London paper33
printed among its latest advices from
the Quaker City the statement that numerous Scotch and Irish
emigrants were returning to their native countries presumably
from this port "being heartily tired of their expedition." During the next
two years we hear only of occasional over-sea flights
from the city on the Delaware; for example, those of Dr. Alexander Stenhouse of Baltimore,
in 1776, the Rev. Jacob Duche, Episcopal clergyman and one-time chaplain to the Continental
Congress at Philadelphia, in 1777, and Sir John Wentworth,
governor of New Hampshire, in I778.34
The presence of General Howe and his army in Philadelphia
during the winter of 1777-78 made the town a most agreeable
centre for Tories for the time being. The circulation of the
news in the following spring that Clinton, Howe's successor, was
soon to move with the army to New York served to swell the
already large number of loyalists in the city by attracting accessions from outside, and at the same time stimulated them to leave a place where they expected little or no mercy if they remained. Accordingly, about 3,000 boarded the British fleet and
sailed for New York, June 16, I778.35 Some of these fugitives
subsequently left Staten Island for England. Thus, George
Inman and his wife embarked almost immediately after their
arrival in the metropolis, going with the Christmas fleet in I779,36
while the noted Quaker Tory, Samuel Shoemaker, and his son
did not leave for England until November, 1783, a few days before the evacuation of New York.37
The Southern ports were centres of other waves of loyalist
dispersion, vigorous undulations of which reached the shores of
the British Isles. Among these were Norfolk, Va., the mouth
of the Potomac River, Charleston, S. C, and St. Augustine and
Amelia harbor, Fla. The flights from Norfolk, Gwynn's Island,
and the estuary of the Potomac took place in connection with
the uprising of the Virginians against their royal governor, Lord
Dunmore. On December 9, 1775, a force of the provincials repulsed a
company of British grenadiers at Great Bridge, twenty
miles from Dunmore's headquarters at Norfolk. There were
numerous Tory inhabitants in the County of Norfolk and the
neighboring counties of Virginia,38 as also "in the Quaker and
Mennonite communities of the interior"; and when the alarmed
governor hastened on board his fleet he was accompanied by
many families of the King's friends.39 If we may trust the
accounts which found their way to London in private letters from
Virginia, and were printed in the newspapers, Governor Dunmore
was put to his wits ends to find shipping enough for both
the Tories and the other provincial fugitives.40 We are told
that he was under the necessity of taking into government service every vessel in the fleet
that was sea-worthy for the purpose
of transporting the people and their properties to ports of safety;
and that certificates and clearances were duly issued to the passengers according to their several destinations. The letter containing these particulars was written on board the ship "Logan"
in the Potomac River, under date of July 31, 1776. It concluded
with the words: "I, with many others, take passage in this ship
for Glasgow; other vessels are bound for St. Augustine, Bermuda, Antiqua, London and Whitehaven.
Adieu, as the signals are hove out for sailing."41 On September 18, Hutchinson noted in his Diary the reported arrival of a vessel from Virginia at
Glasgow, doubtless one of Dunmore's fleet, if not the "Logan"
herself.42 Two days later, the Morning Chronicle and London
Advertiser printed an extract of a letter from Whitehaven, dated
September 12, as follows: "On Friday morning last arrived
here the ship "Grace", Captain Donaldson, 28 days from Virginia, consisting of some genteel families, tradesmen, servants, and negroes, most of whom have been on Lord Dunmore's fleet
since the 15th of December, and have suffered all the hardships
which might be expected from a long confinement on board ships
too much crowded with people, and a great scarcity of provisions."
Lord Dunmore himself was driven to flight early in July,
by the attack of the Virginians on his camp at Gwynn's Island,
on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. He proceeded first
to New York and thence to England in the "Fowey" man-ofwar,
and made his appearance in London on December 19.43 A
month after Dunmore's flight several other gentlemen sailed
from Virginia, on board the "Levant" transport, in company with
Robert Eden, lieutenant governor of Maryland, who had fled
from Annapolis. After a passage of twenty-seven days, they
landed at Portsmouth early in September.44
From Charleston, S. C, the loyalist, Dr. William Charles
Wells, embarked for London as early as I775.45 It was
evidently from the same place that the Hon. William Wragg, a
member of the Council of South Carolina, together with his son
and his servant Tom, departed for England, by way of Amsterdam, early in July, I777.46 As Charleston was the chief sea-port
of the South, a resort for numerous Tories from the surrounding
country, and was held by the British during the two years immediately preceding its evacuation on December 14, 1782, it seems certain that many others must have followed their example
during this interval, if not earlier. When the evacuation at length
took place, twenty-five of the 120 sail which carried off the garrison, inhabitants, and negroes were bound for England. Among the passengers going over-seas was Lieutenant Governor William Bull and the other crown officers, many gentlemen and merchants and many "poor refugee loyalists", who, in Governor
Bull's words, were "destitute of every resource and even hope
of gaining maintenance." According to a return of December
13, 1782, this company consisted of 324 persons, of whom fifty
or more were blacks.47
The fact that East Florida remained in British hands when
Georgia and South Carolina were abandoned led to the removal
of thousands of refugees with their slaves from Savannah and
Charleston to St. Augustine, during the latter half of the year,
1782. Patrick Tonyn, governor of East Florida, was ever hospitable to loyalist
refugees from the neighboring provinces; and
convenience caused the British generals to adopt an arrangement
which they already knew could be only temporary for the mass
of those shifted southward. The intended evacuation of East
Florida had been officially communicated to Governor Tonyn
before June 20, 1782, and by him reported forthwith to the general assembly
of his province.48
Nevertheless, a succession of fleets from up the coast unloaded throngs of whites and blacks
at St. Augustine — one of them as many as 5,700 — during the
period intervening between the British abandonment of Savannah
and of Charleston.49
With the spread of the knowledge that Florida was soon
to be surrendered to Spain, a new migration set in. The vanguard was under way by June 16, 1783, headed for the neighboring islands,50 where most of the Southern loyalists promptly
settled. But even with the Bahamas and West Indies at hand,
England was not overlooked. About July 10, two ships rilled
with refugees sailed for that country.51 We learn also that two
months later some forty of the North Carolina regiment, then
waiting final disposition at St. Augustine, wished to go to Britain,
but it does not appear whether or not their wish was fulfilled.52
In truth, our records are so incomplete that we are left quite
in the dark about the probable numbers of those who deserted
the coast of Florida for the British shores at this time.
With the progress of the evacuation of East Florida the
great mass of loyalists followed Governor Tonyn's advice and
emigrated. England's cession of this region to Spain was effected
by the treaty of Versailles (Sept. 3, 1783), while the Bahama
Islands, which England had recently recovered from the Spaniards, were now secured to her by treaty as well. Thus, the Bahamas were opportunely opened to the migrating loyalists. The
British government supplied the ships necessary to transport
those desiring it, and embarkations filled the interval from the
early part of September, 1784, to March 1, 1785.53 The exodus
was effected from the harbor of Amelia at the mouth of St.
Mary's River. Some of these emigrants went to England, larger
numbers to Jamaica and the Bahamas, and some to Nova Scotia.54
The presence in London of representatives of all grades of loyalist claimants
from East Florida in the years 1786 and 1787, when
they submitted their evidence before the commissioners of claims,
suggests that the movement from St. Augustine and Amelia must
have been of considerable magnitude.55
There can be little doubt but that the majority of all the
loyalists who sought refuge in Great Britain embarked from
New York City. The place was overwhelmingly Tory throughout
the revolutionary period; and as it was held by the British from
the late summer of 1776 till the end of the war, it served as a
haven of refuge for persecuted Tories from every colony.56
While by far the larger number of these Tories awaited the outcome of the contest in New York,
many seized the opportunity to cross the Atlantic on their way to England,
Scotland and Ireland.57 This went on during the decade from 1775 to I785.58
Among the first to leave for England were two members of the
provincial council who sailed in the "Harriot" packet toward
the close of April, I775.59 They were soon followed by the Rev.
Thomas B. Chandler and Dr. Myles Cooper, president of King's
College. These gentlemen departed in May in company with
several other Episcopal clergymen, loyalists like themselves.60
This group may have been among "the New Yorkers in Margaret
St.," London, on whom Governor Hutchinson thought it worth
while to call on August 1st, of the same year.61
Besides the constant stream of those departing privately
from Sandy Hook in packets and merchant vessels, New York
City suffered periodic drafts on her loyalist population upon the
withdrawal of English fleets from these waters to the British
Isles. Permission to make the voyage in the government transports was
granted by the commanding officer at New York, and
refugees without the means to secure transportation in the ordinary manner
or in association with others were sent away with
the fleets.62 At least five such fleets are known to have borne
away loyalists, but in what numbers has not been ascertainable.
These five were the fleet sailing on February 19, 1777; the fleet
which weighed anchor eight months later (October 19, 1778);
the Christmas fleet which left Sandy Hook on December 23,
1779; the fleet with which the defeated Cornwallis and his army
retired in January, 1782; and the trans-Atlantic division of the
evacuation fleet which sailed November 25, 1783. Jolly Allen,
the Boston merchant, was one of the Tories given a passage
by Lord Howe on the first fleet.63
A multitude of refugees accompanied the second fleet, which
consisted at the start of 120 sail. After crossing the ocean and
meeting a severe gale in St. George's Channel, some of the vessels
made a safe anchorage at Cork. Among the passengers
who landed here were Peter Van Schaack of Kinderhook, N.Y.,64
the Rev. Mr. Weekes, a missionary of Marblehead, Mass.,
and Mr. Combe, a clergyman recently banished from Philadelphia
after a period of imprisonment.65 The other ships were caught
by the gale in the Chops of the English Channel, several were
lost, and the remainder succeeded in reaching Dover, Deal, and
Margate, where throngs of people disembarked. Miss Louisa S.
Wells of Charleston, S. C, was among the passengers landing
at Deal, and has left us a vivid account of her voyage.66
Joseph Galloway, the famous Tory of Pennsylvania, and his daughter
appear to have accompanied this fleet67 and possibly also Judge
Martin Howard of North Carolina.68
Richard Silvester, a custom-house officer of Boston, is recorded as certainly one of the
passengers.69 Professor Flick doubtless refers to this fleet in
his valuable monograph70 when mentioning the many loyalists
who were sent to Great Britain with their wives and children
in 1778.
The third fleet, which for convenience I have called the
Christmas fleet, was much larger than the second, consisting of
nearly 200 sail under convoy of several frigates. It was badly
scattered by a violent storm that struck it on Christmas eve, and
was completely demoralized by a second one four days later.
The vessel bearing George Inman and wife of Philadelphia,
whose Narrative briefly records his experiences, landed at Portsmouth in February, I780.71 Dr. Peter Oliver of Salem, son of
Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver of Massachusetts, was another passenger of this fleet on his second voyage to England,72 as was also General Prescot.73
It can scarcely be supposed that the fourth fleet, that in which
Cornwallis and his ill-fated army returned home, went unaccompanied by numbers of disheartened Tories. At any rate, the report was circulating in the London newspapers74
in mid-January, 1782, to that effect. This report told that Lord Cornwallis had left New York
on the fifteenth of December on board the "Robust" man-of-war, which, together with the "James," was the convoy to a large fleet of merchantmen, transports, etc.,
to the amount of 150 sail; that the fate suffered by several of
the unfortunate loyalists who had fallen into the hands of the
Americans on the capitulation of Yorktown had produced such
an effect upon a large number of the refugees resident at New
York that they were coming to England in shoals, and that a
considerable body of them was actually on board the fleet then
on its way home.
From this time on to the withdrawal of the British from
New York, embarkations for Europe at this port must have been
of frequent, not to say constant, occurrence. Writing from the
Bowery on June 20th, about five months before the evacuation,
Edward Winslow, Sr., informs his son of the departure of old
friends for Great Britain;75 and five days later than Mr. Winslow,
also writing from the city, Ward Chipman tells of the embarkation of other
friends for the same destination.76 Further
on in the same letter, Mr. Chipman refers to the not distant
evacuation indicated by the arrival of several empty transports
from England, remarking that this affords strong ground for
suspecting that they will all be off in the fall.77 On July 9th,
Andrew Elliot, the lieutenant governor of New York, put his
family aboard the frigate "Nonsuch" for Scotland, though he
did not himself leave the city to join them until the following
December.78 Meantime, notices were printed in the New York
newspapers in the latter part of August requesting all loyalists
intending to go to Scotland or Ireland to meet at designated
places. That associations of this sort actually sailed appears
from a letter from Cork, written about thirty days later, mentioning the arrival of the "Neptune" from New York "with several families on board, loyalists, who did not choose to continue
there after the city should be evacuated by the British forces".79
During the same period applications were being received by government from numerous persons in the city who were unable to escape to Britain without financial aid,80
while communications from others in the town revealed the intention of their
writers likewise to go to England.81
When the evacuation was completed, and the trans-Atlantic
division of the fleet was ready to sail on November 25, 1783,
it was accompanied by a "numerous train of loyalists" sent by
Gen. Guy Carleton, who was then in command at New York.82
Dr. John Connolly, the well-known Tory of Pittsburg, was one
of this train, having been released from the Philadelphia jail
that he might go to Xew York and sail from there to Europe.83
Ward Chipman, who later became chief justice of New Brunswick, was another passenger. A letter of his of November 29th, written aboard the "Tryal" one of the government transports,
tells what had taken place among his wide circle of acquaintances
at New York. "Scarce any of our friends", it relates, "or any
man of respectability remains at New York, they are principally
embarked for England." Relative to his own destination he
adds, "I am now on board ship for the voyage."84 Gen. Carleton
was among the last to leave Staten Island, sailing in the frigate
"Cares" in company with the frigate "Cyclops" on December 4.
Both of these vessels carried a large number of gentlemen Tories,
including James Jauncey and Hugh Wallace, well-known residents of the metropolis.85 The "Grampus," which reached Portsmouth early
in the following January, learned that upwards of fifty loyalist families had already
arrived there "from different parts of America".86 In what space of time is not indicated; but it is probable that many had come from the general rendezvous of American loyalists so lately deserted.
The patriots were jubilant of course over the recovery of
this rendezvous, and all that it implied. A wag seized the occasion to make a last coarse thrust at the Tory aristocracy who were sailing away to the seat of that royalty for which they had
sacrificed so much. He proposed making the carcass of Rivington,
the loyalist printer of New York, "into portable soup for
the use of the lady and gentlemen Tories bound for England."87
As part of the wave of exiles from Boston was deflected
by Halifax to England in 1776, so also some of the refugees
from New York and the adjacent country were diverted by
Shelburne, N. S., seven years later. Shelburne, then known
as Port Roseway, was founded in the summer of 1783 by several thousand of these New York refugees. A few months later
8,000 more settlers sailed for Shelburne from New York, Long
Island, and Staten Island in the famous September fleet. This
caused so great a congestion of people in the new town that
neither the assistance of government nor the efforts of the settlers
themselves could supply adequate shelter for the approaching
winter, and spring disclosed a sad dearth of land fit for farming.
True, there was plenty of fish in the adjacent waters and an
abundance of timber in the neighboring wilderness, but the male
population was unsuited to make extensive use of these bounties,
being for the most part merchants and military men. Under
such discouragements the settlers began to abandon the place.
By 1785 the exodus was well under way and by the winter of
1787, when the government distribution of food ceased, people
were leaving in troops. Many of these joined the more flourishing
communities of the Maritime Provinces, while others went
to the Canadas and West Indies. But numbers also found their
way to Great Britain,88
impelled thither by their recent experiences, as they were also
drawn by the prospect of compensation
for their losses. James Robertson was one of these emigrants
from Shelburne. Before the close of the war, he and his brother
Alexander were publishing the Royal American Gazette in New
York City. Thence they removed to Shelburne, where they continued
to issue the Gazette. But subsequently, after the death
of Alexander, James retired to Edinburgh with his nephew,
James, Jr.89 Another Shelburne man
who crossed the water was
the Rev. William Walter, D.D., at one time rector of Trinity
Church, Boston, but later — according to Sabine — in charge of
an Episcopal church at Shelburne. In a letter of March 5, 1784,
Chief Justice Peter Oliver notes that Mr. Walter was then in
London, "having left his family at Port Roseway".90
Of course other Canadian ports besides Shelburne and Halifax
witnessed embarkations of loyalists to England. Many such
became centres of settlements for invading multitudes of these
people, and therefore presented conditions not so dissimilar from
those already described as to contribute to different results. In
regard to numbers, however, the two Nova Scotian towns probably led
all competitors. While Quebec received its share of
these fugitives, its inland location and western connections gave
rise to a westward rather than an eastward dispersion. Still,
it is known to have furnished at least a few members to the contingent
of exiles in London. On July 3, 1776, the "Hope" from
Quebec brought to the British metropolis several families who
had been obliged to leave America "on account of the disturbances."91 Six months later Brook Watson also arrived from
the city on the St. Lawrence. After returning and participating
in the war in America this man made a notable career in London,
as did others of the American contingent.
It would be interesting no doubt to know the total number
of refugees contributed both permanently and temporarily by the
loyalist ports of exit of the United States and Canada to the
population of Great Britain. But the problem is full of unknown
factors. At best one must be content with hazarding one's own
inadequately supported judgment. Professor Flick is convinced
that not more than 2,000 refugees went from New York to England before I783.93 But if one takes into account the facilities
afforded this class — the impecunious and impoverished as well
as the affluent — by homeward-bound fleets, and the extent to
which these facilities were made use of, one feels that Professor
Flick's estimate falls far short of the probabilities. One can
readily believe that these fleets alone transported more than 2,000
exiles. If now still confining ourselves to New York we
add those who went singly or in small parties during a dozen
years, then include the "numerous train" sent at the evacuation,
and finally complete the tale by the "countless number"94 who
hastened to London after the peace to secure compensation, we
find ourselves ready to suppose that first and last the British
Isles received scarcely less than five or six thousand Americans
from the metropolis of loyalism. Smaller, but nevertheless considerable
contributions came from the Canadian ports, especially
from Halifax, Shelburne, Quebec, and probably St. John, N. B.;
also from the New England ports, of which the most important
was of course Boston; while the contingents sent forth by the
chief Southern ports were likewise large. Without going beyond
our meagre data, one might estimate a minimum number of
from two to three thousand loyalists and neutrals received by
Great Britain from these places of embarkation.
——————————
1. Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, III., 190.
2. Chase, Hist, of Haverhill, Mass., 646.
3. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, I., 152.
4. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, I., 470; cf. Frothingham, Hist, of
Siege of Boston, 94, 95.
5. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, I, 470.
6. Curwen, Journal and Letters, 31, 34.
7. Quoted in the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, Oct. 4,
1775.
8. Curwen, Journal and Letters, 43.
9. Collects. N. S. Hist. Soc., XIII, 22.
10. Sabine, Amer. Loyalists, 283.
11. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, II., 111.
12. Ibid., 262.
13. Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog.,VII., 246-7; Sabine,, Amer. Loyalists, 640-1.
14. Frothingham, Hist, of the Siege of Boston, 311.
15. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, I., 370; II., 41-2, 48.
16. Ibid, I., 332.
17. Curwen, Journal and Letters, 523; Hutchinson, Diary and Letters,
I, 485.
18. Stark, Loyalists of Mass., 223.
19. Ellis, Life of Rumford, 94; Stark, Loyalists of Mass., 266.
20. Collects. N. S. Hist. Soc., VIII, 76.
21 Frothingham, Hist, of the Siege of Boston, 311.
22. Curwen, Journal and Letters, 59.
23. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, II., 61.
24. Curwen, Journal and Letters, 62.
25. Lloyd's Evening Post, July 1-3, 1776, p. 15.
26. Sabine, Amer. Loyalists, 221, 343, 372, 511, 595, 675; Hutchinson.
Diary and Letters, II., 89. Curwen, Journal and Letters, 71.
27. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, II., 85.
28. Lloyd's Evening Post, Aug. 16, 1776.
29. Collects. N. S. Hist. Soc., VIII., 76.
30. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters II., 212; Sabine, Amer. Loyalists,
418, 419.
31. Curwen, Journal and Letters, 25, 28, 29; Dexter, Lit. Diary of Ezra
Stiles, I, 540.
32. Curwen, Journal and Letters, 30.
33. Lloyd's Evening Post, Oct. 4-6, 1775.
34. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, II., 55, 192; Md. Hist. Magazine,
June, 1907, 135; Dexter, Lit. Diary of Ezra Stiles, II., 158.
35. Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., XIII, 307; XXII., 143, 145; IX, 436;
Van Tyne, Amer. Rev. 245.
36. Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., VII, 237.
37. Ibid, I, 35; XIII, 307. See also the diary of James Allen (Pa.
Mag. of Hist, and Biog., IX, 440).
38. Ambler, Sectionalism in Virginia, 25.
39. The London Packet or New Lloyd's Evening Post, Apr. 5-8, 1776,
40. The Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, Sept. 13, 1776.
41. The Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, Sept. 13, 1776.
42 Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, II., 97
43. Cooke, Virginia, 437; Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, II., 120.
44. The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, London, Sept. 5, 6 and
11, 1776; Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, II., 87.
45. Louisa S. Wells, Journal of Voyage from Charleston to England,
85, 98.
46. Curwen, Journal and Letters, 667, 668.
47. S. C. Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Jan., 1910, 14, 15, 26;
McCrady, Hist, of South Carolina in the Rev., 674. Of the 274 whites, 137 were men, 74 women and 63 children.
48. Rep. Am. Mss. in Roy. Inst. G. Brit., II., 395, 530; IV., 42, 57, 147.
49. Ibid., II., 530, 531 ; IV., 216, 276.
50. Report on Am. Mss. in Roy. Inst. G. Brit., IV., 42, 57.
51. Ibid., IV., (Gen. McArthur to Sir Guy Carleton.)
52. Ibid., IV., 351. (Same to same.)
53. Northcroft, Sketches of Summerland, 281 ; Wright, "History of the
Bahama Islands" in Shattuck's The Bahama Islands, 424.
54. Fairbanks, Hist, and Antiquities of St. Augustine, Fla. 173; Fairbanks, Hist, of Florida, 239, 240.
55. Audit Office Claims, Vol. III., E. Fla. Evidence, Public Records
Office, London.
56. Van Tyne, Loyalists in the Amer. Rev. 128, 243.
57. Flick, Loyalism in N. Y., 148, 149; Jones, Hist, of N. Y., II., Note xxxvi., 506.
58. Flick, Loyalism in N. Y., 171.
59. Dexter, Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, I., 540.
60. Ibid., 169 ; Curwen, Journal and Letters, 539, 557; Dexter, Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, I., 547.
61. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, I., 506.
62. Jones, History of N. Y. II., Note xxxvi., 506.
63. Account of Sufferings and Losses of Jolly Allen, 39.
64. Life of Peter Van Schaack, 132, 133.
65. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, II., 229, 230, 223.
66. Journal of a Voyage from Charleston, S. C. to London, 47-62.
67. Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., Dec., 1902, 437.
68. Curwen, Journal and Letters, 207; Sabine, Amer. Loyalists, 369.
69. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, II., 228.
70. Loyalism in New York, 201, 202.
71. Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., VII, 245.
72. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, II., 337.
73. Ibid., 339.
74. The London Gazette of Jan. 15-17 and The Morning Herald and
Daily Gazette of Jan. 16.
75. Raymond, Winslow Papers, 90.
76. Ibid., 92; Sabine, Amer. Loyalists, 564, 431-2.
77. Raymond, Winslow Papers, 92.
78. Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., XL, 146, 148; Manual, Corporation
City of New York, 1870, 797.
79. Manual, Corporation City of New York, 1870, 806, 807, 812.
80. Rep. Am. Mss. in Roy. Inst. of G. Brit., II., 12, 340; IV., 33, 107,
143, 148, 451, 461, 467.
81. Ibid. IV., 279, 347, 424, 439, 446, 456, 459.
82. Jones, Hist, of N. Y., II., 260; Flick, Loyalism in N. Y., 172, n.
83. "Narrative of the Transactions [etc.] of John Connolly" in Pa.
Mag. of Hist, and Biog., XIII., 285, 286; Proceedings of the . Amer. Antiq.
Soc., Oct., 1890, 28.
84. Raymond, Winslow Papers, 92.
85. Manual, Corporation City of New York, 1870, 837.
86. Ibid., 840.
87. Van Tyne, Loyalists of the Amer. Rev., 290.
88. Collects. N. S. Hist. Soc., 1887-88, 65, 66, 80, 81, 84, 85, 88.
89. Ibid., 121; Sabine, Amer. Loyalists, 561-2.
90. Sabine, Amer. Loyalists, 670-1; Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, II., 404.
91. Lloyd's Evening Post, July 1-3, p. 15.
92. Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, II., 120.
93. Flick, Loyalism in New York, 171, 172.
94. Ibid., 204