The Loyalists of America and Their Times Volume II Part 19
17. _Sir Charles Frederick Phillipse Robinson_, G.C.B., of New York, was the son of Colonel Beverley Robinson; entered the King's service early in the Revolution, and at the peace returned with his father to England, where he was continued in the British army; became Lieutenant-General, and received the honour of knighthood. He was with the Duke of Wellington, and saw much hard service. At the storming of St. Sebastian he was dangerously wounded. He was in the battle of Vittoria, Nive, Orthes, and Toulouse. During the war of 1812 he came to America, and was employed in Canada. He commanded the British force in the attack on Plattsburg, under Prevost, and protested against the order of his superior, when directed to retire, because from the position of his troops he was of opinion that his loss of men would be greater in retreat than in advance upon the American works. After the conclusion of hostilities he embarked at New York for England.
18. _Morris Robinson_, of New York, was also son of Colonel Beverley Robinson, and was captain of the Queen's Rangers. When that corps was disbanded at the close of the war, most of the officers were dismissed on half pay, and settled in New Brunswick; but Captain Robinson, by good fortune, was continued in commission, and at the time of his decease he was lieutenant-colonel, and a.s.sistant-barrackmaster-general in the British army. He had three sons officers in the British army, and two daughters, Susan and Joane; the former became the wife of Robert Parker, judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick; and the latter the wife of Robert T. Hagien, Esq., barrister-at-law, master in chancery, and formerly mayor of the city of St. John.
19. _John Robinson_, of New York, likewise a son of Colonel Beverley Robinson, was during the revolution a lieutenant of the Loyal American Regiment, commanded by his father; and when the corps was disbanded at the close of the war, he settled in New Brunswick, and received half pay. He embarked, and successfully, in mercantile pursuits, and held distinguished public stations, being deputy-paymaster-general of his Majesty's forces in the Province, a member of the Council, treasurer of New Brunswick, mayor of St. John, and president of the first bank chartered in the colony. He died at St. John in 1828, aged sixty-seven.
Several other Robinsons were engaged on the royal side in the American Revolution, but none of them so prominently connected with the British provinces as those above mentioned.
20. _Roger Morris_, of New York, was a captain in the British army, in the French war, and one of the aides of the ill-fated Braddock. He married Mary, daughter of Frederick Phillipse, Esq., and settled in New York. At the commencement of the revolution he was a member of the Council of the colony, and continued in office until the peace, although the Whigs organized a government, under a written Const.i.tution, as early as 1777. A part of the Phillipse estate was in possession of Colonel Morris in right of his wife, and was confiscated. In order that the whole property should pa.s.s from the family into the hands of the Americans, Mrs. Morris was included with her husband in the New York Confiscation Act of attainder. It is believed that this lady, her sister Mrs. Robinson, and Mrs. Ingles, were the only ladies who were attainted of treason during the revolution, and that merely to get possession of their property. "Imagination," says Sabine, "dwells upon the attainting of a lady whose beauty and attractions had won the admiration of Washington.[138] Humanity is shocked that a woman was attainted of treason for no crime but that of clinging to the fortunes of the husband whom she had vowed on the altar of religion never to desert."
But it appeared in due time that the Confiscation Act did not affect the rights of Mrs. Morris's children, who were not named in, and therefore not disqualified by the Act of Confiscation. In 1787, the Attorney-General of England examined the case and gave the opinion that the reversionary interest (or property of the children at the decease of the parents) was not included in their attainder, and was recoverable under the principles of law and of right. In the year 1809, their son, Captain Henry Gage Morris, of the Royal Navy, in behalf of himself and his two sisters, sold his reversionary interest to John Jacob Astor, Esquire, of New York, for the sum of 20,000 sterling. In 1828, Mr.
Astor made a compromise with the State of New York, by which he received for the rights thus purchased by him (with or without a.s.sociates) the large amount of $500,000. The terms of the arrangement required that he should execute a deed of conveyance in fee simple, with warranty against the claims of the Morrises, husband and wife, their heirs, and all persons claiming under them; and that he should obtain the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States, affirming the validity and perfectibility of his t.i.tle. These conditions were complied with, and the purchasers of the confiscated lands were thus quieted in their t.i.tles derived from the sales of the Commissioners of Confiscated Property.
21. _Allan McNab_ was a lieutenant of cavalry in the Queen's Rangers, under Colonel Simcoe. During the war he received thirteen wounds. He accompanied his commander to Upper Canada, then a dense unpeopled wilderness. He was appointed Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of a.s.sembly of Upper Canada, and held the office for many years. He was father of the late Sir Allan McNab, who was born at Niagara, in 1798, of Scotch extraction, whose grandfather, Major Robert McNab, of the 42nd Regiment, or Black Watch, was Royal Forester in Scotland, and resided on a small property called Dundurn, at the head of Loch Earn. Sir Allan McNab, though very young, distinguished himself in the war of 1812. In the insurrection of 1837 he was appointed to the command of the militia, dispersed the rebels, and cut out and burnt the rebel steamer _Caroline_, at Black Rock, for which he was knighted. He was Speaker of the House of a.s.sembly of Upper Canada before the union of the two Canadas, and was afterwards Speaker of the Legislative Council of United Canada.
22. _Luke Carscallen_ (resident of Bay of Quinte) was an Irishman by birth, and had served in the British army; he had retired and emigrated to the American colonies prior to the revolution. He desired to remain neutral and take no part in the contest. The rebels, however, said to him, that inasmuch as he was acquainted with military tactics, he must join them or be regarded as a King's man. His reply was that he had fought for the King, and he would do it again, consequently an order was issued to arrest him; but when they came to take him, he had secreted himself. The escape was a hurried one, and all his possessions were at the mercy of the rebels--land to the amount of 12,000 acres. They, disappointed at not catching him, took his young and tender son, and threatened to hang him if he would not reveal his father's place of concealment. The brave little fellow replied, "Hang away!" and the cruel men, under the name of liberty, carried out their threat, and three times was he suspended until he was almost dead, yet he would not tell; and then, when taken down, one of the monsters actually kicked him.
(Canniff.)
23. _John Diamond_ was born in Albany, with several brothers. An elder brother was drafted, but he tried to escape a service so repugnant to his feelings; was concealed for some time, and upon a sick bed. The visits of the doctor led to suspicion, and the house was visited by rebels. Although he had been placed in a bed so arranged that it was thought his presence would not be detected, his breathing betrayed him.
They at once required his father to give a bond for $1,200 that his son should not be removed while sick. He got well, and some time after again sought to escape, but was caught, and handcuffed to another. Being removed from one place to another, the two prisoners managed to knock their guards on the head, and ran for life through the woods, chained together. One would sometimes run on one side of a sapling, and the other on the opposite side. At night they managed to rub their handcuffs off, and finally escaped to Canada. Of the other brothers, two were carried off by the rebels and were never more heard of; John was taken to the rebel army when old enough to do service, but he also escaped to Canada, and enlisted in Rogers' Battalion, in which he served until the end of the war, when he settled with the company at Fredericksburg. He married Miss Loyst, a native of Philadelphia, whose ancestors were German. She acted no inferior part, for a woman, during the exciting times of the revolution. They were married in Lower Canada. They spent their first summer in Upper Canada in clearing a little spot of land, and in the fall got a little grain in the ground. They slept during the summer under a tree, but erected a small hut before winter set in.
24. _Ephraim Tisdale_, of Freetown, Ma.s.sachusetts. In 1775, he fled from home, and went to New York. During the war, while on a voyage to St.
Augustine, Florida, he abandoned his vessel at sea to avoid capture, and gained the sh.o.r.e in safety. Though nearly dest.i.tute of money, he accomplished an overland journey to New York, a distance, by the route which he travelled, of fifteen hundred miles. In 1783 he embarked at New York for New Brunswick, in the ship _Brothers_, Captain Walker; and on the pa.s.sage his wife gave birth to a son, who was named for the master of the ship. Mr. Tisdale held civil and military offices in New Brunswick. He removed to Upper Canada in 1808, settled in the Township of Charlotteville, near Vittoria, and died in 1816. He left eight sons and four daughters. Walker Tisdale, Esq., of St. John (the son above referred to), was in Canada in 1845, when the descendants of his father there were 169, of whom he saw 163. The Tisdales were active on the side of the Crown in the insurrection of 1837. The whole family have always been distinguished for loyalty.
25. _Lemuel Wilmot_, of Long Island, New York, entered the King's service as an officer, and at the peace was captain in the Loyal American Regiment. In 1783 he settled on the River St. John, New Brunswick, near Fredericton, where he continued to reside until his death, which took place in 1814. Five sons survived him. The Honourable Lemuel A. Wilmot, the son of his younger son William, was a member of the Legislative a.s.sembly, and leader of the Liberal party; became Attorney-General, and afterwards Chief Justice, and ultimately Lieutenant-Governor of the province. He had for many years been superintendent of the Sunday-school, and leader of the choir in the (Methodist) Church to which he belonged, and continued to discharge the duties of both offices during the five years that he was Lieutenant-Governor, and until his death, which occurred suddenly in May, 1878.
I have not s.p.a.ce to extend these notices of individual combatants in the American Revolution, though I might add scores to the number of those I have already noticed, equally loyal and courageous, and equal in their energy, sacrifices and sufferings in fleeing to Canada from American Republican persecution, far beyond anything endured by the Pilgrim and Puritan Fathers of New England, to whose enterprise, energy, and privations I have done ample justice in the first volume of this history.
The Loyalists fled to Canada, and settled chiefly in Lower Canada, on the northern banks of the St. Lawrence, between Montreal and Kingston, on the Bay of Quinte, Prince Edward, the frontiers of the Niagara district, and the northern sh.o.r.es of Lake Erie. In the following chapter I will present an epitome of the immigration of the first Loyalists to the Bay of Quinte, to the Niagara frontier, and to the northern sh.o.r.es of Lake Erie, especially of what was called the "Long Point" country, their modes of struggling their way thither, the privations and labours of their early settlement. I will here add a few pa.s.sages from Dr.
Canniff's _Settlement of Upper Canada, with Special Reference to Bay Quinte_, in regard to the Loyalists fleeing into Lower Canada, and making their way up the St. Lawrence to Kingston and Bay Quinte.
"The batteaux," says the late Sheriff Sherwood, of Brockville, "by which the refugees emigrated were princ.i.p.ally built at Lachine, nine miles from Montreal. They were calculated to carry four or five families, with almost two tons weight. Twelve boats const.i.tuted a brigade, and each brigade had a conductor, with five men in each, one of whom steered. The duty of the conductor was to give directions for the safe management of the boats, to keep them together, and when they came to a rapid they left a portion of the boats in charge of one man. The boats ascending were doubly manned, and drawn by a rope fastened at the bow of the boat, having four men in the boat with setting poles; thus the men walked along the side of the river, sometimes in the water or on the edge of the bank, as circ.u.mstances occurred. Having reached the head of the rapids the boats were left with a man, and the other men went back for the other boats;" and so they continued until the rapids were mounted.
Lachine was the starting place--a place of some twenty dwellings.
It was by these batteaux that the Loyalist refugee officers and their families, as well as the soldiers and their families, pa.s.sed from the sh.o.r.es of Lake Champlain, from Sorel and St. Lawrence, where they had temporarily lived, to Upper Canada. It was also by these or the Schenectady or Durham boat that the pioneer Loyalists made their way from Oswego.
"Thus it is seen that to gain the northern sh.o.r.e of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario was a task of no easy nature, and the steps by which the Loyalists came were taken literally inch by inch, and were attended by hard and venturesome labour. Records are not wanting of the severe hardships endured by families on their way to their wooded lands.
Supplied with limited comforts, perhaps only the actual necessaries of life, they advanced slowly by day along dangerous rapids, and at night rested under the blue sky. But our Loyalist forefathers and mothers were made of stern stuff, and all was borne with n.o.ble heroism.
"This toilsome mode of travelling continued for many a year. John Ferguson, writing in 1788 from Fredericksburg, Bay Quinte, to a friend in Lachine, Lower Canada, says of his journey: 'After a most tedious and fatiguing journey I arrived here, nineteen days on the way, sometimes for whole days up to the waist in water or mire.' But the average time required to ascend the rapids was from ten to twelve days, and three or four to descend.
"With the later coming loyal refugees was introduced another kind of flat bottomed boat. It was generally small, rigged with an ungainly sail; and usually built in the town of Schenectady; hence its name.
Schenectady is a German word, and means _pine barren_. Families about to come to Canada would build one or more of these boats to meet their requirements.
"The Loyalists not only came in summer, by batteaux or the Schenectady boat, but likewise in winter. They generally followed, as near as possible, some one of the routes taken in summer. To undertake to traverse a wilderness with no road, and guided only by rivers and creeks, or blazed trees, was no common thing. Several families would sometimes join together to form a train of sleighs. They would carry with them their bedding, clothes, and the necessary provisions. We have received interesting accounts of winter journeyings from Albany along the Hudson, across to the Black River country, and to the St. Lawrence.
Sometimes the train would follow the military road, along by Champlain, St. George, as far as Plattsburg, and then turn north to the St.
Lawrence, by what was then called the Willsbury wilderness, and 'Chataquee' woods. At the beginning of the present century there was but one tavern through all that vast forest, and that of the poorest character. Indeed, it is said that while provision might be procured for the horses, none could be had for man. Those who thus entered Canada in winter found it necessary to stay at Cornwall until spring. Two or more of the men would foot it along the St. Lawrence to the Bay Quinte, and at the opening of navigation, having borrowed a batteau, descend to Cornwall for the women, children, and articles brought with them. While the families and sleighs were transported in the batteaux, the horses were taken along the sh.o.r.e by the larger boys, if such there were among them. The French train was occasionally employed in these winter journeys. It consisted of a long rude sleigh, with several horses driven tandem style; this allowed the pa.s.sage among the trees to be made more easily.
"Travellers from Montreal to the west would come by a batteau, or Durham boat, to Kingston. Those who had business further west, says Finkle, 'were conveyed to Henry Finkle's, in Ernest Town, where they commonly stopped a few days. Thence they made their journey on horseback. A white man conducted them to the River Trent, where resided Colonel Bleecker, who was at the head and had control of all Mississauga Indians, and commanded the entire country to Toronto. At this place the traveller was furnished with a fresh horse, and an Indian guide to conduct him through an unsettled country, the road being little better than a common Indian path, with all its windings. The road continued in this state until about the year 1798. Sometimes the traveller continued his journey around the head of Lake Ontario, on horseback, to Queenston, where resided Judge Hamilton."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 138: An interesting incident occurred in the early life of Mrs. Morris--no other than that Washington desired to become her suitor--a fact which rests on the highest authority. In Sparks' Life of Washington there is the following pa.s.sage: "While in New York, in 1756, Washington was lodged and kindly entertained at the house of Mr.
Beverley Robinson, between whom and himself an intimacy of friendship subsisted, which indeed, continued without change till severed by their opposite fortunes twenty years afterwards in the revolution. It happened that Miss Mary Phillipse, a sister of Mrs. Robinson, and a young lady of rare accomplishments, was an inmate of the family. The charms of the lady made a deep impression upon the heart of the Virginia colonel. He went to Boston, returned, and was again welcomed to the hospitality of Mr. Robinson. He lingered there till duty called him away; but he was careful to entrust his secret to a confidential friend, whose letters kept him informed of every important event. In a few months intelligence came that there was a rival in the field, and that consequences could not be answered for if he delayed to renew his visits to New York.
Whether time, the bustle of the camp, or the scenes of war, had moderated his admiration, or whether he despaired of success, is not known. He never saw the lady again, till she was married to that same rival, Captain Morris, his former a.s.sociate in arms, and one of Braddock's aide-de-camps."]
CHAPTER XLI.
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF LOYALISTS IN THE BRITISH PROVINCES, ESPECIALLY UPPER CANADA--THEIR ADVENTURES AND HARDSHIPS, AS WRITTEN BY THEMSELVES OR THEIR DESCENDANTS.
In 1861 I addressed a printed circular to the United Empire Loyalists and their descendants in the British Provinces of North America, stating the design and scope of the history I proposed to write respecting them, in compliance with a call which had been made upon me by the press and members of all parties, and requesting the surviving Loyalists and their descendants to communicate to me, at my expense, any letters or papers they might possess which would throw light upon the early history of the fathers and founders of our country.
This chapter contains the letters and papers which I received in answer to my circular. These letters and papers, with repet.i.tions of some incidents, contain, in a variety of style, statements and narratives of a remarkable character, and of intense interest, and introduce the reader to the inner life and privations of the bold, self-denying, and energetic pioneers of Canada and of other British provinces.
_First Settlement of the First Company of Loyalists, after the close of the Revolutionary War._
Letter from the Rev. Dr. Richardson, late Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada:
"_To the Rev. Dr. Ryerson._
"DEAR SIR,--
"The following is the narrative of which I spoke to you, relative to the early settlement of Upper Canada, as related to me by the late Mr. John Gra.s.s, of the Township of Kingston, some years since, and which you requested might be furnished for insertion in your forthcoming history of _our_ country. I give it to you as near as may be in Mr. Gra.s.s's own words. The old gentleman, his father, I knew well when I was a boy; his residence was next to my father's for several years in Kingston. He was a genuine sample of an honest, plain, loyal German. The narrator was about eleven years old at the time he migrated with his father and the company of Loyalists from New York to 'Frontenac,' and therefore had a distinct recollection of all the incidents he relates. Being seated in his parlour one evening, while partaking of his hospitality, the conversation naturally turned on events connected with the first settlement of the township of Kingston and its early inhabitants, most of whom had descended to their graves; Mr. Gra.s.s was led to state as follows:
"My father had been a prisoner among the French at Frontenac (now Kingston), in the old French war, and at the commencement of the American revolution he resided in a farm on the borders of the North River, about thirty miles above New York. Being solicited by General Herkimer to take a captain's commission in the American service, he replied, sternly and promptly, that he had sworn allegiance to one King, meaning George the Third, and could not violate his oath, or serve against him.
"For this he was obliged to fly from his home and take refuge within New York, under British protection. His family had soon to follow him, being driven from their home, which by the enemy was dilapidated and broken up. They continued in that city till the close of the war, living on their own resources as best they could. On the return of peace, the Americans having gained their independence, there was no longer any home there for the fugitive Loyalists, of which the city was full; and the British Governor was much at a loss for a place to settle them. Many had retreated to Nova Scotia or New Brunswick; but this was a desperate resort, and their immense numbers made it difficult to find a home for them all, even there. In the meantime, the Governor, in his perplexity, having heard that my father had been a prisoner among the French at Frontenac, sent for him and said: 'Mr. Gra.s.s, I understand you have been at Frontenac, in Canada. Pray tell me what sort of a country is it?
Can people live there? What think you?' My father replied: 'Yes, your Excellency, I was there a prisoner of war, and from what I saw I think it a fine country, and that people might live there very well.' 'Oh! Mr.
Gra.s.s,' exclaims the Governor, 'how glad I am to hear that, for the sake of these poor Loyalists. As they cannot all go to Nova Scotia, and I am at a loss how to provide for them, will you, Mr. Gra.s.s, undertake to lead thither as many as may choose to accompany you? If so, I will furnish a conveyance by Quebec, and rations for you all till such time as you may be able to provide for yourselves.' My father requested his Excellency to allow him three days to make up his mind. This was granted, and accordingly, at the expiration of the three days, my father went to the Governor and said he would undertake it. Notices were then posted up through the city, calling for all that would go to Frontenac to enrol their names with Mr. Gra.s.s; so in a short time the company of men, women, and children was completed, a ship provided and furnished, and off they started for the unknown and far distant region, leaving the homes and friends of their youth, with all their endearing recollections, behind them--the fruits of all their former toil and suffering--a sacrifice to their loyalty. The first season they got no further than Sorel, in Lower Canada, where they were obliged to erect log huts for the winter. Next spring they took boats, and proceeding up the St. Lawrence, at length reached _Frontenac_, and pitched their tents on _Indian Point_, where the marine docks of Kingston now stand. Here they awaited the surveying of the lands, which was not accomplished so as to be ready for location before July. In the meantime several other companies had arrived by different routes under their respective leaders, who were all awaiting the completing of the surveys. The Governor, also, who by this time had himself come to Quebec, paid them a visit, and riding a few miles along the lake sh.o.r.e on a fine day, exclaimed to my father: 'Why, Mr. Gra.s.s, you have indeed got a fine country! I am really glad to find it so.' While the several companies were together waiting for the survey, some would say to my father: 'The Governor will not give you the first choice of the townships, but will prefer Sir John Johnson and his company, because he is a great man.'
But my father replied that he did not believe that, for if the Governor should do so he should feel himself injured and would leave the country, as he was the first man to mention it to the Governor in New York, and to proceed hither with his company for settlement.
"At length the time came, in July, for the townships to be given out.
The Governor came, and having a.s.sembled the companies before him, called for Mr. Gra.s.s, and said: 'Now, you were the first person to mention this fine country, and have been here formerly as a prisoner of war. You must have the first choice. The townships are numbered first, second, third, fourth, and fifth. Which do you choose?' My father says: 'The _first_ township (Kingston).' Then the Governor says to Sir John Johnson, 'Which do you choose for your company?' He replies, 'The _second_ township (Ernest Town).' To Colonel Rogers, 'Which do you choose?' He says, 'The _third_ township (Fredericksburg).' To Major Va.n.a.lstine, 'Which do you choose?' He replies, 'The _fourth_ township (Adolphustown).' Then Colonel M'Donnell, with his company, got the fifth township (Marysburgh). So after this manner the first settlement of Loyalists in Canada was made.
"But before leaving, the Governor very considerately remarked to my father, 'Now, Mr. Gra.s.s, it is too late in the season to put in any crops.' What can you do for food? My father replied, 'If they were furnished with turnip seed, they might raise some turnips.' 'Very well,'
said the Governor, 'that you shall have.' Accordingly from Montreal he sent some seed, and each man taking a handful thereof, they cleared a spot of ground in the centre of where the town of Kingston now stands, and raised a fine crop of turnips, which served for food the ensuing winter, with the Government rations.
"The above is at your service.
"With much respect,
"JAS. RICHARDSON.
"Clover Hill, Toronto, 1st December, 1859."