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UELAC Conference 2024: Lost Villages Museum Tour
One of the Tours offered during the 2024 UELAC Conference, “The Story Continues” will be to the “The Lost Villages Museum” sponsored by the Lost Villages Historical Society which owns and maintains the Museum.
The museum site consists of ten heritage buildings, relocated from areas that were to be flooded during the St. Lawrence Seaway Project in the 1950’s.
There will be two tours, one in the morning and one in the afternoon of Friday 7 June. Read more about this tour and the Museum background.

Read more information about the conference and register today. Conference details including registration, tours and hotel.

Mary Serjeant: A Loyalist Refugee in England, Part Two of Three
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Mary Serjeant, an Anglican minister’s wife, arrived in Bristol, England in 1778 with four dependents seeking refuge from the violence of the American Revolution. Her husband Winwood was suffering from a “paralytic disorder” and was not able to help her look after the needs of their three young children.
Winwood’s loyalist political views had compelled the family to leave their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1774, and for the next four years, they had tried to find sanctuary in some safe corner of New England. In the end, the family’s only hope lay in finding refuge in Bristol, the city Winwood had left 19 years earlier.
Unfortunately, most of the details of the family’s flight to safety have been lost. Only in 1780 was Mary able to describe to her younger sister all that they had experienced after arriving in England.
“Doubtless but you thought me unkind of quitting Boston without writing you, but {I} hope your goodness will forgive me when I inform you that time would not permit me to do as I really wished but with Mr. Sarjeant’s illness & the other necessary preparations, my time was fully employed. … I had a very fatiguing voyage to England, but was very kindly received by all My friends in Bristol; they had procured Lodgings in Bath to which place I immediately set out for & when I had fixed Mr. Sarjeant in a family I set out for London…”
Bristol, it should be noted, was Winwood’s birthplace, so the family Mary described may have been her in-laws. Mary’s responsibilities included more than securing medical care for her husband – she also needed to secure a regular income to support an invalid spouse and three children.
While in London, Mary “presented a petition to Lord George Germain {the British secretary of state for the American Department} but did not receive any redress from him or anyone else”
She wrote that she had been “in great hopes they would have considered my situation but it did avail anything, I then return to Bath and found Mr. Sarjeant much the same, and had indeed but little hopes that Bath would restore his former Health, though he eat and slept well. I have meet with great civilities in this place from strangers as well as my kind Country folks.”
In time, Mary was able to secure an allowance from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the organization that had sent her husband to the American colonies as an Anglican missionary in 1759.
Living at the site of England’s most famous spa did not guarantee a healthy environment for the Serjeant family. In June of 1780, Mary’s son Marmaduke and daughters Mary and Elizabeth all contracted measles. It would prove fatal for Marmaduke; he died at the age of 14. Mary wrote, “the Children had the Measles and my little boy had them the worst and never got the better of it and last June deprived me of him, which my Dear Sister well knows must be a great trouble to me, thank God the other Children got well.”
While Mary and Elizabeth recovered from their illness, their father remained an invalid. Writing about the events of September 3, 1780, Mary said, “still to add to my misfortunes poor Mr. Sarjeant was taken with a fit on Thursday last and died last Saturday night. In losing him I lose a dear friend, and not only that but half my support unless through friends the Society continue the income to me, but I fear I shall not be so lucky to get it continued to me.”
In a later letter, Mary reflected on the loss of her son and husband, “he was a fine Child and his Death much lamented by all who know him. God knows it was a sore trial to me to part with him, and my dear Mr. Serjeant within three Months of one another, they both lay in one Grave, I often go and cry over them.”
In the midst of her grief, Mary petitioned the Archbishop of Canterbury for financial assistance. Winwood Serjeant’s widow and orphaned daughters were granted a “gratuity” of £100 per year. It was sufficient to allow the family to remain in Bath.
Mary also made use of her contacts within the community of Anglican clergyman who had become refugees in England to seek financial assistance from the British government. The Rev. Samuel Peters, proved to be her most important acquaintance from her time in New England. Peters’ staunch opposition to the rebels’ cause brought down the wrath of the Patriots, prompting John Hancock to offer a reward of £200 for the loyalist minister’s capture. After fleeing to sanctuary in England, Peters met with the Archbishop of Canterbury and had an audience with King George III.
Peters was later sought out to give testimony for a number of New Englanders – many of whom were fellow clergymen– at the Royal Commission on the Losses and Services of American Loyalists. In 1786, Peters came to the aid of Mary Serjeant.
Mary recounted her appearance before the compensation board in a letter to her sister. “Necessity obliged me 3 years ago to go up to London being called upon by the commissioners to swear to my claim of Losses in America“. While in the capital, Mary stayed in Rev. Peters’ home in Pimlico, an area favoured by loyalist refugees. During her stay, Mary met Rev. Peters’ daughter, Hannah, her husband William Jarvis and their two young daughters.
Mary wrote, ” I have always found {Peters} of service to me, and can truly say I should not received one farthing from Government, had it not been for the good counsels & assistance of the above most worth Character, which deserves the highest gratitude from me, and I hope I shall always have sufficient to acknowledge it.”
Thanks to her network of Anglican friends and fellow Loyalists, Mary was able to receive some financial compensation for the £1,760,3 her family had lost during the American Revolution.
Despite the difference in their ages, Mary became good friends with William and Hannah Jarvis. The couple spent Christmas with her in Bath, as they were “only 107 miles apart”. William, a native of Stamford, Connecticut, had served as a cavalry officer in the Queen’s Rangers, a regiment comprised of British and Loyalist soldiers.
Mary tried to persuade the young Jarvis family to resettle in Bath. This would not only provide her with fellow New Englanders as neighbours, but would give her daughter Betsy (Elizabeth) the opportunity to take music lessons from Hannah Jarvis. Hannah was, according to Mary, “an incomparable player, and assures me if she was to be with Betsy she would undertake the tuition of her herself. They have made her promise to spend a few months with them this spring.”
Had Mary been successful in persuading William and Hannah to put down roots in Bath, she would have changed the course of Canadian history. In 1792, William left England for Upper Canada where he was to become the provincial secretary and registrar for the new colony in the employ of John Graves Simcoe, the commander of his former regiment.
Mary craved company from New England because she found it so hard to enter into British society despite her position as an Anglican minister’s widow and a loyal American. Her letters shed a light on a situation in which many Loyalists found themselves – they were too American for the British and too British for America.
The series on Mary Browne Serjeant will conclude next week with an examination of a Loyalist woman’s efforts to fit in to a society that was very different from what she had known in New England.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

British Miscalculation of Loyalist Support in the American South, Round One
by Gerald Krieger 19 March 2024 Journal of the American Revolution
The Royal Governor of the Colony of North Carolina, Josiah Martin, was young and dedicated to the Crown. His popularity was waning as he urged members of the Assembly on April 4, 1774, to resist the monster of sedition that was raising its ugly head in the colonies. He knew that his appeals fell on deaf ears because three days later, he wrote to Lord Dartmouth, the Colonial Secretary of State in London, that the government in North Carolina was impotent and only a shadow of its former self. The local population was aware of Governor Martin’s strong Loyalist tendencies, and the Patriots began establishing militia companies around North Carolina in case a stronger opposition to royal authority was required. The friction between Loyalists and Patriots is best captured in Martin’s correspondence with Lord Dartmouth. On April 6, Martin wrote to Dartmouth while he was in Newbern, North Carolina,
“…the conduct of a majority of the Council of this Province at the late Session of the General Assembly, which has appeared to me highly unworthy and unbecoming, and in its tendency greatly injurious to the inseparable interests of Government and this Country. . . .”
As local opposition to British authority increased, Martin abandoned the capital at New Bern while directing that all royal cannons be spiked and ammunition buried in the cellar. He fled to the safety of Fort Johnston on the Cape Fear River on June 2.
Dissension and the lack of supplies prompted Martin to meet with his dwindling Council (those sympathetic to the Patriot cause left on June 25). Their meeting resulted in the decision to recruit replacements for the garrison and issue militia commissions. This prompted Martin to write to the commander in chief of British military forces in North America, Gen. Thomas Gage, requesting funds to repair and strengthen the fort. Read more…

Loyalist by Marriage: Sarah Izard Campbell
By Peter McCandless on 31 Aug 2022 at Blog History and Other Stuff
In Revolutionary South Carolina, people became Loyalists for various reasons. Some held office under the British government and/or had taken oaths of loyalty to it. Some felt gratitude toward the Crown for granting them land or mercantile privileges.
Others became Loyalists because the neighbors they hated had joined the other side. For them the war was a continuation of old family feuds. Many enslaved persons supported the British government because they believed it might bring them freedom. For thousands, it did. Native Americans, mainly the Cherokee in South Carolina, sided with Britain because it tried to limit the movement of whites onto their lands.
Sarah Izard became a Loyalist through marriage. Genealogical sources on her are conflicting. She was born in South Carolina, around 1745, the daughter of planter Ralph Izard and his wife Rebecca. Sarah’s cousin Ralph Izard (1742-1804) made his name as a Patriot, Senator, and American Diplomat. * Her life took a far different trajectory.
She was a teenager, about 18, when she met and fell in love with a Royal Navy captain who arrived in Charleston in 1762, Lord William Campbell. Read more…

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: Newport RI: This and that July 1779
From a Hessian Diary of the American Revolution.
This excerpt from the diary of Johan Conrad Dohla (170 pages).

1779 – July: At Newport, Rhode Island – This and that (Continued – page 69)
4 July. Quartermaster Sergeant [Georg] Memminger, of Quesnoy’s Company, aged fifty-three, died in the regimental hospital at Newport. During the night, after tattoo, Sergeant [Wolfgang Friedrich] St€lzel, of Eyb’s Company, and Corporal S‡mann, of Beust’s, dueled with one another, whereby S‡mann was very dangerously wounded on the right arm so that he was no longer fit for duty. Both were drunk. S‡mann was taken to the hospital in Newport, and Sergeant St€lzel was put under arrest at the fire watch in camp.
6 July. I went on picket duty at Hildens Hill. Today the rebels at Bristol and Providence in New England fired cannon frequently and kept a bonfire the entire day, because on this day the war broke out and the provinces swore to stay bound together.
Our regiment received orders today to be prepared to march in order to draw nearer to the city with our camp. We also sent a command of twenty men to Goat Island to occupy the Stone Battery, because the warship Remuance, fifty-four guns, which normally was there, had gone to New London.
7 July. During the afternoon we broke camp and marched back toward the city, but again set up camp about one English mile from the city below Tominy Hill and between the Irish Redoubts, on a pleasant and level place where there was much grass growing. I was assigned to the baggage wagons.
8 July. I went on the main watch in the city. In the morning at guard mount for the main watch, Sergeant St€lzel, of Eyb’s Company, was punished with forty-one blows with a broadsword, delivered by Adjutant Seidel, on the order of Colonel von Seybothen, for dueling with Corporal S‡mann.
13 July. I went on watch at the so-called Seven-Cannon Battery. During this night a large glow was to be seen in the sky toward the east, or morning.
14 July. The news arrived from New York that four thousand men, fresh troops, had entered that port on forty-eight transport ships, including recruits and field equipment for us, also.
15 July. During this night the rebels made an attack on Rhode Island from New England over the narrow river beyond Windmill Hill. They had more than twenty boats and two row galleys, and intended to land below the Bristol Ferry defenses. The picket at that place and the reserve from the Hessian Ditfurth Regiment, however, were alerted in time, hurried forward, fired upon them, and fortunately drove them back. It also was learned that the Hessian Landgrave Regiment supposedly had more than two hundred killed and wounded in an action in New England.
16 July. The important post of Stony Point on York Island, which was occupied by the English Major Ellington, was attacked during the night by American provincial troops under General Wayne, and captured. The occupants, however, to the credit of the conqueror, were given quarter. Two hundred fifty-three men were made prisoners of war, including nine officers; and thirteen cannon and much ammunition and provisions were lost. The English had 130 dead and wounded, but the rebels, 214.
22 July. I went with a command into the defenses at Fort Clinton. This evening the wood fleet, forty sail strong, arrived from Long Island and, with a good wind, entered the harbor.
31 July. Confession and communion were held for our regiment. I also took communion.
(to be continued)

The Tory’s Wife
by Cynthia A. Kierner, 20 March 2024 at Ben Franklin’s World
Cindy joins us to lead us through the story of Jane and William Spurgin, an everyday couple who lived in the North Carolina Backcountry during the American Revolution and who found themselves supporting different sides of the Revolution.
Cindy reveals what we know about Jane and William Spurgin, their marriage, and their migration to the North Carolina backcountry; Details about life in the Carolina backcountry and the Regulator Movement that took place there between 1766 and 1771; And the petitions Jane Spurgin filed with the North Carolina General Assembly and what these petitions reveal to us about her and William’s politics and actions during the War for Independence. Listen in…

HMS Flora 1780: the Carronade’s arrival
In sea battles from the 1780s to the end of the Napoleonic Wars a decisive factor was often the use of the carronade. Few of these guns were carried on any one ship, and they were not counted in a ship’s rated number of guns so that, in practice, the actual number of weapons carried might be significantly higher than the rating by which a ship was classed, such as a “74” or a “50”.
The word “carronade” was an early, perhaps earliest, example of a trade-name becoming the accepted term for an entire class of products, in this case a short smoothbore cast iron cannon. It took its name from the original manufacturer, the Carron Company, which had an ironworks in Falkirk, in Scotland. The short barrel indicated that it was a short-range weapon, powerful against ships but even more so against personnel in close actions. A carronade weighed a quarter as much and used a quarter to a third of the gunpowder-charge for a long gun firing the same size of roundshot. The lower recoil forces meant that slider mountings, rather trucks, could be employed. The light weight of the carronade made it especially attractive for mounting at higher levels – and important factor when an enemy’s deck should be cleared by grapeshot before boarding. They could also provide a very powerful punch for a small vessel such as a gunboat or sloop. Though the basic concept remained unchanged, carronades were manufactured for a huge range, from 6 to 42-pounders, and 68-pounder weapons not unknown. Read more…

Book Review: Huzza!: Toasting a New Nation, 1760–1815
by Kelly Mielke 18 March 2024 Journal of the American Revolution
Toasts are a familiar concept, but most people probably do not consider toasts to carry political weight or any real social significance beyond the ritual of bonding and celebration. However, as Timothy Symington demonstrates in Huzza!: Toasting a New nation, 1760-1815, toasts occupied a place of special significance bolstering public support and creating political ideals during the Revolution and early national periods. This book traces toasts from the crises of the 1760s through the War of 1812 to show how they were carefully crafted to both reflect public sentiment as well as persuade public opinion of certain ideals. Huzza! provides an innovative take on the events of this time period through the familiar concept of toasting and the ways it was applied in now unfamiliar ways that are unique to this time period. Read more…

Advertised on 21 March 1774: “THE ORATION DELIVER’D BY THE Hon. JOHN HANCOCK, Esq”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

“THE ORATION DELIVER’D BY THE Hon. JOHN HANCOCK, Esq; Will be PUBLISHED.”

Many colonizers commemorated events that were part of the American Revolution before the Revolutionary War began. For instance, residents of Boston acknowledged the anniversary of the “horrid Massacre on the 5th of March 1770” each year. That description of the Boston Massacre came from coverage of the fourth anniversary commemorations in the March 7, 1774, edition of the Boston-Gazette. Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers, reported that “the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of this Town met at Faneuil-Hall.” They selected Samuel Adams as moderator for the meeting. Adams, in turn, recognized John Hancock to deliver “an ORATION, on the dangerous Tendency of Standing Armies being placed in free and populous Cities” and sought to “perpetuate the Memory of the horrid Massacre … by a Party of Soldiers belonging to the 29th Regiment, commanded by Capt. Thomas Preston.” Read more…

Loyalist Certificates Issued
The publicly available list of certificates issued since 2012 is now updated to 29 February 2024.
When a certificate is added there, it is also recorded in the record for the Loyalist Ancestor in the Loyalist Directory.

UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions
Entries which have been added, or revised, this week, with thanks:

  • to Paul Warner who contributed information about Samuel Wells from Brattleboro, New York (Brattleboro, Vermont), 1762. He never wavered from his Loyalist Principles. As a judge, his good character and tact prevented most punishments meted out to Loyalists. “”Judge Wells of Brattleborough had been lately confined to his farm and otherwise ill-treated,” and it is known that, for a long time, permission was granted to anyone to shoot him, should he be found beyond the bounds of his acres.” He helped carry British messages between New York and Quebec.
  • to Kevin Wisener who contributed information about
    • Jeremiah McCrossian from East Florida who resettled at Halifax-Hants Boundary, Halifax/Hants County, Nova Scotia
    • Pvt. John Gibbons who was possibly from New York, served in the Kings American Regiment and receiv4d land in Shelburne County NS and later in Prince Edward Island
  • to Denis Fortier who provided additional information about Dr. Robert Kerr who served with Major McAlpine’s Corp and resettled in Fredericksburgh by 1789 where he held 300 acres and another 400 acres in Thurlow Twp, both in Upper Canada. He married in 1783 Elizabeth Brant Johnson, d/o Sir William Johnson and Molly Brant. Elizabeth’s grave monument at St. Mark’s Anglican Church Cemetery is one of the oldest in their cemetery and that Elizabeth has a special place in their thinking.

If you are willing to submit some information, send a note to loyalist.trails@uelac.org All help is appreciated. …doug

Loyalist Gazette: Spring 2024 Issue is Progressing
The Spring issue will focus mainly on Loyalists in Lower Canada.
The editorial committee has revised and proof read the articles. They are now in the layout and design phase.
Bill Russell UE, Chair of the Communications Committee

Events Upcoming

Toronto Branch: A Near Death Experience by Stephen Davidson Wed 27 Mar 7:30 ET

“A Near Death Experience: The Fateful Voyage of the Evacuation Ship Esther.”
In September of 1783, more than 2 dozen evacuation vessels carrying Loyalist refugees left New York City for the mouth of the St. John River. Two ships became lost in the fog off of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. One was shipwrecked on rocky shoals. Only 57 of its 181 passengers survived the disaster. The second ship — the Esther– was guided to safety and eventually made its way to what is now New Brunswick. It’s nearly 300 passengers — the majority of whom settled in the Fredericton area– became the founders of the new colony. Loyalist historian Stephen Davidson will recount the story of the Esther’s “near death experience” and trace the impact of its passengers on the history of both New Brunswick and Ontario. Contact Toronto Branch UEL <torontouel@gmail.com> to register.

American Revolution Institute: The Marquis de Lafayette and his Farewell Tour. March 27 @ 6:30

In 1824-1825, the marquis de Lafayette embarked on a tour of the United States, returning for a final time to the country he helped establish and whose democratic experiment he saw as a model for the rest of the world. Throughout his thirteen-month tour, he visited all twenty-four states of the union, where he was celebrated in each city and town. By Alan Hoffman, president of the American Friends of Lafayette. Details and registration.

From the Social Media and Beyond

  • Townsends
  • This week in History
    • 22 Mar 1765 London. Stamp Act authorized by King George III. The act imposes fees on legal documents, newspapers, almanacs, playing cards & the like. 1st direct tax levy on colonies in 150 years became a leading cause for resistance from the colonists. Image
    • 17 Mar 1766 London. The Stamp Act was rescinded by the House of Lords in a victory for colonial interests. The result of numerous petitions by British merchants was hurt by the nonimportation, which was the main cause of its repeal. Image
    • 18 Mar 1766 London. PM Charles Watson-Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham, convenes Parliament to reaffirm authority over colonies through the Declaratory Act. Reaffirms full authority in all matters & tightens trade laws with a customs commissioner. Image
    • 19 Mar 1771 New Bern, NC. Royal Gov William Tryon mobilizes the militia to protect judicial proceedings being held at Hillsboro from attacks by “backcountry regulators.” He was later appointed major general & led crown forces with mixed results. Image
    • 18 Mar 1774 London. Lord North introduces Boston Port Bill in the House of Commons. Mandates closure of Boston and orders compensation for East India Company. 1st of so-called Coercive Acts/ Intolerable Acts. Tensions in the colonies would rise over this. Image
    • 22 Mar 1774 From Benjamin Franklin in England to Thomas Cushing. “The violent Destruction of the Tea seems to have united all Parties here against our Province, so that the Bill…for shutting up Boston…till Satisfaction is made, meets with no Opposition.” Image
    • 20 Mar 1775 The 2nd Virginia Convention meets at Richmond–in what is now called St. John’s Church (instead of the Capitol in Williamsburg) to avoid interference from Lieutenant-Governor Dunmore & his Royal Marines. Image
    • 22 Mar 1775 London. In the House of Commons, Edmund Burke rails against New England Restraining Act, which restricts NE to trade with Britain only. He also speaks against taxation without representation and for the power of colonial legislatures. Image
    • 23 Mar 1775 Richmond, VA. Patrick Henry gave his famous, “Almighty God, I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death” speech to the Virginia Convention and then expounded on the need for military preparedness. Image
    • 17 Mar 1776 Boston. An 11-month siege ended when Gen William Howe loaded troops & Loyalists on ships for transport to Halifax, NS. Washington agreed to cease fire during departure in exchange for sparing the city the torch. But some shops were plundered. Image
    • 20 Mar 1776 Philadelphia, PA Congress sent a mission to Canada to ask the people to join the rebellion & assure their rights would be respected. Members Ben Franklin, Samuel Chase, Charles Carroll, and Rev John Carroll would not have had success. Image
    • 19 Mar 1777 Pepperrell, MA town meeting voted to pay “Prudence Wright’s Guard” for services in wartime. Prudence organized wives to defend the Groton bridge & captured a British officer with valuable intelligence for the local Committee of Safety. Image
    • 16 Mar 1778 London. Parliament authorizes the Earl of Carlisle, Frederick Howard, to head a peace commission to Philadelphia. He is given wide authority to negotiate directly and to acquiesce to all American demands – except independence. Image
    • 18 March 1778 Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. New Continental Army Inspector General General Frederick von Steuben selects 120 sergeants from the ranks and personally instructs them in Prussian precision drill, forming the cadre to retrain the Continental Army. His “train the trainer” approach helped a professional fighting force emerge by late spring. Steuben’s drill manual, nicknamed “The Blue Book,” would remain the main US Army drill manual for decades to come. Image
    • 18 Mar 1778 Quinton’s Bridge, NJ. Lt Col Charles Mawhood ambushes one of Gen Anthony Wayne’s foraging parties, luring his militia into a trap in which Lt Col John Graves Simcoe’s Queen’s Rangers burst upon their rear, dispersing them. Image
    • 20 Mar 1778 Greenwich Point, CT. British land in a row galley &2 armed sloops to destroy a quantity of flour & burn a ship. Men from Col. Meigs’s regiment under Lieut.’s Lay and Shailor & local militia drove them off without loss. Image
    • 20 March 1778 Greenwich Point, Connecticut. Some 200 British soldiers and sailors landed under the cover of a row galley and two armed sloops to raid the coast. They destroy a quantity of flour and burn a row galley fitting there. A small party from Colonel Meigs’s regiment under Lieutenants Lay and Shailor responded with a small force of Continentals and the local militia. The Americans drive them off without loss. The Long Island Sound saw no major fighting during the American Revolution but lots of small-scale actions, raids, and espionage missions between the Connecticut coast and the north shore of Long Island from the Hellgate to Block Island. Image
    • 21 Mar 1778 Hancock’s Bridge, NJ Col. John Simcoe’s Queen’s Rangers attack 30 sleeping militia @ Hancock House. At least 20 militia killed, some while surrendering. Proprietor Judge Hancock & his brother also bayonetted in what was deemed a massacre. Image
    • 21 Mar 1778 London. Lord George Germain directs Gen Henry Clinton to send 5K troops to West Indies & dispatch 3K to FL to Pensacola & St Augustine. & march the main army from Phila to NYC. Marks shift in strategy to defend southern possessions & Indies. Image
    • 17 Mar 1780 Morristown, NJ. Gen George Washington penned an order commemorating St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday for the Continental Army. Soldiers claiming Irish ancestry had increased, so this was done to help recruiting/retention & improve morale. Image
    • 16 Mar 1781 Cape Henry, VA. French squadron arrives off Chesapeake Bay with reinforcements for Marquis de Lafayette & is confronted by a British fleet under Adm Marriot Arbuthnot. Many broadsides damage both fleets, but Adm Sochet withdraws to Newport, RI. Image
    • 19 Mar 1781 British Gen Charles Cornwallis’s NC campaign comes to an end, stymied by heavy losses and a persistent foe, Gen Nathanael Greene. The remnant of his army begins a 200-mile march to Wilmington, NC, to rest, refit & recover for the next campaign. Image
    • 22 Mar 1781 Brest, France. The main French fleet under Adm Francois-Joseph-Paul, comte de Grasse, departs for the West Indies with 20 ships of the line,3 frigates & 150 transports carrying 5K soldiers. Image
    • 21 Mar 1791, George Washington departed his Philadelphia residence to begin his Southern tour of the United States. Washington was aware of his popularity and influence with Americans and knew his presence in the states would benefit national unification. Image
  • Clothing and Related:
    • Two Muffs.
      Left: English, 1785-1800, silk satin, medallion printed w/mezzotint portrait; embroidered w/metallic thread, beads, &spangles.
      Righte: French, 18th c. Silk satin w/ boullion,spangles, foil embroidery, mezzotint medallions, &silk.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Lara Maiklem FSA – The London Mudlark @LondonMudlark — Here’s more on the tiny piece of 16th century gold I found last week. I think this is an oe, an early type of sequin that was stamped out of a sheet of metal (gold, silver and brass) and sewn onto clothes to add a bit of bling – the Tudors were quite fond of a bit of bling.

Last Post: BACKHOUSE UE, Helen
Helen, a previous member of Calgary Branch died on Feb 8 2024. She was a member for about 7 years until she moved away from Calgary to be closer to her daughter. Helen was born on Dec 6 1931.
Helen was deeply involved in the community as a volunteer organizer, do-er, leader, mentor and teacher. She served on the Canadian Unitarian Council board and was president. She was a devoted Guide leader and became Calgary Area Commissioner.
To enhance her interest in genealogy she first joined the Alberta Family Histories Society and volunteered in a number of capacities including President and then joined our Calgary Branch of UELAC.
Helen received Loyalist certificates for John Pickle UEL and George Schryver UEL in 2018.
See more details about Elizabeth’s family and life.
Suzanne Davidson UE, President, Calgary Branch UELAC

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