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| Detail from the 1791 Adlum and Wallis Map of Pennsylvannia. Source: Norman B. Leventhal Map Center Collection, Boston Public Library |
When primary sources such as the Upper Canada Land Petitions or the Haldimand papers are used to verify the information contained in Elizabeth Spohn's letter, it becomes possible to more accurately recreate the harrowing story of Jacob and Elizabeth Bowman during the Revolutionary War.
In the spring of 1777, Jacob Bowman and his 18-year-old son Adam left their farm on the Susquehanna River near Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania and travelled to Fort Niagara to become rangers in the Indian Department under John Butler. In August 1777, Jacob and Adam saw action at the Siege of Fort Stanwix and the Battle of Oriskany. After the British abandoned the siege, Jacob and Adam were given leave to return to the Susquehanna for the winter. In early January 1778 they were captured and with 16 others sent to Connecticut as prisoners of war. Later that year Jacob and Adam were exchanged and sent to New York. In the spring of 1780, they received permission to leave New York and travel overland to Fort Niagara. Adam was severely wounded when they were once again taken prisoner near Wysox on the Susquehanna. Adam was exchanged in the summer of 1782 and returned to Fort Niagara. Jacob was not released until the spring of 1783, after spending nearly three years in captivity.
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Portrait of a Soldier in Butler's Rangers by Garth Dittrick. Peter Bowman enlisted in Butler's Ranger's Rangers after his family reached Fort Niagara. Source: Wikimedia Commons |
In 1780, her eleven-year-old son Abraham joined the Kings Royal Regiment of New York as a drummer. Elizabeth remained at Machiche until the spring of 1781 but was afterwards billeted at various sites outside Montreal until the summer of 1773. By the fall of 1783, Elizabeth and Jacob had reunited and returned to Niagara. When Butler's Rangers was disbanded in June 1784, Jacob and Elizabeth settled on the west side of the Niagara River near the Whirlpool Rapids.
The captivity of Jacob Bowman and his son Adam is well-documented in primary sources. Jacob's Upper Canada Land petition, dated 3 Jul 1795, describes his ordeal in detail:
That in the year 1777 your Petitioner Joined the Corps of Rangers commanded by Lieut. Colonel John Butler—and went on actual Service on the Expedition for the Reduction of Fort Stanwix—on the failure of which Expedition your Petitioner being on his return as far as the Oneyera Lake obtained leave to go into the Country and bring thence his family to Niagara in the prosecution of which attempt your Petitioner was taken prisoner and sent to Hartford Gaol—and afterwards, by exchange got into New York—from thence your petitioner made an attempt to force his way into Niagara in order to Join his Regiment, but in the progress of it was again taken prisoner on the Susquehanna River, and having made resistance sorely wounded. Your Petitioner being thus again captured was sent to the provost and loaded with Irons—thence sent to the Rebel Headquarters for sometime and afterwards moved from Gaol to Gaol to the Kats Kiln—and after remaining some time imprisoned there your Petitioner, along with a number of other Loyalists chained together by couples, was sent to Lancaster where he remained Eighteen months in imprisonment twenty weeks of which time he lay in Chains—from there your Petitioner was removed to Philadelphia Gaol where having remained Eighteen months he was exchanged and sent into New York—whence he was sent to Quebec and from thence Joined again the Corps of Rangers—having been Seven years Separated from his family by reason of his Loyalty & Sufferings—That your Petitioner has in this Province a wife & nine Children—That your Petitioner has only as yet drawn four Hundred acres of land for himself & family. Where your Petitioner prays that your Excellency would gake into Consideration your Petitioners various Sufferings, exclusive of the forfeiture of all his real & personal property in the States to a very considerable amount, and for which your petitioner never claimed or received any Compensation, and grant to your Petitioner such additional allowance of Land as in Your Excellencys Widsom may seem meet—and your Petitioner as in duty bound will ever pray.Adam's petition states, "That your Petitioner was a Soldier in Col. Butlers Rangers during the American War; that he was repeatedly taken prisoner by The Rebels & wounded. A certificate from John Butler, dated 7 Aug 1788, goes into more detail:
I do hereby Certify that the bearer Adam Bowman joined the late Corps of Rangers under my Command in the year 1777 and served in the Expedition Against Fort Stanwix commanded by Brigadier General St. Leger, that after the retreat from Fort Stanwix he obtained the General’s leave with some others to go to Susquehanna in order to fetch their families into Niagara, as they had been drove by the enemy from their habitations, where he was taken & put into prison & after some time was put into Irons & removed to Hartford in Connecticut, where he remained until the latter end of the year 1778, when he was exchanged & sent to New York where he remained until the year 1780 & then got leave to join the Corps of Rangers in attempting of which he had the misfortune to be taken again at the Susquehanna after receiving three bad wounds, he was then conveyed to different parts of the Colonies until 1782 when he was exchanged by the way of Canada & joined his Corps & served until the General reduction took place in 1784. But one of the wounds he received when last taken prisoner on the Susquehanna River being badly attended while a prisoner, has never been made a care of & still remains open, he not being able to employ a Surgeon, begs the benefit of one of his Majesty’s Hospitals where he may have such attendance as may restore him to health—to which I beg leave to recommend him as a man deserving notice.
The Haldimand Papers contain several references to Jacob and Adam. They first appear on A List of Persons Employed in the Indian Department dated Niagara, 15 Jun 1777. That fall, John Butler was granted permission to raise a "corps of rangers." Jacob, Adam, and many of the others who had returned to the Susquehanna after the Siege of Fort Stanwix were "transferred" from the Indian Department to Butler's Rangers. Jacob and Adam are shown on the paylist of Walter Butler's Company from 24 Dec 1777 to 24 Oct 1778 even though they were prisoners of war during this time.
Jacob and Adam appear on A List of Prisoners in the Hands of Congress belonging to Corps of Rangers, Royalists & their Families with the notation "Taken on the Susquehanna Jany 1778." In a letter dated 24 Dec 1780 to Governor Haldimand's secretary Robert Mathews, Walter Butler, a company commander in Butler's Rangers, lists Jacob Bowman and Adam Bowman as having been taken prisoner on 3 Jan 1778.
The circumstances behind Jacob and Adam's arrest along with others are described in the records of the Connecticut Assembly in a memorial dated 26 Jan 1778:
The memorial of Nathan Denison, of Westmoreland, in the county of Westmoreland, humbly sheweth—That he being colonel of the 24th regiment of militia belonging to this State; and on the 20th day of December last, being informed that a band of tories were forming on the westward of said town of Westmoreland, in order to stir up the Indians of Tioga to join said tories, and kill and destroy the inhabitants of this State; upon which information your memorialist ordered part of his regiment to be immediately equipt, and march to suppress the conspirators...Denison reported to the Assembly that his officers and men, "marched about 80 miles up the river and took sundry tories, and happily contented the Tioga Indians, and entirely disbanded the conspirators." At the next session of the Connecticut Assembly it was resolved:
...that Richmond Berry, Philip Buck, Thomas Silk, Edward Hicks, Edward Hicks, Jr., John Young, Jacob Bowman, Adam Bowman, Jr., Jacob Bruner, John Henry Short, Henry Hover, Nicholas Phelps, Nicholas Phelps, Jr., John Phelps, Jacob Anguish, George Kentner, and Frederick Frank, who were taken in arms against the United States by the militia of Westmoreland, and sent to the deputy commissary general of prisoners of this State, are ordered to be received and treated as prisoners of war, provided that nothing in the aforesaid order shall be construed to excuse said prisoners from any treasonable offense against the laws of other States.
The capture of "sundry tories" was also noted in an anonymous letter from Quebec dated 25 Aug 1778 that was published in The Remembrancer:
About his time the inhabitants having discovered that many of these villainous Tories, who has stirred up the Indians, and been with in fighting against use, were within the settlements, 27 of them were, in January last, taken up and secured. Of these 18 were sent to Connecticut, the rest, after being detained some time, and examined, were for want of sufficient evidence set at liberty; they immediately joined the enemy, and became active is raising in the Indians a spirit of hostility against use. This disposition soon after began to appear, in the behavior of the Tories and Indians, which gave the people apprehensions of danger, and occasioned some preparations for defense.
In a letter dated 28 Jan 1778, John Butler reported from Fort Niagara:
By accounts from the Susquehanna River, I am well informed of the rebels having taken prisoners thirty of the Rangers who went from Oneida Lake by leave of Colonel St Leger. They were to have returned to this place with as many beef cattle as they could drive off. The rebels, as is supposed, got notice of their design and with a party of 200 men surprised and took them with three Indians.In her letter to Egerton Ryerson, Elizabeth Spohn wrote about the night Jacob and Adam were taken:
He [Jacob Bowman] was surprised at night, while his wife was sick, by a party of rebels, and with his eldest son, a lad of sixteen years of age, was taken prisoner; his house pillaged of every article except the bed on which his sick wife lay, and that they stripped of all but one blanket. Half an hour after my grandfather was marched off, his youngest child was born. This was in November. There my grandmother was, with an infant babe and six children, at the commencement of winter, without any provisions, and only one blanket in the house. Their cattle and grain were all taken away.Spohn's letter would suggest that Jacob and Adam were captured in November 1775, however, the preponderance of evidence shows that they were taken in early January 1778. According to the information on his gravestone, Adam was born on 25 Apr 1758, so he would have been 19 at the time of his arrest. Elizabeth named her youngest child Eve. Eve, aged 5, is listed with her parents in the Return of Loyalists at Niagara dated 30 Nov 1783.
Spohn describes what happened to Elizabeth and her children after Jacob's arrest:
My father, Peter Bowman, the eldest son at home, was only eleven years old. As the pillage was at night, he had neither coat nor shoes; he had to cut and draw his firewood half a mile on a hand-sleigh to keep his sick mother from freezing; this he did barefooted. The whole family would have perished had it not been for some friendly Indians that brought them provisions. One gave my father a blanket, coat and a pair of mocassins. A kind squaw doctored my grandmother, but she suffered so much through want and anxiety that it was not until spring that she was able to do anything. She then took her children and went to the Mohawk river, where they planted corn and potatoes; and in the fall the commander of the British forces at Niagara, hearing of their destitute situation, sent a party with some Indians to bring them in. They brought in five families: the Nellises, Secords, Youngs, Bucks, and our own family (Bowman), five women and thirty-one children, and only one pair of shoes among them all. They arrived at Fort George on the 3rd of November, 1776; from there they were sent first to Montreal, and then to Quebec, where the Government took care of them—that is, gave them something to eat and barracks to sleep in. My grandmother was exposed to cold and damp so much that she took the rheumatism, and never recovered.
According to the information on his gravestone, Peter Bowman was born about 1761, so he would have been about sixteen when his father and brother were captured. It is also unlikely that he would have had to walk "half a mile" to cut firewood since most of the Bowman farm was still heavily forested.
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HMS Ontario off Fort Niagara by Peter Rindlisbacher. Warships such as the HMS Ontario were used on Lake Ontario to ferry troops, supplies, prisoners, and refugees between Carleton Island, Oswego, and Fort Niagara. Source: Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston |
The main difficulty with Spohn's account is the date she provides. Elizabeth Bowman and the others could not have arrived at Fort George on 3 Nov 1776. Not only were Jacob and Adam not arrested until January 1778, but Fort George, on the west side of the Niagara River, was not built until 1796. Had the letter said "arrived at Fort Niagara on the 3rd of November, 1778" there would be a lot less confusion.
Of the five families named in the letter, only three were families of Susquehanna Loyalists. Madelaine Secord was the wife of James Secord, a senior ranger with the Indian Department. James is thought to have been taken prisoner at about the time of Jacob and Adam's arrest, but was released. Anna Margarethe Buck was the wife of Philip Buck, who was imprisoned with Jacob and Adam at Hartford and later exchanged to New York. He was with Jacob and Adam when they were "taken again at the Susquehanna" but Philip evaded capture and returned to Fort Niagara by September 1780.
The Young and Nelles families were from the Mohawk Valley region of New York. Priscilla Nelles was the wife of Hendrick William Nelles, a Captain in the Indian Department from Stone Arabia in the Mohawk Valley. Catharine Young was the wife of John Young, a Lieutenant in the Indian Department. John, a suspect in the burning of a grist mill, had fled to Fort Niagara from his home in Canojaharie in March 1777. That summer, Catharine was ordered apprehended by the Committee of Safety for Tyron County. She later appears with her four children and mother-in-law on the List of Prisoners in the Hands of Congress.
The Spohn letter is silent as to why Elizabeth decided to take her children to the Mohawk River rather than Fort Niagara. Before settling on the Susquehanna River opposite Tunkhannock, Jacob and Elizabeth had lived on Bowman's Creek near Canojaharie in the Mohawk Valley region of New York. Madelaine Secord and Anna Buck, however, had no connections to the Mohawk Valley, so it is a mystery why they went with Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Spohn claims that her father, Peter Bowman, and her uncle, Abraham Bowman, both joined Butler's Rangers:
... my father joined Butler's Rangers, and was with Colonel Butler in all his campaigns. His brother, only nine years old, went as a fifer.Peter joined Butler's Rangers soon after arriving at Fort Niagara, and may have seen action at the Battle of Newtown in August 1779. Elizabeth's uncle Abraham, however, is included on the returns of loyalist refugees with his mother and sisters at Machiche during the summer and fall of 1779. Abraham enlisted at eleven years of age in the King's Royal Regiment of New York as a drummer on 1 Feb 1780, but there is no evidence that he ever served with Butler's Rangers.
Elizabeth and her children were likely "sent down to Montreal" soon after their arrival at Fort Niagara. In a letter dated 11 Nov 1778, the commanding officer at Niagara, Lieutenant-Colonel Mason Bolton, wrote to General Frederick Haldimand:
I have sent down to Montreal a considerable number of families who have suffered a great deal of distress on account of their attachment to Government. Many of them have not only been driven from their lands, but plundered of everything they had in the world and came in here in a ragged, starving condition. I have ordered some blankets, &c, to be bought for sufficient to serve them to Canada and thought it best to remove them from this post where provisions are of so much consequence.
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| Return of Loyalist Refugees at Machiche, 24 Oct 1779. Source: Haldimand Papers, Library and Archives Canada |
The Spohn letter and the returns of loyalist refugees suggest that Jacob and Elizabeth only had eight children: three boys and five girls. Jacob, however, states in his Upper Canada Land Petition that he has nine children. In his will he names six girls: Hannah, Margaret, Elizabeth, Sarah, Christina, and Eve.
Later in her letter, Elizabeth Spohn describes how her grandfather and uncle's were imprisoned, released, recaptured, and imprisoned again:
But to return to my grandfather, Jacob Bowman: his captors took him and his son to Philadelphia, where he was confined in jail eighteen months. An exchange of prisoners then took place, and they were sent to New York; from there he, with his son and Philip Buck, started for their homes, not knowing that these homes they never would see again, and that their families were far away in the wilds of Canada. The third evening after they started for their homes, they came to a pond, and shot some ducks for their supper. The report of their guns was heard by some American scouts, who concealed themselves until our poor fellows were asleep, when they came stealthily up and fired. Six shots took effect on my uncle, as he lay with his hat over his ear. Five balls went through it, andone through his thigh. My grandfather and Buck lay on the opposite side of the fire. They sprang into the bushes, but when they heard the groans of my uncle, grandfather returned and gave himself up. Buck made his escape. They then marched off carrying the wounded boy with them.They were taken to the nearest American station, where grandfather was allowed the privilege of taking care of his wounded son. As he began to recover, grandfather was again ordered to abjure the British Government, which he steadfastly refused to do. He was then taken to Lancaster jail, with Mr. Hoover. They were there fastened together by a band of iron around their arms, and a chain with three links around their ankles, the weight of which was ninety-six pounds; and then fastened by a ring and staple to the door. In that condition they remained either three years and a half or four years and a half, until the flesh was worn away and the bones laid bare four inches.In 1778, Jacob and Adam were imprisoned at Hartford, Connecticut. Later that year they were sent to British controlled New York. According to Butler's certificate, they were not given permission to leave New York for Fort Niagara until 1780. The Spohn letter records that they were recaptured three days after leaving New York, however, both Jacob's petition and Butler's certificate state they were retaken on the Susquehanna, almost 200 kilometres away. Jacob further states that he was kept in chains for twenty weeks while imprisoned for eighteen months at Lancaster, Pennsylvania then later held at Philadelphia for eighteen months.
Oscar Jewell Harvey, author of The History of Wilkes-Barre, provides an American perspective about the 1780 capture of Jacob and Adam. In The Harvey Book, Harvey writes about how his great-great-grandfather Elisha Harvey was with a scouting party that captured "three Tories" near Wysox on the Susquehanna on 9 Jun 1780. Jacob Bowman, Adam Bowman, and Henry Hoover were brought first to Wilkes-Barre and then to Continental Army headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey. Harvey records that they were returned to Wilkes-Barre as prisoners of war, however, the Spohn letter and Jacob's petition indicate that Adam and Jacob were separated. While Adam was held at Wilkes-Barre, Jacob and Henry Hoover were sent to Lancaster.
Accounts of the capture also appear in Charles Miner's History of Wyoming and William Stone's Poetry and History of Wyoming. Miner makes the interesting claim that Jacob, Adam and Henry Hoover were taken with "a fine lot of plunder, valued at £46 18s. 11d.," while Stone, quoting the diary of Lieutenant John Jenkins, notes that Philip Buck escaped capture.
In December 1780, Elisha Harvey and his father Benjamin were taken near Wilkes-Barre by a party of Butler's Rangers and Haudenosaunee and brought to Fort Niagara. Benjamin was paroled in May 1781, but Elisha remained a prisoner. In the spring of 1782 Benjamin learned that Elisha was at Montreal. Benjamin made arrangements to escort Adam Bowman to Montreal and exchange him for Elisha. At Saratoga, a cautious American commander decided that Benjamin did not have the proper authorization to proceed to Montreal, and had Adam taken downriver to West Point. Benjamin returned to Wilkes-Barre where he obtained the following certificate:
These certify the ADAM BOWMAN now a prisoner of War to the United States of America was taken by the inhabitants of Westmoreland and brought to the garrison sometime in 1780 when I commanded this post and upon application made to me by Mr. Benjamin Harvey for the prisoner to send him to Montreal and exchange for his son then and yet in captivity—which request I granted and Mr. Harvey at his own expense did take the prisoner from this place to Saratoga from the above purpose and I have been informed that he has for some reason been sent from there down to West Point or its vicinity—and should yet request that Mr. Harvey may be indulged with the prisoner for the purpose of redeeming his son.
Zebn. Butler. Col.
4th Connect. Regt.
Wyoming, July 29th, 1782
According to Harvey, Benjamin met with George Washington at Newburg before proceeding to West Point. Adam was once again placed into Benjamin's custody and they resumed their journey to Montreal where Adam was successfully exchanged for Elisha Harvey.
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Whirlpool, Niagara by American landscape painter John Frederick Kensett depicts the Niagara River near Jacob Bowman's farm. Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. |
Jacob Bowman was likely freed in the spring of 1783 after spending nearly three years in captivity. After the formal cessation of hostilities on 1 Apr 1783, George Washington ordered that prisoners of war be "conducted from their places of detention." Jacob's petition indicates that he was "conducted" to New York, where he appears on a "list of destitute persons" dated 26 May 1783. Jacob was later "sent to Quebec" where he would have reunited with Elizabeth before heading to Fort Niagara.
Jacob and Elizabeth appear on the Return of Loyalists at Niagara dated 30 Nov 1783 with five of their six daughters. Adam and Peter Bowman are listed elsewhere. At this time Abraham was still with the Kings Royal Regiment of New York, however, he rejoined his family at Niagara after the regiment was disbanded on 23 Dec 1783.
Missing from the return is Jacob and Elizabeth's daughter Margaret (1764-1841). Margaret at some point married Lieutenant Solomon Secord (1755-1799), son of James Secord and Madelaine Badeau, however, neither the 1783 Return of Loyalists at Niagara or the 1784 List of Persons or the 1786 provisioning list show that Solomon was married. In his Upper Canada Land Petition dated 15 Dec 1796, Solomon states that his daughters Clementine and Nancy were born before 1789. Clementine's gravestone at Homer Cemetery indicates that she born about 1784. The 1787 Census compiled by Robert Hamilton shows Solomon married and with one child.
After Butler's Rangers were disbanded in June 1784, Jacob was allocated 200 acres (Lots 57 and 59) in Township 2 (later Stamford Township) on the west side of the Niagara River adjacent to the Whirlpool Rapids. He was granted patent to both lots on 31 Dec 1798. In November 1802, Jacob sold both lots to his son Abraham Bowman for £500.
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| Group of Bowman Gravestones at Stamford Presbyterian Cemetery |
Elizabeth Bowman died at Stamford on 28 Jan 1800 at the age of 61, and is buried in the Stamford Presbyterian Cemetery.
Jacob's second wife, Ann, is not named in Jacob's will, so that marriage may have occurred after 1806. Ann died in 1820 and was buried beside Jacob and Elizabeth in the Stamford Presbyterian Cemetery.
Jacob's will was dated 20 Jun 1806. In it he gave £20 to each of his daughters (except Margaret who only got £12), and either a cow or a sheep (except Hannah who got one of each). The remainder of his estate was equally divided between Adam and Peter. Adam was named as executor. Strangly, Abraham was not named in his father's will.
Jacob Bowman died at Stamford on 15 Oct 1815 at the age of 77 and is buried between his two wives in the Stamford Presbyterian Cemetery.
Sources:
Almon, John (ed.). The Remembrancer, or Impartial Repository of Public Events, Vol 7. London, 1779
Canniff, William. History of the Settlement of Upper Canada. Toronto: Dudley & Burns, 1869.
Crowder, Norman. Early Ontario Settlers: A Source Book. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1993.
Cruikshank, Ernest A., and Gavin K. Watt. The History and Master Roll of the King's Royal Regiment of New York. Revised ed., Carleton Place, Ontario: Global Heritage Press, 2006.
Harvey, Oscar Jewell. A History of Wilkes-Barré, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Wilkes-Barre: The Raeder Press 1909.
Harvey, Oscar Jewell. The Harvey Book: giving the genealogies of certain branches of the American families of Harvey, Nesbitt, Dixon and Jameson, and notes on many other families, together with numerous biographical sketches. Wilkes-Barre: E.B. Yordy & Co., 1899.
Jones, J. Kelsey. Loyalist Plantations on the Susquehanna. Self-published, 2009. https://docplayer.net/100900251-Loyalist-plantations-on-the-susquehanna-j-kelsey-jones-updated-2009.html
Library and Archives Canada. Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865
Library and Archives Canada. Haldimand Papers (MG21, Add. MSS 21765, Volumes B105, B166, B167, B168)
Matthews, Hazel. The Mark of Honour. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965
Miner, Charles. History of Wyoming: In a Series of Letters, From Charles Miner, to His Son William Penn Miner. Philadelphia: J. Crissy, 1845.
Ousterhout, Anne M. “Frontier Vengeance: Connecticut Yankees vs. Pennamites in the Wyoming Valley.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 62, no. 3, 1995, pp. 330–363. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27773826.
Penrose, Maryly. Baumann/Bowman Family of the Mohawk, Susquehanna, and Niagara Rivers. Franklin Park, New Jersey: Liberty Bell Associates, 1977.
Ryerson, Egerton. The Loyalists of America and Their Times. Toronto: William Briggs, 1880.
Smy, William. An Annotated Nominal Roll of Butler's Rangers 1777-1784. Welland, Ontario: Friends of the Loyalist Collection at Brock University, 2004.
Smy, William A., editor. The Butler Papers: Documents and Papers Relating to Colonel John Butler and His Corps of Rangers. Brock University Library Archives & Special Collections, 1994. https://dr.library.brocku.ca/handle/10464/9242
Stone, William L. The Poetry and History of Wyoming: Containing Campbell's Gertrude and the History of Wyoming from its Discovery to the Beginning of the Present Century. New York: Mark H. Newman, 1844.Watts, Gavin. Loyalist Refugees: Non-Military Refugees in Quebec 1776-1784, Global Heritage Press, 2014.
