An Officer Indefatigable: James Andrews (1735-1780)

Ontario off Fort Niagara, 1780. Peter Rindlisbacher.
Source: Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston

Zeal. Diligent. Indefatigable. Esteemed. These words often appeared in letters that mention James Andrews. Andrews served as commander of four different vessels on the Great Lakes during the Revolutionary War but died when the Ontario sank during a sudden storm on October 31, 1780.

Andrews was born around 1735 in County Tyrone in the northern part of Ireland, however, it has also been suggested that he was from Argyllshire in Scotland. In 1756, Andrews joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer or "young gentleman" and served as a midshipman during the Seven Years War. In 1763 he passed his examination for lieutenant. In 1770, he was serving as a Master's Mate and Acting Lieutenant, but decided to leave the Royal Navy and seek employment on the Great Lakes.

HMS Royal William. John Cleveley the
Elder, 1760. Source: Royal Ontario Museum

In a letter to Governor Frederick Haldimand¹ dated October 3, 1778, Andrews mentions having "ample testimonials of my character from Captain Pigot."  This suggests that Andrews may have be at the Siege of Louisbourg in 1758 when Hugh Pigot (1722-1792) commanded HMS York, and at the Siege of Quebec in 1759 when Pigot commanded HMS Royal William.

Andrews's decision to become a mariner on Lake Erie was likely influenced by his brother Collin, a fur trader at Detroit. Collin was at Detroit as early as 1761 as his arrival at Niagara from Detroit was noted on August 6, 1761 in the journal of Sir William Johnson². In 1762, Collin was one of several merchants at Detroit who petitioned Johnson to be allowed in sell rum to the Indians. In 1767, he was arrested by Indian agent Jehu Hay for wintering with the Indians and for providing lodging for Indians at the fort. Captain George Trumbull, commanding officer at Detroit, intervened and dismissed the charges. In September 1770, Collin wrote to Sir William Johnson thanking him for lending £30 to his brother and paying off his brother's debt. Collin does not appear to have married, and died soon after the Revolutionary War.

James Andrews joined the Naval Department at Detroit and was given command of the General Gage on Lake Erie. The Gage was a topsail schooner of 154 tons launched at Detroit in 1771. Although built to carry 14 guns, the boat was primarily used to ferry troops, provisions and supplies for the government, and goods for merchants and private citizens. Later in her career the Gage was reclassified as a brig when her rigging was changed from fore-and-aft to square.

In a letter dated June 17, 1773, Andrews wrote to Major Henry Basset, commanding officer at Detroit, complaining about the lack of armament:

Tis also my duty as master of His Majesty's Schooner, the General Gage to acquaint you of her defenceless state having on board only eight useless Muskets without Pistol, Sword or Pike & only about two pounds of Powder, for the carriage guns. I therefore request Sir, that you will be pleased to order such quantity of small arms and ammunition as you shall Judge necessarie, and as soon as may be convenient, at least before we sail again for Ft. Erie. I need not Sir, further inforce the expediency of this to you, who is perfectly acquainted how very essential the Vessels are to the well being of Detroit & its dependencies.

Basset, unfortunately, was only able to provide the Gage with twelve muskets and bayonets. Later than year, however, he wrote Andrews a letter of introduction to Haldimand who was temporarily acting as Commander-in-Chief, North America:

The Bearer is a Gentleman who behaves with great propriety, is a good Sea Officer & is very much esteemed here. As such I beg leave to introduce him to your Excellency. The King's Vessels have brought up all provisions, stores &c. and are laid up for the winter. The Capt. has applied for my permission to to bring up his family, which I have granted, provided he's at Fort Erie by the first opportunity in Spring.

According to an unsigned letter in the Wisconsin Historical Society's Draper Manuscript Collection, Andrews was still in command of the Gage three years later. The letter, written by a rebel spy and dated April 2, 1776, describes the defences of Detroit and notes that there "are very few seamen and not one Gunner, they are generally dissatisfied with the Service, and will make a poor resistance."

Sir Frederick Haldimand
Joshua Reynolds, 1778.
Source: National Portrait Gallery

A "Return of Officers on the Great Lakes" dated October 1777 shows Andrews had been given command of the smaller Earl of Dunmore; a 106-ton topsail schooner "mounting 12 Guns and 4 Swivels." Haldimand's predecessor, Governor Guy Carleton, had placed Alexander Grant in charge of the Naval Department on the Great Lakes earlier that year, and Grant had taken over as captain of the Gage. Like the Gage, the Dunmore had been built at Detroit in 1771 with a frame of red cedar, and remained in service on Lake Erie after the war. A muster roll dated September 25, 1777 to March 24, 1778 shows a compliment of 14.

Dunmore had been previously commanded by Thomas Robison who had been given command of the snow Haldimand on Lake Ontario, and was the senior naval officer on the lake. When Robison retired from the Naval Department in November 1777 to become a merchant at Niagara, Andrews saw an opportunity to advance his career. In April 1778, Henry Hamilton, Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs at Fort Detroit³ wrote a letter of recommendation addressed to Carleton, unaware that Haldimand had recently taken over as Governor:

I take the Liberty of recommending to your Excellency's favor & protection Captain James Andrews who has since my arrival at this place acted with the greatest zeal, activity and diligence – as to his capacity in his Profession I can only say he has the reputation of a very intelligent & experienced officer. Should your Excellency be pleased to require an account of the navigation of the Lakes or other circumstances relating to his Profession, I have reason to think he will acquit himself to your Excellency's satisfaction & his own credit.

On May 25, 1778, Lieutenant Colonel Mason Bolton, the commanding officer at Niagara, wrote to Andrews saying that Governor Haldimand had reappointed Alexander Grant the Commanding Officer of the Naval Department upon the Lakes, and stating that Andrews would have command on Lake Ontario. Bolton therefore appointed Andrews "commander of His Majesty's Snow Haldimand and the Naval Department on Lake Ontario." Andrews moved from Detroit to Niagara and took up residence with his family at Navy Hall on the west side of the Niagara River.

The Haldimand, Roland Stevens

The Haldimand was a 150-ton snow (rhymes with cow) built at Oswegatichie (Ogdenburg) on the St. Lawrence River in 1771. A snow is a square-rigged vessel with two masts and a trysail-mast on the quarterdeck immediately behind the main mast. A "Return of His Majesty's Armed Vessels" dated January 1, 1779 shows she had crew of 34 men and was armed with 16 four pounders. Her deck was 23.2 metres in length and she had a beam of 7.3 metres. The Haldimand's main task was to transport troops, goods and provisions from Carleton Island to Niagara. She also carried private cargo for merchants at Niagara and Detroit, and Loyalist refugees and prisoners from Niagara to Carleton Island.

In a letter to Bolton dated August 27, 1778, Haldimand informed Bolton that he received a letter from Andrews, "wherein he desires to be appointed Commandant of Lake Ontario." Haldimand tells Bolton, "...you will acquaint him that from the favourable representation which have been made of him to me I consider him as the Commandant of the King's Vessels upon the Lake and depend upon his abilities and diligence for the care and preservation of them in all circumstances."

On the same day that Haldimand wrote to Bolton, Andrews had written a letter to Haldimand from Carleton Island describing his naval experience:

In May 1756, I entered a Volunteer in the Navy and served as Midshipman during the War. In 1763 I passed my examination for an officer, and in the year 1770 I served as a Masters Mate and acting Lieutenant. It being then a dead Peace, and no prospect of active service for promotions, and having an increasing family, I with great reluctance quitted my old favourite service and obtained the command of his Majesty's vessel on Lake Erie at the commencement of the rebellion of the colonies, Capt Lermoult and Lieut. Governor Hamilton gave me a commission. In October 1776 His Excellency General Carleton was pleased to send me a commission and in October 1777, he was pleased to order Colonel Bolton to give me the command on Lake Ontario.

Andrews further states that he served 14 years in the Royal Navy and "near eight years that I have commanded one of His Majesty's vessel of these Lakes."

A General Map of the Middle British Colonies, 1771
Source: Library of Congress

Andrews' formal commission as "Master and Commander of His Majesty's Naval Armaments upon the River And Lakes within the Province And Frontiers thereof" is dated October 13 1778. "His Majesty's Naval Armaments" on Lake Ontario, however, were few in number. In addition to the Haldimand were the snow Seneca, built at Oswegatichie in 1777 and commanded by Jean-Baptiste Bouchette, and the sloop Caldwell, built at Niagara in 1774 and commanded by William Baker, as well as two gunboats and a row galley.

The Haldimand Papers also contain references to the sloop Mohawk, notably in October 1780 when Sir John Johnson of the King's Royal Regiment of New York requested that the Mohawk join the Caldwell at Oswego in support of his raid on the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys. The Mohawk also appears in letters written to Haldimand by Captain Fraser at Carleton Island and Brigadier General Powell at Niagara following the loss of the Ontario. In the Haldimand Papers is a diagram of a vessel launched at Niagara on December 23, 1778 that is most likely the Mohawk.

Silhouette of James Andrews
Source: John Ross Robertson
Collection,Toronto Public Library

Following his appointment in May 1778, Andrews immediately set to work, and made several recommendations. Andrews pointed out the need for gunners and boatswains, for barracks and for a rigging and sail loft at Niagara, and requested that orders be given to enlarge the wharf at Navy Hall, "there being too little Water at the present Wharf to Careen large Vessels at, and it being too small for three Vessels to Winter at." Andrews also sought to have a vessel built at Niagara to replace the Haldimand.

The poor state of the Haldimand was the subject of several letters. On December 18, 1778, Andrews wrote to Bolton, "The Hull of the Snow Haldimand is in general in a very defective state; particular parts are too decayed and rotten, that I do not think she can be navigated next summer, without these being repaired." Two weeks later, Master Shipbuilder Jonathan Coleman reported to Bolton that he had examined the Haldimand and "find her to be in a very rotten decay'd state and condition."

Some repairs were made and the Haldimand continued in service the following spring. Writing to Governor Haldimand from aboard ship on May 1, 1779, his aide-de-camp Captain Dietrich Brehm reported, "the Haldimand being very bad and decayed by Capt Andrews's account who Commands her." Brehn goes on to describe Andrews as a "diligent good Seaman, and an Officer indefatigable for the good of the Services and therefore your Excellency will doubtless send him a Commission, or otherwise disputes may arrive between him and Mr. Bouchett, who thinks to have the Command, by promises of General Carleton."

Andrews remained in command of the Haldimand until the launch of the Ontario in the spring of 1780. In a letter to his brother Collin at Detroit dated July 16, 1779, he describes a typical voyage to Carleton Island:

Sail tomorrow with Mrs. Hay⁴, your old acquaintance Miss Molly Johnson⁵and Retinue, Prisoners, Loyalists, Horses, and the Lord knows what else.

The brig-sloop Ontario was built at Carleton Island and launched on May 10, 1780. In August 1778, Lieutenant John Shank (1740-1823) of the Royal Navy had established a shipyard at North Bay on Carleton Island. At the same time construction began on Fort Haldimand on the bluff overlooking North Bay. The shipyard initially produced whaleboats used in British raids that ascended the Oswego River. Work then began on three gunboats which were completed by the spring of 1779. Finally, construction began on the replacement for the Haldimand.

Plan of Carleton Island, 1810
Library and Archives Canada

Although classified as a brig-sloop, the 226-ton Ontario was rigged as a snow with a trysail mast. She had length of 24.5 metres with a 7.6 metre beem, and mounted 16 six pounders and six four pounders for a total of 22 guns.

Over the next few months Ontario made several voyages between Carleton Island and Niagara. On October 31, 1780, she sailed from Niagara with a detachment of the 34th Regiment of Foot commanded by Lieutenant Southwell Royce. With the detachment were the wives and children of some of the soldiers. Also aboard was Lieutenant Charles S. Colleton of the Royal Artillery, four Haudenosaunee, a civilian passenger, several other soldiers, and Lieutenant Colonel Mason Bolton who had been granted leave to return to England. It is also possible that the Ontario was transporting a number of prisoners of war.

In his letter to Governor Haldimand on the sinking, the new commanding officer at Niagara, Brigadier General Henry Watson Powell, states a sudden violent storm struck from the northeast on the evening of October 31. In Legend of the Lake, Arthur Britton Smith speculates that this storm was connected to the Great Hurricane of 1780 that killed well over 22,000 in the Lesser Antilles and wrecked numerous Royal Navy ships. The Great Hurricane, however, was last observed on October 20 southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland, and dissipated well before the Ontario sailed.

A more likely explanation is that Ontario was struck by an early "November gale." A few weeks after the sinking, Hannah Lawrence Schieffelin⁶ described in her journal her experience aboard the Mohawk during another storm:

With a favourable gale at first we bounded over the mighty map of waters that composes the Lake Ontario, and after three days sail came near our destined port [Niagara], when suddenly the wind blew with such violence in a contrary direction, that our Captain, who was a Frenchman of small knowledge in maritime affairs, left the vessel to the mercy of the winds and waves, and descended with his Men into the Cabin where they united the efficacy of alternate prayers and strong liquor to support their spirits, having first lashed fast the helm, and closed up the hatches. To add to our despondence, we knew that a new Ship, called the Ontario, commanded by a deserving officer of the name of Andrews, had perished but a fortnight before in the same place, with above ninety souls on board, on the very night in which she had left Niagara, having received on board Colonel Bolton, who had been relieved, at his own desire, by General Powell, and embarked with the joyful hope of revisiting his Friends, who he was destined to behold no more. It was supposed the port holes had been left open after firing the salute which occasioned the fatal catastrophe. This was announced to the Garrison by an Indian's finding the gratings of the hatches which was all the discovery that every was made.... The tumultuous waves rolled over the vessel, and dashed through the crevices of the Cabin into the bed where I lay. The return of day revived the hopes of our terrified Commander and brought some abatement of the storm, the mariners resumed their exertions, and finding we were near to Carleton Island, entered once more that harbour.

Governor Haldimand received news of the sinking in letters from both Brigadier General Powell at Niagara, and Captain Alexander Fraser, the officer commanding at Carleton Island. On November 8, 1780 Fraser wrote:

I am exceedingly sorry to inform Your Excellency that the new Vessel (the Ontario) is in all probability lost, and every person on board of her have perished. Amongst the rest Colonel Bolton, Lieut. Royce with the Detachment of the 34th which were at Niagara, Lieutenant Colleton of the Royal Artillery, and several other Passengers, together with Captain Andrews and all the Officers and Crew of the vessel. She sailed on the 1st Inst. in the afternoon. A most violent storm came on the same evening from the north east, wherein she is supposed to have overset or foundered near a place called Golden Hill, about thirty miles from Niagara, as her Boats, the Grateings of her Hatchway, the Binnacle, Compasses, Land glasses, & several Hats, Caps & different wearing apparel, & blankets were picked up along the shore by Col. Butler on his way from Oswego to Niagara. This account is brought by the Mohawk which is just arrived from above having search'd all the South side of the Lake without having made any other discovery of the Ontario. I have thought necessary to dispatch a boat to Canada immediately to bring Your Excellency as early tiding as possible of this misfortune, as it must affect the arrangements in this quarter. Captⁿ Andrews is an irreplaceable loss to the Department he belonged to.

The following year, Francis Goring, a merchant at Niagara, wrote to his uncle about the sinking of Ontario:

A very malancholy misfortune happened nigh here last fall. On the 31st Oct. a New Vessel called the Ontario sailed from here in the afternoon, and about 12 O-clock at Night a violent storm arose in which the vessel was lost and every soul on board Perish'd in number about 120, among which was Lt. Col. Bolton, who commanded this post, Lt. Collerton of Artillery, Lt. Royce of the 34th Reg't. About a week ago six of the Corps [copses] were picked about 12 miles from her and buried, which is all that has ever been seen. This was the finest snow that every sailed these Lakes and Carried upwards of a thousand Barrels.

The location of the wreck of the Ontario was unknown until 2008, when it was found by shipwreck enthusiasts Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville using side scaning sonar and a remote underwater vehicle. Ontario was found largely intact lying on its port side in 150 metres of water, partially buried in silt, and covered in quagga mussels. Both masts were still standing and the crow's nests were intact. Part of the bowspirit remained. Several of the guns were visible, as were the two large anchors and the ship's bell.

Limnaid off Wolfe Island. Peter Rindlisbacher.

Construction of Ontario's replacement began almost immediately. Limnaid was launched in September 1781 and remained in service until 1793. In Greek mythology, a limnad was a type of naiad, specifically a naiad that lived in freshwater lakes.

The Haldimand, which had been laid up at Carleton Island after the launch of the Ontario, was returned to service while a replacement was built. She was finally taken out of service at Carleton Island in September 1782 and converted into a "sheer hulk" used in the refitting of other ships. A wreck in Carleton Island's North Bay has been identified as the Haldimand. Her keel and lower rib sections sit in about three metres of water. Underwater excavation in the summers of 1974 and 1975 located an ornate brass tomahawk head, a naval cutlass, clay pipes, and brass buttons from several British regiments including Butler's Rangers and the 8th Regiment of Foot.

Andrews was survived by his wife, Elizabeth Phillips, and their four children: Elizabeth, Isabella, Angelique, and Collin. Elizabeth Phillips, the daughter of John Phillips (1710-1773) and Anne Engs (1715-1775), married Andrews about 1767. Elizabeth's parents were both born in Boston, and had married there in 1734, so it is likely that Elizabeth was also born there. Both of Elizabeth's parents died at Quebec.

After her husband's death, Elizabeth and her children were allowed to continue living at Navy Hall. In April 1781, Haldimand wrote to Brigadier General Powell:

The merits of the late Captⁿ Andrews and the necessity of his widow strongly induce me to comply with your request in her favor, and some mode of relief shall be considered of for her. To assist in which, be so good as to learn from her what her views are with respect to her place of residence, disposal of her family &c., and in the meantime please to give her fifty pounds Halifax currency and draw upon Mr Dunn for it.

On May 24, 1781, Elizabeth wrote to Powell acknowledging the kindness of Haldimand and proposing to retire to L'Assomption near Montreal as the place best suited for the "education, maintenance, and welfare of her "four small children." In is interesting to note that Elizabeth's oldest daughter, Elizabeth, was about twelve so could hardly have be considered small. Elizabeth had settled at L'Assomption by July 1781 and in a letter to Haldimand's military secretary asked for a continuance of rations.

In July 1783 Elizabeth was at Detroit and later that year wrote to Haldmand reminding him of his promise to provide her a yearly pension. The following year, Elizabeth she returned to Niagara. A letter written by Haldimand's military secretary requested that her furniture be shipped to Niagara from Carleton Island. In November 1784, Haldimand directed Thomas Dunn, Paymaster General of the Marine Department, to pay Elizabeth £25 per year retroactive to the date of her husband's death.

In 1791, Elizabeth petitioned the Land Board of Hesse on behalf of her son, Collin, who was not yet "of age." In 1787, Collin had been granted 114 acres on Lake Erie to the east of the Detroit River. Elizabeth requested a certificate confirming the grant. A certificate was issued the following year, and in 1798, Collin received patent to Lot 85, Concession 1, in Colchester Township, Essex.

In 1793, Elizabeth submitted an Upper Canada Land Petition and was granted 2000 acres in Humberstone Township which she promptly sold to Queenston merchant and land speculator Robert Hamilton. Her four children later submitted petitions of their own and received 1200 acres each. In 1797 Elizabeth and her married daughter Isabella successful petitioned for an exchange of two town lots in Niagara. Elizabeth sold her town lot in October 1806 and moved to York to live near her daughter Angelique. After the War of 1812, Elizabeth made a claim for losses totalled £25 for her "entire wearing apparel" and a "large silver butter boat." An 1818 Plan of the Town of York shows Elizabeth owning a town lot adjacent the town lot of Angelique's husband.

Elizabeth's eldest daughter, Elizabeth Phillips Andrews was baptised at Holy Trinity, Gosport, Hampshire on June 26, 1769. She married Walter Butler Sheehan (1764-1806) about 1790. Walter, the son of William Sheehan and Anne Butler, was the nephew of Lieutenant Colonel John Butler, Commander of Butler's Rangers. During the Revolutionary War, Sheehan was detained by the American rebels along with his mother, aunt, and cousins until they were freed as part of a prisoner exchange in April 1780.

In 1780, Sheehan was commissioned an Ensign in the 8th Regiment of Foot. In 1783 he purchased a Lieutenancy in the 34th Regiment of Foot. Both regiments were stationed at Fort Niagara. Sheehan sold his commission in 1787. He briefly served as Sheriff of the District of Nassau, as well as Clerk of the Land Board for Nassau.

Sheehan-Puisaye House, Niagara-on-the-Lake

About 1794, Sheehan built a 1 1/2 story Georgian clapboard house in Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake). In 1799, the house was purchased by Joseph-Genevieve de Puisaye (Comte de Puisaye), a minor French nobleman who brought a group of French royalists to Upper Canada from England. Puisaye returned to England in 1802 and the house was converted into a store. During War of 1812 the house was used as a hospital survived the burning of Newark in December 1813. The house was moved to its present location on the Niagara Parkway in the 1960s.

The 1792 Return of Land Granted compiled by Deputy Surveyor Augustus Jones shows that Sheehan had received 800 of the 2350 acres he was entitled to. Much of the acreage granted to Walter and Elizabeth was immediately sold to others including Robert Hamilton. Sheehan also received a "gift" of 1200 acres on the Grand River from Joseph Brant but it was not until after Sheehan's death in 1806 that his sons settled the Sheehan Tract in what is now Dunn Township.

Elizabeth and Walter had seven children, six of whom were baptised at Niagara by Rev. Robert Addison.

Isabella Andrews was baptised at Gosport, Hampshire on 9 May 1771, and died on December 5, 1837 in Exeter, Devon. She married twice. Her first husband was Henry Ford who died in 1793. Little is known about Ford, however, there are several references to him commanding vessels on Lake Erie during and after the Revolutionary War, including the sloop Felicity and the schooner Dunmore.

One interesting source of information about Ford is a letter dated October 15, 1793 written to George Washington by Timothy Pickering. Pickering served in George Washington's cabinet as Postmaster General and at the time of the letter was commissioner to the Haundenosaunee.

It may be proper for me to say, that I think Captain Ford a man of honour. He is a very sensible man; and whatever information he communicates from Mr Shehan may be the more relied on, as they married sisters, and the families lived under one roof. Capt. Ford has come to the States for the recovery of his health.

Isabella and Henry had two daughters:  Isabella Ann and Eliza Archange.

Three years after Ford's death, Isabella married Lieutenant George Hill (1758-1824). George had been commissioned an ensign in the 5th Regiment of Foot in 1783 and had been promoted to Lieutenant in 1786. The 5th was posted to Canada from 1787 to 1797, and was at Fort Niagara from 1790 until the fort was turned over to the Americans in 1796.

At the time of his marriage George was Fort Niagara's adjutant. He was promoted to Captain in September 1796 at Quebec before the regiment returned to England in 1797. From 1800 to 1802 the regiment was at Gibralter, and from 1802 to 1803 at Guernsey. In 1803, George transferred to the York Rangers with the rank of Major. When the York Rangers disbanded in 1805, George transferred to the 85th Regiment of Foot which had been in Jamaica since 1802. In 1808 the regiment was withdrawn from Jamaica and in 1809 participated in the disastrous Walcheren Campaign in the Netherlands. George died in September 1809, possibly from Walcheren Fever.

Both of Isabella's daughters married while in Jamaica. Isabella Ann married Charles William Hall (1768-1832) at St Andrew Parish on September 13, 1806. Her sister, Eliza Archange married Edward Pinnock Wallen (1770-1822) at St Catherines parish on September 9, 1806.

Angelique Andrews was born about 1773, and died in Toronto on December 22, 1842. She married James Givins (1759-1846) at Niagara on December 29, 1797. Givins had first come to Canada in 1775 with Henry Hamilton who had been appointed as Lieutenant Governor of Detroit.  While at Detroit, Givins learned to speak the Ojibwe language (Anishinaabemowin). He participated in Hamilton's attack on Fort Vincennes in 1778 but was captured when American forces retook the fort in February 1779. He spent most of the next two years as a prisoner in Williamsburg, Virginia before being freed in a prisoner exchange.

Givins was commissioned a lieutenant in the Queen's Rangers in 1791, and served at an aide-de-camp to Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe. In 1797, he was appointed Assistant Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Home District. Givins held various positions within the Indian Department until 1837. In 1803 when the Queen's Rangers were disbanded  he was made a captain in the 5th Regiment of Foot. Givins left the military shortly afterwards. At the outbreak of the War of 1812 he was given the rank of major and appointed aide-de-camp to General Isaac Brock. He was present at the Battle of Detroit in October 1812 and commanded a band of Mississaugas during the Battle of York on April 27, 1813.

Pine Grove, J. Ross Robertson
Collection, Toronto Public Library

In 1802, Givins built Pine Grove on the outskirts of the Town of York. According to J. Ross Robertson, when he visited the house in 1888 the floor boards still bore blood stains from when Angelique treated wounded Mississauga warriors during the Battle of York. In the aftermath of the battle, William Dummer Powell, a prominent citizen of York, found Angelique, "in great distress having been driven from her home by a party of plunderers who had threatened her life." After the war, Givins claimed more that £388 in damages including "the whole of the wearing apparel of Mrs Givins & 7 children," and one "Childs Cott with Dimity Curtains."

It is not clear when Collin, the only son of George and Elizabeth Andrews, was born. Collin is thought to have been sent to school in Scotland after the war. Collin was not yet "of age" at the time of his mother's 1791 petition, which suggests he was born after 1770. In his own petition dated September 29, 1796, Collin writes that he "had been hitherto prevented from applying for Land by reason of his absence from the Province in acquiring his Education." In March 1801, his sisters petitioned for his grant to be split between Elizabeth and Isabella stating their "late and only brother Collin died in possession of about 1100 acres in Townsend."

Although the General Gage, Earl of Dunmore, Haldimand, and Ontario never fired their guns in anger, these vessels and their commander played a critical role in supplying British forces at Fort Niagara and Fort Detroit during the Revolutionary War. And although she never met James Andrews, Hannah Lawrence Schieffelin provided a fitting epitaph in a letter to her father written shortly after her arrival at Niagara:

This Gentleman bore a distinguished character, as a good seaman, and as an honest man, and his loss is greatly regretted.

Notes:

¹ Lieutenant General Frederick Haldimand (1718-1791) was Governor of the Province of Quebec from 1778 until 1786. He temporarily served as Commander-in-Chief, North America from 1773 to 1774.
² Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet (1715-1774) was Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern District from 1756 until his death. His son, Sir John Johnson, 2nd Baronet (1741-1830) commanded the King's Royal Regiment of New York during the Revolutionary War.
³ Henry Hamilton (1734-1796) was appointed Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs at Fort Detroit in 1775. In February 1779 he was captured by George Rogers Clark at the Siege of Fort Vincennes and taken to Williamsburg, Virginia. Based mostly on hearsay evidence, Hamilton was accused by Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson of paying for scalps, and encouraging his indigenous allies to kill women and children. As a result he was treated as a criminal rather than as prisoner of war, and spent several months in irons. He was finally freed during a prisoner exchange in 1781. In reality, Hamilton had tried to mitigate the brutality of Indian raids by having British officers accompany the war parties and by telling his indigenous allies not to "redden your axe with the blood of Women and Children or innocent men. I know that men, kill men and not children. I speak to you who are men."
⁴ Julie-Marie Réaume (1748-1795) was the wife of Jehu Hay, an Indian Department official and militia officer at Detroit.
⁵ Molly Brant (1736-1796), step-sister of Joseph Brant and consort of Sir William Johnson, served as an intermediary between British officials and the Haudenosaunee.
⁶ Hannah Lawrence (1758-1838) was the wife of Jacob Schieffelin (1757-1835), an Indian Department official at Detroit. Hannah was from a Quaker family living in New York, and wrote seditious poetry about the British occupation under the pen name of Matilda. In 1780, she met and married Jacob who had escaped and made his way to New York after being taken prisoner at the Siege of Fort Vincennes in February 1779. Hannah accompanied her husband when he returned to Detroit after their marriage.

Sources:

Addyman, John. "HMS Ontario Back to Life: A Collaboration of Science, Technology, and Art," Sea History, No. 173 (Winter 2020-21, pp. 24-28. issuu.com/seahistory/docs/sh_173_winter-2020-21?fr=sYTE0ZTM0NDk2MQ

Blair, Fred. "Silver, Booze and Pantaloons: The American Looting of York in April 1813." The Fife and Drum, Vol. 24, No. 1 (April 2020) fortyork.ca/images/newsletters/fife-and-drum-2020/fife-and-drum-apr-2020.pdf

Library and Archives Canada. Haldimand Papers, MG21.

Library and Archives Canada. Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865.

Library and Archives Canada. War of 1812: Board of Claims for Losses, 1813-1848, RG 19 E5A.

Malcomson, Robert. "Not Very Much Celebrated: The Evolution and Nature of the Provincial Marine, 1755-1813. Northern Mariner, Vol 11, p. 25-37. cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol11/nm_11_1_25to37.pdf

Malcomson, Robert. Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2008.

Mayers, Adam. "Bloodstained Floor Told the Tale," Toronto Star, May 3, 2007.

McCarthy, Dennis and Kathi McCarthy, "Oswegatchie's First War Ship," Les Novelles du Fort (Fort de la Présentation Association), Vol. 15, Issue 2 (Fall 2020) p. 2.

Pippin, Douglas James, "For Want of Provisions: An Archaeological and Historical Investigation of the British Soldier at Fort Haldimand (1778--1784)" PhD dissertation, Syracuse University, 2010.

Robertson, John Ross. Robertson's Landmarks of Toronto: A Collection of Historical Sketches of the Old Town of York From 1792 until 1833, and of Toronto from 1834 to 1895, Volume 2. Toronto: J. Ross Robertson, 1896.

Schieffelin, Hannah Lawrence. "Narrative of Events of Observations That Occurred during a Journey through Canada in the Years 1780-81," The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1780 - 1781. digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/206cada0-7454-0133-1907-00505686d14e

Segelken, Roger. "Recovering History's Relicts," Empire Magazine, Syracuse Post-Standard, March 28, 1976, pp. 6-9.

Smith, Arthur Britton. Legend of the Lake: The 22-gun Brig-sloop Ontario, 1780. Kingston: Quarry Press, 1997 (2nd Edition 2010)

Taylor, Bill. "Finding HMS Ontario's Grave," Toronto Star, June 14, 2008.

Young in Years, Old in Crime

1828 Map of Van Dieman's Land

My great-grandfather Charlie Jacques (1869-1938) brought his family to Canada in 1907. He was born in Keighley, Yorkshire but moved with his mother and siblings to Sutton, Surrey after the death of his step-father. Charlie was likely named after his uncle, Charles Jacques (1822- ?), but apart from a baptism at Keighley I knew little about Charles. I could find no burial, no marriage, and he doesn't appear in any census records. Recently, however, I stumbled across the following article that appeared in the Bradford Observer on 12 July 1838:

BRADFORD COURT HOUSE
Young in Years, Old in Crime.— Charles Jaques, seemingly about 14 years of age, and who states himself to be the the son of a gardener at Keighley, and Harper Broomhill Nichol, about the same age, cart driver, of Halifax, were brought up charged with robbing Mary Liversedge, the wife of William Liversedge of Horton, on Saturday night last, in the Market Place in this town. It appeared that complainant on Saturday night was by the side of a wheelbarrow purchasing some gooseberries, for which she paid with copper, and she then had a purse in her pocket containing seven half crowns, and a gold wedding ring. Almost immediately she missed her purse and seeing a boy slip round the barrow, and made his way into the crowd, she felt convinced that he had robber her of her purse. She could not, however, see him again. On Monday morning she renewed her search and found her ring, which had been sold on Saturday night. In the meantime, however, from information received by the Constables, two boys (the prisoners) had been taken into custody on Saturday night in a lodging house, and by a clear and direct train of evidence, the robbery has been brought home to the two boys. In order that the ends of justice may not be frustrated, and that no undue prejudice may be excited against the prisoners, whose trial must necessarily immediately take place, we forbear giving even an outline of the evidence. Jacques has been twice previously committed from this town, for a robbery at Mr. Monkman's, the tobacconist, and another at Mr. Beddoes, for which last he was convicted, and endured three months' imprisonment, and only left the House of Correction on Saturday, the 23rd of June, and came into Bradford on Friday last. Nichol has been frequently convicted from Halifax, and is well known to the bench of sessions.

The article opened a floodgate of information. Charles, the son of David Jacques (1793-1831) and Elizabeth Corlass (1794-1856), was baptised at Keighley, Yorkshire on 7 Jul 1822.  In the 1822 Baines Directory entry for Keighley, David Jacques appears under the heading Gardeners, Nursery and Seedsmen as "Jacques Dvd. (dealer in British wines) Spring gardens." David was born on Belle Isle in Lake Windermere where his father had been gardener to John Christian Curwen (1756-1828).

On July 14, 1838 at the Bradford Sessions, Charles Jacques, aged 15, and Harper Broomhill Nichol, aged 16, were convicted of stealing a velvet purse containing seven half crowns and a gold ring. They were sentenced to be transported for seven years. The Court noted that Charles had a previously conviction for felony dated 2 Apr 1837.

Euryalus Towing the Royal Sovereign

Charles and Harper were received at the prison hulk Euryalus on August 22, 1838. Euryalus, moored in the Medway at Chatham in Kent, had been converted to a hulk for boys about 1825. Conditions were brutal. Convicts performed manual labour and were forced kept below desks for 23 hours a day. Gang violence and physical abuse from the guards were common.

The prison hulk register for Euryalus shows that Charles could read and write, and had been once convicted and once imprisoned. 

Before she became a prison hulk, HMS Euryalus had a storied history. Named after one of the Argonauts, she was a 36-gun frigate that was launched in 1803 and decommissioned in 1825. Euryalus saw service during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. At the Battle of Trafalgar, Euryalus engaged the French fleet while towing the badly damaged Royal Sovereign. After the death of Admiral Nelson, Adminal Collingwood transferred his flag from Royal Sovereign to Euryalus. During the War of 1812, Euryalus was present at the bombardment of Fort McHenry. This bombardment inspired Francis Scott Key to write a poem that later became the words to the Star-spangled Banner.

Between 1804 and 1853, the British Government transported about 76,000 convicts to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). Charles and Harper were two of 170 convicts transported on the barque Pyramus which departed England on November 16, 1838. The Pyramus arrived at Hobart in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on 24 Mar 1839. after a voyage of 122 days  

Conduct Record for Charles Jacques
Source: Libraries Tasmania CON32-1-4

Tasmania’s convict records are part of the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register and can be assessed through Libraries Tasmania. Of particular interest are the conduct records (CON 31, CON 32, CON 34) and the descriptive lists (CON18) in which Charles was described as 16 years old, four feet eight and a half inches tall, with brown hair and blue eyes.

For the first few years of his sentence Charles was assigned to various work gangs or to a free settler in a form of indentured servitude. He was not, however, a model prisoner. His conduct record shows numerous infractions for which he was brutally punished. In August 1839 he was "absent from his work without leave," and spent six days in a cell on bread and water. Later that month he was given 24 lashes for "misconduct." Over the next three years he was punished for absconding, insolence, insubordination, and for stealing a shirt. In July 1841 he was "returned to government, his master not requiring his services," and was at the Launceston prisoner's barracks later that year.

The Ploughing Team, Port Arthur
Source: State Library Victoria

In September 1842, while at Hobart, his sentence was extended by 18 months for absconding. That November he was sent to the Port Arthur penal settlement. In November 1844 he received 25 lashes for "smoking and refusing to give up the pipe." The following March he was given "three months hard labour in chains" for possessing tobacco. Two incidents of absconding in 1845 resulted in an additional twelve months hard labour in chairs. In January 1846 he was given 36 lashes for "idleness and insolence." In May 1846 his sentence was extended again by 18 months for gross insubordination. He was described as "being a most turbulent character,"

Charles was described as "being of most turbulent character," but on July 5, 1848, after a decade spent as a prisoner, Charles was given his certificate of freedom.

In contrast, Harper Broomhill Nichol's conduct record shows few infractions, and he was freed at the end of his seven year sentence.

Tasmanian convicts are often untraceable once they were freed. Many left Tasmania for South Australia, changed their names, and generally kept a low profile. One possibility for Charles is a marriage between Charles Jacques and Jane Evans that occured at Kooringa in South Australia on 20 Aug 1849. Kooringa was the location of the Burra Burra Cooper Mine. The following April, Robert Jacques was born, named after his uncle Robert Evans who had witnessed his parents marriage. Jane, born about 1831, and her brother had arrived in South Australia from Swansea, Wales in October 1848. What became of Charles, Jane and their son afterwards is not known.

Demons in Human Form: Adin Beebe and Philip Crysler

Thomas Cole, View on the Schoharie, 1826, Fenimore Art Museum

After the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington and Concord, a significant number of American colonists adopted what could be described as wary neutrality. In the case of the colonists living on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River in present-day Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, this neutrality lasted for almost two years.

But by early 1777, many of them had decided that they had to demonstrate their opposition to the Revolution. On March 31, 1777, John Butler, the Deputy Superintendant of the Indian Department, wrote from Fort Niagara that he had "received letters from seventy of the inhabitants of the Susquehanna by one Depue, expressing a desire of entering into His Majesty's service as Rangers." One of the these letters was likely authored by my fifth great-grandfather, Joshua Beebe.

244 years later it is difficult to know why Joshua became a Loyalist. Joshua, the son of Joshua Beebe (1713-1797) and Hannah Brockway (1718-1819), was born in East Haddam, Connecticut in 1738. About 1760, he married Mary Secord who had been born in New Rochelle, New York in 1736. The births of Joshua and Mary's two oldest children, Adin (1761-1843) and Secord (1764-1859), were registered in Ashford, Connecticut.

According to family tradition Charlotte (1767-1852) was also born in Ashford, while Amasa (1769-1852) and Asa (1772-1861) were born in York, in southern Pennsylvania. No primary sources have been found to support this but York appears in Roy Beebe's An Ordinary Family: Extra-Ordinary Times, and in Ken Annett's article on the Beebe family published as part of his Gaspe of Yesterday series. In her article, "In Search of Mary Beebe," Alex Newman speculates that Joshua and Mary had settled on the Susquehanna as early as 1769 but had fled to the safety of York during the First Pennamite War.

The Susquehanna River at Mehoopany

Joshua and Mary's daughter Sarah was born on January 6, 1775. Sarah is known to have been born on the Susquehanna, which suggests that Joshua and Mary had settled there in 1774 at the same time as Mary's brothers Peter and James Secord. James and Peter farmed near Mehoopany, while another brother, John Secord, was located downriver near Tunkhannock. All four appear on the 1776 tax assessment list for the "Up the River" district.

In a letter dated April 1, 1871, John Secord Beebe (1813-1872), a grandson of Joshua and Mary wrote to his half-brother William Thomas Beebe (1840-1918) and described the general location:

The Secords with your grandfather Beebe moved to the Susquehanna the river after winding throug[h] the mountains came into a flat country called Wyoming leading down to the Chesapeak Bay. They were amongst the first that settled on the [illegible word] lands amongst the mountains, one of there farms was the first as they came to the mouth that is to say the country was flat or more level from that toward the Chesapeak each one of the four of them had taken as heads of family one of those [illegible word] flats being a large flat on one side and mountains on the other, opposite your grandfathers farm in the river was an island by some called Long Island whilst others called it Peach Island.

The North Branch of the Susquehanna River rises at Lake Otsego in New York. It flows southwest and crosses into Pennsylvania twice before merging with the Chemung River at Tioga Point. The river then flows southeast through the Endless Mountains in Pennsylvania. After emerging from the mountains the Susquehanna turns to the southwest and flows through the area known as the Wyoming Valley until it merges with the west branch at Sunbury.

Johannes Ettwein's 1768 Map
of the North Branch. Source:
Unity Archives, Herrnhut, Germany

In the 18th century, the area in which Joshua and his brothers-in-law settled was claimed by both Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Disputes arose over land ownership between the "Yankees" who purchased their property from Connecticut's Susquehanna Company, and the "Pennamites" who had acquired title from Pennsylvania. The skirmishes and mutual harassment that occurred are referred to as the Yankee-Pennamite Wars.

By the start of the Revolutionary War, the Wyoming Valley was firmly under the control of the settlers from Connecticut. In January 1774, the Wyoming Valley had been incorporated into a town named Westmoreland and annexed to Connecticut's Litchfield County. This was done despite Pennsylvania having formed Northumberland County in 1772. In December 1775, an attempt by Pennsylvania to forcibly evict the Yankee settlers failed, and in October 1776, Westmoreland was formally established as a county of Connecticut.

Most of those who had settled "up the river," however, had either acquired their land from Pennsylvania or were squatters. The tension between Yankees in the Wyoming Valley and those upriver was such that at a meeting held in January 1776 in Wilkes-Barre it was resolved that a committee:

... proceed up the river and let the people known that the inhabitants of Westmoreland are not about to kill and destroy them and take any of their effects as reported, but they may keep their effects and continue in peace on reasonable terms provided they conform to the laws of the Colony of Connecticut and the Resolves of the Continental Congress, and confirm their intentions by signing the subscription paper for that purpose that said committee will produce.

Undoubtedly, Joshua's decision to remain loyal was influenced by his wife Mary's brothers. All three became rangers in the Indian Department at the same time of Joshua. In October 1775, James Secord had been appointed captain of the Ninth Company, 24th Regiment, Connecticut Militia, but was replaced the following June because he was "suspected and accused of Tory proclivities."

Tioga Point

In March 1776, John Secord had been arrested and accused of spying, providing intelligence to the enemy, and helping escaped British officers to make their way to Niagara. John petitioned the Continental Congress complaining of the infringement of his rights. Congress referred his case to the Governor of Connecticut, and John was freed. John subsequently abandoned his farm near Tunkhannock and moved further upriver to Tioga Point at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chemung Rivers.

In the spring of 1777 Joshua Beebe and his 15-year-old son Adin, left their farm on the Susquehanna and headed for Fort Niagara. They were part of a substantial group that included James Secord and his sons Solomon, Steven, and David; Peter Secord and his son Cyrus; John Secord and his son John; Abraham Wartman and his son Adam; and Jacob Bowman with his son Adam.

John Butler noted the arrival of the Susquehanna Loyalists at Niagara in a letter to Governor Guy Carleton on April 8, 1777:

Since my letter to Your Excellency of the 31st ulto, several people have arrived from the Susquehanna, who inform me of more being on their way and more to follow them in a few days.

Joshua and Adin appear on "A List of Persons Employed in the Indian Department" dated Niagara, June 15, 1777. The following month Butler brought his rangers to Oswego to rendezvous with Brigadier General Barry St. Leger. St. Leger's expedition left Oswego on July 26 and travelled overland to Fort Stanwix which was besieged beginning on August 2. On August 6, Joshua, Adin, and the other rangers were part of the ambush of American reinforcements known as the Battle of Oriskany.

The Siege of Fort Stanwix was lifted on August 22 after the British received misleading intelligence that an American relief column commanded by Major General Benedict Arnold was approaching. A few days later at Oneida Lake, St. Leger gave leave to the Susquehanna rangers "to go home for their families and to bring off some cattle."

Joshua was with the group that went home since his son Joshua was born the following year. Joshua and Adin evaded capture that winter when a Patriot force commanded by Nathan Denison arrested "sundry Tories" and sent 17 of them to prison in Connecticut. Among the prisoners were Jacob and Adam Bowman who were released in 1780 but then recaptured a few weeks later.

In September 1777, John Butler received permission to form the provincial regiment known as Butler's Rangers. Butler's instructions from Governor Carleton were to place volunteers who could speak one or more of the Haudenosaunee languages and were "acquainted with their customs and manner of making war" into the first two companies. Most of the Susquehanna loyalists were transferred from the Indian Department into Butler Rangers. When Joshua and Adin returned to Fort Niagara they were placed in the company commanded by John Butler's son, Capt. Walter Butler.

On May 1, 1778, the two companies of Butler's Rangers left Fort Niagara for Tioga Point. On June 28 the Rangers, accompanied by a few hundred Haudenosaunee warriors,  set off by canoe down the Susquehanna, past the farms of Joshua and his neighbours. On July 1, the Rangers captured Fort Wintermoot and Fort Jerkins, and on July 3, at the Battle of Wyoming, routed a Patriot force of 360 commanded by Nathan Denison and Zebulon Butler. Forty Fort surrendered to Butler the following day.

At some point shortly before or after the Battle of Wyoming, Mary Secord and her children abandoned their farm on the Susquehanna and travelled upriver to Tioga Point. In her claim for losses, Mary reported crops left in the ground ("wheat, corn, potatoes and turnips") confirming an early summer departure. John Secord Beebe's letter provides additional details:

On their march up the river on there way to Canada they came to a place called Tellga point being a point of land formed by another river coming into the main river. There they encamped for several days. There your grandfather bade his wife and family farewell, bound to N. Y. on business of importance from which he never returned. There also was your father born 3 or 4 days after his father left.

According to his baptism record, Joshua and Mary's son Joshua was born on 29 Jul 1778. Tioga Point was where Mary's brother John had settled after he left his farm near Tunkhannock. Joshua, John Depue, and Thomas Hill had been sent with dispatches for General Sir Henry Clinton in New York.

In her Claim for Losses, Joshua's widow, Mary described what happened:

I Mary Pearson late Mary Bebee Widow to the deceased Joshua Bebee Farmer residing at Susquehannah in the Province of Pennsylvania was driven from our Property since the late unhappy Dissentions in America on account of my Loyalty to His Majesty and attachment to the British Government and my Husband and Son joined the British Army under Colonel Butler at Niagara 1st April 1777 and was sent with Dispatches from Niagara by the order of Colonel Boulton and Colonel Butler to the Royal Army at New York and delivered his Charge and took the Small Pox and died.

The "Evidence of Mary Pearson" was heard at Quebec on July 31, 1787. The commission added the following information:

Her late Husband Joshua Beebe was born in America, in 1775 he was settled on the Susquehanna, he never joined the Rebels, but joined Butler’s Rangers in 1777, he went with an Express to New York from Susquehanna and died of the Small Pox in 1778 – Claimant came into Canada in 1778 and is now married to Christopher Pearson. She has 7 Children by Beebe in Canada, Eden [Adin] at Niagara 23 years – Seacord [Secord] 21, Charlotte 20 married to S. Chatterton at Chaleur, Emeiser [Amasa] 18 – Easse [Asa] 15 – Sarah 12 – Josh 10

Finally, there is the certificate of John Depue attached to the Upper Canada Land Petition of Elias Smith:

I do hereby Certify that Elias Smith, now of this place in the Year 1778 when I was on Express with a packet in company with Jonathan Bebe and Thomas Hill from Niagara to New York was recommended to him as being a true subject to His Majesty and that we might rely on him for any assistance we might want (he then living on Cortland Manor) in order to forward us through safe and on our applying to him he then did furnish us with provision, and kept us concealed in the woods till he got a Young Woman to go to New York (as it was impossible for a Man to go through the American lines without being strictly examined) and return back that me might know which to go to avoid the Guard. We then thought it most safe to divide the letters, and Jonan Babe & Thos Hill went and got th[r]ough safe.

The Haldimand Papers include a State of Subsistence prepared by Walter Butler dated 24 Dec 1780 that records Joshua Beebe's death on 28 Oct 1778.

Mary and her children would have been escorted to Fort Niagara in August or early September, well before the retaliatory Hartley Expedition reached Tioga Point in late September. Fort Niagara, however, was ill-equipped to support large number of refugees.

On November 11, 1778, the commanding officer of Fort Niagara, Lieutenant Colonel Mason Bolton, wrote to Governor 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.

Two days earlier, Thomas Carleton, Quartermaster General, had written to Haldimand from Montreal that, "22 families of loyalists (111 persons) are on their way from Niagara; some have arrived, and in want of clothing." Later that month Carleton had reported an additional 12 families (84 persons) from Niagara and that had he billeted them "on the inhabitants" of Point Claire on the Île de Montréal.

It is quite possible that Mary and her children were with the second group as "Widow Beebe" with six children were recorded in billets at Point Claire in July 1779. They would have travelled by boat and batteau to Montreal once news of Joshua's death had reached Niagara. As a soldier in Butler's Rangers, Adin remained behind.

Return of Loyalists
October 24, 1779

In the summer of 1779, Mary and her children were sent downriver to the newly constructed refugee camp at Machiche on the north side of the St. Lawrence River west of Trois-Rivières. Here they would remain until June 1784.

At Machiche, refugees were housed in one of at least twenty square timber building measuring eighteen by forty feet. Each building had a double chimney and was divided into two rooms. The Beebe family would have occupied one room while another family occupied the second. Beds, blankets, bedclothes, cooking utensils, shoes, and clothing were provided. Cast iron stoves were installed, several acres of gardens were planted, and a number of masonry ovens were built. By the time of Mary's arrival a schoolhouse had also been constructed and a schoolmaster had been appointed.

On August 15, 1781, Mary had her five youngest children baptised at Trois-Rivières. On October 1 of the same year she married Christopher Pearson (1736-1827), a widower with two daughters.

Joseph Bouchette's 1815 Plan of the District of Gaspe. Source:
 Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Centre, Boston Public Library

In February 1784, and again in May, a notice was published in the Quebec Gazette offering free land and passage to Loyalists willing to settle on the Baie des Chaleurs. In June 1784, 315 refugees and discharged British soldiers boarded the brigs Polly and St. Pierre, the snow Liberty, the Hoy St. Johns and four whaleboats, and sailed for Paspébiac on the Gaspe Peninsula. The family of Christopher Pearson which now included Mary and her children were recorded aboard the Polly.

Charles Robin (1743-1824)

Paspébiac was the location of a fishing station operated by Charles Robin, a native of Jersey who had come to the Gaspe in 1766. In 1777 it was home to several families of Acadians who Robin had recruited from the thousands who had been deported to France during the Seven Years War. Further to the west was the settlement of Bonaventure which had been established by Acadian refugees in 1760. Accompanying the loyalists aboard the Polly was Major Nicholas Cox, the Lieutenant Governor of Gaspe.

Cox relates how the Polly was twice driven back to Bic by a gale that continued for five days. When the fleet reached Paspébiac, Cox had representatives from each ship sent ashore "to view the land," however, the Loyalists, "could agree about any one thing." The ships then headed for the Acadian settlement of Bonaventure where they was safe harbour for the ships and shelter for the women and children. While at Bonaventure, Cox convinced the loyalists to settle the unoccupied land to the west of Paspébiac, which became known as Little Paspébiac:

My coming here has opened the eyes of the Loyalists, and they are now convinced that this land is not so good as at Paspebiac ... I believe that they would have been glad to have taken possession of their [the Acadians] improvements but after convincing them of the impossibility of interfering with the inhbitants or their land, they have agreed to return to Little Paspebiac.

The Acadians had earlier impressed Cox as a "sober industrious people" who "are improving and cultivating the land which produces exceedingly fine wheat, barley and oats," so he was reluctant to displace them. Cox also received several letters from Charles Robin expressing concern about the impact the loyalist settlement would have on his "interests" at Paspébiac. In one letter, Robin wrote:

Give me leave also to recommend to your attention the old settlers of this place who have already improved the lands about their houses in confidence that their labour and industry would not be taken from them.

Cox's solution was to reserve 1000 acres for Charles Robin and 50 acres for each of the Acadian families at Paspébiac. On 3 Aug 1784 the loyalists drew for their lots. Christopher Pearson received 600 acres as the father and step-father of seven children. Secord Beebe, who was 19 years of age, received 100 acres in his own name.

1785 Survey of Little Paspebiac. Source: Library and Archives Canada

Mary remained in what became known as New Carlisle for the rest of her life. Secord Beebe left New Carlisle for the Wentworth Valley in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. Charlotte Beebe married Samuel Chatterton, a discharged soldier of the 31st Regiment of Foot who had arrived at New Carlisle aboard the Liberty. Amasa Beebe never married but became Protonotary of the District Court of Gaspe. Asa married twice, while his sister Sarah married Andrew Caldwell. Sarah's 1823 gravestone is the oldest monument in New Carlisle's Presbyterian burial ground. Joshua Beebe married three times and died in 1844. His third wife, Mary Watt, was 35 years younger than Joshua and also younger than the five children of his first marriage.

While the exact date of her death is not known, two letters from Adin Beebe to his brother Amasa show that Mary lived past well her 100th birthday. In his letter of 1838 Adin writes, “In yours of 1836, I find that our mother is still living."  In his letter of 1843, however, he reflects on the “demonstrated frailty of man” and gives "thanks to those whom I esteem for the attention they paid our deceased mother.” 

Adin Beebe continued serving with Butler's Rangers until the end of the Revolutionary War. As a member of Captain Walter Butler's company he was likely at the Cherry Valley Massacre in November 1778 when Butler and the Mohawk war leader Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) failed to prevent Seneca warriors from slaying thirty non-combatants. He may also have been at the Battle of Newtown in August 1779 when the Haudenosaunee and Butler's Rangers made an unsuccessful stand against the Sullivan Expedition. 

Assuming Adin stayed in Walter Butler's company, he may have been one of 150 Rangers who participated in the Battle of Johnstown on October 25, 1781, and could have been present when Butler was killed at West Canada Creek on October 30, 1781. A letter written by Lieutenant Alexander McDonell of the Rangers describes what happened:

We had no other encounter until the 30th at Canada Creek, which we had scarce crossed when the rebels appeared on the opposite side. They expected to overtake us before we could ford the creek, which is very deep and rapid. As soon as they perceived us, they gave a general discharge. We returned the compliment and kept up a pretty brisk exchange of such favours for near ten minutes, when the gallant Captain Butler was unfortunately shot through the head by a rifle ball. The loss of this active and promising Officer cannot be too much lamented.

On the Return of Loyalists at Niagara dated November 30, 1783, Adin appears as a corporal in Lieutenant Colonel's John Butler's Company. By the time Butler's Rangers disbanded the following summer he had been promoted to Sergeant. Rather than rejoin his family on the Baie des Chaleurs, Adin decided to "settle and cultivate the Crown Lands opposite to Niagara," and was granted 300 acres fronting on Lake Ontario in Louth Township.

Adin married sometime between July 1784 and December 1786.  It is clear from Adin Beebe's Upper Canada Land Petitions "that his wife is Daughter of Philip Chrysler." The consensus amoung Beebe researchers is that her name was Dorothy. The name Dorothy, however, does not appear in any primary sources. The 1783 return shows Philip Crysler and his wife Elizabeth had a daughter Elizabeth, aged 18, a daughter Margaret, aged 16, and a daughter Lehen [Magdalena), aged 7. Elsewhere in the return are 14 year old Heironymus Crysler and 15 year old John Crysler who had both joined Butler's Rangers. The births of all five are recorded in the records of St Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Schoharie, New York.

The most likely candidate for Dorothy is Margaret who was born on November 1, 1766. Most children of German descent were given two personal names, however, in the St Paul's Evangelical Lutheran records, only one name typically appears. Margaret, therefore, may very well have been Margareth Dorothea.

1790 map showing the Schoharie River and the headwaters
of the Susquehanna. Source: Harvard University Library

Philip Crysler, the son of Hieronymus Krausler (1713-1751) and Maria Margareth Braun (? - 1753), was born in the Schoharie Valley about 1741. His grandparents had been among the nearly 3,000 German Protestant refugees (Palatines) who had arrived in New York from London in 1710. Philip married Elisabeth Braun on November 19, 1762, and moved northwest to New Dorlach in 1769.

Philip enlisted in the King's Royal Regiment of New York on August 15, 1777 during the Siege of Fort Stanwix. He appears on the regiment's muster roll dated January 21, 1778 at Laprarie near Montreal. The following year he transferred to Butler's Rangers.

In October 1780, Philip took advantage of a large scale raid by British forces on the Schoharie Valley to bring his family from their home in New Dorlach to Niagara. The joint raid by the King's Royal Regiment of New York, Butler's Rangers, and regulars from the 8th and 34th Regiments, was commanded by Sir John Johnson. Accompanied by Mohawk, Seneca, and Cayuga warriors, the expedition left Oswego on Lake Ontario on the 2nd and arrived at the head of the Schoharie Valley on the 16th. Gavin Watt in The Burning of the Valleys writes that the following day Johnson's forces, "marched 12 miles, fought several skirmishes, invested a fort and created a conflagration beyond imagination. For men who had already traversed a wilderness over rough trails and on very short rations, it had been exhausting."

"Murder of Catharine Merckley" in History of
the Schoharie Valley by Jeptha Simms

Early the following morning, while Johnson's force prepared to advance to the Mohawk River, Philip Crysler accompanied by two Rangers, and 17 Mohawk warriors led by headed west to New Dorlach. As Philip helped his family prepare for the trip to Niagara, the rest of the party went to  the farm of Michael Merckley. 13-year-old John Merckley and his sisters Anna and Elizabeth were taken prisoner as was their cousin Martin and a young lodger. When Merckley and his niece Catharine arrived home they were shot dead and scalped. The warriors then proceeded to the farm of Sebastian Frantz. Sebastian avoided capture but his son John was seriously wounded, and his wife and other children were taken prisoner. One child, Henry, later escaped which so angered his captor that John was killed and scalped.

Hearing gunfire, Elizabeth Crysler urged Philip to "put on his Indian clothing" and save the Frantz family as they had helped her in the three years Philip had been absent. Although he was unable to save John, Philip convinced the Mohawk warriors to leave the rest of the Frantz family unharmed. Mrs. Frantz never recognized the "blue-eyed Indian" as her neighbour.

Accompanied now by the Crysler family, the raiding party headed to a nearby mill where a number of the owner's slaves were captured. They then began the arduous journey back to Fort Niagara. Within a few miles John Merckley and the lodger began crying and were inconsolable. One of the Mohawk warriors dragged the boys out of sight before killing and scalping them.

19th century historians Jeptha Simms and William E. Roscoe both accuse Philip of planning the attack on the Merckley farm. In his 1845 History of Schoharie County, Simms speculates that Philip was taking revenge on Michael Merckley because Philip's daughter had been impregnated by Merckley's son but had refused to take responsibilty. In his 1888 account, Roscoe describes Philip and his brothers as "demons in human form, whose brutal acts outvied those of the uncivilized barbarian, and are a stain upon the history of civilized mankind."

Map of the Niagara District, Upper Canada, 1815
Source: Library and Archives Canada

Butler's Rangers was disbanded in June 1784. While most of the Rangers were granted land west of the Niagara River as a reward for their service to the Crown, Philip joined the Loyalists who were settling on the St. Lawrence River west of Montreal. Philip appears on the 1784 Williamsburgh Return with the remark, "Gone to Niagara for his family." Also on this return is Philip's brother, John Crysler, who had been a Lieutenant in the Indian Department at Niagara.

In the 1787 Return of Loyalists & disbanded troops settled in the District of Niagara, "Eden Bebie" is listed as a head of household with one woman. He had eight acres of land cleared and five bushels of wheat sown. Adin's daughter Lucretia was born about 1788, followed by Druscilla a year later. Amasa Beebe was born in 1791. Joshua was born in 1795, Solomon in 1798, and Asa about 1801.

A "Return of Land Granted" prepared by Deputy Surveyor General Augustus Jones in 1792 shows that Adin had only received 300 acres of the 600 acres he was entitled to. In 1794, after the Province of Quebec had been divided in Upper and Lower Canada, Adin received a commission as a Lieutenant in the Lincoln Militia, having previously been an ensign in the Nassau Militia. He served as Town Clerk of Louth from 1793 to 1795 and again from 1799 to 1804.

During the War of 1812, Adin's sons Amasa and Joshua served in the 1st Regiment of Lincoln Militia.  Initially, Amasa and Joshua were with the 2nd Flank Company and were likely present at the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812. When the Volunteer Battalion of Incorporated Militia was created to replace the flank companies, Amasa and Joshua transferred to Capt. Jacob Ball's company.

Adin died in Louth on November 7, 1843 at the age of 82. He was predeceased by his wife, his daughter Druscilla, and his sons, Joshua and Asa. He was buried three days later in a small family graveyard located close to the shore of Lake Ontario. Any gravestones that existed disappeared in the late 1800s, and when the Queen Elizabeth Way was constructed in 1939, any trace of the cemetery was destroyed.

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Beebe, Adin. Letter to Amasa Beebe, July 16, 1838. Public Archives of New Brunswick, MC 1.

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