The New York Volunteer: John Secord (1762 - ?)

Detail from the 1859 Tremaine Map of Brant County

In her acclaimed book Liberty's Exiles, American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World, Maya Jasanoff describes the Loyalists as "ordinary people whose lives were overturned by extraordinary events." During the American Revolution, sixty thousand "ordinary people," sided with Britain and as a result abandoned their homes and sought refuge in other parts of the British Empire. Among them were ten members of the family of Daniel Secord (1698- ?) and Catherine Mabie (1703- ?) of Westchester, New York—three of their sons and seven of their grandchildren.

Two sons and five grandchildren joined Butler's Rangers based at Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario: Peter Secord (1726-1818), John Secord (1725-1804), their sons Silas (1755- ?) and John (1757-1830)  and their nephews Solomon (1755-1799), Stephen (1757-1808), and David (1759-1844). John and Peter's brother James Secord (1732-1784) served in the Indian Department at Fort Niagara, while their nephew, Daniel Secord (1756- ?), son of their brother Daniel (1723-1818), joined Brant's Volunteers, also based at Fort Niagara.

The final member of this family to remain loyal was John Secord, another child of Daniel Secord and his wife Elinor. John was born in Dutchess County, New York in 1762, and at the age of 15 joined the New York Volunteers, a loyalist provincial regiment commanded by Lieutenant Colonel George Turnbull (1728-1810). The New York Volunteers were sent to East Florida in October 1778. They saw action at the Capture of Savannah in December 1778, and at the Siege of Savannah in October 1779. John appears as a private on the muster roll of Captain John Coffin's Company dated at Savannah, Georgia on 29 Nov 1779.

The Stand of the Continentals
at Camden by Graham Turner

The Volunteers were at the Siege of Charleston in the spring of 1780 and at the Battle of Camden in August 1780. In April 1781, the Volunteers fought at the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill. John appears as a corporal on both 1781 muster rolls for Captain Coffin's Company. In August 1782, the New York Volunteers returned to New York several months before the British evacuation of Charleston. When the Revolutionary War ended, the New York Volunteers and other Loyalist units were evacuated from New York. The Volunteers were transported aboard the Ranger and arrived at the mouth of the Saint John River (New Brunswick) in late September 1783. They were disbanded on 10 Oct 1783. John was a sergeant at the time of his discharge.

John married in New Brunswick and had at least five children. His wife's name is not known. In 1793, he moved west to Upper Canada (Ontario) and settled in Gainsborough Township in the Niagara Peninsula. Unfortunately, the lot alloted to him (Lot 9 Concession 1 on the north bank of the Welland River) had been alloted to Isaac Vrooman several years earlier. In his 1794 Upper Canada Land Petition, John claims he, "erected thereon a Small house (there being no improvement on the Lot when he took possession)" and further claimed that Vrooman only began to clear land after Secord had settled. Vrooman disputed this, stating that Secord arrived a year after Vrooman had begun "improving" the property. The Executive Council apparently decided in favour of Vrooman, and John moved west to Burford Gore (Oakland Township). On 17 May 1802, he was granted title to Lot 9 Concession 2 in Burford Gore (Oakland Township), as well as 200 acres in Townsend Township, Norfolk County.

In 1809, John petitioned for his name to be added to the list of Loyalists "in order than his children may be entitled to partake of His Majesty's bounty in land."

John served in the 1st Regiment of Oxford Militia before the War of 1812. He appears as a private on the 1803 muster roll of the Burford Company, and as a Lieutenant on the 1807 muster roll. On 11 Jul 1812 he was commissioned a Captain, however, does not appear on any of the surviving muster rolls from the war.

John Secord's will is dated 6 Feb 1813. In his will he names his sons: James, John and Asa, and his grandchilden: Amy and Mariah Doyle, and William and Joseph Ellis.

1812 Return of Bingham's
Rifle Company

James saw active service during the War of 1812 with the 1st Regiment of Oxford Militia. He appears on the muster rolls for Lieutenant B. Brewster Bingham's Rifle Company during the fall of 1812, and again on the muster rolls for Bingham's company in 1814. James was undoubtedly present at the Battle of Malcolm's Mills on 6 Nov 1814 when the Oxford, Middlesex, and Norfolk militias unsuccessfully tried to block an American force of 700 mounted riflemen under the command of Brigadier General Duncan McArthur. The battle took place less than 1.5 kilometres from James's home.

James Secord's Upper Canada Land Petition is dated 13 Apr 1819. He was awarded 200 acres as the "Son of John Seacord Serjeant of the New York Volunteers Loyalist."

In 1823, James sold the east half of Lot 9 Concession 1 Oakland to his brother Asa, and the west half to Asa in 1828. Between 1830 and 1832 James sold off Lot 24 Concession 12 in Townsend. James never married.

Apart from being named in his father's will, nothing else is known about John Secord. He is sometimes confused with his cousin John Secord, the son of Daniel Secord.

Deborah Ellis née Secord's gravestone
at Mount Pleasant Pioneer Cemetery,
Brantford, Brant, Ontario

John’s daughter Deborah Secord (1790-1866) married John Ellis (1780-1864). John Ellis was the son of Henry Ellis and had emigrated with his family to Upper Canada from Pennsylvania in 1798. Henry leased 200 acres from the Haudenosaunee in 1801. Deborah and John had at least nine children. Their son, David Duncomb Ellis (1833-1909) married Bessie Whale, daughter of the portrait and landscape painter Robert Reginald Whale (1805-1887). Deborah was granted land as the daughter of a Loyalist in 1822.

Mary Secord married John Doyle, son of Benjamin Doyle and Catherine Summers, and was granted land as the daughter of a Loyalist in 1816. Their two children, Amy and Mariah (1809-1879), were named in the will of their grandfather. Mariah married Roswell Stevens (1808-1880) and converted to Mormonism in 1834. Mariah and Roswell moved from Mount Pleasant in 1835 to Missouri and then to Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois. They left Nauvoo in 1846 with the Mormon Battalion and eventually settled in Alpine, Utah. Mariah divorced Roswell in 1852 and married Morris Charles Phelps (1805-1876), becoming the third wife in a polygamous marriage. Mariah and Morris had no children. They were living in Montpelier, Bear Lake Idaho in 1870.

Asa Secord's gravestone
at Oakland Cemetery,
Oakland, Brant, Ontario

Asa Secord was born in Upper Canada about 1795 and died 82 years later in 1877. He was bequeathed Lot 24 Concession 12 in Townsend but transferred the property to his brother James in exchange for the use of the Oakland property.

Asa is believed to have served in the militia during the War of 1812. He appears on the list, published in 1876, of War of 1812 militiamen who applied for the twenty dollar gratuity voted by Parliament in 1875. The "corps or division in which he served" is recorded as Gore, however, there was no militia unit by that name, as the Gore District of Upper Canada was not formed until 1816. Asa's name does not appear on the surviving muster rolls of the 5th Lincoln Regiment or the 1st Oxford Regiment.

Asa married twice and had an impressive number of children — 18 in total. All survived to adulthood. The youngest, Anna Darling Secord was born when Asa was 74. Asa married his first wife, Jeannette Brown, daughter of Archibald Brown, about 1824. Their first child, Sarah, was born about 1826. Sarah married Smith Beebe in 1848. Smith was the great-grandson of Mary Secord, although it is unlikely that Sarah and Smith realized they were 3rd cousins.

During the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion, Asa Secord was suspected of helping to secure gunpowder for the rebels led by Dr. Charles Duncombe. He was arrested, but was granted bail on 27 Dec 1837. In March 1838 a conditional pardon was extended to minor participants in the Rebellion.

Jeannette died about 1848 after the birth of her tenth child. Asa's second wife, Sarah Elizabeth Darling, was thirty years younger than Asa, and the same age as his daughter Sarah. Their first child, Clara, was born in 1850.

Asa Secord (1795-1877)

Around 1850, Asa sold off the east half of Lot 9 Concession 2 in two 50 acres parcels. Both the 1859 Tremaine Map and the 1875 Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of Brant show Asa on the west half of Lot 9 Concession 2. The 1875 map shows that Asa's farmhouse was located at the north end of his property. 

Asa died on 7 Oct 1877. At least four of his sons emigrated to the United States and settled in Michigan, while his son Edward (1865-1937) moved west to Manitoba and then Saskatchewan. By 1891, only Asa and Sarah's son Charles, born in 1854, was still living in Oakland. Charles remained in Oakland for the rest of his life and was buried at Oakland Cemetery near his parents in 1937. The only other children known to have been buried at Oakland were Asa and Jeannette's daughters Sarah (1826-1892), who married Smith Beebe (1825-1877), and Elizabeth (1828-1891), who married William Wheeler (1826-1917).

Sources:

Bell, David. American Loyalists to New Brunswick: The Ship Passenger Lists. Halifax: Formac Publishing, 2015.

Jaeger, Sharon. The Work of Our Hands: Mount Pleasant, Ontario, 1799~1899: A History. Heritage Mount Pleasant, 2004.

Library and Archives Canada. RG 1 L 3. Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865.

Library and Archives Canada. RG 9 1B7. War of 1812: Upper Canada Returns, Nominal Rolls and Paylists. 

Moulton, R. Kirk. "The Early Sicard-Secor Families of New York: Origins of United Empire Loyalist William Secord." The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume 150 Number 4 (October 2019).

Muir, Robert Cuthbertson. The Early Political and Military History of Burford. Quebec: La Cie D'imprimerie Commerciale, 1913.

Rammage, Stuart A. The Militia Stood Alone: Malcolm Mills, 6 November 1814. Summerland, British Columbia: Valley Publishing, 2000.

Rammage, Stuart. Oakland Township: Two Hundred Years, Volume 1. Unpublished manuscript, 1993. Retrieved from http://images.ourontario.ca/brant/details.asp?ID=75674

Read, Colin. The Rising in Western Upper Canada, 1837-8: The Duncombe Revolt and After. University of Toronto Press, 1982.