Gravestone Art: The Mandeville Family of Woodhouse

Although relatively common in England, very few gravestones in Ontario are as ornately carved as this monument from Woodhouse United Church Cemetery near Simcoe, Ontario. Carved from sandstone, the stone marks the grave of John Mandeville who died in 1845.

John, the son of James Mandeville and his second wife, Maria Debow, was born in Pompton Plains, Morris County, New Jersey, even though his parents were residents of Woodhouse Township in Upper Canada. The records of the Dutch Reformed Church of Pompton Plains give John's date of birth as January 22, 1835.

John Mandeville (1833-1848)

Close to John's grave is the grave of his father who died in 1876 at the age of 80. Also nearby is the gravestone of Margaret Van Ness, James's first wife who died in 1820.

Margaret van Ness, daughter of Jacob Van Ness (1772–1822) and Christiana Mead (1774–1840), was born in Pompton Plains on January 2, 1796. While a marriage has not been found, James and Margaret's daughter Margaret, born in 1818, was baptised at the Dutch Reformed Church of Pompton Plains on August 15, 1819. The baptism register notes that her mother, Margaret Van Ness, was deceased, which conflicts with the year of death inscribed on her gravestone.

James and Margaret may also have had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Samuel Harris Ryerse (1815-1890) in Woodhouse in 1839. Census data indicates that Elizabeth was born in 1820 in Upper Canada. Elizabeth was the mother of at least six children, and died in Woodhouse in 1899.

James Manderville married Maria Debow at Pompton Plains on October 2, 1827. Maria, the daughter of John Debow (1780–1841) and Sarah Drummond (1775–1820), was born on December 26, 1806 and would have died sometime before 1849.

Maria and James had a daughter, Clarrisa, who was born at Pompton Plains in 1833, and another son, Nicholas, who was born in Woodhouse about 1838. There may have been other children who died young.

Margaret Van Ness (1798–1820)

James Mandeville married for the third time around 1849. Esther Mann had been previously married to Thomas Richardson and had seven children. James and Esther's daughter Agnes was born in 1850 and appears with her parents, her half-brother Nicholas, and her seven Richardson step-siblings in the 1852 Census. Esther was 20 years younger than James and died before 1861.

Agnes Mandeville died on June 28, 1866, at the age of 16, and was buried at Doans Hollow Cemetery. Her half-brother Nicholas married Sarah Scarlett (1837–1929) in 1858 and had four children. Nicholas died in 1873, three years before his father, and is buried at the Culver-Collver Cemetery. Nicholas's sister Clarrisa married Philander Bagley in 1850 and had at least two children. She died in Woodhouse in 1910, and was buried at the Port Dover Cemetery.

James Hendrick Mandeville, the son of Hendrick Mandeville and Sophia "Fytje" Gillalin (1775–1830), was born in Pompton Plains on December 28, 1796. It is unknown when he first emigrated to Upper Canada, however, he made at least two extended trips back to Pompton Plains. Census data shows James living in Woodhouse Township, Norfolk County in 1852, 1861 and 1871.

Sophia's name appears as Sopiha Gilldan on her gravestone, as Fyche Cjillelen on the record of her marriage to Hendrick in 1794, and as Fytje Gillalin on the record of James's birth. James had eleven siblings, and in the baptism register of the Dutch Reformed Church of Pompton Plains, Sophia Gillalin is how the name usually appears. Fytje is a diminutive of Sophia.

Mandeville researchers have often claimed that Hendrick's father was David Mandeville (1746-1824) who emigrated to Upper Canada before the War of 1812 and who settled in Southwold Township in the London District. The problem with this theory is that while David and his second wife had a son named Hendrick, he wasn't born until 1797.

Hendrick was likely the son of Johannes Mandeville (1739-1805) and Claesje Mandeville (1742-1831). Johannes and Claesje were cousins. Hendrick's oldest son was named John and he also had a daughter named Claesje (1802-1818).

The Mandeville family can trace their ancestry back to Yellis Jansen de Mandeville (1626–1701). In 1659, Yellis emigrated with his wife and four children from the Dutch province of Gelderland to New Amsterdam, a few years before the settlement was captured by the British and renamed New York.

Sources:

Akerly, Lucy Dubois. "Yellis Jansen de Mandeville of Garderen, Holland, and Greenwich Village on Manhattan Island and Some of His Descendants", New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol.38 (1907), pp. 284-93.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.

Ryerson, Albert Winslow. The Ryerson Genealogy. Chicago, 1916.

Misfortune and Distress: Alida Vrooman (1747– ?)

The Isles of Montreal, 1761.
Source: Bibliothèque de l'Université McGill

The trial and execution of Lieutenant Henry Hare during the Revolutionary War is well documented in both primary and secondary sources. Far less has been written about what happened afterwards to his wife, Alida, and to their seven children.

Alida Vrooman, the daughter of Barent Henry Vrooman and Volkje Wemple, was baptised at Schenectady, New York on June 17, 1747. On April 15, 1765 at Stone Arabia, she married Henry Hare, son of John and Mary Hare. Henry was born about 1742 near Fort Hunter in the Mohawk Valley. During the Seven Years War (1754–1763) he briefly served in Captain Wendell's company of Roger's Rangers before joining the British Indian Department under Sir William Johnson.

Henry rejoined the Indian Department during the Revolutionary War and appears as a Lieutenant on the Indian Department's pay lists beginning on May 19, 1776. This date corresponds with the day that Sir John Johnson and his supporters fled Johnstown for Canada.

In February 1777, Henry and a "faithfull Indian" were dispatched from Point Claire on the Île de Montréal back to the Mohawk Valley where they were to wait for letters addressed to Johnson. A month later they started back to with "Several large Packets of Letters" but became separated when they "were pursued and fired upon by a Number of People on Foot and some on Horseback." Henry's native companion destroyed the letters and thinking Henry was dead, returned to the Île de Montréal by a circuitous route. Hare, however, had escaped his pursuers and had arrived safely back at Point Claire two days earlier.

A number of secondary sources wrongly claim that Henry spent several months in jail in Hartford. For example, in his history of the King's Royal Regiment of New York (KRRNY), Ernest Cruickshank wrote:

On May 2 [1777] the arrival was announced of Frederick and John Dochstader with Lieut. Henry Hare, who had been confined for seven months at Hartford in Connecticut, but had escaped. Hare in company with an Indian had been given three large packets of letters for Sir John Johnson and Gray at Johnstown on March 18, but being hotly pursued the Indian had destroyed the letters and parted from his companion.

Cruickshank's source is a report found in the Haldimand Papers, dated April 23, 1777, prepared by Major James Gray who was temporarily in command of the KRRNY. The awkward grammar used by Gray led Cruickshank to conclude that Hare was jailed as well as Frederick and John Dochstader. Cruickshank's date is also nine days later than the date of Gray's report.

Henry would likely have been at the Siege of Fort Stanwix and the Battle of Oriskany in August 1777. Officers from the Indian Department were also present at the Battle of Wyoming in July 1778, and the Cherry Valley Massacre in November 1778.

Detail from Map of the County of Albany c. 1762
Source: British Library

Meanwhile, Alida and her children remained at home in the Mohawk Valley. Several years before the war, Henry had purchased 109 acres on the south side of the Mohawk River opposite Fort Johnson. By 1775, 40 acres had been cleared and "improved." Their farm had a house, barn, and stable, as well as six cows, five horses, nine sheep, 16 hogs, and a waggon.

Alida and Henry had seven children. Ally, John, Faulky, William, Peter, Barent, and Catey appear on the undated "List of Prisoners in the Hands of Congress" found in the Haldimand Papers and believed to have been prepared by Captain Walter Butler in March 1779.

Catey is a diminutive of Katherine. Barent, who was named after Alida's father, may have been born Barent Barnabas Hare. Barent is an uncommon given name in Dutch so he went by Barnabas which would be more familiar to English and French speakers. Faulky is a misspelling of Volkje (Alida's mother). Her birth name may have been Volkje Maria Hare and she later went by Mary. Ally (Alida) died before May 1780, while Peter died sometime between August 1788 and June 1798.

In their 1798 Upper Canada Land Petition, John, Barnabas, William, Mary, and Katherine identified themselves as "the children of Lieutenant Henry Hare who was made prisoner last American War and Hung as a Spy."

Henry's activities in the months prior to his execution are known. In the spring of 1779, in response to intelligence that the Americans were planning an expedition against the Haudenosaunee, Major John Butler had brought his Rangers from Fort Niagara to Canadasago, a Seneca village located between the northern ends of Seneca and Canandaigua lakes. At the same time, parties of Indigenous warriors accompanied by Indian Department officers were sent on reconnaissance missions to the Mohawk and Susquehanna River valleys.

On May 1, 1779, Captain Dietrich Brehm, aide-de-camp to Governor Frederick Haldimand, reported from Carleton Island: "Mr. Hair an Indian Officer arrived from a Skout at Fort Stanwix with a prisoner."

Three weeks later, Butler reported from Canadasago: "I daily expect to hear from Lieutenant Henry Hare who is gone down to Fort Hunter."

On June 4, Henry again set off from Canadasago for the Mohawk Valley in company with Sergeant William Newberry and 19 Mississauga warriors. On June 19, Henry and Newberry were captured by Patriot militia and brought to Canajoharie where they were tried the next day. Henry was executed the following morning, while Newberry was executed a week later.

Many accounts of Henry's hanging claim that while his primary mission was to spy on the enemy, a secondary "domestic" mission was to bring gifts for Alida. The first version of this story appears in Jeptha Root Simms's History of Schoharie County And Border Wars of New York, published in 1845:

Hare brought home for his wife several articles of clothing, such as British calicoes, dress-shawls, Indian mocasons, &c., and on the very day he set out to return to Canada, she was so imprudent as to put them on and go visiting.

It is highly unlikely that Henry carried a calico dress in his knapsack for several months as he travelled through the wilderness spying for the British. It is even more unlikely that Hare acquired such an item at Fort Niagara or Carleton Island, or had found the time to visit a dressmaker in Montreal.

Keeping the British forts on the Great Lakes supplied with provisions, gunpowder, and other goods was challenging. Stores had to be transported by bateau from Lachine on the Île de Montréal up the St. Lawrence River to Carleton Island. At Carleton Island goods were transferred to one of His Majesty's vessels which would then sail to Fort Niagara. For five months of the year, ice on the St Lawrence River prevented any resupply. Military stores had priority, and there was little room for luxury goods.

Both Butler and Lieutenant Colonel Mason Bolton, the officer commanding at Fort Niagara, frequently mentioned the scarcity of provisions and clothing in their reports to Governor Haldimand. Following Butler's return to Fort Niagara in September 1779, Bolton sent Haldimand a list of items needed that included hundreds of blanket coats, shoes, shirts, and stockings, as well as sugar, cheese, tobacco, quills and writing paper.

Richard Cartwright, who was with Butler at Canadasago, wrote to Francis Goring, an employee of Cartwright's uncle at Niagara, "I wish you could send me soon a couple of Pairs of Trousers as I am beginning to grow ragged." Later than year John Warren, commissary at Fort Erie, wrote to Goring, "For God's sake keep three or four pair of women's shoes till I come, for our folks are barefoot."

More recently, a number of researchers have added that the gifts were for Alida's birthday. The records of the Dutch Reformed Church of Schenecdaty, however, only show that Alida was baptised on June 17, 1747. Her date of birth is unknown.

According to Sergeant Newberry's testimony, Alida actively helped her husband spy on the enemy. During his trial he stated that "Hairs wife went backwards and forwards every day to gain Intiligence for us."

At some point following Henry's execution, Alida and her children abandoned their home and fled to Montreal. On May 10, 1780 she submitted a petition to Governor Haldimand:

     That Your Petitioner, is a Poor Widow, with six small Children, without any means to support them, the want of Every necessary of life and the Continual Insults of the Rebels obliged her to leave the Province of New York and Come off to this place.
     Your Petitioner's Husband, two Brothers and nephew, distinguished themselves as friends to Government, On the Breaking out of the present Rebellion and Entered into his Majesties Service—One of the said Brothers, a Capt in the Indian department, was killed at Fort Stanwix in 77, (the other, is now a Capt. in Leuit. Col. Butlers Rangers,'' and the nephew a Leuit. in said Corps—Your Petitioners, Husband and three Brothers served during the last War, in the Indian Department, under the late Sir William Johnson Bart. And your petitioners said Husband being Ordered on a Scout, last Summer, was taken by the Rebels: who Charged with being a Spy—Tryed him for the same, an Unjust Tryal Condemn'd him, in Consequence of which, he was Executed, whereby your Petitioner is Rendered Miserable, poor and Needy—her Situation emboldens her to Crave your Excellency Support and Protection Humbly praying, Your Excellency will take the same into Consideration, and Allow such a Yearly supply or Aid, as your Justice may see fit, in Order to Assist her and her Distressed Children.
     And Your Petitioner, will Ever pray, as in duty bound
     Montreal the 10th May 1780

In consideration of Alida's "misfortune and distress," Haldimand authorized a yearly pension of £20.

On the Return of Loyalist Refugees dated November 24, 1780, Alida was recorded at Montreal as "Mrs. Hare" and was receiving rations for herself and five children. At fourteen years of age, her son John, was considered a "man grown" capable of sustaining himself. John joined Butler's Rangers as a volunteer the following spring.

Sometime between April 1781 and September 1781, Alida married Adam Empey, son of Philip Empey (1726–1795) and Maria Elizabeth Barbara Schultz. Adam was born at Stone Arabia on 16 Apr 1755. In May 1777 he left his home in the Mohawk Valley, made his way to the Île de Montréal, and enlisted in the KRRNY. He would later be joined by his five brothers, two cousins, and his father.

It is frequently stated that Alida "married First Sergeant Adam Empey" even though "First Sergeant" is not a rank in the British Army. Surviving records of the KRRNY show that Adam was a corporal in 1781 and 1782. Adam refers to himself as a corporal in an 1784 petition, however, a petition submitted in 1804 by Alida refers to "the late Adam Empey who served His Majesty in the Capacity of Sergeant in Sir John Johnsons Regiment."

Adam participated in the Siege of Fort Stanwix in August 1777, the Raid on Johnstown in May 1780, and the Battle of Klock's Field in October 1780. He served with the KRRNY until December 24, 1783 when the first of the regiment's two battalions was disbanded.

In June 1784 the discharged soldiers of the KRRNY began to settle the newly surveyed townships on the north side of the St Lawrence River west of Montreal. Over 1400 men, women, children made the arduous journey upriver from Lachine to the site of New Johnstown (present day Cornwall). To determine where their grant of land would be each Loyalist drew from a hat a slip of paper which contained the location of a lot. Then began the process of taming the wilderness—cutting down trees to clear the land and provide the material needed to built log houses in what in 1787 became known as Lancaster, Charlottenburg, Cornwall, Osnabruck, Williamsburg, and Matilda townships. In 1788 these six townships became part of the Lunenburg District which was renamed the Eastern District in 1792.

The maps prepared by surveyor Patrick McNiff show that Adam's father and brothers drew lots in Cornwall Township east of the New Johnstown townsite. Adam, however, did not joined the rest of his family at New Johnstown until the following year and therefore did not participate in the initial drawing of lots. 

James Peachey. Encampment of the Loyalists at
Johnstown, 1785. Source: National Gallery of Canada

In April 1784 Adam was in Montreal where he petitioned Governor Haldimand requesting permission to trade in dry goods and liquor at Cataraqui (present day Kingston) and Niagara. Adam wrote that he "finds it very difficult to support his large family, having the care of the children of the late Lieut Hare, who met with an untimely fate amougst the Rebels, the widow of the aforesaid Lieut Hare being the wife of your excellencies petitioner."

Entries in the Repertoires de Notares (notarial catalogs) for the District Judiciaire de Montréal show that in September 1784, Adam leased a house and lot in Saint-Joseph-de-Soulanges (Les Cedres), on the St. Lawrence River west of Montreal.

Adam does appears on the 1785 Muster Roll at Cornwall, and on the 1786 Provisioning List at Lake (Lancaster) Township. At some point he acquired 200 acres in Osnabruck Township west of New Johnstown (Lot 12 Concession 3). Alida refers to this property in her 1804 Upper Canada Land Petition. Although patent was granted in 1802, the east half of the lot was impounded by the Crown and given to William Mattice.

In his Lower Canada Land Petition, dated August 30, 1788, Adam states that he "had married the widow of Lieut. Henry Hare of the Indian Department. She has five children by her late-husband as well as four by the petitioner, all of which he has to maintain." A list of names was attached: John, William, Barnaby, Peter, and Catherine Hare; and Philip, Sally (Sarah), Elizabeth, and Elatta (Alida) Empey. Missing from the list is Mary Hare who had married in 1784.

In his petition, Adam requested a grant of 500 acres for himself, and 100 acres for each of Henry children. Adam had been under the impression that he had been given permission to select land at Carillon on the north side of the Ottawa River, only to discover that the land was reserved for officers of the Royal Highland Emigrants. In June 1789, Adam and "the heirs of Lieutenant Henry Hare" were approved for a grant of 500 acres on the Ottawa River, however, the Crown never undertook the required survey.

Osnabruck Patent Map
Source: Archives of Ontario

In their 1798 Upper Canada Land Petition, John, Barnabas, William, Mary, and Katherine Hare claimed that "your Petitioners are all married and Settled in the Eastern District and have never drawn any lands." While Katherine and Mary were firmly established in Upper Canada, it is doubtful that John, Barnabas, and William were actually residents. As well, both John and Barnabas had been granted land in Upper Canada in 1790.

In 1781, John travelled from Montreal to Fort Niagara and enlisted as a volunteer in Butler's Rangers. His uncle, Peter Hare, was a Captain in the Rangers, while a cousin, John Hare, was a Lieutenant. Two other cousins, William and Peter, served as volunteers. In an August 1781 letter to Governor Haldimand, Brigadier General Henry Watson Powell, who succeeded Bolton as officer commanding at Niagara, wrote that John "joined lately and is too young to be promoted."

After Butler's Rangers was disbanded in June 1784, John remained at Niagara for at least a year before rejoining his family. After a few years in Canada, he returned to the Mohawk Valley where he married his cousin, Annatje Vrooman, the daughter of Hendrick Vrooman and Margaret Vanderwerken. Their daughter Margaret was born on November 1, 1790, and baptised at the Dutch Reformed Church of Caughnawaga a month later. Their next two children, Alida and Henry, were baptised at Williamstown east of Cornwall. Their son Barney Vrooman Hare was also born in Upper Canada. By 1798, John and Annatje were back in the United States where their daughter Maria was born. John appears in the 1790, 1800, and 1810 censuses living in Montgomery County, New York.

What motivated John to return to the Mohawk Valley is unclear but the family's difficulties obtaining land in Upper Canada may have been a factor. John's father would have been entitled to a grant of several hundred acres had he survived, however, there was no clear policy about assigning land grants to the widows and children of deceased soldiers.

As late as 1815, Alida's son-in-law Jacob Weegar, wrote the government about 1000 acres in Binbrook Township, Wentworth County that had apparently been set aside for Hare's widow and children in 1791 but had reverted back to the Crown in 1811. Apparently the family was unaware that this land had been available to them.

John Hare's 1790 Petition

As a volunteer with Butler's Rangers, John was entitled to a grant of land in his own right. A petition from "John Hare late soldier in Colonel Butler's Rangers" was signed at Cornwall and dated on April 1, 1790. John was recommended for 200 acres by the Lunenburg District Land Board. He appears on the patent map of Osnabruck Township at Lot 2 Concession 4. Patent for this lot was granted on September 1, 1797.

John and Annatje may have returned to Upper Canada after the War of 1812. Their son Henry and daughter Catherine both married and made their homes in Matilda Township, west of Cornwall. Some of their other children, notably Margaret and Alida, remained in the United States.

In 1849, six of John and Annatje's children petitioned for monetary grants as the sons and daughters of an United Empire Loyalist. These petitions hint that John was alive and living in Cornwall at this time. The 1836 petition of his daughter Catherine, however, refers to the "late John Hare."

In 1794, Katherine Hare "of the Cedars" and David Summers (1767–1846) were married at the Williamstown Presbyterian Church founded by Rev. John Bethune in 1787. Katherine and David lived in Osnabruck Township and had eight children. As a result of the 1798 Petition, Katherine was granted 200 acres in Winchester Township and received patent on June 30, 1801. She died in Osnabruck on July 23, 1831.

Her sister, Mary Hare, married Jacob Weegar (1755–1827) at Christ Church Cathedral in Montreal on October 21, 1784. Mary and Jacob lived in Williamsburg Township and had 13 children. Mary petitioned unsuccessfully for land in 1791, but as a result of the 1798 Petition, received 200 acres in Winchester Township. She died in Williamsburg on September 6, 1854 at the age of 83.

Barnabus Hare petitioned for land in 1790 at the same time as his brother John. He was granted 200 acres in Matitda Township and received patent on May 27, 1797. He does not seem to have received any additional land as a result of the 1798 petition.

Barnabus married Anna Vankleek and was living in Soulanges in 1804 and in 1825. The parish register for Soulanges records the 1807 baptism of their son, William Henry Hare. Entries in the notarial catalogs also record that Barnabus was a blacksmith (forgeron a Soulanges). Barnabas was buried in 1852 at the age of 82 at Basilique Notre-Dame, Montreal.

As a result of the 1798 petition, William received 200 acres in Winchester Township with patent granted on June 30, 1801. The parish register for Soulanges records the burial of William in 1806.

Few details are known about the children of Alida and Adam. Only Alida and Elizabeth Empey are named in the 1804 Upper Canada Land Petition which Alida Vrooman and her son-in-law Jacob Weegar submitted on behalf of her minor children, which suggests that Alida's other two children may have died before then.

Alida, also known as Adelaide, was born on November 28, 1787 and was baptised at Montreal's Christ Church Cathedral on January 3, 1788. She married Jean Baptiste Lalonde on 25 Nov 1805 at Soulanges. Adelaide died in childbirth on December 23, 1809—eleven weeks after the death of her three-year-old daughter. She was buried at Soulanges on December 25.

Her sister Elizabeth married Francois Veronneau (1784–1835) at Soulanges on May 11, 1807, but died shortly after her marriage.

Adam Empey died at Soulanges in early 1796. A notarial record dated February 18, 1796 refers to the feu [late] Adam Empey and Alleda Vrooman sa veuve [his widow]. Three years later Alida married widower Pierre Bougis. A marriage contract between ""Le Sieur Pierre Beaugis et La Dame Alleda Vrooman veuve Empey" was notarized by Joseph Gabrion of Montreal on 8 May 1799.

Both Pierre and Alida had their testaments (wills) notarized on 3 May 1824 and were living in Soulanges in 1825.

Pierre was buried at Soulanges on 14 Jan 1826. Entries in the Quebec notarial catalogues indicate that Alida survived him but her date of death is not known.

Sources:

Cruickshank, Ernest and Gavin K. Watt. The History and Master Roll of The King's Royal Regiment of New York, revised edition. Global Heritage Press, 2006.
archive.org/details/historymasterrol0000crui

Crowder, Norman. Early Ontario Settlers: A Source Book. Genealogical Publishing, 1993. ancestry.ca/search/collections/48451/

"Empey Family." Herbert Clarence Burleigh Fonds, Queens University Library. archive.org/details/hcbempey

Green, Ernest. "Notes on the Empey (Impey) Family of Stormont." Ontario Historical Society Papers and Records, vol. 27, 1931.

Kipp, Edward, and Anderson, George. An Index to the 1786 McNiff Maps of the Townships of Lancaster, Charlottenburgh, Cornwall, Osnabruck, Williamsburg and Matilda (The Loyalist Maps). Orleans, Ontario: Edward Kipp, 2007.

Library and Archives Canada, Francis Goring Fonds, MG24, D4 heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_105975 

Library and Archives Canada. Haldimand Papers, MG21. heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_105513

Library and Archives Canada. Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865. RG 1 L3. bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/land/land-petitions-upper-canada-1763-1865/Pages/land-petitions-upper-canada.aspx

Library and Archives Canada. Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1764-1841. RG1 L3L. bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/land/land-petitions-lower-canada-1764-1841/Pages/land-petitions-lower-canada.aspx

Loescher, Burt Garfield. Rogers Rangers Privates Roster, 1755-1761. Unpublished Manuscript, Ticonderoga Historical Society. nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll98/id/603/rec/1

Simms, Jeptha Root. History of Schoharie County And Border Wars of New York. Albany: Munsell & Tanne, 1845. catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008731951

Watt, Gavin K. Loyalist Refugees: Non-Military Refugees in Quebec 1776-1784. Global Heritage Press, 2014.

Henry Hare: Spy or Murderer?

Mannesvillette Elihu Dearing Brown (1810-1896). View of the
Mohawk River near Little Falls, 1854. Findlay Galleries, New York.

In the summer of 1777, during the Revolutionary War, a significant event occurred at Irondequoit Bay on Lake Ontario. After a lengthy council hosted by John Butler of the British Indian Department, four of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy decided to abandon their neutrality and "take up the hatchet" against the American rebels.

For the rest of the war, officers from the Indian Department worked closely with the Haudenosaunee. Some of them acquired a reputation of being "more savage than the savages themselves." One of these officers was Lieutenant Henry Hare.

On July 27, 1777, just prior to the Siege of Fort Stanwix, three girls were picking blackberries several hundred yards from the fort when they attacked by a group of Indigenous warriors. Two of the girls were killed and scalped. The third was wounded but managed to escape.

Nearly two years later, Hare was captured by the Patriots and sentenced to hang as a spy. According to several secondary sources he also confessed to the murder of one of the girls.

Hare was hanged at Canajoharie on 21 June 1779 along with Sergeant William Newberry of Butler's Rangers. Hare was found guilty of spying, however, the record of his trial contains no mention of his having committed murder.

Why then do so many accounts of Hare's capture, trial, and hanging include the accusation of murder? For example, Canadian historian Gavin Watt's in his recent No Despicable Enemy wrote:

Hare was charged with lurking about the camp as a spy. He testified he had come from Canadasaga with nineteen Indians a fortnight earlier.... Newberry gave similar evidence, implicated many local Tories, adding, “Hair’s wife went backwards and forwards every day to gain intelligence for us.” In addition to spying, both men were accused of murder. Hare confessed to killing Caty Steers outside the gates of Fort Stanwix just before the siege of 1777, and Newberry of killing a Mitchell daughter during the Cherry Valley tragedy.... The court found Hare and Newberry guilty and sentenced them to be hanged, which was done at Canajoharie eight days apart.  

The are several contemporary accounts of the attack on the girls but none that specifically mention Hare. In his journal, Ensign William Colbrath of the 3rd New York Regiment wrote:

July 27th—Three Girls belonging to the Inhabitants, being about two Hundred yards from Our Out Centinels, were fired on by a party of Indians, two of whom were killed and Scalped the other wounded in two places, neither of them Dangerously.

Colbrath noted that on the following day:

The Colonel sent off those women which belonged to the Garrison which have children with whom went the Man that was Scalped, the Girl that was Wounded Yesterday, and the Sick in the Hospital.

In a letter to Colonel Goose Van Schaick, dated July 28, 1777, Colonel Peter Gansevoort, the commanding officer of Fort Stanwix, gave the following account:

Yesterday at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, our garrison was alarmed with the firing of four guns. A party of men was instantly dispatched to the place where the guns were fired, which was in the edge of the woods, about 500 yards from the fort; but they were too late. The villains were fled, after having shot three girls who were out picking raspberries, two of whom were lying scalped and tomahawked, one dead, the other expiring, who died in about half an hour after she was brought home. The third had two balls through her shoulder, but made out to make her escape; her wounds are not thought dangerous. By best discoveries we have made, there were four Indians who perpetrated these murders. I had four men with arms just past that place, but these mercenaries of Britain came not to fight, but to lie in wait to murder; and it is equally the same to them, if they can get a scalp, whether it is a soldier or an innocent babe.

Another detailed account was written by Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willett, who was second-in-command at Fort Stanwix during the siege. Willett's narrative was published in 1831 by his son and although based on Willet's own manuscripts, inexplicably assigns the murders to July 3, 1777:

Sunday, the 3rd of July, being a very warm, clear day, as Colonel Willett lay resting in his room about noon, three guns, fired in quick succession, gave him warning that there were Indians near. He ran to the gate of the fort, and on reaching the parapet of the glacis, saw a sentinel running towards the lower edge of it, and at a short distance from him a girl, also running, holding in her hand a small basket. On their coming nearer, he saw blood running down the breast of the little girl, who, as he afterwards learned, with two other girls, had been picking blackberries, not two hundred yards from the foot of the glacis, when they were fired at by the Indians. Upon going to the spot, Colonel Willett found the other two girls killed and scalped.... The girl who had made her escape, had been shot through the upper part of her shoulder: the wound proved to be slight, and she soon recovered.

Finally there is a letter in the collection of the Fort Stanwix National Monument that identifies the three girls. The letter is thought to have been written by Colonel Gansevoort and sent to the Tryon Committee of Safety a few days after the attack.

One of the Children who was killed & scalped a girl of 13 years of age & daughter of one John Steere who... served the King of Great Britain... an old man and unfit for any kind of Service. yet, that King... has thus requited him for his former Service. The Girl who received the wound in her shoulder is 16 years of age the Daughter of one George Reyter... a soldier in... the 4th Battalion of Royal Americans during the late war... the other is a Servant Girl of... Mr Roof the Principal inhabitant of this place... The Girl's name is Lenea Stephane Age 20 years...

In the afternoon of August 6, while most of the Loyalist and Indigenous forces at the siege were engaged at the Battle of Oriskany, Lieutenant Colonel Willett led a sortie against their encampments. Both Willett and Colbrath list brass kettles, blankets, musket balls, gunpowder, clothing and four or five "colours" among the spoils, however, Colbrath added:

... four scalps the Indians had lately taken being entirely fresh and left in their Camp. Two of the Scalps taken are Supposed to be those of the Girls being neatly Dressed and the Hair platted.

On June 19, 1779, Lieutenant Hare was captured close to his home near Fort Hunter. Sergeant Newberry was apprehended a short time later. The prisoners were brought to Canajoharie where Brigadier General James Clinton had established his headquarters in preparation for that summer's expedition against the Haudenosaunee. A court marshal was held the following day with Colonel Gansevoort presiding.

Details of the trial are found in the journal of Captain Andrew Porter of the 2nd Continental Artillery Regiment who acted as judge advocate. Hare was charged with "lurking about the camp," found guilty, and sentenced to hang. There is no indication in Porter's detailed account that Hare was accused of anything other than spying. Newberry was similarly charged, found guilty, and sentenced to hang, but again there is no indication that he was accused of anything other than spying.

The first published suggestion that Hare may have murdered the daughter of John Speer at Fort Stanwix is a footnote in The Frontiersmen of New York published in 1883:

When Lieut. Hare was in custody, at the request of Gen. Clinton, he was asked by Johannes Roof if he did not kill Caty Steers, at Fort Stanwix, in 1777; "For," said Roof, "you was seen with your hands in her hair." He confessed that he had killed and scalped her.—John Roof, Jr.

The author, Jeptha Root Simms, was an acknowledged authority on the history of upstate New York. In preparation for his earlier History of Schoharie County, and Border Wars of New York, Simms had interviewed many surviving veterans of the Revolutionary War including John Roof, the son of Johannes Roof.

Frederick Coffay Yohn (1875-1933). Herkimer at
the Battle of Oriskany. Utica Public Library

Johannes Roof and Anna Maria Leunhard had settled in the vicinity of Fort Stanwix in 1760. Anna Maria and her five children including 16-year-old John and three-month-old Mary were likely with the group that was evacuated on July 28, 1777. John related to Simms that his family were sheltered at the home of Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Oriskany. Herkimer had his leg amputated shortly before his death and John claimed to have helped bury it. The following year Roof enlisted in the 1st Regiment of Tryon Militia and served during the Sullivan Expedition in 1779 and the Battle of Johnstown in 1781.

In 1778, Johannes Roof purchased a 325 acres farm in Canajoharie which included a stone building that became known as "Roof's Tavern." In 1779, General Clinton may have used "Roof's Tavern" for his headquarters and housed prisoners there. Johannes Roof may therefore have had the opportunity to speak to Hare, but why would General Clinton ask Roof to conduct an interrogation? And why did Captain Porter not record the fact in his journal if Hare had confessed to the murder?

Roof's accusation is problematic. According to Willett, Colbrath, and Gansevoort, the girls were quite some distance from the fort, and not close to any sentries. The only possible witness, the 16-year-old daughter of George Reyter, was wounded and running for her life, and would have been unlikely to have recognized Hare.

Nor can it be shown that Hare was in the vicinity of Fort Stanwix on the date of the murders. As an Indian Department officer he likely accompanied the expedition commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger against Fort Stanwix, and may have participated in scouting missions with groups of Indigenous warriors. He is not named, however, in any primary source that documents the expedition. Much more is known about the activities of his older brother, Captain John Hare, who played an active role in the expedition until his death at the Battle of Oriskany.

Before St. Leger's expedition left Lachine, a patrol led by John Hare and Mohawk chief John Deserontyon was dispatched to Fort Stanwix by senior Indian Department officer Daniel Claus. Hare and Deserontyon ambushed a work detail from the fort, and took four scalps and five prisoners including a Patriot officer. Several days later they rendezvoused with St. Leger's expedition on the St. Lawrence between Oswegatichie (Ogdenburg) and Buck Island (Carleton Island).

Only July 24, when the expedition was encamped at the mouth of the Salmon River, St. Leger dispatched John Hare and James Wilson with a group of Mississauga and Seneca to "gather fresh intelligence." In his doctoral dissertation His Majesty’s "Savage" Allies, Paul Stevens theorized that indigenous warriors from this group were responsible for the attack on the girls on July 27.

On July 30, Hare and Wilson met up with Lieutenant Henry Bird's detachment of regulars at Nine Mile Point on Lake Oneida. Bird had been ordered by St. Leger to capture the Lower Landing on the Mohawk River so as to prevent American resupply. This was accomplished on August 2 just after reinforcements, provisions, and stores had reached the fort.

John Hare and James Wilson were both killed at the Battle of Oriskany four days later.

Frederick Bartoli. Cornplanter, 1796.
New York Historical Society

In his Life of Joseph Brant, eminent American historian William Leete Stone identified Seneca chief Cornplanter as the perpetrator of the attack on the girls. In February 1797, Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant), had travelled from Upper Canada to Philadelphia to meet with influential British diplomat Robert Liston. At Canadasaga, Thayendanegea was joined by Cornplanter who was also travelling to Philadelphia. Thayendanegea and Cornplanter journeyed down the Mohawk Valley to Canajoharie where they were hosted by Hendrick Frey.

Another of Frey's guests was Albany physician Dr. Jonathan Eights. Eights related to Stone that Frey and his guests "adjourned" to Root's Tavern where "many of their adventures during the war were recounted." At some point Cornplanter disclosed that he had shot a girl picking berries outside Fort Stanwix, whereupon the landlord "could hardly be restrained from doing violence" against the Seneca chief.

A few weeks after the hangings of Hare and Newberry, General Clinton mentioned the executions in a letter to his wife:

I have nothing further to acquaint you of, Except that we apprehended a Certain Lt. Henry Hare and a Serjt. Newberry, both of Coll. Butler’s Regt., who Confesed that they left the Seneca Country with Sixty three Indians and two white men, which Divided themselves in three parties, one party was to attack Schoharry, another party Cherry Valley and the Mohawk River, and the other party to Sculk about Fort Schuyler and the upper part of the Mohawk River to take prisoners or Sculps. I had them tryed by a Genl. Court Martial for spies, who Sentenced them both to be hanged, which was Done accordingly at Conojoharrie, to the Satisfaction of all the Inhabitants of that place that were friends to their Country, as they were known to be very active in almost all the Murders that were Committed on these Frontiers; they were Inhabitants of Tryon County and had Each a wife and several Children who Came to See them and beg their Lives

Major General Philip Schuyler would later praise Clinton: "In Executing Hare you have rid the State of the Greatest villain that was In It. I hope his abbettors In the County will meet with a Similar Exaltation." Hyperbole, perhaps, as other "villains" such as Walter Butler and Thayendanegea were far more notorious and still active.

The hanging of Henry Hare and William Newberry was but one incident in the "genocidal" Sullivan-Clinton campaign against the Haudenosaunee in the summer of 1779. Over 40 Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga villages were destroyed, and more than 5000 refugees fled to Fort Niagara. The expedition, however, failed to curb the Haudenosaunee's ability to raid settlements in the Mohawk Valley.

The following summer, Thayendanegea led a devastating attack on Canajoharie. According to Stone, "the fairest district of the valley was in a single day rendered a scene of wailing and desolation." Over 100 houses and barns, as well as a gristmill, two small forts, and the Reformed Church were set on fire. About 300 head of cattle and 200 horses were killed or taken. At least 14 inhabitants were killed, and many were taken prisoner, although Thayendanegea later released many of the women and children.

American historian Holger Hook describes the Revolution as American's first civil war. It was a war fought between Patriots and Loyalists, and between white settlers and indigenous tribes. It was a war in which injustices and atrocities occurred on both sides. Henry Hare was neither a saint nor a demon, so it is difficult to judge whether his hanging was an injustice or an understandable reaction to atrocity.

Sources:

Bilharz, Joy. Oriskany: A Place of Great Sadness. National Park Service, 2009.

Colbrath, William. Days of Siege: A Journal of the Siege of Fort Stanwix in 1777, edited by Larry Lowenthal, Eastern Acorn Press, 1983

Graymont, Barbara. The Iroquois in the American Revolution. Syracuse University Press, 1972.

Kelsay, Isabel Thompson. Joseph Brant, 1743-1807: Man of Two Worlds. Syracuse University Press, 1984.

Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York, vol. 5. State of New York, 1901.

Simms, Jeptha Root.  History of Schoharie County, and Border Wars of New York. Albany, 1845.

Simms, Jeptha Root. Frontiersmen of New York, 2 vols. Albany, 1883.

Stevens, Paul L., His Majesty’s "Savage" Allies: British Policy and the Northern Indians During the Revolutionary War — The Carleton Years, 1774–1778. Doctoral dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1984.

Stone, William L. Life of Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea: Including the Indian Wars of the American Revolution. 2 vols. Albany, 1838.

Watt, Gavin K. Rebellion in the Mohawk Valley: The St Leger Expedition of 1777. Dundurn Press, 2002.

Watt, Gavin K. No Despicable Enemy—1779: The Continental Army Destroys Indian Territory. Global Heritage Press, 2019.

Willett, William M. A Narrative of The Military Actions of Colonel Marinus Willett, Taken Chiefly from His Own Manuscript, edited by William Willett. New York, 1831.

Unequivocal Proofs of Loyalty: John Hare (1735–1777)

A Sketch of the Siege of Fort Schuyler [Stanwix]
by L. Flury, 1838. Source: New York Public Library

John Hare was the oldest of four brothers who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution. His four children, in their 1793 Upper Canada Land Petition, stated that their deceased father "gave the most unequivocal proofs of his Loyalty from the first Appearance of rebellious Commotions in America, by taking a decided & active part for Government." Hare served as a Indian Department officer^[1] during the Revolutionary War, and was one of only seven British fatalities at the Battle of Oriskany on August 6, 1777 when a Loyalist and Indigenous force ambushed a Patriot column marching to the relief of Fort Stanwix.

John, the son of John and Mary Hare, is thought to have been born about 1735 in the vicinity of Fort Hunter in the Mohawk Valley region of New York. The earliest record of the Hare family in the Mohawk Valley is the 1739 baptism of John's sister Catherine, so John may have been born elsewhere.

During the Seven Years War, Hare served in Captain William McGinnis's company of the New York Provincials, along with his father and two of his brothers. At the Battle of Lake George on September 8, 1755, McGinnis's company and Nathaniel Folson's company of New Hampshire Provincials were dispatched from Fort Edward to reinforce Major General William Johnson's forces to the north. McGinnis and Folson encountered and captured the French baggage train, then ambushed a body of withdrawing Canadien militia and indigenous warriors. William McGinnis was mortally wounded during this engagement and command of the company passed to his brother, Robert McGinnis. Hare remained in McGinnis's company until at least May 1756. He later served as a private in Captain Harry Isaac Wendell's company of Roger's Rangers.

Hare married Margaret Davis about 1759. Their first child, Mary (Polly), was born on November 30, 1761 and was baptised at the Reformed Dutch Church of Stone Arabia. Their only son, William, was born on May 6, 1764 and was baptised at the Reformed Dutch Church of Caughnawaga. Sarah was born on 28 Feb 1766, Elizabeth was born about 1768, and Catherine was born about 1770.

Prior to the Revolutionary War, John and Margaret lived near Johnstown north of the Mohawk River. In her claim for losses submitted after the war, Margaret stated that they leased their property from William Johnson; kept cows, sheep and horses; and had two indentured servants. Johnson was the largest single landowner in the Mohawk Valley. He had founded Johnstown in 1762 and had built his Georgian style home, Johnson Hall, near Johnstown in 1763.

When Tryon County was created from Albany County in 1772, Hare was appointed Undersherriff and given responsibility for the gaol at Johnstown. In 1775, he refused to house a prisoner who had been arbitrarily arrested, and had threatened to shoot the prisoner's escort. The Tryon County Committee of Safety considered arresting Hare but voted against doing so.

Portrait of Sir John Johnson
by John Mare, 1772, Source:
Johnson Hall State Historic Park

When the Revolutionary War began, Sir John Johnson, a staunch "Tory" and the son of Sir William, built a palisade around Johnson Hall, gathered military supplies, and secretly began recruiting from his mainly Highland Scots tenants with the intent of forming a Loyalist regiment in Tryon County. In January 1776, Major General Philip Schuyler, supported by the Albany militia, disarmed Johnson and his followers. Johnson was required to sign a parole for his future good behaviour. John and Margaret Hare had some of their provisions and household goods plundered during this incursion.

In May 1776, Schuyler ordered Johnson's arrest. Forewarned, Johnson fled to Canada, leaving his pregnant wife, Polly, and their two children behind at Johnson Hall. With him were 170 of his followers including John Hare. To evade capture the group followed Mohawk guides north through the Adirondack wilderness. After a gruelling journey of 19 days by foot and canoe, they reached the Awkwasasne settlement of Kana:takon (St. Regis) on the St Lawrence River. In a letter to his brother-in-law Daniel Claus, Johnson wrote that his men were "almost starved and wore out for want of provisions, being nine days without anything to subsist upon but wild Onions, Roots and the leaves of Beech Trees."

After a few days of rest, Johnson proceeded to the Île de Montréal, arriving on June 18, 1776, almost a month after leaving Johnstown. The following day Johnson was granted permission by Governor Guy Carleton to raise the provincial regiment known as the King's Royal Regiment of New York, also known as the Royal Yorkers.

Margaret later provided details about John's participation in Johnson's escape to Canada:

That on the 19th of May 1776 in Company with Sir John Johnson he [John Hare] left the place of his abode and came through the Wood to Canada when he was appointed Capt in the Indian Department in consequence of which he came twice from Canada to Tryon County on Government business and on the last time brought away with him to Canada upwards of Ninety Men.

After his departure with Johnson, Hare's home had been plundered by soldiers from the Continental Army's newly formed 3rd New Jersey Regiment commanded by Colonel Elias Dayton. Timber from the house was used to construct a palisade and blockhouses around the gaol, while fence railings were used as firewood.

With her claim for losses, Margaret included an inventory of the damages dated June 20, 1776, and prepared by her husband when "he was home on a scout from Canada"—only two days after Johnson had arrived at the Île de Montréal. If the date and attribution are accurate, then Johnson may have sent Hare back to the Mohawk Valley from Kana:takon before leaving for the Île de Montréal.

In March 1777, Hare and three others were dispatched by Major James Gray, Johnson's second-in-command, to gather intelligence in preparation for Lieutenant General John Burgoyne's campaign. In a letter to Governor Carleton, Gray described Hare as "a man very fit for the service and that can be much depended upon."

The 1777 Saratoga Campaign was an attempt by the British to capture Albany and gain control of the Hudson River valley. In the main thrust of the attack, 7,800 British and Hessian forces led by Burgoyne moved southward from Canada and captured Fort Ticonderoga on July 6. Burgoyne slowly continued his advance towards Albany but was ultimately forced to surrender following the Battles of Saratoga on September 19 and October 7.

Route of the St. Leger Expedition. Source: National Park Service

A secondary thrust from the west, led by Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger of the 34th Regiment, had the goal of capturing Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk River before proceeding eastward to Albany. St. Leger, who was brevetted a Brigadier General, assembled a force of British regulars from the 8th and 34th Regiments, Loyalists from the Royal Yorkers commanded by Sir John Johnson, a detachment of Hessian jägers, Indian Department rangers commanded by John Butler, and several hundred indigenous warriors, mainly Seneca and Mohawk, led by Sayenqueraghta (Old Smoke), Cornplanter, and Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant).

On June 26, 1777, the day before St. Leger's expedition departed Lachine on the Île de Montréal, Daniel Claus, who had been given responsibility for the Indigenous warriors, dispatched a patrol led by Hare and Mohawk chief John Deserontyon to Fort Stanwix. Their mission was to determined the strength of the garrison and the state of the fortifications, and to take prisoners if possible. Claus had strong doubts about the accuracy of earlier intelligence that held that Fort Stanwix was undermanned and poorly maintained.

On July 3, 1777, Hare and Deserontyon's patrol encountered a work party just over a kilometre away from Fort Stanwix. Four scalps and five prisoners were taken, including an officer. One of the dead soldiers was left "shockingly butchered."

Hare and Deserontyon rendezvoused with Claus as the expedition proceeded up the St. Lawrence River towards Oswego on Lake Ontario. Claus interrogated the prisoners separately then reported to St. Leger. St. Leger, however, decided to "make little of the prisoners' intelligence" as he considered Hare, Deserontyon, and rebel prisoners" to be "dubious sources." There must have been some doubt in his mind, however, because St. Leger dispatched Hare to gather fresh intelligence. St. Leger would later write to General Burgoyne:

The accounts we received in Canada concerning Fort Stanwix were the most erroneous that can be conceived. Instead of the unsuitable and unfinished work we were taught to expect, I found it a respectable fortress strongly garrisoned with 700 men.

As the expedition prepared to ascend the Oswego River to Oneida Lake, St. Leger sent Lieutenant Henry Bird of the 8th Regiment to take the Lower Landing on the Mohawk so as to prevent supplies reaching Fort Stanwix. Bird's detachment was joined by Hare and a number of their Indigenous allies. Bird's party captured the landing on July 31, several hours after reinforcements, ammunition and stores had arrived and been transported to the fort.

St. Leger arrived at Fort Stanwix with the main body of troops in the evening of August 2. Three days later he received word that a relief column of Tryon County militia and Oneida warriors were advancing up the Mohawk Valley under the command of Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer. St. Leger dispatched an intercepting force that included the Mohawk under Joseph Brant, the Seneca under Sayenqueraghta and Cornplanter, John Butler's Indian Department rangers, and a detachment of the Royal Yorkers under Captain Stephen Watts. Watts and Butler deferred to the Seneca chiefs who laid out an ambush at Oriskany, eight kilometres east of Fort Stanwix.

Nine days after the battle, John Butler described the events of the Battle of Oriskany in a letter to Governor Carleton:

At 10 o'clock next morning near the Oriskany field we heard the Rebels in full march with a convoy of 15 wagons of provisions and stores. We were immediately formed by the Seneca Chiefs who took the lead in this action, in concurrence with Sir John Johnson and myself. Sir John was posted on the road to give the enemy a volley as they advanced. Myself with the Indians and 20 Rangers were posted to flank them in the woods. This disposition was soon after a little altered by the Indians while the enemy were advancing, and when they were near enough threw in a heavy fire on the Rebels and made a shocking slaughter among them with their spears and hatchets. The Rebels, however, recovering themselves, fell back to a more advantageous ground and maintained a running fight for about an hour and a half. At length the Indians with a detachment of the Yorkers and Rangers, pursuing that blow utterly defeated them with the loss of 500 killed, wounded and taken. Many of the latter were conformibly to the Indian custom afterwards killed. Of the New Yorkers Captain McDonnell was killed, Captain Watts dangerously wounded and one subaltern; of the Rangers Captains Wilson and Hare killed and one private wounded. The Indians suffered much, having 33 killed and 29 wounded. The Senecas alone lost 17 men, among whom were several of their chief warriors and had 16 wounded. During the whole action the Indians showed the greatest zeal for His Majesty's cause and had they not been a little too precipitate, scarcely a Rebel of the party had escaped. Most of the leading Rebels are cut off in the action so that any further attempt from that quarter is not to be expected.

John Hare's death during the Battle of Oriskany is recorded in several primary sources but details are lacking. How he died, however, can be inferred from the statement of Adam Miller, a soldier in the 3rd Regiment of New York Militia, collected by early American historian William Stone and later published in Richard Nelson Green's History of the Mohawk Valley. Miller stated that he was taken prisoner by John Hare soon after the death of his company commander, Captain John Davis. Colonel Bellinger of the 4th Regiment, seeing a soldier being dragged off, directed his men to fire at Miller's captors, which allowed the soldier to break free and presumably killed Hare.

St. Leger lifted the Siege of Fort Stanwix on August 22 upon receiving misleading intelligence that a substantial relief column commanded by Major General Benedict Arnold was quickly approaching.

Anger over the death of so many of the Tryon County militia resulted in significant persecution and harassment of the remaining Loyalist families in the Mohawk River valley. On August 25 the Tryon County Committee of Safety ordered the internment of several families including the wife and children of John Butler. While Margaret Hare was not confined, she "was plundered and robbed of almost all that she had, and has had many and difficult Struggles in maintaining her Family, in she suffered many hardships unknown to her before."

In an undated petition to the Committee, Margaret Hare and others requested relief or permission to "go to their husbands" and stated that they were, "reduced to the greatest distress imaginable and must inevitably suffer more and more without the Humane Interposition of this Honorable Board whose good Pleasure we find is to detain us here contrary to our Expectations."

In March 1780, Frederick Fisher and John Harper, Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies in Tryon Country, provided New York Governor George Clinton with "a list of the families whose properties we have sold pursuant to a resolution of the Council of Safety, August 30th, 1777, and they have been detained ever since." Included on the list was the family of John Hare: Margaret and her children: William, Sarah, Catherine, Polly, and Elizabeth. Fisher and Harper asked that Clinton, "grant them liberty to go to Canada as we can assure Your Excellency they are in great distress." In his reply, Clinton expressed some surprise as he had been informed that the persons named had left Albany "some days past." Margaret and her daughters, however, were still at Johnstown in May 1780.

Soldier of the King's Royal Regiment
of New York by Don Troiani

Earlier in 1780, Sir John Johnson had proposed to Governor Frederick Haldimand^[2] a raid on Johnstown and Stone Arabia that would "relieve those who are suffering, to favour and encourage the Escape of all such men as may be desirous of coming off, and to secure the promoters of Rebellion in the County, and otherwise to distress them as Your Excellency may think fit to Order." Haldimand gave his full support. Johnson would lead four companies of the Kings Royal Regiment of New York, detachments from the 29th, 34th and 53rd Regiments, and about 200 Mohawk warriors.

The expedition departed from Fort Saint-Jean on the Richeleau River, crossed Lake Champlain to the vicinity of Crown Point, then marched overland to Johnstown. Near Johnstown, Johnson divided his forces. As the main body headed towards Caughnawaga, the Mohawk headed for the Mohawk River at Tribe's Hill then swept upriver, plundering and burning, before rendezvousing with Johnson.

From Caughnawaga, Johnson proceeded westwards several miles then turned back. After setting fire to every building in Caughnawaga except the church, Johnson headed for Johnson Hall.

Before he had fled to Canada in May 1776, Johnson had buried the family's silver service in the cellar of Johnson Hall. The barrels were exhumed and the silver distributed among 40 of the Royal Yorkers for safekeeping on the journey back to Fort Saint Jean.

Johnson's raid resulted in relatively few deaths among the inhabitants of the Mohawk Valley. The deaths that did occur appear to have been limited to adult males. 27 prisoners were taken, however, Johnson later released 14 of them.

The prisoners had their hands bound behind their backs and were tied together in pairs. Among them was eighteen-year-old Thomas Sammons whose father and two brothers were also prisoners. Sammons later wrote that he managed to free himself when a few of the Mohawk attempted to kill the prisoner he was tied to. In the confusion Thomas escaped into the crowd of Loyalists who had gathered at Johnson Hall. He was spotted by Margaret who presumably freed his hands and told him to "not stir much" while she went to speak to Johnson. While he waited he witnessed the distribution of the silver. When Margaret returned she led Thomas away from Johnson Hall. Thomas pretended to be lame so when they were challenged by a sentinel Thomas explained that Sir John had "sent him back."

Edward Lamson Henry, Johnson Hall, 1772

Over 140 Loyalists including some women and children returned with Johnson to Fort Saint-Jean. With them were "about 30 Blacks male and female," many of who had been formerly enslaved by Johnson. Johnson reported to Haldimand that 120 houses, barns, and mills had been burnt along with "vast quantities of flour, bread, Indian corn, and other provisions." A large number of cattle had been slaughtered and about 70 horses taken.

John Hare's son William, who had recently turned 16, may have accompanied Johnson back to Canada. Instead of joining the Royal Yorkers, however, he travelled to Niagara to join Butler's Rangers as a volunteer. William Hare's uncle, Peter Hare, was a Captain in Butler's Rangers, while his cousin John was a Lieutenant. Margaret Hare and her daughters remained in Johnstown.

A second raid on the Mohawk Valley region in October 1780 bypassed Johnstown. Houses, barns, mills, and stores of grain and hay were burned as Johnson's column of Royal Yorkers, Butler's Rangers, regulars, Brant's Volunteers, and Haudenosaunee marched down the Schoharie Valley to the Mohawk, then headed west to destroy Stone Arabia. A force of Albany and Tryon County Militia under the command of General Robert Van Rensselaer engaged Johnson's men west of Stone Arabia at the inconclusive Battle of Klock's Field on October 19, 1780. Although 200 members of Butler's Rangers participated in the raid it seems unlikely that William Hare, 16 years old and newly recruited, was with them.

In a petition to Governor Haldimand dated August 29, 1782, Margaret wrote:

That your Petitioner endeavoured several time to extricate herself from their atrocious Cruelty by attempting to get to Canada, but was as often prevented by their unaccountable Procedure till at length, in last October, they made an act that the Loyalists should be sent off: accordingly your Petitioner came as far as Schenectady, where she was stopped, on account of Major Ross's being then in the Country, upon which she returned to Johnstown, in order to remain there till Spring, but would not be permitted to enter under a Roof there, as they knew that her Son, who is Volunteer in Col. Butler's Core, was with Major Ross, and as several of their People were killed in the Engagement which they had near Johnson Hall: There she was obliged to return to Schenectady where she remained till the latter end of Feby when she set off for Barmont [Vermont] State.

In October 1781, Major John Ross, commanding the 2nd Battalion of the King's Royal Regiment of New York, led a raid on the Mohawk Valley that destroyed Warrensborough to the east of Fort Hunter before heading to Johnstown. With Ross were two companies of Butler's Rangers commanded by Captain Walter Butler and Captain Gilbert Tice. On October 25, 1781, Ross engaged several hundred Patriot militia commanded by Colonel Marinus Willett near Johnstown. Five days later, as Ross withdrew towards Oswego, a rear-guard action at West Canada Creek resulted in the death of Captain Butler.

Gravestone of Sarah Willard née Hare (1766-1846)
Old Pawlet Cemetery, Pawlet, Rutland, Vermont

In March 1782, William Hare was one of fifteen men "employed in His Majesty's Service" who petitioned Governor Haldimand and asked that provisions and clothing be sent under a flag of truce to Skenesborough. They noted that, "the number of Woman and children who are there amounts to above one hundred." The "distressed families" had been at Skenesborough at the extreme south end of Lake Champlain for a month and had been "ordered off their places for their Loyalty" following the Battle of Johnstown.

Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth, and Catherine finally reached Montreal in June 1782 after receiving financial help from Colonel St. Leger at Fort Saint-Jean. Sarah, however, was not with them as she had been courted by and had married Joseph Willard of Pawlett, Vermont.

In Pawlet for One Hundred Years, Heil Hollister wrote that "the singularity of the marriage of Joseph [and Sarah] may be considered worthy of record." According to Hollister, Margaret and her children while fleeing to Canada were forced to stay at Joseph's father tavern in Pawlet due to a sudden thaw. An "attachment" developed between Joseph and Sarah and "her parent was induced to stay to see how it would end: which was by marriage in her 17th year."

Hollister then proceeds to give a fanciful account of the Siege of Fort Stanwix and John Hare's death:

A man named Davis who had married Capt. Hare's sister, was a captain in the American service. Accidentally they met upon this occasion. Each demanded of the other a surrender, which each denied. Each fired upon the other, when both fell at the same instant, mortally wounded at each other's feet.

Hollister's account is in stark contrast to other accounts of the death of Captain John Davis at the Battle of Oriskany, notably that provided by Jeptha Root Simms in the Frontiersmen of New York. John Davis was not the brother-in-law of John Hare, as Davis married Jannetje Veeder at Stone Arabia in 1763 and his youngest daughter was born posthumously.

Hollister also mistakenly claimed that Hare was a captain in Butler's Rangers and that John Butler was in command at the Siege of Fort Stanwix. But while Hollister got many of his facts wrong, Sarah Hare did marry Joseph Willard at Pawlett on April 3, 1782. She remained at Pawlett until her death in 1846 and was buried in the Old Pawlett Cemetery.

In her petition to Governor Haldimand, Margaret hoped "that her fatherless Children will not be without a paternal Patron." According to her daughter Elizabeth's 1795 Upper Canada Land Petition, Margaret was granted a pension of £40 per yer. In an April 1783 letter to Robert Matthews, Haldimand's military secretary, Abraham Cuyler wrote that the pension had not started as proposed "24 June last" and that Margaret "is really an object of pity." Margaret had petitioned Cuyler, a former mayor of Albany who had responsibility for "unincorporated Loyalists," the previous November.

Margaret and her three daughters appear on the various Lists of Refugees at Montreal in 1783 and 1784. They remained at Montreal until September 1784, and were then reunited with William at Niagara.

In the summer of 1781, William was recommended for a commission as a second lieutenant, however, his commission was deferred, because he had been "not behaving well on Capt Caldwell's expedition." The following June, William was once again recommended for promotion, but although "his behaviour since then has reinstated him," Haldimand felt that "it would be best for him to remain a Volunteer some time longer."

Caldwell's expedition refers to the August 12, 1781 raid on Wawarsing, led by Captain William Caldwell, a company commander in Butler's Rangers. A force of 250 Seneca and 87 Rangers burned mills, storehouses and barns at Warwarsing and Napanoch in Ulster County, New York. In his report to Brigadier General Powell, commanding officer at Niagara, Caldwell wrote," I had the good fortune not to have a Ranger killed or wounded during our operations in those settlements" but added, "It is almost impossible to describe the situation of the party at present, worn out with hunger and fatigue."

William appears on the Niagara Returns for 1783 and 1784. The 1785 Niagara Provisioning List shows that William's mother and three sisters had joined him at Niagara, however, the 1786 Niagara Provisioning List shows one fewer girl as Catherine had died sometime in the previous 12 months.

Detail from the 1862 Tremaine's Map of Lincoln &
Welland Counties. The village of Bridgeport (Jordan
Station) occupies land assigned to Margaret Hare.

Margaret was assigned two lots in Louth Township on the east side of 20 Mile Creek where it flows into Lake Ontario.^[3] When Margaret died, one lot went to Elizabeth while the other went to Mary. Elizabeth's lot would eventually became the property of her son, James William Osgood Clark.

Margaret's claim for Revolutionary War losses was heard by the Commissioners of Claims at Niagara on August 25, 1787. Although Margaret asked for £234, the commissioners only awarded her £50 as they felt the amounts given for some of the losses were "greatly over-valued."

Margaret died sometime after 10 Aug 1790 when she made oath that she had been legally married to John Hare. Elizabeth's 1795 Upper Canada Land Petition refers to the death of Margaret "a few years ago." William's petition the same year refers to his "late mother."

In April 1793, William, Mary, Sarah and Elizabeth successfully petitioned for the 3000 acres that their father, had he lived, would have been entitled to as a Captain in the Indian Department.

William married Margaret Howe about 1794 and their first child, John, was born about 1796. They had at least seven more children, as eight children were later granted land as the son or daughter of a United Empire Loyalist. In 1808 William moved west to the Dundas Valley after purchasing land in the 1st Concession of West Flamborough from the original patentee Anne Morden.

When William and Margaret died from cholera in 1832 they were buried somewhere on their property, but were reinterred at Grove Cemetery in 1852. Their property, known as the Morden-Hare site, was the subject of archaeological excavations in 2018 and 2109 that uncovered thousands of 18th and 19th century artifacts.

Mary married Benjamin Fairchild (1765-1838) about 1791. Their first child, Margaret, was baptised on March 6, 1794. Family tradition holds that Benjamin was the son of Benjamin Fairchild and Millicent Hall, and had been taken captive by the Mohawk during the Revolutionary War. With his brother Isaac, he afterwards established a trading post first at the mouth of the Credit River and later on Fairchild Creek, a tributary of the Grand River. Benjamin was appointed a Lieutenant and Interpreter in the Indian Department of Upper Canada on November 13, 1812.

Elizabeth married James Clark on August 29, 1795 in Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake). James, the son of James Clark and Jemima Mason, was a merchant, lawyer, and office holder. His father had been born in Somerset, England and had come to Quebec in May 1768 with the 8th Regiment of Foot. In 1793, James was appointed Clerk of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. When the government of Upper Canada moved from Newark to York (Toronto) in 1797, Elizabeth and James moved as well. Elizabeth died in October 1806, seven months after the death of her seven-year-old daughter Elizabeth.

With Margaret's petition to Abraham Cuyler was a certificate signed by Barry St. Leger, John Johnson, Guy Johnson,^[4] and Daniel Claus. Their words make a fitting epitaph: "We knew the late Captain John Hare to be a zealous and loyal subject, and a brave and useful officer."

Notes:

1. John Hare is referred to as "Captain Hare" in some primary sources and "Lieutenant Hare" in others. Pay lists for the Indian Department show that John was paid as a Lieutenant from May 19, 1776 until his death. In her petition to Governor Haldimand dated August 29, 1782, Margaret Hare states that Col. St. Leger had appointed John "a Capt. in the Indian Department at Carleton Island, on his way to Fort Stanwix, but understands he was returned by Col. Butler only as Lieut till his Death."

2. Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Haldimand (1718-1791) replaced Sir Guy Carleton as Governor of the Province of Quebec in 1778.

3. Lot 17 Concession 1 and Lot 17 Concession 2 with their broken fronts.

4. Guy Johnson, a cousin of Sir John Johnson, was Superintendent of the Indian Department from 1774 until 1782.

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