|
United Empire Loyalists.—List
of Scottish names appearing in Lord Dorchester's list. — A "Distinguished
Individual's" opinion of the Highlanders of that Generation.—Mr. Croil's
description of the situation and condition of the Loyalist Settlers in the
United Counties.
A reference to the "Old U. E.
List," compiled by Government by direction of Lord Dorchester, shows the
original United Empire Loyalists in the Province. In many instances,
however, instead of the Township being given, it is merely stated that lands
were allotted in the Eastern District. My only plan will, therefore, be to
insert in the appendix the names of all who appear to have settled in that
district, showing the respective Townships when given, and omitting those
who are stated to have settled in Townships outside Glengarry.
This list was prepared in
pursuance of the Order-in-Council of 9th November, 1789, wherein it was
stated that it was His Excellency's desire "to put a Marke of Honour upon
the families who had adhered to the unity of the Empire and joined the Royal
Standard in America before the Treaty of Separation in the year 1783 * * to
the end that their posterity may be discriminated from future settlers * *
as proper objects by their presevering in the Fidelity and Conduct so
honourable to their ancestors for distinguished Benefits and Privileges."
The list is preserved on
record in the Crown Lands Department, and it shows that those of the name of
the Clan which gave its name to Glengarry outranked in number those of any
other individual name in the Province, and that there were more Loyalists of
that name than any three English names combined in the whole Province. But
though there were more Macdonells from Glengarry in Scotland than any
others, there were, as previously stated, representatives of almost every
Highland Clan and every Scottish name. A list of the names will prove it,
and as the statement has been made by one who professes to speak
authoritatively on the subject, and to know whereof he
speaks, and writes that ''the Scotch and Irish element; in the United Empire
Loyalists is too small as compared with the preponderating English and
German to be taken into account," I give it, with the number of each name
I quote from the original
list. Names were subsequently added, from time to time, by Order in Council,
on the special application of those who had omitted to take the precaution
in the first instance. The additions would not alter the proportion of the
above nomenclature. I am satisfied, however, from facts within my knowledge,
that many of the Highlanders never took the trouble of having their names
inserted at all, first or last. Thus Bishop Macdonell (who came to Canada
over twenty years after the Loyalists had settled here) writing
subsequently, states, "I had not been long in the Province when I found that
few or none of even those of you who were longest settled in the country
had. legal tenures of your properties. Aware that if trouble or confusion
took place in the Province your properties would become uncertain and
precarious, and under this impression I proceeded to the seat of Government,
where; after some months hard and unremitting labour, through the public
offices, I procured for the inhabitants of Glengarry and Stormont patent
deeds for one hundred and twenty-six thousand acres of land." When they
would not trouble about taking out their patents, many of them would not
think of having their names inserted on the roll.
The above list is, I submit,
a fair representation of those who to-day comprise what the author of the
essay referred to, Mr. George Sandfield Macdonald, B.A., of Cornwall, is
pleased to designate as the "Keltic" population of the Province of Ontario.
For further information on the subject and a comparison of the number of the
''Kelts" with the English and Germans amongst the Loyalist settlers of the
Eastern District I refer him to Lord Dorchester's list, simply stating that
of the three English names most frequently met with Smith, Jones and Brown,
there were, all told, just eighty, or four less than of one Highland Clan,
while of the Germans, taking as a criterion all the names to which the
prefix "Van " is attached, from Van Allen to Van Vorst. there were but
forty-two, exactly half of the number of those from whom the County of
Glengarry took its name.
The statement to which I have
referred, however, is not the only one in this singular essay, which was
read before the Celtic Society of Montreal, which requires explanation and
correction. We are gravely informed that the "Keltic" settlers in Canada of
the period spoken of (the early settlement of Glengarry, 1783-6 had no
mental qualifications to entitle them to take rank with the founders of the
American plantations, that unlike the Puritans of New England, the Catholics
of Maryland, the Cavaliers of Virginia, the Huguenots of South Carolina and
the followers of William Penn, the compelling force leading to change of
country was in contrast to the -motives of a higher order, as in those
cases, that long subjection to the despotism of chiefs and landlords had
numbed the finer qualities and instincts, and that even the physique had
degenerated under oppression. We are told, too, that an analysis is required
of the generations which have succeeded the original settlers, psychological
and sociological no less, to grasp the full significance of the lives and
actions of those he is pleased to consider "distinguished individuals," and
the "people" among whom they deigned to move, which was a very gracious
condescension on the part of these distinguished individuals, seeing that
the experience and ideas of the 'people' were confined within the smoke of
their own bush fires. Now, all this may be very fine writing, and display a
large amount of culture in one doubtless a typical specimen of the modern
distinguished individuals referred to, but it is very grievous rubbish
nevertheless, and a most uncalled for and gross calumny on the men who left
Scotland and settling in Canada, after fighting through the War, were
largely instrumental, not only in preserving it by their prowess, but
developing it from the primeval forest to the fruitful land it is to-day.
Their descendants will neither credit nor relish the unworthy sneers at the
stunted limbs and intellects and ignoble motives of those to whom they have
every reason to look back with pride, and who laid the foundations of the
homes and Institutions we now enjoy.
This, however, is a
digression. The facts are there to speak for themselves, and are themselves
a refutation of the theories and allegations of the essayist—as well might
he tell us that the men of the same generation who entered the Highland
Regiments, and to whom Pitt referred, were feeble and stunted of limb, with
their finer qualities numbed and their instincts dwarfed by years of
oppression and tyranny of "so-called chieftains."
Glengarry, where they
settled, is the most easterly County of what is now the Province of Ontario,
"the upper country of Canada," to the south being the River St. Lawrence, on
the east the Counties of Soulanges and Vaudreuil in the Province of Quebec,
to the north the County of Prescott, and the west that of Stormont.
Alexandria, which may be considered the centre of the County, is about
mid-way between the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers, and is about equi-distant
from the political and commercial capitals of the Dominion or to be precise,
fifty-six miles from Ottawa and fifty-four from Montreal. The United Empire
Loyalists of course settled largely in the front of the County, along the
banks of the River St. Lawrence, the later emigrants locating themselves in
rear of the preceding ones to the north.
Mr. Croil, in his "Sketch of
Canadian History," gives an admirable description of the situation and
condition of the United Empire Loyalist soldier-settler in the adjacent
County of Dundas, equally applicable, of course, to his late comrade in arms
in Glengarry. The circumstances of the officers and their families were
necessarily somewhat better, as having the pensions of their respective
ranks at the date of the reduction of the various corps, they could rely
upon a supply of ready money at certain stated 'ntervals, and though the
amount was comparatively small, yet money went far u those primitive days,
and their families had but few opportunities of indulging any extravagant
tastes they might have acquired from their former circumstances of life.
Owing to the number of officers whoa settled in the Eastern District of the
Province they formed among themselves a society quite equal to that of any
portion of the Province, while their birth and education enabled them to
hold their own with the official circles at York or among the largely
mercantile aristocracy of Montreal when occasion arose for them to visit
either of those places. Such was their number that a Board of Officers,
composed of Colonel John Macdonell (Aberchalder), of Glengarry, Captain John
Macdonell (Scotus), of Cornwall, and the Reverend John Stuart (formerly
Chaplain Second Battalion, King's Royal Regiment of New York), of Kingston,
was required to administer the necessary oaths to enable them to draw their
pensions from time to time.
Mr. Croil states the
Proclamation of Peace between Great Britain and the United States of America
witnessed at least a partial fulfilment of the prophecy that men shall beat
their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks. The
brave and loyal subjects, who during the fierce struggle which then
culminated had remained faithful to the British Crown, being no longer
required to fight their country's battles, were now destined in a very
different way to add to their country's greatness. It was determined that
liberal grants of land should be freely given to the disbanded soldiers.
This was simply characteristic of that principle of high honour and justice
which, in every period of its history, has distinguished the British
Government. The properties of all who had withstood the Republican
Government in the States were of course confiscated, and peace being
proclaimed, not only was the soldier's occupation gone, but his farm and all
his earthly possessions were-forfeited for ever.
Having arrived at Cornwall,
or ""New Johnstown " as it was then called, in compliment to Sir John and
the capital of their former settlement in the fertile Mohawk Valley, the
soldiers found the Government Land Agent, and forthwith proceeded to draw by
lottery the lands that had been granted to them. The townships in which the
different corps weir io settle being first arranged, the lots were numbered
on small slips of paper, and placed m a hat, when each soldier in turn drew
h>s own. As there was no opportunity for examining the comparative quality
of the lands, so there was little choice in the matter ; but by exercising a
spirit of mutual accommodation, it frequently resulted, that old comrades
who had stood side by side in the ranks, now sat down side by side, on the
banks of the St Lawrence.
With what feelings of intense
interest, mingled even with awe and melancholy, must these settlers have
regarded this introduction to their new wilderness home ! How impatient each
to view the particular spot where his lot had been cast ! Everywhere save in
the neighbourhood of the Longue Sault Rapids the landscape wore an aspect of
wild and gloomy solitude : its solemn stillness interrupted only by the deep
murmuring of the mighty river as it rolled along its flood to the ocean. On
leaving the river, the native grandeur of the woods, tenanted only by the
Indian hunter and his scarce more savage prey, must have filled them with
amazement. Well might they exclaim, is this our inheritance, our future home
! Are these to be at once our enemies and our associates ! Can it be that
these giant denizens of the forest are to succumb to our prowess, and that
this vast wilderness is to be converted into fruitful fields!
The first operation of the
new settler was to erect a shanty. Each, with his axe on his shoulder,
turned out to help the other, and in a short time every one in the little
colony was provided with a snug log cabin. All were evidently planned by the
same architect, differing only in size, which was regulated by the
requirements of the family, the largest not exceeding twenty feet by fifteen
feet inside, and of one storey in height. They were built somewhat similar
to the modem back-woodman's shanty. Round logs, roughly notched together at
the corner, and piled one above another, to the height of seven or eight
feet, constituted the walls. Openings for a door, and one small window,
designed for four lights of glass seven by nine were cut out—the spaces
between the logs were chinked with small splinters, and carefully plastered
outside and inside, with clay for mortar. Smooth straight poles were laid
lengthways of the building, on the walls, to serve as supports for the roof.
This was composed of stripes of elm bark, four feet in length, by two or
three feet in width, in layers, overlapping each other, and fastened to the
poles by withs. With a sufficient slope to the back, this formed a roof
which was proof against wind and weather. An ample hearth, made of flat
stones, was then laid out, and a fire back of field stone or small boulders,
rudely built, was carried up as high as the walls. Above this the chimney
was formed of round poles notched together, and plastered with mud. The
floor was of the same materials as the walls, only that the logs were split
in two, and flattened so as to make a tolerably even surface. As no boards
were to be had to make a door until they could be sawn out by the whip saw,
a blanket suspended from the inside for some time took its place. By and by,
four little panes of glass were stuck into a rough sash, and then the shanty
was complete; strangely contrasting with the convenient appliances and
comforts of later days. The total absence of furniture of any kind whatever,
was not to be named as an inconvenience by those who had lately passed
through the severest of hardships. Stern necessity, the mother of invention,
soon brought into play the ingenuity of the old soldier, who, in his own
rough and ready way, knocked together such tables and benches as were
necessary for household use.
As the sons and daughters of
the U. E.'s became of age, each repaired to Cornwall, and presented a
petition to the Court of Quarter Sessions, setting forth their rights; when,
having properly identified themselves, and complied with the necessary
forms, the Crown Agent was authorized to grant each of them a deed for two
hundred acres of land, the expenses incurred not exceeding in all two
dollars. In addition to the land spoken of, the settlers were otherwise
provided by Government with everything that their situation rendered
necessary—food and clothes for three years, or until they were able to
provide these for themselves; besides, seed to sow on their new clearances,
and such implements of husbandry as were required. Each received an axe, a
hoe and a spade; a plough and one cow were allotted to two families; a whip
and cross cut-saw to every fourth family, and even boats were provided for
their use, and placed at convenient points of the river. They were of little
use to them for a time, as the first year they had no grists to take to
mill.
But that nothing might seem
to be awanting, on the part of Government, even portable corn mills,
consisting of steel plates, turned by hand like a coffee mill, were
distributed amongst the settlers. The operation of grinding in this way, was
of necessity very slow; it came besides to be considered a menial and
degrading employment, and, as the men were all occupied out of doors, it
usually fell to the lot of the women, reminding us forcibly of the Hebrew
women of old, similarly occupied, of whom we have the touching allusion in
Holy Writ, ''Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken
and the other left."
In most cases, the settlers
repaired to Cornwall each spring and fall, or during the winter, and dragged
up on the ice, by the edge of the river, as much as he could draw on a hand
sled. Pork was then, as now are staple article of animal food; and it was
usual for the settlers, as soon as they had received their rations to smoke
their bacon, and then hang it up to dry; sometimes it was thus left
incautiously suspended outside all night: the result not unfrequertly was
that, while the family was asleep, the quarter's store of pork would be
unceremoniously carried off by the wolves, then very numerous and
troublesome, and in no wise afraid of approaching the shanty of the newly
arrived settler. Frequently too, during the night, would they be awakened by
these marauders, or by the discordant sounds of j pigs and poultry
clustering round the door to escape from their fangs.
There was in former times a
deal of valuable timber standing in the Counties. Huge pine trees were cut
for ship's masts, measuring from ninety to one hundred and twenty feet in
length, and from forty to forty-eight inches in diameter, when dressed for
market. One such piece of timber must have weighed from twenty or
twenty-five tons. These mast tress were dragged from the wood by from twelve
to sixteen pairs of horses. A single tree was sold in Quebec as a bow-sprit
for $200. Of white oak, averaging when dressed from forty five to sixty-five
cubic feet, and of the best Canadian quality, there was abundance; this
found a ready market at from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per foot. Iinferior quality of
this timber was converted into stave blocks, and also shipped to Quebec. At
a later period, large quantities of elm and ash were sent to market from
this County, while beech and maple, then considered worthless, were piled up
in log heaps and burned, the ashes being carefully gathered and sold to the
merchants, to be made into potash.
There being ample employment
on the father's farm, yet uncleared, for all his sons, there was little
inducement for them to think of setting up for themselves; as a consequence,
the lands the children had drawn were of little value to them in the
meantime. U. E. rights became a staple article of commerce, and were readily
bought up by speculators, almost as fast as they came into the hands of the
rising generation. A portion of what remained to the farmer or his family
was soon sold in payment of taxes, at sheriff's sales, and these lots, too,
usually fell into the hands of land jobbers. Many of the lots had never been
seen by the parties who drew them, and their comparative value was
determined either by their distance from the river, or the pressing
necessity of the party holding them. It thus happened that lands in the rear
townships, which in a very few years brought from twenty to thirty dollars
per acre, were then considered worthless ; and lots even more favourably
situated, in respect to locality, were sold, if not for an old song, at
least for a new dress, worth perhaps from three to four dollars in cash. We
have even been told credibly that two hundred acres of land, upon which now
stands a flourishing village in the adjoining County of Dundas, was, in
these early days, actually sold for a gallon of rum. The usual price of fair
lots was from $25 to $30, some even as high as $50 per 200 acres. At $30 the
price would be fifteen cents per acre. The same lands were even then resold
to settlers, as they gradually caine i.i from Britain and the United States,
at a price of from $2 to $4 per acre, thus yielding a clear profit to the
speculator of 1000 per cent, on his investment, a profit in comparison with
which, the exorbitant interest of later days sinks into utter
insignificance.
The summer months were
occupied by the early settlers in burning up the huge logs that had
previously been piled together, and in the sooty and laborious work of
reconstructing their charred and smouldering remains into fresh heaps; the
surface was than raked clear of chips and other fragments, and in the autumn
the wheat was hoed in by hand. During winter every man was in the woods,
making timber, or felling the trees to make way for another fallow. The
winters were then long, cold and steady, and the fall wheat seldom saw the
light of day till the end of April-' the weather then setting in warm, the
dormant breaks of wheat early assumed a healthy an^ luxuriant vegetation.
Thistles and burdocks, the natural result of slovenly farming, were unknown,
and neither fly nor rust, in these good old days, were there to blight the
hopes of the primitive farmer. The virgin sold yielded abundantly her
increase ; ere long there was plenty in the land for man and beast, and,
with food and raiment the settler was contented and prosperous.
There was in the character of
the early settlers that which commanded the admiration and respect of all
who were brought into contact with them. Naturally of a hardy and robust
constitution, they were appalled neither by danger nor difficulties, but
manfully looked them fair in the face, and surmounted them all. Amiable in
their manners, they were frugal, simple and regular in their habits. They
were scrupulously honest in their dealings, affectionate in all their social
relations, hospitable to strangers, and faithful in the discharge of duty.
While we say this much of the
early settler, let us not be understood as wishing to hold them up as
paragons of perfection—as examples iri all things to their descendants. They
had their failings, as well as their virtues, but we must make allowances
for the circumstances in which they were placed. They were charged by the
early missionaries, and perhaps with some degree of truth, "as wofully
addicted to carousing and dancing," but these were the common and allowed
amusements of the times in which they lived It may, however, be said with
truth, that forms of licetiousness and profligacy, which are not uncommon in
the present day, would have aroused the indignation of the early settler,
and met with reprobation, if not chastisement at their hands. It is true,
they were not of those who made broad their phylacteries, or were of a sad
countenance, disfiguring their faces, and for a pretence made long prayers.
Innured to a life of hardship and toil,—without the check of a Gospel
ministry, and exposed to the blunting influence of the camp, the barrack and
the guard room, we must be content to find them but rough examples of
Christian life. The scrupulous and uistrustful vigilance, however, with
which modern professors of every creed eye their fellow men, and require
every pecuniary engagement, no matter how trivial, to be recorded in a
solemn written obligation, stands out in striking contrast to the practice
of the early settlers, among whom all such written agreements were unknown,
every man's word being accounted as good as his bond. Lands were conveyed
and payments promised by word of mouth, and verbal agreements were held as
sacred as the most binding of modem instruments.
In course of a few years the
settlers were enabled to supply themselves with the necessaries of life from
the mid and the store, and the roving and dissipated life of the soldier was
forgotten, in the staid and sober habits of the hard working farmer. A few
of a more adventurous turn of mind at times would man a boat, and, ascending
the river to Oswego, take a circuitous route by lakes and rivers, betimes
carrying their boats shoulder high for miles at a stretch, and finally reach
the green valley of the Mohawk, dear to them still in memory. Returning,
they brought such articles of merchandize with them as they could transport,
and, providing themselves with a passport at Carleton Island, they swiftly
glided down the river. The following is a copy of such a passport:—
Having sufficiently
trespassed on Mr. Croil's pages, 1 shall now quote from those of Judge
Pringle.(2) The latter is himself a descendant of a United Empire Loyalist
family, and has certainly done much towards collecting such records relating
to them as are at this late date accessible :
It is unfortunate that no
effort was made in the early days of the settlement to preserve records of
the services, the labours and the sufferings of the U. E. Loyalists both
before and after their coming to Canada.
One can easily understand why
such records are so few. For many years after 1784 there were but few who
were able to keep a diary, and they, in common with the rest of the
settlers, were too busy, too much engaged in the stern work of subduing the
forest and making new homes, to have much time for anything but the struggle
for existence.
Each U. E. Loyalist had some
story to tell of the stirring times through which he had passed. Some of the
older men could speak of service in the French war, under Howe, Abercrombie,
Wolfe, Amherst or Johnson; perhaps of the defeat of Braddock, or of the
desperate fight at the outworks of Ticonderoga, where Montcalm drove back
Abercrombie's troops; of success at Frontenac or Niagara; of scaling the
Heights at Quebec, and of victory with Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham; of
the long and perilous voyage down the St. Lawrence with Amherst, and of the
capitulation of Montreal. There were but few who could not tell of
adventures in the Seven Years' War from 1776 to 1783, and of loss of home,
property and friends, for the part they took in it; while many could speak
from personal experience of cruel wrong and persecution suffered by them as
a punishment for their loyalty. No doubt when neighbours met together on a
winter evening to chat beside the great fireplace tilled with blazing logs,
many an hour was passed in the telling of tales of the troubles and
adventures they had encountered. These stories have gradually faded and
become dim in the recollection of the people; here and there a few facts can
be got from some family that has cherished the remembrance of them as an
heirloom. A Fraser could tell of the imprisonment and death of a father; a
Chisholm of imprisonment, and escape through the good offices of a brother
Highlander in the French service; a Dingwall of the escape of a party
through the woods, of sufferings from cold and hunger, of killing for food
the faithfal dog (1) that followed them, and dividing the carcase into
scanty morsels; a Ferguson of running the gauntlet, imprisonment, sentence
of death, and escape; an Anderson of service under Amherst, of the offer
first of a company, then of a battalion, in the Continental Army, as the
price of treason, of being imprisoned and sentenced to death, and of escape
with his fellow-prisoner to Canada.
It is probable that not a few
of the Highlanders could tell of service on one side or the other in the
abortive rising under "Bonnie Prince Charlie" in 1745, which, after
successful actions at Preston Pans and Falkirk, was quenched in blood on
Culloden Muir in 1746. Some, like John McDonell (Scotus), might be able to
show a claymore with blade dented by blows on the bayonets of Cumberland's
Grenadiers. |
