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In New Jersey four Acts
were passed by the Legislature dealing with the Loyalists of that State.
The first provided for the punishment of traitors and disaffected
persons; another provided for the taking charge of and leasing the real
estates, and for the confiscation of the personal estates of certain
fugitives and offenders therein named; a third for forfeiting to and
vesting in the state the real property of persons designated in the
second statute; while a fourth more rigorously defined and enunciated
the principles of the first. By it certain offenders who had contributed
provisions and other specified articles to the king’s service were given
sixty days to leave the state, after which time, if they still remained,
they were to be adjudged guilty of felony and to suffer death.
Abraham Smith had been
a soldier in the New Jersey volunteers and had taken a rather prominent
part in the Revolutionary War. It seems that he did not realize the
seriousness of this statute, for the sixty days had passed and he had
not conformed to the regulations. Promptly at the expiration of the
allotted time, there appeared at the house a sergeant and a few troopers
with a warrant for the arrest of the head of the family. But Mr. Smith
had seen them coming and had had time to conceal himself. His wife met
the soldiers at the door and coolly told them that her husband had gone
that morning to Summerville, to make arrangements for transporting their
goods to Canada, and she did not expect him back before the evening of
the following day. She also volunteered the information that they were
about ready to leave, and pointed to sundry large wooden boxes, in which
they intended to transport the goods they were taking with them. “You
and your family may go,” replied the sergeant, “but your husband will
have to stay and stand his trial.” So they left, with the intention of
returning the following evening for their man. During their absence
preparations were hurriedly made, Mr. Smith was put into a large box and
with him some provisions and a couple of jars of milk. Then the box with
its precious freight was duly lifted with a couple of others on to the
first load, and one of the hired men drove the team straight for the
northern boundaries of the state. They travelled all that night and part
of the succeeding day as rapidly as possible. When they had crossed the
borders of the state whose regulations Smith had violated, they
proceeded more leisurely, though by no means without danger. The
returning soldiers were calmly met by the information that Mr. Smith had
not returned, and they had better take the road for Summerville and look
for him there. By the time the sergeant realized that he had been duped,
Smith had crossed the borders of Maine into New Brunswick, whither his
brave wife and family followed soon after.
After remaining a short
time in New Brunswick they removed to Western Canada, settling first in
the eastern part of what is now Welland County. Their eldest son,
William, came still farther west, and lived among the Indians near Long
Point. His father, mother, brothers and sisters removed to
Charlotteville about 1794, and “squatted” on land about the centre of
that township. This particular portion was secured to them along with
other lots by patents issued about three years later, by Hon. Peter
Russell, acting Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada.
Another Smith family
(Loyalists) settled in Norfolk County some years later, namely, Hart
Smith, also of the New Jersey volunteers. From New Brunswick he came
west to the township of Crowland, in Lincoln County, and thence to
Windham, in 1811.
The Crown Lands records
show the following grants of land to his family:
“Catherine Doan, wife
of John Doan, and daughter of Hart Smith, 28th May, 1811, two hundred
acres in Charlotteville.
“Eliza, daughter of
Hart Smith, 8th April, 1812, two hundred acres in Windham.
“Aaron, son of Hart
Smith, 8th April, 1812, two hundred acres in Windham.” |
