The Loyalists cleared more land, planted crops, and brought in a good harvest at the season’s end.
Angus and Molly were married — Hannah and Mary were delighted to become sisters. Mr. MacDonald started up the school in the spring and they were amongst his most enthusiastic pupils.
Mary and Duncan were married in the summer of 1787. Unfortunately, that was just before the time that came to be known as “The Hungry Year.” The Government supplies were discontinued, the belief being that the Loyalists would be settled enough by then to support themselves, but there was a drought and all the grain crops failed that summer. The winter that followed was one of starvation, and many settlers died, including, to Mary’s great sorrow, her beloved Grannie. Mary gave birth to a child in the spring of 1788, but the boy was stillborn. It was a terrible year for her and for the whole family.
Mary gave birth to a girl the next year, however, when conditions had improved, and this child flourished. She was named Margaret. Mary went on to have five more children, two more girls and three boys.
By the time Upper Canada was declared to be a separate province, the MacDonald family was well established. They had not seen the last of war, however. Duncan and their three sons were called upon to join the Canadian Militia and fight in the War of 1812 when the Americans invaded Canada. They survived the fighting, to Mary’s everlasting gratitude, but one son, Robert, was badly wounded.
Hannah Ross and Alex Calder were married the year after Mary and Duncan, and Hannah gave birth to a boy not two months after Mary’s daughter was born. They had four more children, one of whom did die in the Battle of Crysler’s Farm in 1813.
Mr. MacDonald gave up teaching in his sixtieth year. He died soon after; Mary’s mother the following year.
Jamie became the owner of a prosperous country store. He was never without a dog. Cats abounded, many of them descendants of Mittens herself. Mary’s younger sister, Ann, never married. She lived with Mary and Duncan and was a beloved aunt to their children. She it was who inherited their Grannie’s healing ways, and her herbs and simples kept the family hale and healthy.
Mary died in her eightieth year, two years after Duncan, surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren. She was one of the oldest and most respected citizens of Johnstown.
The lilac bush Grannie planted in their doorway grew, and thrived, and blossomed every spring.
Historical Note
By 1775 Britain’s thirteen colonies in America were becoming more and more dissatisfied with their mother country. Among other complaints, they believed that Britain and the British Parliament were interfering too much in their affairs. Most particularly, they felt that the colonies were being subjected to unfair taxes when they had no vote or representation of their own in Britain. Finally, this dissatisfaction increased to such an extent that some men and women believed the only solution was to take up arms, dissolve their ties with Britain and establish a new, independent nation in North America. These men and women, who called themselves Patriots, declared war on Britain.
Other men and women living in the colonies, equally committed, fought on the side of the British to preserve the unity of the British Empire in America. These people came to be called Loyalists because of their loyalty to Britain and King George III. These divided loyalties within the colonies led to a bloody civil war. Brothers fought against brothers, fathers against sons. Neighbours who had lived in peace and harmony together for generations turned against each other.
The war lasted for eight long years until the Patriots finally achieved victory in 1783 and a new country, the United States of America, was born. The preliminary treaty of peace between Britain and the United States of America was signed on November 30, 1782. The final version, joined to peace treaties with France and Spain, would not be signed until September, 1783. However, the terms of the agreement were made known in New York City in March, and the formal cessation of hostilities took place on April 19, 1783. Britain made a total and unconditional recognition of the independence and sovereignty of the United States of America.
After the war ended, the Loyalists who had sided with the English were driven out of the new United States of America. Their homes and farms were destroyed or stolen, many men were tarred and feathered, run out of their own towns, or even hanged. Some of these Loyalists returned to Britain, some settled in the British West Indies. As recompense for their loyalty, Britain offered free grants of land to all those who wished to go to Canada, as well as enough supplies to sustain them until such time as they could manage to support themselves. Many Loyalists accepted this offer and settled in the British North American Provinces of Nova Scotia (which at that time included New Brunswick), Prince Edward Island (then called the Island of St. John), Québec (Lower Canada), and that part of Québec which later was called Upper Canada and finally became Ontario. These settlers were farmers, frontiersmen and city dwellers, Native peoples, Black slaves and freedmen. They included those who had immigrated to America from Germany, Holland and the British Isles, including Scotland. Many were members of religious and cultural minorities. They were joined by members of the British nobility who had served as officers, and other soldiers who had fought during the war in the British Army or the Loyalist regiments. (These Loyalist regiments were called the Provincial Corps because of their affiliation with particular provinces in the thirteen colonies of America.) In all, the thirteen former American colonies lost almost 80,000 valuable citizens.
The royal province of New York remained a British and Loyalist stronghold throughout the war, and numerous Loyalist corps were affiliated with this colony. As the war drew to a close and it became apparent that the Patriots would win, New York City became a gathering place for many of these and other refugees until November of 1783.
Some Loyalist settlers made their way north by land to the forts established in such places as Sorel, Lachine and Machiche along the shores of the St. Lawrence River in Québec. There, families were reunited with husbands, fathers and brothers who had served in the armies. Shelters were built for them, schools were started. The Loyalists wintered over in these makeshift settlements. Then, the following spring, they spread out to the permanent settlements along the St. Lawrence that Sir Frederick Haldimand, Governor of Québec, had acquired for them.
The Iroquois, a federation of Six Nations whose lands straddled the Mohawk Valley, had for the most part sided with the British. At the close of the war they found that the British had broken their promises to them and had ceded all of their lands to the Americans. The Iroquois, too, became displaced persons and were forced to emigrate north to Canada. To compensate them, they were also given land in Canada and, under the leadership of their Chief, Joseph Brant, many settled in the Niagara region. Others took refuge under the leadership of Chiefs John Deseronto, Isaac Hill and Aaron Hill and were settled in the Bay of Quinte region along the north shore of Lake Ontario.
While many of the Loyalists were treated well by the British government, the same cannot be said of the Blacks who were loyal to the British and who even fought on the British side.
In 1775 Sir John Murray, Earl of Dunmore and Royal Governor of Virginia, issued a proclamation promising freedom to any escaped slave who would join the British forces. When the war was over they too were promised land and supplies enough to start a new life. As well, Brigadier General Samuel Birch, the British army chief, issued a permit which came to be called a “General Birch Certificate” to any Black man who could prove that he had been behind the British lines for twelve months and was not a British slave. Many of these people took ship from New York to Nova Scotia. However, the promises made to them were not kept. They found themselves living in abject poverty, and a great number of them fled to Sierra Leone in Africa where, unfortunately, circumstances were not much better.
Slaves belonging to Loyalists were not freed, although their Loyalist masters began referring to them not as slaves but as “servants.” Many Loyalists brought
their slaves with them to Canada. The trade in slavery had been abolished in Britain in 1774, but it was not until 1793 that John Graves Simcoe secured the consent of the Upper Canadian Assembly to an act which made buying and selling slaves illegal in Canada, and declared that children of slaves would be free on reaching their twenty-fifth birthday.
During the winter of 1783 members of Sir John Johnson’s 2nd Battalion started construction around Fort Niagara. They built houses, the first two of which were for Joseph Brant and his sister Molly. Dwellings, grist mills and sawmills were also begun at Cataraqui in order to be ready for the settlers who had taken refuge in Québec along the St. Lawrence River.
At first there was a great resistance amongst these Loyalists to move so much farther west along the St. Lawrence. Many of them still believed that they would be able to return to their homes in the new United States and resume their former lives. They were worried about the distance they would have to travel, and had heard about the fearsome rapids that impeded navigation up the St. Lawrence. They also knew that they would need much assistance from Governor Haldimand if they were to survive. Most of them had lost almost everything they owned. They had no cattle, no horses or oxen, or the necessary farming tools. Nor did they have money to purchase them. They knew they would not be able to develop new lands or even to feed themselves during the initial work of building and clearing, and that they would not be able to succeed without a steady supply of equipment and provisions over several years. Governor Haldimand recognized their needs and promised to address them. In March of 1784 authorization arrived from Britain that the Loyalists would receive the aid they required. Thus reassured, the number of volunteers for Upper Canada increased.
Regimental loyalties provided the only communities most of the Loyalists still had. The knowledge that they would settle in Upper Canada with the regiments of their own fathers and brothers helped to commit many of the undecided to the new territories.
Governor Haldimand had entered into a series of negotiations with the Mississauga chiefs and councils, and during 1783 they provided Haldimand’s government with all the property it would need for 10,000 Loyalists and Iroquois. Late in 1783 surveyor John Collins began marking out the new townships. At that time Governor Haldimand advised the Iroquois and the Loyalists to prepare for the migration to their new homes in the spring of 1784.
In May, 1784, as soon as the river was free of ice, the Loyalists began to gather at the town of Lachine, at the foot of the rapids just west of Montréal. At Lachine Captain Jacob Maurer had been busy all winter, chartering river boats called bateaux (normally used by fur-traders) requisitioning tents and cloth, ordering thousands of hoes and axes from the military smiths, and stockpiling provisions and seed. With these preparations, the westward movement proceeded quickly. Despite the inevitable confusion and crowding, Captain Maurer was able to begin sending the Loyalists upriver before the end of May. Flotillas of a dozen bateaux began departing, with each boat carrying four or five families, a ton or two of provisions and household effects, and a crew of five experienced boatmen. By the end of June, the last of the Loyalists had departed, eventually reaching new settlements which stretched all the way from Johnstown (now Cornwall) to Cataraqui, and eventually on into the Niagara region.
When the first Loyalists landed at the different points along the shores, most of the lots had not yet been marked out by the surveyors. The settlers were obliged to wait several weeks before the drawings of lots could take place. They had brought with them a number of military tents, which had seen service during the Revolutionary War, but every day lost meant one day less for them to prepare for the coming winter. This caused great concern. The settlers had no alternative, however, but to pitch their tents near where they had landed and wait until the surveyors had completed their work, which was not until near the end of summer — too late for planting most crops.
When the drawings for lots took place, small pieces of paper with the appropriate lot numbers were placed in a hat and the surveyor, with a map spread out before him, oversaw the whole business. The officers drew first for lots in the first concession, fronting upon the water. After the officers, the other members of the community drew for their lots. Civilians received 50 acres if single, 100 if the head of a family, and 50 acres for each member of the family. Privates got the same allotment, while non-commissioned officers received 200 acres, and so on up the scale to field officers — colonel and above — who got 1000 acres.
The Loyalists began clearing the forests and building homes for themselves as soon as their lots had been apportioned. The work was harsh, made even more difficult by the shortage of horses and oxen. Cows were in short supply, as were other farm animals. There was plentiful game to be had, however, and the river teemed with fish. The Native peoples who lived there, the Mississauga, helped the newcomers in many ways. They taught them much about finding the edible roots and medicinal herbs that grew wild around them, also much about methods of grinding corn without the kinds of mills the settlers were used to, and how to fish for the sturgeon, whitefish, salmon and many other species that filled the rivers.
Governor Haldimand supplied the Loyalists with clothes, food, axes, hoes, spades and seed, and provided a few sawmills and grist mills. The first winter was hard, but most of the Loyalists survived. In the spring of 1785 they were quick to plant their crops, and that year could harvest their corn, potatoes, turnips and other vegetables.
The Government ceased sending supplies to the settlers in 1787 on the supposition that by this time they would be self-sufficient. They would have been, but that summer a severe drought caused the grain crops to fail. This, combined with a lack of supplies and a very harsh winter, resulted in a widespread famine. The following year came to be known as “The Hungry Year,” when many of the settlers starved to death. They were reduced to eating the buds of the basswood tree, and stories are told of a single beef bone being passed from family to family to be boiled and reboiled.
By 1790 more and more land was cleared and crops increased. More sawmills and grist mills appeared, even the occasional country store, stocked with goods from Montréal. More emigrants had come from across the border, and because of a high birth rate the settlers’ numbers were increasing quickly. New townships opened up, schools were started. Finally, Upper Canada was declared a separate province in 1791, covering very much the area now occupied by southern Ontario.
Images and Documents
Image 1: Discharge papers such as this were given to men when their regiments disbanded.
Not drooping like poor fugitives they came
In exodus to our Canadian wilds,
But full of heart and hope, with heads erect
And fearless eyes, victorious in defeat.
— William Kirby
Image 2: Loyalists in an oxen-drawn team ready to board a raft and cross a river on their way to Canada.
Image 3: Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, also known as Thayendanegea, led his people northwest to the Niagara region after their lands had been ceded to the Patriots following the war of independence.
Image 4: A depiction of the Loyalists’ encampment at Johnstown, later called Cornwall, on June 6, 1784.
Image 5: A southeast view of Cataraqui, which was later named Kingston.
To His Excellency Lieutenant General Haldimand Governor & Commander in Chief, &c., &c.
“The request of the Companies of Associated Loyalists going to form a Settlement at Cataraque.
“That Boards, Nails and Shingls be found each Family for Compleating such Buildings as they shall see Cause to Erect for their Convenience at any time for the space of Two years from & after their first Arrival at Cataraque with Eighty Squares of Window Glass to be delivered shortly after their arrival there.
“That Arms & Ammunition with one Felling Ax be allowed for each Male Inhabitant of the age of fourteen years
“Be allowed for each family:
One Plough shear & Coulter
Leathe
r for Horse Collers
Two Spades
Three Iron Wedges
Fifteen Iron Harrow Teeth
Three Hoes
One Inch & half Inch Auger
Three Chisels (sorted)
One Gouge
Three Gimblets
One Hand Saw & Files
One Nail Hammer
One Drawing Knife
One Frow for splitting Shingles
Two Scythes & one Sickle
One Broad Ax
One Grind stone allowed for every Three families.
One years Clothing to be issued to Each Family in proportion to their Numbers in the different species of Articles Issued to those gone to Nova Scotia.
Two years Provisions to be found to Each Family in Proportion to their Number and Age.
Two Horses, Two Cows and six Sheep to be delivered at Cataroque to Each Family at Government’s Expence. The Cost of which to be made known at delivery To the End that the same may by a Moderate Tax, be again repaid to Government at the End of Ten years if required — Our present Poverty & Inability to Purchase these Articles as well as our remote situation when there from Wealthy Inhabitants, will we hope pleed our Excuse in this respect.
“That seeds of different kinds such as Wheat, Indian Corn, Pease, Oats, Potatoes & Flax seed be given to each Family in quantity as His Excellency may think proper.
“That one Blacksmith be Established in each Township & found with Tools & Iron for Two years at Government Expence for the use of the Inhabitants of each Town.
“SOREL the ____ January 1784”
Document 1: Text of a 1784 petition from Loyalists to General Haldimand, requesting supplies.
With Nothing But Our Courage Page 13