A Call to the Colours - Kenneth Cox Genealogist's Reference Shelf

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the revolution started, many of the men who volunteered for service were used as a local police force but, by 1776, the army in New York had received 5,000 green uniforms to be distributed to Loyalist regiments. The early uniforms were “faced” in white, green, or blue. This means that your ancestor’s coat would have been green with white, green, or blue lapels. Later thousands of yards of red cloth were provided by the British authorities and some of the Provincial Corps began to look like regular establishment regiments. As the war progressed almost all Loyalist units began to take on the structure of regular British line regiments with a strict command structure, light and grenadier companies, their own regimental “colours,” regimental bands, and cavalry units.

      In 1779 the British authorities, in recognition of the importance of the Provincial Corps, created an “American Establishment”; renamed the Queen’s Rangers to the 1st American Regiment; the Volunteers of Ireland became the 2nd American Regiment; and the New York Volunteers, the 3rd American Regiment. In 1781, the King’s American Regiment became the 4th American Regiment and the British Legion, the 5th American Regiment. These designations were in recognition of each unit’s proficiency. Your Loyalist ancestor may have also chosen to join a colonial militia unit used for scouting or other related activities.

      There are a number of military resources available to consult. Your ancestor could have been part of a British regiment, referred to as Regulars; a member of a Loyalist/Provincial Corps, often referred to as Colonials; a member of the Loyalist Militia, who seem to have been predominantly established in the New York command; or a member of one of the corps that formed the American Establishment and thus more closely related to a British Line regiment or even a member of the Native Establishment based out of Fort Niagara. If your family has a German background then they could have seen service with one of the German/Hanoverian Regiments that operated in North America, often referred to as Hessians.

      Some men served in more than one corps and, following the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781 and the beginning of peace negotiations in 1782, the muster rolls of the various provincial corps began to dwindle. Many of your ancestors who had served with a Loyalist corps either elected to try to return to their homes or chose to accept the British offer to relocate. Sometimes you may see the word “deserter” beside your ancestor’s name but this may only mean that he elected to take a chance on either travelling north on his own or trying to re-establish himself in the new United States. Little effort seems to have been made by the British authorities to apprehend these men. You really have to appreciate what these men must have felt when they realized that they had lost everything they had struggled to build in the former Thirteen Colonies before the rebellion.[3]

      If your ancestor chose to disband in New York, he could have gone to the West Indies, Quebec (then the name for what is now Quebec and Ontario), Nova Scotia, or Saint John, New Brunswick. It appears that the greatest number of disbanded Loyalists settling in one place were those who arrived in Saint John in 1783 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Hewlett of De Lancey’s Brigade. It is estimated that well over 3,000 men, women, and children settled there. This huge influx of settlers resulted in the creation in 1784 of the new colony of New Brunswick with Saint John as its administrative centre. By 1791, the colony of Upper Canada was created from the former colony of Quebec because of the volume of Loyalist settlers.

      You can imagine the amount of record keeping that was done by the British authorities as they attempted to settle the displaced Loyalists and their families. You will discover muster rolls and pay lists, lists of individuals receiving rations, land grant records, claims for losses or requests for food rations and tools, petitions for increased acreage, inclusion of names on district records, petitions for title/deed for land, and, later, petitions from family members based on their Loyalist status. You will also discover gratuities granted by early colonial legislatures/Parliaments to ease the financial burden of Loyalist refugees. Many of these acts of Parliament were initiated years after the formation of the colony.

      If you want to fully utilize the land-grant records, an excellent resource guide is United Empire Loyalists: A Guide to Tracing Loyalist Ancestors in Upper Canada by Brenda Dougall Merriman.

      If you do discover an ancestor on a Loyalist muster roll you will want to check if he or she applied for a land grant. Start by checking the information found at, www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy and following the prompts for Loyalists/land.

      So what happens if you do discover a name on a muster roll that you suspect may be an ancestor and someone who may have later served during the War of 1812? Many of the Loyalist regiments raised during the revolution came from specific areas in the thirteen colonies. For instance, the King’s Royal Regiment of New York was originally composed of men from the Mohawk Valley in upper New York State. During the war, they were very active up and down the valley. The regiment was raised and led by Sir John Johnson whose family home was called Johnson Hall.

      The Johnson home is maintained by the State of New York and is open to the public. At the end of the war the regiment settled along the St. Lawrence River near present-day Cornwall and Kingston, Ontario. Thus, if you discovered an ancestor who served with this regiment, search records in the former colony of New York’s Mohawk Valley and also in the Cornwall and Kingston area of Upper Canada.

      There are some excellent histories available on some of the Loyalist regiments. For example, in 1931 the Ontario Historical Society published a book by Ernest Cruikshank about the King’s Royal Regiment, The History and Master Roll of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York, Revised Edition, which was republished in 1984 with the addition of an index, appendices, and a master muster roll prepared by Gavin Watt. As a point of interest, this unit has been recreated by local military enthusiasts and has an excellent web site offering a great deal of information related to the original Provincial Regiment: www.royalyorkers.ca.

      It has been suggested by some historians that by 1812 the population in Upper Canada was approximately 70,000+ individuals. Of these, 40 percent were Loyalists and their descendants, former members of British regulars who elected to remain in Canada following their term of service, or immigrants from England.

      However, the remainder of the non-Native population was “late Loyalists” or, more specifically, Americans who had come north for free land.[4] So when war was declared, Upper Canada military authorities were a little concerned about the loyalty of these new settlers. For the American military authorities, it certainly made sense to plan any major invasion of the country through Upper Canada.

      My own family research in this period began when I received an email from family in England with a copy of an oil painting attached, suggesting that the painting’s subject was a member of my grandmother’s Hinds family. Tradition stated that he had served with the British forces at the battle of Waterloo and before that at the battle of New Orleans. A second reason to research this period was the search for my wife’s ancestor Jean Baptiste Turcott, whom it was believed had served during the War of 1812 and was granted land on Wolfe Island just south of Kingston, Ontario. Two quests necessitated two different approaches to researching War of 1812 records. The first individual would have served in a British regiment — in this case the artillery. I assumed the second was of French Canadian ancestry. Where did I begin?

      First establish a historical reference point from which to begin your research. So ask yourself, is it possible that someone could have been involved in the British defeat at New Orleans and later fought at the Battle of Waterloo?

      The Battle of Waterloo was fought July 1815 following Emperor Napoleon’s return from his first exile, and the battle of New Orleans occurred January 1815. The incident in New Orleans was a bit of a blunder and certainly an embarrassment for the British. The War of 1812 had actually come to a close with the Treaty of Ghent in December 1814. Word didn’t reach the British forces as they prepared to attack New Orleans and the battle ended in defeat. The Battle of New Orleans, although officially not part of the War of 1812, is still considered a major event in that conflict. To the Americans it was a positive event in a war that had not gone all that well for the United States Army.

      Could this individual (Edward or William Hinds) have fought in both battles? The answer is, possibly, “yes.” According to family sources the individual in the picture had served in the Royal Horse Artillery, achieved

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