Subject: United Empire Loyalists Source: Encyclopedia Americana Vol. 27 p.437 1969 p.437 UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS In Canadian history, those who left the United States during and after the American Revolutionary War, and who sought homes in Canada in order to remain under the British flag. Originally, the term was applied particularly to the Loyalists and their descendants who settled in what is now the Province of Ontario, but later it came to designate people of Loyalist descent in all parts of Canada. The term has often been used rather loosely, but when used correctly it should refer to those who were living in the American colonies before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775, who joined the British standard before the peace treaty between the United States and Great Britain in 1783, who emigrated to the British North American provinces before 1798, and whose names were duly enrolled on the Loyalist Register. Some confusion arose later because this register was not always kept with strict accuracy. There were two main streams of Loyalist emigration to Canada. By far the larger was that to Nova Scotia, which then included the present province of New Brunswick in 1783. This group consisted of refugees who had collected in New York City, which had been under British military occupation during the greater part of the Revolutionary War. Under the supervision of the British military commander, Sir Guy Carle- ton (1st Baron Dorchester), a fleet of ships was assembled that took some 30,000 of the refugees to Nova Scotia. Since the best land had already been taken up in peninsular Nova Scotia, (that is, the present province of that name), most of the Loyalists congregated in the largely unsettled region of the north of the Bay of Fundy. There, at the mouth of the Saint John River and in contiguous areas, they camped until they were assigned farm or town lots on which to build new homes. As the Loyalist communities began to take form, it was soon clear that the leading men among them chafed at the prospect of being governed from Halifax, the Nova Scotia capital, and in response to this feeling the British government in 1784 designated the region north of the Bay of Fundy as a separate province, New Brunswick. Meanwhile other and much smaller parties of Loyalists had been moving northward and westward toward the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario to cross into what was then the old Province of Quebec. These migrations had begun early in the Revolutionary War but they swelled in number after the treaty of 1783. Most of these refugees assembled at Sorel, at the mouth of the Richelieu River, and in 1784 they were placed on lands along the St. Lawrence River, southwest of Montreal, and at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Other Loyalists settled in the peninsula west of the Niagara River. Altogether, the Loyalists who came to the old Province of Quebec numbered about 7,000. Forming the first English-speaking communities of any size in the province, they were soon disatisfied with a system of government that provided for French law, including seigneurial tenure and had no representative element. Again the British government met the wishes of the Loyalists in 1791, by dividing the Province of Quebec into the provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. The former (now the Province of Ontario) was given English law, and each was given a representative assembly. The British government also provided material assistance to the Loyalists to enable them to establish themselves in their new homes in the British North American provinces. Of greatest importance, they, and their sons and daughters, were given free grants of land. In addition, they were given seed, implements and farm stock, and were provided with government rations until they were able to feed themselves. Further, when it became apparent that the Loyalists would not be able to secure recompense from American authorities for property losses suffered during the Revolutionary War, the British government set up a commission to hear claims and made awards totaling several millions of dollars. Loyalists came into the Canadian provinces from all the American states but the great bulk of them came from New York, with New Jersey and Pennsylvania also providing considerable numbers. Although they were drawn from all social classes and occupations, the great majority of them had been people of modest means, mainly small farmers. Many suffered severe hardships during the Revolutionary War and in the first stages of pioneer life in their new homes, but in a few years, with government help and the advantage of good land, most of them were at least as well off as they had been before they were exiled. - Some drifted back to their old homes - Some, drawn by homesickness and family ties, drifted back to their old homes. Most, however, never swerved in their determination to remain loyal to the British connection. In this regard it is interesting to note that the Loyalists were not predominantly British in origin: a large proportion were of Dutch, German, Scots and Huguenot stock, nor should the loyal Indians, of the Six Nations, led by Joseph Brant, be forgotten. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth