The loyalists of America and their times : $b from 1620 to 1816, Vol. 1 of 2

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[Illustration: (signature) E. Ryerson]

THE

LOYALISTS OF AMERICA

AND

THEIR TIMES:

FROM 1620 TO 1816.

BY EGERTON RYERSON, D.D., LL.D.,

_Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada from 1844 to 1876._

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

TORONTO:
WILLIAM BRIGGS, 80 KING STREET EAST;
JAMES CAMPBELL & SON, AND
WILLING & WILLIAMSON.
MONTREAL: DAWSON BROTHERS.
1880.

ENTERED, according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year
One thousand eight hundred and eighty, by the REV. EGERTON RYERSON,
D.D., LL.D., in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture.




PREFACE.


As no Indian pen has ever traced the history of the aborigines of
America, or recorded the deeds of their chieftains, their "prowess and
their wrongs"--their enemies and spoilers being their historians; so the
history of the Loyalists of America has never been written except by
their enemies and spoilers, and those English historians who have not
troubled themselves with examining original authorities, but have
adopted the authorities, and in some instances imbibed the spirit, of
American historians, who have never tired in eulogizing Americans and
everything American, and deprecating everything English, and all who
have loyally adhered to the unity of the British Empire.

I have thought that the other side of the story should be written; or,
in other words, the true history of the relations, disputes, and
contests between Great Britain and her American colonies and the United
States of America.

The United Empire Loyalists were the losing party; their history has
been written by their adversaries, and strangely misrepresented. In the
vindication of their character, I have not opposed assertion against
assertion; but, in correction of unjust and untrue assertions, I have
offered the records and documents of the actors themselves, and in their
own words. To do this has rendered my history, to a large extent,
_documentary_, instead of being a mere popular narrative. The many
fictions of American writers will be found corrected and exposed in the
following volumes, by authorities and facts which cannot be successfully
denied. In thus availing myself so largely of the proclamations,
messages, addresses, letters, and records of the times when they
occurred, I have only followed the example of some of the best
historians and biographers.

No one can be more sensible than myself of the imperfect manner in which
I have performed my task, which I commenced more than a quarter of a
century since, but I have been prevented from completing it sooner by
public duties--pursuing, as I have done from the beginning, an untrodden
path of historical investigations. From the long delay, many supposed I
would never complete the work, or that I had abandoned it. On its
completion, therefore, I issued a circular, an extract from which I
hereto subjoin, explaining the origin, design, and scope of the work:--

     "I have pleasure in stating that I have at length completed the
     task which the newspaper press and public men of different parties
     urged upon me from 1855 to 1860. In submission to what seemed to be
     public opinion, I issued, in 1861, a circular addressed to the
     United Empire Loyalists and their descendants, of the British
     Provinces of America, stating the design and scope of my proposed
     work, and requesting them to transmit to me, at my expense, any
     letters or papers in their possession which would throw light upon
     the early history and settlement in these Provinces by our U.E.
     Loyalist forefathers. From all the British Provinces I received
     answers to my circular; and I have given, with little abridgment,
     in one chapter of my history, these intensely interesting letters
     and papers--to which I have been enabled to add considerably from
     two large quarto manuscript volumes of papers relating to the U.E.
     Loyalists in the Dominion Parliamentary Library at Ottawa, with the
     use of which I have been favoured by the learned and obliging
     librarian, Mr. Todd.

     "In addition to all the works relating to the subject which I could
     collect in Europe and America, I spent, two years since, several
     months in the Library of the British Museum, employing the
     assistance of an amanuensis, in verifying quotations and making
     extracts from works not to be found elsewhere, in relation
     especially to unsettled questions involved in the earlier part of
     my history.

     "I have entirely sympathized with the Colonists in their
     remonstrances, and even use of arms, in defence of British
     constitutional rights, from 1763 to 1776; bu