COLUMN: UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS HELPED SHAPE THE CANADA WE KNOW TODAY

Sept. 3 marked the 241st anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Paris - an agreement that officially ended the U.S. War of Independence and declared American revolutionaries winners of the eight year struggle.

With the elapse of so much time it’s easy to forget that the conflict and its outcome helped shape the Canada we know today.

The fight for a new country south of the border led thousands of United Empire Loyalists - men, women and children wishing to stay loyal to the British Crown - to seek refuge in what is now known as the Maritime Provinces, Quebec and Ontario.

This influx of political refugees from the 13 American colonies - mostly between 1783 and 1784 - heavily influenced the politics and culture of this country, leading to the creation of Upper Canada and New Brunswick. It also served as a catalyst in establishing governmental and academic institutions, places of worship, as well as social organizations.

The Canadian Encyclopedia, considered a comprehensive, objective and accurate source of information on Canada, believes the English spoken today by most Canadians is similar to General American English, something that many linguists attribute to the influence of the loyalists.

“They helped establish Canada’s English-speaking population and thereby created a common origin with American English.”

According to Statistics Canada - quoting from the “despatches” of Governor John Parr of Nova Scotia - as many as 20,000 loyalists had poured into the Maritimes by October of 1783.

Historical accounts reveal that between 80,000 to 100,000 loyalists overall fled the American colonies during and after the war with a great number of them coming to Canada. ?

Fredericton historian Ruth Murgatroyd said new arrivals brought a wide cross section of skills with them.

Many were identified as academics, lawyers, blacksmiths, printers, farmers, craftsmen, clerks, clergymen, and labourers.

“They came from a place that was well settled and well established,” Murgatroyd said. “They wanted to mirror things here as quickly as they could. They were very quick in setting up a government and setting up the education system.”

Loyalists were instrumental in helping to establish what eventually became known as the University of New Brunswick.

“Many Loyalists had access to upper education before arriving in what would become New Brunswick and they got right to work setting up an education system that included a university in their new home,” Murgatroyd said. “UNB is the oldest university in Canada and its graduates have been influencing society, research, and academia since.”??

Murgatroyd said one of the most obvious contributions made by loyalists to Canadian society was increasing New Brunswick's population and separating it from Nova Scotia to create a new colony.

“This, of course, meant that they would have a strong influence on N.B. politics.”?

Many families making the journey north brought their own story of horror and adversity with them - trauma that included being branded in the only communities many had ever lived in as traitors. In addition to being accused of engaging in treacherous behaviours, loyalists were forced to deal with the aftermath of abandoning their homes and leaving much of the associated property they had accumulated behind.

“When loyalists left the States, a lot of them lost everything because the Americans took it,” Murgatroyd said.

Francis Staples knew that feeling very well.?

Rebels attacked and plundered his New York farm in 1776, paving the way for he and his family to arrive New Brunswick as refugees seven years later.

Born in the 1730s in Kent County, England, Staples moved to the American colonies from Nova Scotia in 1763 following a successful five-year stint in the British Army under Gen. Jeffrey Amherst. After marrying and settling in the Colony of New York on Long Island at a place called Turtle Bay, the couple resided on a farm belonging to the corporation of New York - a property the family spent considerable money making improvements on.

The destruction of it by the rebels was a difficult pill to swallow.

Problems for the family began shortly after the rebellion started - that’s when the patriarch’s sympathies for the British became known.?

“Many loyalists actually took up arms against their fellow citizens,” noted research compiled by the U.S.-based Staples Family History Association. At one point “8,000 American born followers of the king had joined the British forces, at a time when Gen. George Washington commanded only 9,000 men.”

Thousands of loyalists served the Crown as members of specially created militias.

As the revolution grew, Staples, believed to have held the rank of warrant officer under Gen. Amherst, offered his services to the British Army garrisoned at New York. His job was to take care of the?weapons and ammunition depot at Turtle Bay, a responsibility he held until rebels overwhelmed the location in 1776.?

Staples continued to serve the British as a military messenger and wagonmaster, the latter of which involved overseeing the safe transportation of wagons under war conditions.?

He continued with those tasks for the next few years until it became evident the rebels were winning the conflict. It’s unclear what transpired at this point, but Staples was granted his military discharge, and went on to investigate New Brunswick as a place of refuge.

According to the association, 20 vessels left the colonies on May 18, 1783, bringing 3,000 people, including the Staples family, to Saint John - with many refugees making their way to Fredericton. The following year saw 6,000 more arrive in the Port City.

A great many loyalists stayed in camps until more permanent solutions were identified.

Three months after arriving in Saint John, Staples, along with his three sons and two daughters, settled at Burton, a small rural community located south of Fredericton.?

Loyalists looking to resettle not only found themselves dealing with the trauma of being exiled, they faced an environment that was often rough, remote and isolated.

Supplies promised by the government and necessary to get newcomers back on their feet were not always quick in coming.

According to the association, Staples, along with several other loyalists, went to court in 1785 complaining they had not received building supplies - boards and shingles - which they had expected from the government.

“They asked (the judge) that they be favourably considered” and that the supplies be delivered, noted the association.?

It’s unclear if the matter was resolved in their favour.

Four years later, the family, trying to “improve their lot,” accepted multiple land grants of more than 200 acres each about 40 kilometres away at or near the Keswick River, and formed a community known as Staples Settlement.

Murgatroyd said land grants given to loyalists were often based on what rank recipients held in the military. The higher up, the more real estate they would likely get.

“A lot of these people getting land grants were not farmers,” Murgatroyd said. “They grew up in the city. You gave them a land grant and a lot of them didn’t know what to do with it.”

That didn’t appear to be an issue for Staples, as he and his offspring embraced lumbering, carpentry and farming, pointed out the association in its research.

Murgatroyd said it’s hard to put an exact figure on how many loyalists settled in places such as Fredericton and its surrounding areas because some only stayed “a couple of years” before moving to different locations.?

Others returned to the 13 colonies.

The end of the war saw the American government grant a general amnesty to British loyalists, noted the association, along with a stipulation that all seized property would be returned. Officials at the state and local levels, however, were less enthusiastic about the proclamation.

“Vigilante-like groups of patriots threatened and sometimes carried out violence against loyalists who returned,” the association said. “As a result, loyalists left the country even faster after the conclusion of the war than they did during the actual fighting.”

Despite the many difficulties faced by loyalists as they left America and established new homes elsewhere, they were well received by Britain and her colonies, according to Statistics Canada.

Great efforts were made following the signing of the Treaty of Paris to assist loyalists financially.

The British “parliament passed an act authorizing the Crown to settle the amount of the losses they (loyalists) had sustained by the confiscation of their property, and to indemnify them, which was done between 1784 and 1788, (with) the commissioners holding Courts of Enquiry successively in England, in Halifax, Quebec and Montreal.”

Two hundred and forty one years after the War of Independence ended more than two million Canadians can trace their ancestry to the loyalists. They can take pride in the influence their ancestors had in helping to shape the fabric of this country.

With Canada currently experiencing a swell of immigrants, it's hard not to think of these brave 18th century newcomers, who abandoned their homes and lives south of the border so they could remain loyal citizens of the British empire.

If the immigrants of today even come close to impacting the country to the extent the loyalists have, then Canada has a bright future ahead of it.

Note: Michael Staples, the author of this column, is the great, great, great, great, great grandson of Francis Staples.