Loyalists, United Empire

   Name applied to the inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies who remained loyal to Great Britain, and rather than submit to the new republic, migrated to Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. No adequate provision having been made for them by the mother country, in the treaty of Paris (1783), the Loyalists were compelled in most cases to abandon all their worldly possessions, and start life anew in the pioneer settlements of the north. May 18, 1783, one great section of the refugees landed at the mouth of the St. John River, and built a town, first named Parrtown, later St. John. Other settlements were made, about the same time, at various points on the coasts of Nova Scotia, as well as on St. John's Island (Prince Edward Island). The bulk of the migration to what was then Quebec (now Ontario and Quebec) took place in 1784, the eastern Loyalists going north by way of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu, and settling in the Eastern Townships; those of the West crossing the boundary at Niagara and other points, and spreading throughout the backbone of the future province of Upper Canada.

   Index: B Land grants to their children fall into hands of speculators, 53. S Settlement of Upper Canada by, 1; Carleton's interest in, 51; their sufferings, 52, 54; claims for losses paid to, 55; settlements of, during and after war, 56; pretenders among, 57; those from England not generally good settlers, 58; assisted by government, 60; their hardships, 61; their mode of life, 62-69; names of those who had joined British side before treaty of 1783, registered, 70; clauses of treaty of Paris respecting, not carried out by United States, 118; consequently further emigration of to Canada, 119. Sy Constitutional Act an attempt to placate, 68. Bk Rations issued to, from Fort Niagara, 58; Brock (1804) observes and reports on comfortable condition of many of them, 65. Dr Emigration of, 64; commended to Carleton's special care, 194; their pitiable condition, 196; twenty regiments of, in Carleton's command, 202; their consternation on learning of proposed terms of peace, 206; left unprotected by treaty of peace, 213; large number of, embark for Nova Scotia, 214; Carleton continues occupation of New York till all have left the country, 215, 216; their emigration to different British provinces, 218; widows of, apply for pensions, 218, 219; effect of their settlement in Canada, 221, 244, 248; increase of their numbers in western Canada, 224; two distinct waves of emigration, 236; settlements of at Niagara, and Sorel, 236, 237; claim representative institutions, 237; those in Kingston district petition for church establishments, 238; their destitute condition, 238; their political weight underestimated by Dorchester, 248; the Seigniorial Tenure system unsuited to, 256; Dorchester's suggestion for conferring distinction on, 260. E Extravagant land grants to, 144; Durham on, 144-145; settled along Niagara River, 194. MS In the wilderness, 11. R Methodist preachers in Upper Canada of Loyalist stock, 38; included many of the influential families, 62; Ryerson's history of, 270, 274, 279. H Emigrate to the loyal western colonies, 13, 17. BL Come to Maritime Provinces and Canada, 4-5; their numbers and character, 5; in Lower Canada, 17; support Common School Bill, 105; Md Dread possibility of revolution, 20. T Severe treatment of, 3; they settle in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 3-4, 35. Hd Come to Canada, 125; houses built for, 138, 182; military service of, 136, 137; at Niagara, 152; employed on fortifications of Quebec, 183; in Vermont negotiations, 200, 202, 206; at Cataraqui, 236, 265; Washington's severity towards, 249, 250; arrangements for their reception in Canada, 250, 254; not less patriotic than the opposite party, 251; brutal treatment of, 252; compared with Jacobites, 253; Haldimand's care of, 254; lands allotted to, 255; surveys made for, 263; flock into Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 263; their advent viewed with alarm by French Canadians, 264; fed and clothed by government for three years, 265; not fully appreciative of assistance given, 266; difficulty of dealing with, 267-271, 348; some impostors among, 268, 306. Mc Hardships suffered by, on account of naturalization laws, 140-141; bills for their relief, 142-143.

   Bib.: Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution; Ryerson, Loyalists of America; Campbell, Travels in North America; Canniff, The Settlement of Upper Canada; Casselman, United Empire Loyalists of the County of Dundas, Ontario; Haight, Country Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago; Bourinot, Builders of Nova Scotia; Frousac, Rise of the Loyalists; Loyalists of New York in the American Revolution in Columbia University Studies; Curwen, Journal and Letters; Myers, The Tories or Loyalists in America; Eardley-Wilmot, Loyalists' Centennial Souvenir; St. John, The Centennial of the Settlement of Upper Canada by the United Empire Loyalists; Denison, United Empire Loyalists; (R. S. C., 1904); Van Tyne, Loyalists in the American Revolution; Shortt and Doughty, Constitutional Documents of Canada.