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.
Volume II is also available from Project Gutenberg
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, inthe year One thousand eight hundred and eighty, by the Rev. EgertonRyerson, 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 ofAmerica, or recorded the deeds of their chieftains, their "prowess andtheir wrongs"—their enemies and spoilers being their historians; so thehistory of the Loyalists of America has never been written except bytheir enemies and spoilers, and those English historians who have nottroubled themselves with examining original authorities, but haveadopted the authorities, and in some instances imbibed the spirit, ofAmerican historians, who have never tired in eulogizing Americans andeverything American, and deprecating everything English, and all whohave 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, andcontests between Great Britain and her American colonies and the UnitedStates of America.
The United Empire Loyalists were the losing party; their history hasbeen written by their adversaries, and strangely misrepresented. In thevindication of their character, I have not opposed assertion againstassertion; but, in correction of unjust and untrue assertions, I haveoffered the records and documents of the actors themselves, and in theirown words.[Pg iv] To do this has rendered my history, to a large extent,documentary, instead of being a mere popular narrative. The manyfictions of American writers will be found corrected and exposed in thefollowing volumes, by authorities and facts which cannot be successfullydenied. In thus availing myself so largely of the proclamations,messages, addresses, letters, and records of the times when theyoccurred, I have only followed the example of some of the besthistorians and biographers.
No one can be more sensible than myself of the imperfect manner in whichI have performed my task, which I commenced more than a quarter of acentury since, but I have been prevented from completing it sooner bypublic duties—pursuing, as I have done from the beginning, an untroddenpath of historical investigations. From the long delay, many supposed Iwould never complete the work, or that I had abandoned it. On itscompletion, therefore, I issued a circular, an extract from which Ihereto subjoin, explaining the origin, design,