In history class, I remember hearing about the brave and tenacious patriots who fought the controlling and money hungry British in order to keep their God-given liberties and create a new country!
What I don't remember learning much about was that there was a wide range of different emotions and beliefs that colonists had regarding the possibility of a war against the British.
Whether you were a merchant in Massachusetts, a farmer living in Connecticut, a tavern-owning woman of Maryland, or a slave-owner in the South, you shared some things in common. For instance, you probably didn't like paying taxes on such goods as tea and then see it go to support the royal coffers in London. At the same time, you may have liked the notion of being part of the British Empire, which was, at the time, the most powerful in the world.
Chances are that you spoke English and may have had many British relatives or ancestors. Yet, you were hearing the murmurings and radical notions about separating from Britain that was making the rounds. You may have even heard that those hotheads in Boston recently threw a load of tea in the harbor and that the British retaliated with something called the Intolerable Acts. It seemed evident that a confrontation was looming.
The fact is, that for most colonist this was not an easy decision. Not only would your way of life be drastically affected, but whomever you choose to side with would make you an instant enemy of the supporters of the other side.
- They didn't want to be involved in the conflict and simply wanted to get on with business and life
- They didn't support the radical ideas of the American revolutionaries or felt there was a better way to handle the dispute with the British.
- They remained loyal to the British Crown.
Regardless of the reason for being a loyalist, sympathy for the Crown was a dangerous sentiment; those who defied the revolutionary forces could find themselves without civil rights, subject to mob violence, or flung into prison. Loyalist property was vandalized and often confiscated.
For this reason and many others, approximately 70,000 Loyalists fled the Thirteen Colonies. Of these, roughly 50,000 went to the British North American Colonies of Quebec and Nova Scotia. Some of these men were given the title of United Empire Loyalist and granted land.
The term “United Empire Loyalists” usually refers to individuals who:
- were living in the British colonies that had declared their independence as the United States in 1776, and
- fought on the British side during the American Revolution, and
- later fled to the colonies that had remained British.
In 1789, Lord Dorchester, Governor-General of British North America, issued a proclamation granting families that had defended the unity of the British Empire the hereditary right to add the capital letters UE after their name.
Originally, only people who had arrived in the British colonies before the date of the proclamation could qualify as United Empire Loyalists but, in the case of Upper Canada, the deadline was later extended to 1798. The proclamation also granted Loyalists and their families the right to obtain land (and later, to have fees waived for free grants), and to have the mark “UE” inscribed on militia rolls. Loyalists in Upper Canada and their families mostly used the land-related privileges.
My 6th great grandfather Hezekiah Ingraham was considered a United Empire Loyalist. Hezekiah Ingraham was born in 1755 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. In 1773, at the age of 18 years, he married Sarah Covey (Cone?) of Saybrook, Connecticut.
Sometime between 1780 and 1782, he moved his family from Connecticut to Nova Scotia. First living in Halifax for a short time, and later in Guysborough County finally settling at Margaree Harbour. Hezekiah and Sarah had 12 children; four sons and eight daughters. The first of their children to be born in Canada was Ann Ingraham, my 5th great grandmother.
On June 10, 1793, Hezekiah was granted land in Margaree Harbor. The index sheet below shows his land situated on the Margaree Harbour River.
The pictures below show what his land looks like now.
Hezekiah Ingraham took a prominent part in the early life of the community of Margaree Harbour. He was the first Justice of the Peace for that area, as well as serving in various other capacities.
We may never know what Hezekiah's individual reasons were for migrating from the colonies. However, he seemed to have made a good life for his family. By doing so he became the founder of the Ingraham family name in Canada, specifically, in and around Margaree Harbour, were many Ingraham families still live and prosper today.
This is a great article. Hezekiah Ingraham is my 5th Great-Grandfather, on my maternal side. My Great Grandfather, Harry Ingraham Lavers immigrated to the United States from Nova Scotia around 1910. I’d recently learned of Hezekiah’s Loyalist roots, when I became suspicious that he may have been a Loyalist when searching dates and events in the family tree. Thank You for this article. Wonderful work!
-Eric Jones
Hill City, South Dakota, USA
HI. Thank you for this article. Harriet Ingraham (Hezekial’s daughter) is an ancestor of mine. Harriet married Capt. John Phillips and they had a son named John. This John married Lucy Rice and they had children. Their son Robert married Cassie Phillips. Out of their children they had a daughter named Adeline who married Alexander Donald Ross. Their daughter Maria married my great grandfather John Wilson Hood of Georges River, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.