A Bibliography of Loyalist Source Material in Canada

A Bibliography of Loyalist Source Material in Canada JO-ANN FELLOWS, Editor KATHRYN CALDER, Researcher PROGRAM FOR LOYALIST STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS Sponsored by the American Antiquarian Society City University of New Tork University of London and University of New Brunswick by ROBERT A. EAST, Executive Director The origins of this Program are to be found in the prospectus issued in April 1968 by Professor East of the History faculty of the City University of New York and James E. Mooney, Editor of Publications of the American Antiquarian Society. It was the feeling of both that the imminent anniversary of the Revolution would make such an undertaking an impera- tive of historical scholarship, for an understanding of the Rev- olution would be necessarily incomplete and inevitably dis- torted without the full story of the American Loyalists. It was the hope of both that the work could go forward under the joint sponsorship of both institutions, and this was quickly gained. The next step was to canvass the scholarly community in England, Canada, and the United States to learn of its reac- 67 68 American Antiquarian Society tions. The prospectus was written, handsomely printed by Alden Johnson of the Barre Publishers, and sent out to a number of scholars, archivists, and others. The response to this mailing was even more enthusiastic than Professor East or Mr. Mooney had hoped for and led to discussions concerning even broader sponsorship of an international character. Thomas J. Condon ofthe American Council of Learned Societies early took a cheering interest in the project and pledged the cooperation of his august organization to advance the work. With funds given by ACLS and CUNY a two-day meeting was called in New York in November 1968 to discuss the next steps to take. At this small and congenial meeting of about two dozen scholars from Canada, Great Britain, and the United States, a number of concrete measures were taken, one of which was to make the sponsorship international, with the American Antiquarian Society, CUNY, the University of London, and the University of New Brunswick as sponsors. An executive committee was formed of Messrs. Condon, East, and Mooney, Dean W. Stewart MacNutt of UNB and Professor Esmond Wright, M.P., of UL. As a result ofthe talks at the meeting, the project was now to have a function beyond the publication of the papers: it was to become a Program for Loyalist Studies and Publications with plans for a continuing interchange of faculty and students among the three universities in addition to the making avail- able in microform and in some cases also in letterpress the full corpus of loyalist thought and experience. The operation of the program would be in the hands of the executive committee and of an executive director with a base at CUNY. Each ofthe three nations would have a national advisory board of perhaps ten members, chaired by the representative ofthat nation on the executive committee. At each university there would be a person responsible for the gathering of material and the administration ofthe program. In April 1969 Messrs. East, Condon, Wright, and Mooney Program for Loyalist Studies and Publications 69 were invited by Professor Lawrence Gipson to hold a panel discussion at Lehigh University before scholars ofthe Middle Atlantic States and this was eminently successful. There was a session at the meeting ofthe American Historical Association in Washington during Christmas week 1969, where Professor East chaired the meeting, Messrs. Mooney and Wallace Brown of UNB delivered papers, and Clifford Shipton and Professor Wright were commentators. Financial support for the work ofthe Program did not ma- terialize until 1970. An interview was held by Messrs. Con- don, Mooney, and East with staff members of the National Endowment For the Humanities in Washington, D.C, in Jan- uary. 1970, and notice was received in July that a grant of about f40,000 had been made. Since then there has been a steady search for young Ph.D. scholars to make surveys of Loyalist materials. Such information is being recorded on research cards similar to those being used in Canada, where the work has the support ofthe Canada Council, and the results of which appear in this issue. Meantime, space had been set aside in 1969 for the head- quarters of the Program at the Graduate Center of the City University, and national advisory boards composed of men dis- tinguished in academic and public life were organized in Can- ada, Britain, and the United States. Perhaps the most important development during the year immediately past grew out of a suggestion made at a joint meeting of six members of the United States Advisory Board with eight of its researchers, at the American Antiquarian So- ciety in Worcester, March 6, 1971. It was proposed that as many state archives and historical societies as possible should be visited whenever any western trips provided for in the budget should be undertaken (e.g., visits to the Clements and Huntington Libraries). It was this broad enterprise which was begun in June 1971 by Mr. Mooney, who had written to some 115 repositories 70 American Antiquarian Society before-hand inquiring about possible holdings of Loyalist materials. He began a six-week tour of the West on June 11 th. In addition to visiting historical repositories from Ohio to Wis- consin and from Minnesota to Washington, and in California, Utah, Illinois, Kentucky, etc., he made supervisory check-ups at the libraries in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and San Marino, California, where we have staff members making inventories. This trip, in addition to his earlier visits to Fredericton, New Brunswick, in September 1970, and London, England, in February 1971, has given Mr. Mooney a remarkable grasp of the entire operation in which we are involved, and a close ac- quaintance with its personnel. While our Canadian colleagues were doing their good work, the bulk of our research activity in the more immediate region of the Eastern seaboard during the past year has been carried out by nine original researchers, recently joined by six new persons. In addition to listing manuscripts by repositories, all researchers have noted specialized works about the Loyalists. The list of Early American Imprints has at the same time been combed, and innumerable items recorded, as well as a study of Loyalist newspapers. Similar work has been carried out this past year at the Public Record Office and at the British Mu- seum in London, under the supervision of Professor Esmond Wright, Director of the Institute of United States Studies of the University of London. Three major steps in the work of the Program should be noted (in addition to our hope for an eventual exchange of pro- fessorships and student fellowships on an international scale). One of those steps is the locating of Loyalist materials for publication in finding-guides, which has been our principal task this past year; the second step, for which the National Endow- ment is giving us renewed support, is the microfilming or xeroxing of such records; the third step will be the publication of letterpress volumes of journals, diaries, letters, and other Program for Loyalist Studies and Publications 71 materials. All three steps are, of course, to á certain extent in- terchangeable. For example, the publication of letterpress material is already underway: a new edition of the Journal of Samuel Curwen, Loyalist, edited by Andrew Oliver of our U.S Advisory Board, will appear soon, published by Harvard Uni- versity Press in cooperation with Essex Institute. Scholars in this country should bear in mind proposals for additional volumes of Loyalist papers to be reproduced in letterpress. The future for such work is almost unlimited. Many specific proposals for such publications have already been received by our Canadian Advisory Board, and it is only a matter of time before similar plans will have been worked out in the United Kingdom, where future work will be assisted by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust. Recently I attended a meeting ofthe British group at the University of London and at the Athenaeum. Among other recent inspection visits made by me have been to Exeter, New Brunswick, Georgia, Texas (where there is a good cache of Anglican records), California, and elsewhere. Concerning this present Bibliography of Loyalist Source Material in Canada, the achievement of pioneers is always a matter of pride. This study by our Canadian Committee is even more than something to praise, however, it is a model for all of us to follow. This is a first step in the development of finding-guides for the location of Loyalist materials every- where. Similar lists, also to be published in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, will be forthcoming soon for the United States, Britain, and elsewhere. Other activities of our Program—the securing of microfilm of important Loy- alist records, and the publication in letterpress of selected documents—are already well under way. All goals should have been met by 1976, thus coinciding with the Bicentennial Celebration of the Independence of the United States of America. Papers about the Loyalists have been delivered at meetings 72 American Antiquarian Society of learned societies and special symposia, by Professor Wallace Brown of New Brunswick and by Professor Wright; and Deans MacNutt and Condon have traveled to scholarly meetings, or interviewed publishers, in New York, London, Toronto, and Washington, D.C. The Program contemplates still other trips for research, e.g., to the West Indies and to Sierra Leone, in a truly international effort to make a scholarly contribution to our forthcoming Bicentennial celebration.

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