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Loyalist Women in Nova Scotia from Exile to Repatriation, 1775-1800

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Loyalist Women in Nova Scotia from Exile to Repatriation, 1775-1800 University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations Summer 2019 “Unknown and Unlamented”: Loyalist Women in Nova Scotia from Exile to Repatriation, 1775-1800 G. Patrick O’Brien Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation O’Brien, G. P.(2019). “Unknown and Unlamented”: Loyalist Women in Nova Scotia from Exile to Repatriation, 1775-1800. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/ 5349 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “UNKNOWN AND UNLAMENTED”: LOYALIST WOMEN IN NOVA SCOTIA FROM EXILE TO REPATRIATION, 1775-1800 by G. Patrick O’Brien Bachelor of Arts Providence College, 2011 Master of Arts McGill University, 2012 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2019 Accepted by: Woody Holton, Major Professor Matt Childs, Committee Member Nicole Maskiell, Committee Member Jerry Bannister, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by G. Patrick O’Brien, 2019 All Rights Reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have been possible without the academic council, financial support, and personal encouragement of many. As my dissertation advisor, Dr. Holton has not only been a dedicated mentor, but also an obliging sounding board and patient reviewer. Dr. Childs has provided invaluable guidance, both in seminar and as director of graduate studies, without which, this study would be woefully incomplete. Dr. Maskiell’s deep understanding of early American history has greatly benefitted this dissertation and supplemented my own comprehension of the field in many ways. During my first meeting with Dr. Bannister, he assured me this study was possible. He has been generous with his time and knowledge ever since. I am also thankful for the many archivists, librarians, and scholars throughout the United States and Canada who have assisted me in this project. I am indebted to the wonderful people at the Newport Historical Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, the Nova Scotia Archives, the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of South Carolina, and the Bilinski Fellowship Foundation who provided me with both the financial and research support necessary to complete this dissertation. My family has been the most important constant throughout this journey. They have always encouraged my passion and supported me in my studies. This dissertation was only possible because of their selfless love. To them, I am eternally grateful. iii ABSTRACT Between 1775 and 1784, more than 60,000 people fled the American states in order to escape the divisive civil war that tore apart communities and individual families. More than half of these people moved north to the maritime colonies of British Canada. While some of these “loyalists” were ardent supporters of the British Empire, many more found their allegiances thrust upon them due to their status as dependents. This study examines the experience of refugee women in Nova Scotia in order to better understand not only Revolutionary-era allegiance, but also women’s important public and private roles in exile and repatriation. Although historians have portrayed loyalist women as consoling wives and daughters who dutifully submitted to men’s will, refugee women were not merely passive acceptors of their fate, nor resigned to domestic roles of support. Paying particular attention to both women’s expressions of emotion and the societal norms that governed late eighteenth-century society, this dissertation examines how loyalist women’s empathetic actions carried tremendous power in communities where loss and hardship were endemic. The widespread suffering of exile provided women the opportunity to take on important communal roles where they could both demonstrate their own fellow feeling and build the intangible networks that created new communities. Women also wielded their emotions in the home. Unhappy wives and daughters forced reluctant husbands and fathers to reconsider their families’ future as exiles, and brought many back to the United States after the war. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1: “Blood of our Blood and Flesh of our Flesh”: The British Family and Revolutionary-era Allegiance .................................................................................. 39 Chapter 2: “My New England Head”: Loyalist Exile and Homesickness ........................ 82 Chapter 3: “Gilded Misery”: Women and the Community of Suffering in Exile .......... 126 Chapter 4: “What Fools We Were to Leave Such a Place”: The Robie Women and Loyalist Repatriation ............................................................................................. 156 Chapter 5: “A Countenance of Insensibility and a Heart Unmoved”: The Racial Limits Of Suffering ........................................................................................................... 191 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 222 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 243 Appendix A: The Bradstreet, Sewall, and Robie Families ............................................. 269 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 0.1 A page from Mary Bradstreet Robie’s Book of Common Prayer ................... 27 Figure 2.1 “A View of the Town of Halifax from Dartmouth Shore,” 1781 .................... 97 Figure 2.2 “A View of Boston,” 1779 .............................................................................. 98 Figure 2.3 “Boston seen between Castle Williams and Governors Island,” 1781 ............ 98 Figure 3.1 “John Eardley Wilmot,” 1812 ....................................................................... 133 Figure 3.2 "The Reception of the American Loyalists,” 1815 ........................................ 134 Figure 6.1 The United Empire Loyalists Monument, 1929 ............................................ 226 Figure 6.2 “The Coming of the Loyalists,” 1884 ............................................................ 227 vi INTRODUCTION By the spring months of 1783, the first reports from agents dispatched to Nova Scotia arrived back in New York City. These accounts, which were printed in loyalist newspapers in New York and across the eastern seaboard, assured concerned British sympathizers moving north that they would find “safe and advantageous asylum.” One report promised that after the settlement of a few energetic colonists, Nova Scotia would be “ranked among the first” settlements in America.1 Although the British commander in New York, Sir Guy Carleton, continued to worry about the logistics of removing thousands of loyal British subjects, transporting them north, and supplying them through the winter, the positive depictions of Nova Scotia provided potential settlers a modicum of comfort. In late August, Joshua Upham, a Massachusetts native and an officer in the King’s American Dragoons, wrote to fellow New England loyalist Edward Winslow Jr. about his plans to move north with the next convoy. “We shall all soon be with you,” Upham confidently informed his friend, “every body, all the world moves to Nova Scotia.”2 Reeling from what one historian called “the cold awareness of defeat,” Upham’s 1 Pennsylvania Packet or General Advertiser, February 25, 1783. On the settlement plan led by the “Port Roseway Associates,” see Stacy Roth, “Loyalist Father, Patriot Son: The Cox Family at Shelburne, Nova Scotia,” The Princeton University Library Chronicle 51, no. 2 (Winter 1990): 186; J. Pimsoll Edwards, “The Shelburne that Was and is Not,” Dalhousie Review 2 (1922-1923): 180-183. 2 Joshua Upham to Edward Winslow, August 21, 1783, in Winslow Papers: 1776-1826, ed. W.O. Raymond (St. John, NB: 1901), 124. On the evacuation of New York, see Neil MacKinnon, This Unfriendly Soil: The Loyalist Experience in Nova Scotia 1783-1791 (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 1986), 3-15; Clifton Hood, “An Unusable Past: Urban Elites, 1 optimism was “a needed balm.” Although British-sympathizing colonists had lost the war, many remained hopeful in the promise of Nova Scotia and expressed enthusiasm similar to Upham’s.3 Despite his outward confidence, Upham harbored personal doubts concerning the resettlement plan. A native of Brookfield, Massachusetts Upham graduated from Harvard in 1763 and established himself as a leading attorney in the area. Far from a staunch supporter of the crown during the colonial crisis, he carefully planned his public statements to provoke as little reaction as possible.
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