The United Empire Loyalists: A Chronicle of the Great Migration [1920 ed.]Wallace, W. Stewart (William Stewart)
History
The United Empire Loyalists: A Chronicle of the Great Migration [1920 ed.]
Wallace, W. Stewart (William Stewart)
American loyalists; United Empire loyalists
The lack of a clergy was even more marked. When Bishop Mountain visited
Upper Canada in 1794, he found only one Lutheran chapel and two
Presbyterian churches between Montreal and Kingston. At Kingston he
found ‘a small but decent church,’ and about the Bay of Quinté there
were three or four log huts which were used by the Church of England
missionary in the neighbourhood. At Niagara there was a clergyman, but
no church; the services were held in the Freemasons’ Hall. This lack of
a regularly-ordained clergy was partly remedied by a number of itinerant
Methodist preachers or ‘exhorters.’ These men were described by Bishop
Mountain as ‘a set of ignorant enthusiasts, whose preaching is calculated
only to perplex the understanding, to corrupt the morals, to relax the
nerves of industry, and dissolve the bands of society.’ But they gained
a very strong hold on the Loyalist population; and for a long time they
were familiar figures upon the country roads.
For many years communications both in New Brunswick and in Upper Canada
were mainly by water. The roads between the settlements were little more
than forest paths. When Colonel Simcoe went to Upper Canada he planned
to build a road running across the province from Montreal to the river
Thames, to be called Dundas Street. He was recalled, however, before
the road was completed; and the project was allowed to fall through. In
1793 an act was passed by the legislature of Upper Canada ‘to regulate
the laying out, amending, and keeping in repair, the public highways and
roads.’ This threw on the individual settler the obligation of keeping
the road across his lot in good repair; but the large amount of crown
lands and clergy reserves and land held by speculators throughout the
province made this act of little avail. It was not until 1798 that a
road was run from the Bay of Quinté to the head of Lake Ontario, by an
American surveyor named Asa Danforth. But even this government road was
at times impassable; and there is evidence that some travellers preferred
to follow the shore of the lake.
It will be seen from these notes on social history that the Loyalists had
no primrose path. But after the first grumblings and discontents, poured
into the ears of Governor Haldimand and Governor Parr, they seem to have
settled down contentedly to their lot; and their life appears to have
been on the whole happy. Especially in the winter, when they had some
leisure, they seem to have known how to enjoy themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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