York's Sacrifice: Militia Casualties of the War of 1812

By Janice Nickerson

Not only professional soldiers but also citizens serving as militiamen participated in the War of 1812.

The militia’s contribution to the War of 1812 is not well understood. Even now, 200 years later, we don’t know how many Upper Canadian militia men died defending their home.

York’s Sacrifice profiles 39 men who lost their lives during the war. They include 19 residents of the Town of York, five residents of York County, and 11 residents of Halton, Peel, and Wentworth Counties. Where possible, biographies include information about each man’s origin, residence, occupation, civic life, family, militia service, and circumstances of death. A section on records provides detailed guidance in finding and using records from the period to trace an ancestors militia service and life in this difficult time period.

A complete list of men who served in the three York regiments during the war identifies those who were killed, injured, captured, or deserted.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dundurn
• Release date: May 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781459705975

Janice Nickerson

Janice Nickerson is a professional genealogist who specializes in Upper Canadian history. She provided behind-the-scenes research for the CBC Television program Who Do You Think You Are? and is a regular contributor to Family Chronicle, Internet Genealogy, and Your Family Tree magazines. Janice is also the author of Crime and Punishment in Upper Canada. She lives in Toronto.

Book preview

YORK'S SACRIFICE

Militia Casualties of the War of 1812

JANICE NICKERSON

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Contents

Foreword by Richard Gerrard

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Profiles of York’s War of Militia Casualties

Criteria for Inclusion

Statistical Summary

Henry Bartholomew

John Bassell

Walter Bates

Richard Berry

Isaac Brown

Robert Cook

Henry Cope

John Detlor

Simeon Devins

Elijah Durphy

Jacob Evens

Peter Fitzpatrick

Samuel Green

Henry Hale

Joseph Hunt

John Hunter

Duke William Kendrick

Jacob Kenny

George King

William Lancaster

Jacob Leopard

Donald MacLean

George Marlatt

William McBride

Adam McCarthy

David Miller

Solomon Mills

Daniel Murray

William Phillips

Matthias Sanders

Robert Scott

Timothy Skinner

Thomas Smith

Timothy Street

Warner Wilder

John Wood

Johnston Yeomans

Unknown

Researching Your War of –Era Ancestors in Upper Canada

Militia Records

Church Registers and Other Vital Records

Land Records

Court Records

Government Correspondence

War Losses Claims

Local Government Records

Newspapers

The Report of the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada

Men of the York Regiments Who Served During the War of 1812

Bibliography

Foreword

At Joseph B. Abbot’s tavern, on 2 March 1812, just a few months before the outbreak of the war, the annual town meeting chose that year’s officers for the Town and Township of York, Upper Canada. At the same time, they updated the List of Inhabitants. This census shows that after York’s mere 19 years of existence, 281 families (about 1,460 men, women, and children) had chosen to immigrate to this place and establish new lives at the edge of the British Empire.

I don’t know if they could have imagined the impact that the American invasion of Upper Canada, later that year, would have on their lives. Volunteers from the York militia would see combat in the three great British victories in 1812: Fort Mackinac, Fort Detroit, and Queenston Heights. Each battle brought the war closer to the small community until 27 April 1813, when the Americans attacked, captured, and occupied the town of York.

The recovery of the town delayed the update of the List of Inhabitants until July that year. Once the list was tabulated, the enumerators found that the population of the town and surrounding region had been reduced by 159 souls, overwhelmingly males over 16 years of age (the minimum age for militia service). Forty-nine families had fled the region. Wd, a new abbreviation, was added to the descriptions for 12 heads of households, indicating a widow now headed this family — this represented 1 in 10 families. Fifty-nine children in these homes were now without fathers.

This book began life as a one-page summary for an exhibit to explore the impact of the battle of York on the town and garrison. In January 2011, the City of Toronto approached the Canadian Department of Heritage through the Commemorate Canada program about possibly funding this research. The resulting grant allowed us to hire three researchers to work in archives in Canada, Great Britain, and the U.S. Each researcher was charged with looking at one of the combatant groups present at the Battle of York: the Upper Canadian militia, American Army and Navy, and British Army. And they all were to keep watch for information about the First Nations warriors present at the battle. Starting with the published work done by Robert Malcomson,[1] W.M. Gray,[2] and Christine Mosser[3] on the casualties from the War of 1812, we thought it would only take 10 weeks or so to confirm, and if possible expand on, the initial lists. This naive hope turned out to be terribly wrong. As with most historical research, it took longer, cost more, and the results are far more interesting than we had imagined.

The research contained in this book made a significant contribution to Finding the Fallen: the Battle of York Remembered, one of the City of Toronto’s Bicentennial of the War of 1812 exhibitions. The exhibit would not have been as rich if it were not for Janice’s new insights into the individual stories. Unfortunately, given the limitations of space and time, much of the research that goes into creating the exhibition ends up not being used. And it was for this reason I was thrilled to hear of her plans to publish this book. York’s Sacrifice is a significant contribution to our understanding of how the war impacted the lives of those who served in the York militia and their families.

This book — and the exhibit — reflect our desire to honour the lives of all those members of the York community who were killed or died while serving. We did not want this commemoration to be merely a nominal roll of the dead; we wanted the sacrifice to be placed into a broader context of the lives of individuals and their community. The family, marriage, pension, and other records provided about the soldiers and their kin certainly makes the community come alive.

Like any large bureaucracy, armies leave a paper trail long after the carnage of a campaign is over. Unfortunately, the rampages of time and indifference often destroy as many records as are preserved. Many militia officers were terrible about completing their paperwork. When the militia was demobilized at the end of the war, rather than officially archiving their papers, much of it may have remained in the hands of individual officers (or was simply thrown away). Occasionally, new material appears from private holdings, but this is a rare occurrence.[4] The information in this book is therefore the direct result of the author’s dogged determination to leave no possible source unread or archive unsearched, and for that she must be congratulated.

If you visit the Memorial Chamber in the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, you can view the Books of Remembrance, where the names of all those who fell in service of Canada are recorded. As of the date of writing, there are no names for those killed in the War of 1812, for the simple reason that the Department of National Defence does not recognize regimental lineages prior to the Militia Act of 1855. This policy appears to be changing, however: the names of the York militiamen, along with those of the British, American, and First Nations combatants, will be added to a new Book of Remembrance. Created by City of Toronto Museum Services to honour the fallen, it will be placed on permanent display at Fort York National Historic Site. We hope that the research contained in this book will help as the situation for the York militiamen is rectified.

Beyond providing a summary of her research, York’s Sacrifice is also a guide to genealogists interested in their family history, as well as those passionate about the War of 1812. Like the author’s earlier book, Crime and Punishment in Upper Canada: A Researcher’s Guide,[5] this work provides a useful, critical review of the archival sources she used to conduct militia research in this period. Knowing where to look and the limitations of the sources is invaluable for someone just starting out on their search. However, as Janice points out (and every historian knows), our work is always incomplete. There is always one more archive, one more fond, one long-lost private cache of papers to be found. I know that as new research is undertaken, more names and stories will be revealed.

It is my sincere hope that York’s Sacrifice is the beginning of a dialogue within and between the genealogical and historical community researching the War of 1812. We invite you to become part of this ongoing process, to add more names from our community to Fort York’s Book of Remembrance as part of the permanent commemoration of those who paid the ultimate price in this war so long ago.

Richard Gerrard

Historian

Fort York National Historic Site

Museum Services, City of Toronto

Notes

1. Robert Malcomson, Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813 (Toronto: Robin Brass Studio, 2008).

2. W. M. Gray, Soldiers of the King: The Upper Canadian Militia 1812"1815: A Reference Guide (North York: Stoddart, Boston Mills Press, 1995).

3. Christine Mosser, York, Upper Canada. Minutes of Town Meetings and Lists of Inhabitants, 1797"1823 (Toronto: Metropolitan Library Board, 1984).

4. Rare but not impossible. In 2011 the City of Toronto acquired an 1812 period orderly book from the 3rd Regiment of York Militia. See Richard Gerrard, William Chewetts Orderly Book: A Historian Interrogates a Gift to the Fort." Fife and Drum 15(4): 7. 2011

5. (Toronto: OGS/Dundurn, 2010).

Preface

This book began as part of a War of 1812 bicentennial commemoration project with the City of Toronto’s Museum Services. The ultimate objective of the project was to gain fresh insight into the impact of the War of 1812 on the town of York (now the city of Toronto) and its environs. The specific goal was to create a Book of Remembrance exhibit for the casualties of the Battle of York (including British military, Upper Canadian militia, Aboriginal combatants and American military) and for the York militia who died elsewhere.

My contribution to this project focused on the casualties from the three York militia regiments, as well as any men who died as a result of the Battle of York who were not British military, Aboriginal, or American (including volunteers and civilians), and any men whose widows or orphans were residents of the town of York.

The project was very challenging, as no comprehensive list of the casualties of the War of 1812 has ever been created. Many published accounts have reported estimated numbers and some have attempted to identify casualties for specific battles, but the information is sparse and sometimes conflicting. Information pertaining to the militia and Aboriginal casualties is especially limited.

In the end, I identified 39 men who clearly met the conditions for inclusion in the Book of Remembrance. Sadly, one of these men is identified only by his occupation at the time of the Battle of York: he was working in the dockyard as an artificer. We know that two such men died, probably as a result of the explosion of the magazine, but extant records provide the name of only one of the men (see Richard Berry).

As the amount of information I was able to gather varied wildly (their profiles ranged in length from 10 words to 1080), it became clear that not all of the information I had gathered could be included in the planned exhibit. I also realized that genealogists might appreciate having this information in the form of a permanent publication. So the idea for this publication was born: the profile section would include all the information I could gather about the 39 casualties, and a new section would cover the records genealogists can use to discover their own ancestors’ War of 1812 stories.

Acknowledgements

This book would not have come to be were it not for the enthusiastic support of Richard Gerrard and Wayne Reeves of the City of Toronto’s Museum Services. It was their idea originally to create a Book of Remembrance exhibit to commemorate the men who died at the Battle of York and also York men who died elsewhere during the War of 1812, and they hired me to work on the militia portion of the project. When I proposed the idea of