From loyalty to tragedy

Loyalists were American colonists who supported the British cause throughout the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Opposing them were American rebels who yearned for independence from Great Britain.

With the British defeated by the rebels and fidelity to the Crown being a dangerous tendency, Loyalists found it prudent to flee to other parts of the British Empire.

Among the approximately 22,000 Loyalists who came to Nova Scotia was Col. Joshua C. Chandler. Of Puritan stock, Joshua was born March 2, 1727, in Connecticut. He was 20 when he graduated from Yale College. He married that same year, became a barristerat-law and, in 1775, was a member of the Connecticut Legislature.

Over a period of 21 years, Joshua and his wife, Sarah Miles, had 10 children.

Once the Revolutionary

War began, the American rebels suspected Joshua did not support their ideals. He was imprisoned at North Haven, Connecticut and his property, valued at £30,000, was confiscated. The circumstances of his release are not known.

With the enemy on their doorstep, Joshua’s family fled on July 5, 1779, from New Haven to Long Island, New York. Their flight was so sudden that food was left untouched on the dinner table.

Joshua, Sarah and their children – Thomas, Elizabeth and William – left New York on Oct. 9, 1783 aboard the sloop Skuldam. It is presumed Samuel and Charles were with them since both are known to have settled in Nova Scotia. Their youngest daughter, Mary, is also presumed to have accompanied them since she married a Loyalist in New Brunswick some time after 1782.

The Chandler family’s destination was Annapolis County where they eventually settled about 10 miles above Annapolis Royal.

If their introduction to their new home was harsh, their journey was more so.

In Joshua’s own words, they “had a most terrible passage to Nova Scotia, our decks were swept of all our stock ... We arrived at Anapolis [sic] on the 23d. Mrs. Chandler was overcome with the passage. She languished, mourned and died in about three weeks after landing. She is certainly happy. She died the death of the righteous ...”

Joshua’s loss was compounded by the fact his son, John, either quickly returned to, or chose to remain in, Connecticut. John had a young and growing family as well as a successful business and, although badly tarnished by his father’s choices, would not re-locate to Nova Scotia.

Joshua sorely missed his home. He wrote a friend:

“My own prospects in life are all dashed, my only care is now for my children ... this unhappy controversy has ruined thousands ... I yet have a very strong affection to, and a predilection for my native country; their happiness would in some measure alleviate my present distress ... In the hour of contest I thought, and even yet think my country wrong; but I never wished its ruin.”

Having been promised surveyed lots, land grants, food, seed and implements, the Loyalist refugees were distressed to find little of it actually provided. The authorities were overwhelmed and unprepared for the massive numbers of Loyalist settlers.

In an attempt to compensate those loyal to the Crown for their losses, the British government set up a commission in St. John, N.B., to hear their claims. Taking books, papers and other evidence that proved his losses, Joshua sailed from Digby aboard the ship Patty to cross the Bay of Fundy. With him were his son William and daughter Elizabeth.

On March 9, 1787, the Patty, assailed by a vicious snowstorm, missed the entrance to

Saint John Harbour and was driven onto rocks at Musquash Point, nine miles southwest of St. John.

In an attempt to secure the vessel, William fastened a rope around his body and jumped overboard to swim to land. Immediately he was crushed between the ship and the rocks and was drowned. This was March 9, 1787.

Eventually, the other passengers reached shore safely and set off in search of help. The weather remained foul, the snow was deep, there were no roads and no dwellings in sight.

Attempting to determine a direction of travel, Joshua climbed to a high point of land. Numb with cold, he slipped from the icy rocks and fell to his death on March 11.

Elizabeth, after wandering aimlessly in the woods at Partridge Island near St. John, died the same day as her father.

In the Rural Cemetery now called Fernhill Cemetery, St. John, there are headstones for the Chandlers: Joshua and his children, William and Elizabeth.

Over the years, the headstones have become illegible but the inscription reads:

"Here lyeth the Bodies of Col. Joshua Chandler, Aged 61 years, And William Chandler, His Son, Aged 29 years who were shipwrecked on their passage from Digby to

St. John, on the Night of the 9th day of March, 1787, and Perished in the Woods, on the 11th day of said Month."

"Here lyeth the Bodies of Mrs. Sarah Grant, Aged 38 Years, Widow of the late Major Alex Grant; and Miss Elizabeth Chandler aged 27 years, who were Shipwrecked on their passage from Digby to St. John on the night of the 9th Day of March, 1787, and Perished in the Woods on the 11th day of said Month."

As for compensation, proof of the Chandler wealth was lost with Joshua. The British government admitted they knew “Joshua Chandler was wealthy and had large and just claims, but we do not know how much, and there is no proof of it”. It eventually awarded £1,000 each to Joshua’s children: Sarah, Mary, Thomas, Samuel and Charles.

In a sad twist of fate, the parcels of land that had been granted to Joshua and William were not passed to his descendants but were forfeited to the Crown for non-fulfilment of the conditions set out in the grant.

Dead men don’t clear land, build houses or plough fields.

A Dayspring resident,

Carolyn (Bowes) Simpson is a genealogist working on her first book about her family’s history. It is through her fifth greatgrandfather, Joshua C. Chandler, she holds her United Empire Loyalist designation. She can be reached at pcsimpson@eastlink. ca.