The British-Americans

348 Pages·2007·25.45 MB·English

The British-Americans

The British-Americans
The Loyalist Exiles in England
1774-1789
Mary Beth Norton
With Illustrations
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY • BOSTON • TORONTO
COPYRIGHT © 1972 BY MARY BETH NORTON
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED
IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL MEANS IN-
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WHO MAY QUOTE BRIEF PASSAGES IN A REVIEW.
FIRST EDITION
TIO/72
THE ENDPAPERS ARE REPRODUCED THROUGH THE COURTESY OF THE
GEOGRAPHY AND MAP DIVISION OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Norton, Mary Beth.
The British-Americans; the Loyalist exiles in
England, 1774-1789.
Bibliography: p.
1. American loyalists—England. I. Title.
E277.N66 973.3'U 72-401
ISBN 0-316-61250-2
Published simultaneously in Canada
by Little, Brown & Company (Canada) Limited
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
For my Mother and Father

Having devoted his whole Life, to the Age of near Thirty,
in preparing himself for future usefulness, Ten useless Years
have [closed] the Account: And he now finds himself near
his Fortieth year, banished under pain of death, to a dis-
tant Country, where he has not the most remote family
connection, nor scarcely an Acquaintance, who is not in the
same Circumstances — cut off from his profession — from
every hope of importance in Life, and in a great Degree from
Social enjoyments. And where, unknowing and unknown,
he finds, that after having expended the little, he hopes to
receive, as above related, that he shall be unable, while he
may be said only to wait for death, to procure common
Comforts and Conveniences, in a Station much inferior to
that of a Menial Servant, without the assistance of Govern-
ment.
— THOMAS DANFORTH, memorial to loyalist claims com-
mission, September 8, 1783

Acknowledgments
In the course of writing this book, I received valuable
assistance from a number of persons. My special thanks go to
Michael Kammen, Pauline Maier, and the other historians
who read all or part of the work at various stages of its de-
velopment and who offered many helpful suggestions. John
Reps, Robert C. Ritchie, and Maris Vinovskis provided
essential aid in their respective areas of expertise. Successive
drafts of the manuscript were diligently and accurately typed
by Karen DiNicola, Leslie Benedict, and Roberta Ludgate.
Funds or services supplied by Harvard University, The Uni-
versity of Connecticut Research Foundation, and the Meigs
Fund of Cornell University supported in large part the re-
search and writing of this book.
I gratefully acknowledge the kindness and courtesy of the
many libraries and archives that extended to me permission
to use and quote from their holdings. The reference staffs of
these institutions were invariably helpful, but in particular
I want to thank Winifred Collins of the Massachusetts His-
torical Society, Carolyn Sung of the Library of Congress
Manuscript Division, William Ewing, formerly of the
William L. Clements Library, and the staff of the Long Room
in the Public Record Office, London. It should be noted that
the William Vassall Letterbook and the Samuel Peters Papers,
both of which were consulted on microfilm, are quoted herein
with the permission of the owners of the original docu-
ments: for the Vassall Letterbook, the City Librarian of the
Acknowledgments
Sheffield City Libraries, and for the Peters Papers, the Church
Historical Society, Austin, Texas.
Finally, I must express my gratitude to Bernard Bailyn,
who first suggested to me that a study of the loyalist exiles
might prove fruitful, and who thereby acquired the burden-
some task of supervising this work as a doctoral dissertation.
I owe more than I can say to his unfailingly apt and helpful
advice.
M.B.N.