Loyalists on the Way to Canada

Credit: Library and Archives Canada C.W. Jefferys Collection

Remarks

C.W. Jefferys' notes about this picture from Canada's Past in Pictures

When discontent in the American colonies broke out into rebellion, probably as many as one-third of the people remained loyal. Though few of them approved of the policy of the British government, they were opposed to revolution; they desired to remain British subjects, and trusted to constitutional and peaceful means for the removal of their grievances.

As the conflict grew more bitter, neighbours became hostile, friends turned to enemies, families were divided. The Loyalists were persecuted, their lands were confiscated, their property destroyed or stolen, sometimes their houses were burned, they were tarred and feathered, they were imprisoned, some were put to death.

In turn large numbers of men joined the American Loyalist regiments which were raised to fight the revolutionists. During the years of the war, small parties of Loyalists, women and children, fathers of families, men, too old to fight, sought the protection of the garrisons along the frontier of Canada, or found their way by sea to Nova Scotia. Many of these exiles from western New York and New Jersey gathered around Fort Niagara, another stream of refugees trickled into the neighbourhood of Montreal from the Hudson River, while still others fled to Halifax and the Bay of Fundy from New England.

Long and toilsome and full of anxiety and peril were their journeys. Some carried with them a few treasured possessions-family heirlooms, or bits of furniture-or drove along a cow or two; but most of them brought only the clothes they wore, and a scanty supply of provisions. Some rode on horseback, or in heavy springless farm wagons drawn by a yoke of oxen; others tramped all the weary miles on foot. Nearly all arrived destitute, and for a long while they had to be served daily rations of food from the supplies in the neighbouring forts.

The picture shows a party of these early Loyalist refugees arriving at the bank of a river on their way to Canada. A rough road has been cut through the woods to the crossing place. The river is too deep to ford, as yet few of the streams along the frontier had any bridges, and the travellers will be ferried over on the rude scow.

Published References

• Imperial Life Assurance Co. of Canada.  A few facts.  Toronto Imperial Life, [1913].  [32 p.]  Illus.

  [Date and pagination from newspaper ad, June 18, 1913]

  Fact 13  -  “Coming of the Loyalists to Upper Canada, 1783”

• Paterson, Gilbert.  Canada from the earliest times to the present. Toronto,  Ryerson Press, 1933.  233 p.  Illus.

  p. 90  -  ‘Loyalists on their way to Canada”

• Paterson, Gilbert.  The story of Britain and Canada.  Toronto, Ryerson, 1933 233 p.  Illus.  In 2 parts, with their own pagination.

  p. 90  -  “Loyalists on their way to Canada”

• Jefferys, Charles W. 1934 Canada's Past in Pictures, p.89
• Jefferys, C.W. (1945). The Picture Gallery of Canadian History Vol. 2, p.23

• Woodley, E.C.  Old Quebec trails and homes.   Toronto, Ryerson, 1946. 137 p.  Illus.

  front dust jacket  -  “Loyalists on their way to Canada”

  p. 61  -  “Loyalists on their way to Canada”

• “New housing developments near Dixie making Queen Elizabeth Highway traffic heavier than ever.”  In Toronto Daily Star, May 14, 1953, p. 18. Illus.

  “When United Empire Loyalists came to Canada there were no super highways like the Queen Elizabeth.  This drawing by C.W. Jefferys shows difficulty of travel in those pioneer days when oxen, not autos were only means of travel.”

• MacLennan, Hugh.   “Scotland’s fate/Canada’s lesson.  A sobering analogy: if Scotland belongs to England do we belong to America?” In Maclean’s, volume 86, no. 10, October 1973.  p. 27-29, 94, 96, 98. Illus. https://archive.macleans.ca

  Accessed May 17, 2019

  p. 28  -  [Settlers drawing lots for land]

  [Loyalists on their way to Upper Canada]

  p. 29 -   [Lord Selkirk naming Kildonan, 1871]

    [Outdoor Communion of Presbyterians]

  The captions to these illustrations are taken from the article.

  Jefferys is not credited, but all for have his signature showing.

• Bassett, John and Petrie Roy.  Laura Secord.  Toronto, Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1974.  62 p.  Illus.

  p. 6  -  “The arrival of the Loyalists”

• Duffy, Dennis.  “Art-history:  Charles William Jefferys as Canada’s curator.” In Journal of Canadian Studies, Nov. 1976, p. 3-18.  Illus.

  p. 9  -  “Loyalists on Their Way to Upper Canada”

• Mika, Nick and Helma.  United Empire Loyalists:  pioneers of  Upper Canada. Belleville, Mika Pub. Co., 1976.  256 p.  Illus.

  p. 123  -  “Loyalists traveling to settlements in Canada”

• Dicks, Stewart K.  Les Canadiens:  the French in Canada, 1600-1867.  Scarborough, Ont., Prentice-Hall, 1980.  49 p.  Illus.

  p. 30  -  “British loyalists moving from the United States to the province of Quebec, c. 1780”

• Best, Michael.  “The Loyalists:  Ontario’s backbone.”  In Toronto Star, Saturday, July 10, 1982, p. A13.  Illus.

  “an engraving by C.W. Jefferys of Empire Loyalists on their way to Canada.”

• Choquette, Robert.  Ontario: an informal history of the land and its people. Toronto, Ministry of Education, 1983.  48 p.  Illus.

  p. 18  -  “Loyalists on the way to Canada”

• Bayer, Fern.  The Ontario collection.  Toronto, Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1984.

  388 p.  Illus.

  p. 137  -  “The landing of Wolfe at Louisbourg in 1758”

  “The Loyalist fleet leaving Boston, March 17, 1776”

  “Loyalists on the way to Canada”

• Ontario.  Ministry of Citizenship and Culture.  Ontario’s story for learners of English as a second language.  Toronto, Ministry, 1985?  21 p.  Illus. illus. mostly CWJ but nowhere acknowledged

  cover  -  [Native woman tanning a hide, Cabot meets the Indians, 

  Loyalists on the road, Clearing the land]

  p. 8  -  [Loyalists on the road]

• Thomson, Gary.  Village life in Upper Canada.  Belleville, Ont., Mika Pub. Co., 1988.  160 p.  Illus.

  p. 12  -  “Loyalists on the way to Upper Canada”

• Brown, Wallace.  “First impressions:  through colonial Canada with our Pioneer tourists.”  In Beaver, April/May 1988, p. 4-20.  Illus.

  p. 4  -  “Loyalists on the journey to Upper Canada”

• Begbie Contest Society.  “Canadian primary sources in the classroom:Loyalists-War of 1812.”  July 2017.  32 p.  Illus. http://www.begbiecontestsociety.org/loyalists.htm

  Accessed July 27, 2017

  p. 4  -  “Loyalists on the Way to Canada…LAC  .W. Jefferys

  Collection, 1934”

  
  

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