Our ancestors often believed in fate, and so do I. It was fate one day that brought me to the Fraunces Tavern in New York City. Fate that day that the waiter overheard me talking to my daughter. Fate that that same waiter told me of the museum on the top floor of the Fraunces Tavern. Fate that allowed me fifteen minutes prior to closing to view the museum.
In those fifteen minutes I scanned the exhibits and discovered a small posting regarding a declaration signed by 547 Loyalists in late November 1776 which declared their loyalty to the Crown and Great Britain. The voices of my ancestors and their friends kept calling to me from that document, asking me to not forget them, and to search out their names and signatures. To discover their lives, beliefs, and reasons for their actions.
After searching and making inquiries through social media, phoning museums and not giving up, two and a half years later I finally found someone, who on February 11, 2015, knew what I was talking and asking about. Charles Casimiro of Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site, New York, informed me the document, the Declaration of Dependence, was housed in the New-York Historical Society. He was even able to provide a transcription.[1]
To the Right Honorable Richard Viscount Howe, of the Kingdom of Ireland, and His Excellency The Honorable William Howe, Esquire, General of His Majesty’s Forces in America, the Kings’ Commissioners for restoring Peace in His Majesty’s Colonies and Plantations in North America &c. &c. &c.
May it please your excellencies.
Impressed with the most grateful sense of the Royal Clemency, manifested I you Proclamation of the 14th. Of July last, whereby His Majesty hath been graciously pleased to declare, “That he is desirous to deliver His American subjects from the calamities of War, and other oppressions, which they now undergo:” and equally affected with sentiments of gratitude for the generous and humane attention to the disposition “to confer with His Majesty’s well affected subjects, upon the means of restoring the public Tranquility, and establishing a permanent union with every Colony as a part of the British Empire.”
We whose names are hereunto subscribed, Inhabitants of the City and County of New-York, beg leave to inform your Excellencies: that altho most of us have subscribed a general Representation with many other of the Inhabitants; yet we wish that our conduct, in maintaining inviolate our loyalty to our Sovereign, against the strong tide of oppression and tyranny, which has almost overwhelmed this Land, may be marked by some line of distinction, which cannot well be drawn from the mode of Representation that has been adopted for the Inhabitants in general.
Influenced by this Principle, and from a regard to our peculiar Situation, we have humbly presumed to trouble your Excellencies with the second application; in which, we flatter ourselves, none participate but those who have ever, with unshaken fidelity, borne true Allegiance to His Majesty, and the most warm and affectionate attachment to his Person and Government. That, notwithstanding the tumult of the times, and the extreme difficulties and losses to which many of us have been exposed, we have always expressed, and do now give this Testimony of our Zeal to preserve and support the Constitutional Supremacy of Great Britain over the Colonies; and do most ardently wish for a speedy restoration of that union between them, which, while it subsisted, proved the unfailing source of their mutual happiness and prosperity.
We cannot help lamenting that the number of Subscribers to this Address is necessarily lessened, by the unhappy circumstance that many of our Fellow-Citizens, who have firmly adhered their loyalty, have been driven from their Habitations, and others sent Prisoners into some of the neighbouring Colonies: and tho’ it would have afforded us the highest satisfaction, could they have been present upon this occasion: yet we conceive it to be the duty we owe to ourselves and our prosperity, whilst this testimony of our Allegiance can be supported by known and recent facts, to declare to your Excellencies; that so far from having given the last countenance or encouragement, to the most unnatural, unprovoked Rebellion, that ever disgraced the annuls of Time; we have on the contrary, steadily and uniformly opposed it, in every stage of its rise and progress, at the risque of our Lives and Fortunes.
The 242-year-old Declaration of Dependence is owned by the New-York Historical Society Library. Having only seen the on line version of this 242-year-old document,[2] I can describe it as a large sheet which has the wishes of the signers written on the top half followed below by eight columns with approximately thirty-five signatures in each column. The left most column has perhaps ten signatures worn away. There follows three smaller pages of signatures, in four columns on each page. The fourth column on the last page has been torn away. What appear to be water marks distort and disfigure other signatures on these three pages.
My curiosity was aroused as to why approximately ten signatures would have been worn away. Perhaps they were erased by persons not wishing to acknowledge that they, or their ancestors, signed this document. Or, the names may have been smudged by accident, possibly from too much handling. Considering that most people are right handed it is natural to pick up the paper with your left hand.
The second page has space for six columns, but only four columns of names appear; the first column is near the middle of the page, leaving blank space to the left. The bottom portion of the first column appears to have water stains, making the last eight or so signatures illegible.
The third page has water stains on the top portion of all four columns. The lower portion of the page also has stains.
The final page of the Declaration appears to be mostly lost due to the large amount of water stains. Below the four columns of signatures is the final sign-off of the Declaration. It reads in part,
We, Richard Hoyt Thomas T . . . ing and Frederick Hudson . . . of New York do hereby certify that we attended the signing . . . and that the subscribers have voluntarily signed their names.
Twenty Eight day of November in the Seventeenth Year of His Majesty.
King George III became King on October, 25 1760, so the final signatures on the Declaration were made on November 28, 1776.
The Declaration of Dependence was signed by 547 Loyalists from New York and surrounding areas. The signers were merchants, yeomen, freed slaves—basically a mixed representation of people all wishing to remain loyal to the Crown.
The signing of this valuable document took place in Fraunces Tavern, located at 54 Pearl Street at Water Street in Lower Manhattan. The City Hall was situated on the north side of the street. At the time, the tavern sign read “Sign of Queen Charlotte,” or the Queen to King George III. Commonly it was referred to as the “Queen’s Head Tavern.”
The signers are too numerous to list; here are a few of the more prominent:
Frederick Philipse. The house that Frederick Philipse once occupied is now a Historic Site, the Philipse Manor Hall in Yonkers, New York. The family lived in luxury. Rent from many tenant farmers who worked their lands helped pay for this lifestyle. As those around Frederick Philipse III began to rebel against Great Britain, he defended the Crown. George Washington did not approve of having such a strong-willed Loyalist at large and ordered Frederick Philipse III arrested in 1776, but he and his family fled to British occupied New York. His signature can be seen prominently in the middle of page one, column five. Frederick Philipse III had a sister Susannah Philipse. She married Col. Bevereley Robinson, a prominent Loyalist officer in whose home Benedict Arnold made his headquarters. From the strong Loyal bonds of this marriage was born Frederick Philipse Robinson, who began his career in the British army as a young officer in the American Revolution and eventually rose to the rank of major general. His portrait is found in the hallway of Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario. He was provisional lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada in 1815. Eventually the lands and the Manor of Frederick Philipse III were confiscated and sold at public auction by the New York State Legislature. The last “Lord of the Manor”, died of a broken spirit and poor health in England, 1786.[3]
Samuel Cox. Samuel Cox was a native of Bermuda, described as 5’10” in stature with a brown complexion, light brown hair, and about twenty-five years of age. On June 1, 1776, he set sail from Halifax as the Master of the transport sloop Charlotte, among approximately 130 ships carrying about 10,000 sailors that set sail that day from Halifax under the command of Lord Howe, carrying the British army that would land on Staten Island. On board Charlotte was a cargo of entrenching tools, spikes, Cheveaux-de-Frise, and mantelets, essential components for constructing field fortifications in the upcoming campaign. The American armed sloop Montgomery intercepted Charlotte on June 28, 1776. Samuel Cox was transported as a prisoner and carried to Fire-Island Inlet south of Long Island as a prisoner of war. He was released on parole on July 6, to return to his residence in Bedford Township in Westchester County, New York. He later became a member of a Loyalist regiment, Butler’s Rangers, and settled in the Niagara Region of Ontario.[4]
Samuel Wood. Samuel Wood was fifty-one years old when he signed the Declaration in 1776. Born in 1725 in New York, he married Amy Brundage about 1754 in Westchester County. Together they had fourteen children. After being imprisoned and suffering the loss of his Westchester County farm, his wife Amy refused to follow him when he fled from the United States in 1785. Perhaps she was too old and tired, or perhaps she chose to remain with her other twelve children. Samuel’s daughter Amy Wood Bedford and his son Peter Wood went to Nova Scotia with their father, later to be joined by their sister Rachel Wood Clark. Perhaps Rachel’s husband penned one of the two Clark signatures found on the Declaration. Compensation was granted by the British, and together Samuel Wood and his son Peter built a home on the Maccan River in Nova Scotia. It would appear that he died a broken man as his wife still refused to move to Nova Scotia with their remaining children. Both Wood and his son were buried in the Harrison burial ground, which sadly is now a farmer’s field.[5]
[1]Personal correspondence, Charles Casimiro of Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site.
[2]Petition of 547 Loyalists from New York City, commonly referred to as the ‘Loyalist Declaration of Dependence”, New-York Historical Society, www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/petition-0.
[3]Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1600-1889 Vol V: (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888), attached to ancestry tree www.ancestry.ca/family-tree/person/tree/109676453/person/110078560499/facts.
[4]“Parole of Samuel Cox,” American Archives, Peter Force, ed. (Washington, DC: M. St. Claire Clarke and Peter Force, 1848), 24, books.google.ca/books?id=r2cYAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA23&lpg=RA1-PA23&dq=Samuel+Cox+1776&source=bl&ots=wzIf35eggK&sig=2n9tixBHCcKzgZ2CdzlbctUTqxk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmnuvqnbHRAhWF34MKHTrbBkgQ6AEIMjAF#v=onepage&q=Samuel%20Cox%201776&f=false.
[5]Find A Grave Memorial# 93590782, www.findagrave.com/memorial/93590782/samuel-wood.
29 Comments
Very interesting artice. I particularly enjoyed info on Phillipse and Cox.
I just wrote a historiographical paper on the disaffected. I plan on making it into a larger research project. The majority of those living in the colonies, more specifically, in rural areas, just wanted to be left alone. Those in larger cities may very well have felt the same way, but it was more difficult in the port cities where these things were discussed in pubs and on city streets. In towns you were often forced to choose, there were many ways this was accomplished. That practice made its way into the rural areas as well. The Revolution wasn’t quite as popular as we as a nation would like to believe.
Very interesting your last sentence. As a Loyalist descendant I quite agree. Perhaps you would like to join our research group on Facebook “Loyalist in depth study”. Please answer the questions when asked to join. Hope to have further discussions with you there.
Where do I find your research group? I am currently researching those Loyalists who decided to make their new homes in northeast Florida or stopped in St. Augustine, Florida before moving onto the Carribean.
Enjoyed your story. Thanks for your persistence in tracking this down. It’s the dream of all us “history geeks” (at least I call myself that!) to discover one of these heretofore obscure but meaningful documents and bring it to light. Nicely done!
Oh to be called a “history geek”. It was not a favourite topic of mine in highschool, but the presistence of my grandmother always saying she came from a “Strong Loyalist Stock” that got me into hunting. Am just beinging to think that some of my “Captains” may have been ship Captains, so hopefully I will have more to say on that someday.
Ms. McNamara, is a list of the signatories available to review by the general public? I believe my GGGGGGrandfather, Daniel Odell, was associated with Philipsburg Manor. He eventually fled to Nova Scotia.
Where can we find the list of names transcribed?
If you would like to ask if a couple of your ancestors signed the Declaration, I can look up the names in my file and tell you on which page or column that they signed. Am hoping to do another article regarding more of the signers for JAR in the future.
Are there any Williams or Comstock signers of the Declaration? Thank you
There is a similar document in the Andrew Elliot Papers at the State Library in Albany, dated July 9 or 10, 1776, from about 400 residents of Staten Island, declaring their loyalty to the Crown. Notice it was signed almost immediately after news of the “other” declaration reached New York.
Thank you. Have found three other similar documents which I hope will be highlighted in JAR. Hoping that the editors find my follow-up topic interesting, and will consider posting. This article required some “heavy editing” to which I am very grateful to all those at JAR who helped.
Too often the American Revolution is depicted as a British invasion rather than as the civil war it was. The Loyalist were fighting for this homes and families as well as the Patriots. They often suffered oppression at the hands of their neighbors in the name of liberty.
Timothy, am just reading History of New York During the Revolutionary War by Thomas Jones (can be found on archives.com) or hard copy can be bought from Forgotten Books. It appears that the British also mistreated the Loyalist by not compensating them for their losses such as livestock. One gets the impression that they looked down on the Loyalist.
Very interesting detail to add to, and reinforce the literature on the experiences of those who migrated northward to found settlements and to establish civilian life and the rule of law in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick. See also Franklin B. Hough’s The History of Jefferson County (albany archives, available online) and, also available online, Proceedings of the New York State Association, Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America (Chapter 8, on the Mohawk), also Wolfe Island: A Legacy in Stone, by Barbara Wall La Rocque.
May I copy and paste your comment to the closed Facebook group “Loyalist in depth study”? It will be interesting to those of the group, and you may find the comments interesting. Please join the group, and consider being your introductory post as the above.
Dear Ms. McNamara,
Excellent article on the 1776 Loyalist Declaration of Dependence. Hailing from Queens County on Long Island, many of the British subjects here had very tough decisions to make. Regardless of whether one was Whig or Tory, Rebel or Loyalist, when the British Army is marching towards your town, the die is cast, so to speak. Stay and pledge loyalty or flee for your lives and your sacred honor.
I have perused the document. Is there a master list of all of the signatories of this declaration. My studies of the American Revolution in Queens County, now the Borough of Queens in the City of New York, will be greatly enhanced.
Sincerely, Rich Melnick, Astoria, N.Y.
Richard thank you. I have the master copy, which I painstakenly transcribed from the site. If you would like a copy I will gladly share it for your studies, but please do acknowledge me for my eyes were strained for many a long hour transcribing, and the eyes of my family rolled to the back of their heads many a time. themcnamaras dot sm at gmail
Am hoping that my second submission is accepted, as you wil find it of interest.
Yes, please go ahead and use anything you’d like. I’m having serious mail issues, so i’m a bit behind.
Sandra, its obvious that part of the Declaration has been transcribed, but do you if Charles Casimiro transcibed the NAMES, that is what we want to see. I have clicked on a couple of the links in your article but did not see the names transcribed. Did Charles send you the names? Do you know if the names have been transcribed?
Karen. I am the one who transcribed the names. Charles sent me the transcription of the “Declaration”. Is there a particular name that you would like me to look up for you?
What great work you did Sandra!! Yes, I am looking to see if John Jenkins signed it. He was in the army of some sort so he might have a title of Capt. or Lieut. His wife was Sarah Turner Bradley Jenkins. (not sure if women signed the Declaration or not). The Jenkins family (consisting of John & Sarah, and her two sons with the surname Bradley) was in New York after fleeing from Georgia. After New York, they went to New Brunswick, Canada. Sarah’s first husband Richard Bradley was killed in the fighting in Georgia.Thanks again. ka************@gm***.com
Thank you.
Timothy, am just reading History of New York During the Revolutionary War by Thomas Jones (can be found on archives.com) or hard copy can be bought from Forgotten Books. It appears that the British also mistreated the Loyalist by not compensating them for their losses such as livestock. One gets the impression that they looked down on the Loyalist.
Very interesting. My family’s Loyalist roots come from a Brunswick soldier (known to be part of the Hessian soldier corps who fought with Gen. Burgoyne) and an Upper New York State Loyalist family of Dutch descent; all of whom eventually arrived at Sorel, Quebec and and were granted virgin land in Prince Edward County, Ontario. Always pleased to see research on this time in North American history. Thank you for your efforts.
Not sure who I am replying to. I have ancestry threads that connect to the Mabie/Mabey/Mabee loyalists who came north from what is now New York State. I have on hand a copy of a attestation by Susannah Mabey-Richard Davis (He was a drummer in the King’s Royal Regiment in 1778) supporting a land petition by the wife of Peter Mabey, UEL, who died in Sorel. Apparently the petition was denied because Peter died on the Canadian side.
My cousin’s ancestors from the area around Kingston have what I think could be Hessians, judging by the names (Drader; Snider) . Susannah Mabey and her husband Richard Davis went on to have multiple children, as did their children, and their grandchildren. So… lots of Davises on Wolfe Island, but the Mabey thread puts the ancestry as far back as New Amsterdam, according to a friend who is an avid genealogist, so the Mabey claims are, I think, quite solid.
Joan,
Sorry for the very tardy reply. There are two Davis that signed the petition, on Page 3 Column 1. Without looking back at the original, I will assume that they likely came together to sign the Declaration as their names appear in the same column. I have a first name of Jacob and the second name I have only partially marked down.
Also, you will probably be interested to know that the Mabee farmhouse is a museum. It is located just south of Rotterdam, in New York on the Mohawk Valley. I have had the honour of visiting there. I too descend through the Mabee Line.
Dear Ms. McNamara,
I’m trying to connect with my U.E.L. ancestors. Do you have a transcribed list of names on the Declaration of Dependence that you can share? My ancestors ended up in Augusta, Grenville, Ontario and the names I’m searching for are McLean, Nettleton, Robinson, Bissell, Hurtbut (or Holibert) and Davidson. I have found some of these names in British military records during the War, but would love to have more information.
Beverly:
I have just checked my master list, and the only corresponding name I see is Robinson. Sorry for the delay in responding.