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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- CLUDING INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER, EXCEPT BY A REVIEWER 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.
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