First Edition Published February 27, 2016
Second Edition Published March 16, 2017
Third Edition Published October 5, 2019
Copyright by Fred Blair
Changes and additions are in blue text.
January 1, 1814
In Montreal
During
the winter, Cornet Amos McKenny of the Provincial Dragoons was in Montreal
purchasing gear, including 33 saddles, for his regiment.[1]
In Kingston
Lieutenant
John Le Couteur, of the British 104th Regiment, noted that ladies
awaited visitors in their homes where cake, wine, and kisses could be had.[2]
In York
During
the war, the number of immigrants dropped sharply. Clerks in York were losing their income
because they were not collecting fees. A
second-level clerk was now earning just over 112 pounds per year, less than a
common labourer. At the same time, they
had to pay more for goods because of inflation.
Later in the year, Drummond issued a salary increase for the government
clerks that was retroactive back to this date.
Farmers
and labourers earned well during the war but those unable to work due to
illness, age, and injuries suffered more as food prices rose. Subsistence levels rose from about 20 pounds
per year to near 80. Orphan and widow
pensions for veteran’s survivors were less than half of the peace time
subsistence level.[3]
During the month, Lieutenant James Fitzgibbon of the 49th
Regiment received a commission in the Glengarry Light Infantry.[4]
At Black Rock
Captain John D. Servos of the 1st
Lincoln Militia was wounded and received a disability pension after the war.[5]
January 5, 1814
Thomas
Dickson was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the 2nd Lincoln
Militia while Thomas Clark was absent.[6]
The
British and Americans agreed to negotiate a peace but discussions did not begin
until August.[7]
January 11, 1814
In York
The
March 13, 1813 proclamation prohibiting the export of grain and other
provisions and prohibiting the distillation of spirits from grain was re-enacted.[8]
The Loyal
and Patriotic Society provided financial relief of 100 dollars to Thomas
Silverthorn who had been severely wounded on November 28, 1812 near Fort Erie
and 50 dollars to Mary Clendenin whose husband had been wounded at Fort Erie
and died in hospital. Jean Roe also made
a petition for aid because her husband, who had been a sergeant in the 41st
Regiment, had drowned after falling out of a boat while on duty. Her petition was rejected because it did not
fall within the society’s mandate to provide for Upper Canadians.[9]
January 16, 1814
In Lower Canada
Captain McGillivray of the 3rd Embodied
Militia received word that a sergeant and 13 American dragoons were posted at
Clough’s Farm near Mississiquoi Bay and Phillipsburg, just north of the border
line. The captain collected some
militiamen and attacked the dragoons at ten o’clock in the morning. Six dragoons were captured along with ten
horses, arms, and gear. One dragoon was
killed and two were severely wounded.[10]
January 26, 1814
It
was felt that the 1813 crop yield was lower than the several years preceding
it. Major General Riall was to inventory
the resources in the country side available to supply the British army. The supply of beef and pork was low. Hogs were small and had not been fattened up
because of the spring crops failure and the shortage of salt with which to cure
the meat. Major General Drummond
requested pork be sent from Lower Canada.
He
had suggested that the Indigenous allies return to their homes but they pointed
out that they had not been able to plant crops during the last growing season
because they had been in away while aiding the British in their fight and would
not be able to feed themselves if they returned.
It
was pointed out that if a corps of “wagoneers” was formed that the farmers
would not have to deliver supplies to the Commissariat as often and would have
more time to work on their farms and grow the food supplies needed by the
army. It was believed that the farmers
would also then have more time to maintain their wagons and teams in good order
and would be more willing to act as teamsters, if they were called upon less
frequently for that purpose.
The
transportation cost of shipping flour from the Forty Mile Creek to Niagara had
risen to $4.00 per barrel because the lower road lacked a snow cover and could
not be used. The sleighs had to make a
four-day round trip over the mountain rather than using the shorter route below
it.[11]
January 29, 1814
The
Kingston Gazette advertised that Norman Bethune & Co. had just received a
shipment and offered for sale Jamaica Spirits, cognac brandy, shrub (a liqueur),
peppermint, noyeau (a liqueur), port and tenerisse (Tenerife) wines, raisins,
pepper, hyfou skin tea, mufenvado (muscovado) and loaf sugar, best green
coffee, currants, almonds, and assorted fabrics and clothing.[12]
During
the war, the Reverend John Bethune was serving at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian
Church in Williamstown, Glengarry County.
Dr. Norman Bethune, John’s great great-grandson, became famous for his
medical practices during the Spanish Civil War and with the Communist Army in
China.
Was
Norman Bethune, the merchant of 1814, a relation?
January 31, 1814
An
American raiding party commanded by Andrew Westbrook raided the Village of
Delaware on the Thames River and captured militia officers Daniel Springer and
Lieutenant Colonel Francis Baby of the Middlesex Militia.[13]
Andrew
Westbrook was a substantial land owner and merchant with a distillery, barn,
storehouse, sawmill, and gristmill in Delaware Township, Middlesex County. He was opposed to a number of British
policies and their representative in the area, Colonel Thomas Talbot. He had been captured by the militia as a
dissident but managed to escape. He
became an American spy and helped with a number of raids on the Thames River
and Lake Erie. He burned his own
buildings and crops during one raid. He
would raid again in April.[14]
On
Benjamin Smith’s farm, in Ancaster Township, they thrashed and cleaned grain,
hauled wood, delivered oats and rye to the mill and the still house, picked up
spirits from the still, delivered buckwheat to Barnum’s, and picked up John
Wilkins’ grist from the mill for him.
Some of his diary entries were too faint to read.
Benjamin
stayed the night of the 25th at John Smith’s, then went to Eldam
Bowman’s and stayed there on the 26th, and at Adam Smith’s on the 27th. He was home the following day but then went
to Davis’ on the 29th while Nancy went to Patten Johnson’s.[15]
Upper Canadian Service Deaths
Sergeant Alanson B. Pease, Middlesex,
disease, January 1, 1814,
orphaned children to Elizabeth Kearns
Private Martin Stover, Addington,
disease, January, 1814,
orphaned children to …nah Bice[16]
Sources:
[1] Trafalgar Historical
Society, 2014.
[2] Donald E.
Graves, Merry Hearts Make Light Days, The War of 1812 Journal of Lieutenant
John Le Couteur, 104th Foot, Carleton University Press, Ottawa,
1994, page 155.
[3] George Sheppard, Plunder, Profit, and Paroles: A Social History of the War of 1812 in Upper
Canada, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994, pages 143-144.
[5] Pension Poster –
Casualties, January 1, 1817, Nelles Family Fonds, Ref. Code F 542,
box
MU 2192, Ontario Archives, Toronto.
[6] Ernest Alexander
Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign Upon the Niagara Frontier, In
1812-14, Vol. 9, Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, printed at the Tribune
Office, Welland, 1908, page 91, accessed April 27, 2014, online at www.ourroots.ca.
[7] The Fife and Drum, The
Newsletter of The Friends of Fort York and Garrison Common, Volume 17, Number
4, December 2013, page 4.
[8] Ernest Alexander
Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign Upon the Niagara Frontier, In
1812-14, Vol. 9, Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, printed at the Tribune
Office, Welland, 1908, pages 107-108, accessed April 27, 2014, online at www.ourroots.ca.
[10] Forces of Lord
Selkirk, Facebook group, Jan. 16, 2018 posting.
[11] Ernest Alexander
Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign Upon the Niagara Frontier, In
1812-14, Vol. 9, Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, printed at the Tribune
Office, Welland, 1908, pages 148-149, accessed April 27, 2014, online at www.ourroots.ca.
[12] Kingston Gazette, July
18, 1814, accessed June 12, 2016 at http://vitacollections.ca/digital-kingston/96888/page/4
[13] George Sheppard, Plunder, Profit, and
Paroles: A Social History of the War of
1812 in Upper Canada, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994, pages 105-106.
[14]
D. R. Beasley, “WESTBROOK, ANDREW,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6,
University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed February 24, 2017, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/westbrook_andrew_6E.html.
[15] Benjamin Smith’s Diary, Benjamin Smith Fonds F582, Ontario
Archives, Toronto, Ontario.
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