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WILLIAM SECORD'S MILITIA SERVICE

Elias Secord's Militia Service

For anyone researching Loyalists in New Brunswick, I recommend a book called Early Loyalist Saint John by David G. Bell. It was a long time before I found it, and it has given me some useful new information on William and Elias Secord. The focus is on Loyalists who initially went to what is now Saint John, but of course many of those later moved on to other areas of the province. This author found New York militia company musters and some passenger lists at the Public Record Office in London, England. William is not listed on a passenger list, but Elias was on the passenger list for the Bridgewater. Evidently they came on different ships.

Elias's entry in Appendix VIII of this book states that he was in civilian militia unit 23. These militia units were formed in New York before the members came to what is now New Brunswick. I have gone through the appendix to find others in that unit, and they are listed below, along with the information that appears with them in the appendix. The columns with family statistics in the table below are taken from victualling lists, first in New York before boarding the ship, then onboard ship, then shortly after the families arrived in what is now Saint John at varying times in 1783, and then at the two dates indicated. The first of the five digits gives number of adult males; the second, adult females; the third, children 10 and over; the fourth, children under 10; and the fifth, slaves.

All of the men in the table below are on the passenger list of the Bridgewater except William Margison and John Owens. No ship is listed for these two men. It's possible that they came on private ships. It appears that the lists taken onboard the ship and in June 1784 for this militia unit have not been found, as there is no data for either category for any of the members.

Going back to David G. Bell's book, Chapter 2 lists the names of ships in the various fleets, and the militia units associated with them. According to that, militia unit 23, headed by Joseph Forrester, came on the Bridgewater, in the June, 1783 fleet. The same ship also carried militia units 9, 10, and 20. The number of passengers on a ship can be estimated from Captains' Certificates and from victualling lists. For the Bridgewater and unit 23, the former number was 44 and the latter was 47. If you count all of the people from the Family at NY column, above, you get 57 if you leave out John Owens and William Margison. If you add the numbers from the Family on Arrival column, you get 47, again leaving out John Owens and William Margison. The 57 figure seems too high and most likely contains some errors.

Before leaving New York, Elias's household apparently consisted of one adult male, one adult female, one child 10 and over, and four children under 10. I think that the four children under 10 has to be a mistake. The lists of children I have seen for Elias and his wife Abigail indicate that they had a daughter Sarah and a son Elias by this time, and both were quite young, definitely too young to pass for 10 and over. (It's known that some families "promoted" their children who were near 10 to over-10 status to get more rations.) The numbers for Family on Arrival and Family in May 1784 are in agreement that there was one child 10 and over and one child under 10. These numbers remain a mystery, unless Sarah was somehow listed under 10 and over.

I have Carleton's Loyalist Index, a database containing information on Loyalists from New York, as found in the British Headquarters Papers, New York City, 1774-1783. For more information, see http://www.carletonuel.ca/kingname.htm. The following table lists the above men and indicates what information on them, if any, appears in Carleton's Index. The reels refer to microfilm reels held by the Library and Archives Canada. Note that there is no guarantee that a man from Carleton's Index is the same person as a man from militia unit 31, but I have included the information if the name matches.

[work in progress]