HOME

ELIAS SECORD'S MILITIA SERVICE

William 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.

William's entry in Appendix VIII of this book states that he was in civilian militia unit 31. 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. The appendix has a column for Former Trade, but only one man in the table below had an entry in that column: John Oblenis, and his trade was nailer. There are also columns for former home and ship, but these are blank for all of these men. It appears that the passenger list for the ship on which militia unit 31 sailed has not survived or else has not come to light. That is likely where the information on former trade and former home would be found. The five 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. It appears that the lists taken at New York and onboard the ship for this militia unit have not been found, as there is no data for either category for any of the members. 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.

The Crabbs and Purdys seem to have missed out on the victualling lists taken on arrival. My guess is that Josiah and Miriam Fowler were husband and wife, and he died or perhaps was away during the May/June 1784 period, leaving Miriam listed as head of household. The people who have no statistics after arrival had likely moved on to other areas.

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 31, headed by John Oblenis, came on the Aurora in the July 1783 fleet. The number of passengers on a ship can be estimated from Captains' Certificates and from victualling lists. For the Aurora and unit 31, the former number was 52 and the latter was 53. If you count all of the people from the Family on Arrival column, above, you get 53 if you leave out the Crabbs and Purdys. I think that they travelled on other ships. Some people were known to travel on private ships, and these two families may have been among them. Militia unit 19, under William Perrine, also came on the Aurora in the July fleet.

In William Secord's Loyalist claim, he said that he came in July. This fits with the coming of the Aurora in the July fleet. I believe that he was on this ship with his family, and that they arrived in July, 1783.

On arrival, William's household apparently consisted of one adult male, one adult female, two children 10 and over, and three children under 10. Yet it appears that his first child was likely William, born in 1775, and eight at the time of their arrival. (See information on Ruth Hunt, William's wife.) It's known that some families "promoted" their children who were near 10 to over-10 status to get more rations. That might have happened here with their two eldest children. This information seems to indicate that they had five children born between 1775 and their arrival in July, 1783. In May, 1784, they were listed as having two children who were over 10 and one who was under 10. I think this was an error as there is fairly solid evidence that they had five children who lived to adulthood who were born in New York. (See William and Ruth (Hunt) Secord's children.)

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. (In particular, the information from William Simpson appears to be from different men, and it may be that a different ID Code indicates a different man.) Note also that what is now New Brunswick was still a part of Nova Scotia at this time.

William Secord's entry indicates that he was commissioned a lieutenant in the militia at "St. John's River" on June 1, 1783. I think this must be an error. He must have been commissioned a lieutenant on that date in New York, before boarding the ship to go to that destination. He said in his Loyalist claim that he "Came here; Lieut. of Company of Loyalists". It's clear that John Oblenis was also commissioned at the same time, and the wording does suggest it occurred while still in New York, but his rank isn't stated.