These opposing views – loyalty to the English crown vs the belief in the inalienable right of individual freedom – culminated in the American Revolutionary War between England and the thirteen colonies (1775-1783).  At the outbreak of the revolution, colonists loyal to the British crown (loyal at least  in part because they were heavily subsidised by England with equipment and free land grants, hence the name ‘United Empire Loyalists’) were obliged to fight against Britain or lose their homesteads. Following the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776, more than 8,000 United Empire Loyalists filtered into Lower Canada (Quebec). They were rugged backwoodsmen, fit for struggle on the frontier, who came through the upper St Lawrence valley along the north shore of Lake Ontario, eventually sending off-shoot settlements into the Ottawa valley, forming the nucleus of what would become the province of Ontario.  The map below demonstrates the proximity of settlements in Upper Canada (Quebec, Kingston, Queenstown etc) to those in upper New York State which made such a migration feasible. 

Robert James Parker (1762-1829), 3 times great-grandson of George Parker, was one such Loyalist. Born in Monmouth, New Jersey (Ancestry.com., Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1643-1890 Freehold Township 1785, accessed 2 April 2016), he relocated to Ontario in 1796 following the end of the Revolutionary War (Ancestry.com. Index, U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists 1500-1900, accessed 2 April 2016).  He died 17 October 1829 in Sorel-Tracy, Pierre-DeSaurel, Quebec, Canada. 

 

As for George Parker, from 1637 until his death in 1656, he acquired sizable landholdings in Rhode Island and neighbouring New Jersey and became an officer of the court in Portsmouth, R.I. (Joseph Smith, Civil and Military List of Rhode Island, 1647-1800, Preston & Rounds Co., Providence, Rhode Island, 1900, p.3 – a list of all officers elected by the General Assembly from the organization of the legislative government of the Colony to 1800).

One of George Parker’s descendants, James Parker (1792-1852) was born in Grenville, Ontario and baptised in neighbouring St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Stormont  (LDS Family Search, Ontario Births and Baptisms, 1779-1899, film 928968).  In 1812, 19-year-old James was in upper New York state (across the Niagara River from his home in Grenville), caught up in  contentious religious debate over claims by Joseph Smith to have received divine direction to establish the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons).  James also found himself liable to deportation as an enemy alien when war broke out between the United States and Britain.  The U.S. Secretary of State ordered British sympathisers to report to the US Marshal’s office in New York City; James was one of a dozen ‘Loyalists’ returned to Canada between 13 November and 5 December 1812 (National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of State, 1789-1815, War of 1812 Papers, 1789-1815, Marshal’s Returns of Enemy Aliens and Prisoners of War, 1812-15, Part 1).   He joined the United Empire Loyalists that same year (Public Record Office, Ottawa, Ontario,  Canada, British Regimental Registers of Service 1756-1900).  And he returned to Ontario a Mormon:  the 1851 Canada Census records his religion as ‘Mormon’; his wife Nancy and children Joseph, Nancy and Meriah were also Mormon (Ancestry.com., 1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Ontario, Haldimand, Cayuga, Schedule A Roll C_11725 page 37 lines 5-9).

The adoption of the Mormon faith and the Mormon practice of polygamy in succeeding generations complicates the Parker lineage and the record of my great-grandfather’s birth. The hunt for the birth record of Melvin John Parker goes on.  I need a break.  And just a few more crumbs…