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Loyalist Declaration of Dependence

Re: Loyalist Declaration of Dependence

Posted: 19 Nov 2004 12:47AM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 15 Apr 2005 10:44PM GMT
Thanks Carol!

A shame they didn't transcribe the signatures as well. Maybe I can write to them to see if they can search for a name or two. Thanks again!

Scott

Re: Loyalist Declaration of Dependence

Carol Piers (View posts)
Posted: 20 Nov 2004 1:44AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Piers, Peers, Bolding, Pineo, Seaman, Chipman
My pleasure! I agree about the transcription on the signatures. I was hoping they'd sell 'touristy' copies of it & maybe I could descipher the signatures that way.

Re: Loyalist Declaration of Dependence

Posted: 5 Mar 2011 10:34PM GMT
Classification: Query
There is a framed copy at Philipse Manor Hall. You might try googling Declaration of Dependence if you are not in Yonkers.

Re: Loyalist Declaration of Dependence

Posted: 29 Jul 2013 11:10AM GMT
Classification: Query
Updated link to image of the NY Loyalist Declaration of Dependence signed by 547 people:
http://www.nyhistory.org/node/61542

Re: Loyalist Declaration of Dependence

Posted: 29 Jul 2013 11:10AM GMT
Classification: Query
Updated link to image of the NY Loyalist Declaration of Dependence signed by 547 people:
http://www.nyhistory.org/node/61542

Re: Loyalist Declaration of Dependence

Posted: 28 Sep 2014 12:39PM GMT
Classification: Query
Was anyone ever able to locate the list of 547 people who signed the NY Loyalist Declaration of Dependence? I'm looking for a Tunis Titus who was a NJ farmer who may have signed it.

Re: Loyalist Declaration of Dependence

Posted: 7 Oct 2014 6:51AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Vail
As I have Loyalist ancestors (surname Vail) from Westchester and Southampton, I have tried calling the NY Historical Society for information, with no response. I believe NYHS should be responsive to enquiries like this, according to their charter. Another example of unreachable bureaucracies shielded by the Internet maze.

Re: Loyalist Declaration of Dependence

Posted: 2 Apr 2015 1:01PM GMT
Classification: Query
Hi Joanna:

Wishing you had been at the United Loyalist Empire Governor Simcoe Branch's potluck dinner last night in Toronto. At least one other person would have been as excited as I was.

Over the past several months I spent a great deal of time and effort in obtaining a copy of the Declaration of Dependence and trying to decipher the signatures. I had enlarged and printed (plus framed a copy) for our auction last night, and no one seemed interested.

The dinner was held at the Montgomery Inn (another point of interest to you perhaps) which is at Islington and Bloor in Toronto's west end.

Wondering if you have proved your bloodline, as it is the only hereditary title that is given out in Canada (something to be proud of).

If you have not already been on the www.uelac.org you will likely find this website informative.

The Governor Simcoe Branch would love to have you as a member, and our genealogist would be able to help verify your bloodline to your Montgomery ancestors. If you are living in Canada and there is a closer UELAC branch to which you could attend their meetings, might I suggest you become their member. Each branch has a volunteer genealogist, and other members willing to assist. Who knows, you may even meet a distant cousin.

Sandra

Re: Loyalist Declaration of Dependence

Posted: 2 Apr 2015 1:19PM GMT
Classification: Query
I have obtained a copy of the Declaration of Dependence and am currently trying to decipher the signatures. Some of our ancestors had beautiful hand written lettering, while others make life more challengling.

If you think that your ancestor's name may be on the document, please send me a message as sometimes I can see the last name and not make out the first or visa versa.

It has also come to my attention that a couple names that are clearly written on the document, have been expunged on the Loyalist directory which can be found at www.uelac.org

It is a work in progress, but as I believe this is part of our heritage and should be shared, I may be asking for help in deciphering names by posting blocks of signatures.

There are eight columns of names, and interestingly the first column, or left most column, has had names "erased" - as in their isn't a hope in figuring out who's signature may have been there. I am not sure if this is done purposely or but over handling by people placing their thumb constantly in the same spot.

Re: Loyalist Declaration of Dependence

Posted: 2 Apr 2015 1:46PM GMT
Classification: Query
Joanna:

I posted earlier to you today, and cannot not see this post. Please message me directly if you are getting these posts.


To the Right Honorable Richard Viscount Howe, of the Kingdom of Ireland, and His Excellency The Honorable William Howe, Esquire, General of His Majesty’s Forces in America, the Kings’ Commissioners for restoring Peace in His Majesty’s Colonies and Plantations in North America &c. &c. &c.

May it please your excellencies.

Impressed with the most grateful sense of the Royal Clemency, manifested I you Proclamation of the 14th. Of July last, whereby His Majesty hath been graciously pleased to declare, “That he is desirous to deliver His American subjects from the calamities of War, and other oppressions, which they now undergo:” and equally affected with sentiments of gratitude for the generous and humane attention to the disposition “to confer with His Majesty’s well affected subjects, upon the means of restoring the public Tranquility, and establishing a permanent union with every Colony as a part of the British Empire.”

We whose names are hereunto subscribed, Inhabitants of the City and County of New-York, beg leave to inform your Excellencies: that altho most of us have subscribed a general Representation with many other of the Inhabitants; yet we wish that our conduct, in maintaining inviolate our loyalty to our Sovereign, against the strong tide of oppression and tyranny, which has almost overwhelmed this Land, may be marked by some line of distinction, which cannot well be drawn from the mode of Representation that has been adopted for the Inhabitants in general.

Influenced by this Principle, and from a regard to our peculiar Situation, we have humbly presumed to trouble your Excellencies with the second application; in which, we flatter ourselves, none participate but those who have ever, with unshaken fidelity, borne true Allegiance to His Majesty, and the most warm and affectionate attachment to his Person and Government. That, notwithstanding the tumult of the times, and the extreme difficulties and losses to which many of us have been exposed, we have always expressed, and do now give this Testimony of our Zeal to preserve and support the Constitutional Supremacy of Great Britain over the Colonies; and do most ardently wish for a speedy restoration of that union between them, which, while it subsisted, proved the unfailing source of their mutual happiness and prosperity.

We cannot help lamenting that the number of Subscribers to this Address is necessarily lessened, by the unhappy circumstance that many of our Fellow-Citizens, who have firmly adhered their loyalty, have been driven from their Habitations, and others sent Prisoners into some of the neighbouring Colonies: and tho’ it would have afforded us the highest satisfaction, could they have been present upon this occasion: yet we conceive it to be the duty we owe to ourselves and our prosperity, whilst this testimony of our Allegiance can be supported by known and recent facts, to declare to your Excellencies; that so far from having given the last countenance or encouragement, to the most unnatural, unprovoked Rebellion, that ever disgraced the annuls of Time; we have on the contrary, steadily and uniformly opposed it, in every stage of its rise and progress, at the risque of our Lives and Fortunes.
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