Voyage Of a Different Kind, The Associated Loyalists of Kingston and Adolphustown [Ontario]

By  Larry Turner

From the City of New York to the shores of Lake Ontario: it was a unique migration in 1783 and 1784. Following a path of its own choosing, a small but significant group of Loyalist refugees opted for settlement in the western territory of the old Province of Quebec now known as Ontario. Having been forced to evacuate the City at the close of the American Revolutionary War, the companies of Associated Loyalists formed to expedite the goal of setting a place called Cataraqui, struggled against many odds. Seeking to avoid the overwhelming draw to settle in Nova Scotia, Michael Grass and Peter Van Alstine as leaders of these renegade companies, charted a very different course in their goal to settle what would become Kingston and Adolphustown. Their negotiations with Sir Guy Carleton in New York and Sir Frederick Haldimand in Quebec helped alter the process and procedure of Loyalist settlement in Upper Canada.

As part of a larger settlement on the St. Lawrence River and at Cataraqui involving as estimated five thousand Loyalists with the Provincial Regiments, the men, women and children of the Associated Loyalists numbering a little more than three hundred persons, carved their distinct character in this wilderness land that would become Upper Canada and then renamed Ontario in 1867.

Contents include:

• Table of Contents
• List of Appendices, Maps and Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter I - Peter Van Alstine: When Neutrality was not Permitted
• Chapter II - Michael Grass: A Frontier Divided
• Chapter III - A Place Called Frontenac
• Chapter IV - Loyalists Associated
• Chapter V - Voyage of a Different Kind
• Chapter VI - A Winter of Discontent
• Chapter VII - Grass' Vision of Cataraqui
• Chapter VIII - Van Alstine's Spring of Despair
• Chapter IX - Epilogue: Kingston and Adolphustown
• Biographies
• Bibliography
• Index  Browse the Index
• Appendices
  • Appendix A: The Associates of Peter Van Alstine following the convention of Saratoga, 1777
  • Appendix B: Lists of the Associated Loyalists in New York City before departure in July
  • Appendix C: The Ship Lists of Captains Peter Ruttan and Peter Van Alstine
  • Appendix D: A Muster of Loyalists and others settling with Michael Grass at Township No.1, and Peter Van Alstine at Township No.4, Cataraqui, October 1784
  • Appendix E: Petition of Michael Grass and others
  • Appendix F: Evacuation and Dispersal: The Associated Loyalists in Migration
  • Appendix G: The Associated Loyalists of Adolphustown: Analysis and Biographical Detail
• Illustrations
  • 1. The brick house of Peter Van Alstine, Kinderhook, New York
  • 2. Horne of David Van Schaack, Kinderhook, New York where General John Burgoyne was held prisoner, October 22, 1777
  • 3. A West View of Sorel attributed to James Peachey, c. 1784.
  • 4. General Sir Frederick Haldimand, M.B. Messer (after a painting by L.F. Abbott 1760-1803)
  • 5. A View of the ruins of the Fort at Cataraqui (Fort Frontenac) taken in June 1783 by James Peachey
  • 6. A South East View of Cataraqui on Lake Ontario taken in August 1783 by James Peachey.
  • 7. A View of Cataraqui on the Entrance of Lake Ontario in Canada, taken from Captain Brant's house, July 16th, 1784
  • 8. Bay of Quinte - Adolphustown. Old Burying Ground of United Empire Loyalists.

About the author:

Larry Turner was born and raised in Toronto with roots in Rideau Lakes region of eastern Ontario. With degrees from Trent and Queen's Universities he has served on the Board of Directors and as Assistant Director of Wanapitei, a wilderness canoeing organization based on Lake Temagami and as a free lance historian working on contracts with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Parks Canada. He has a wide range of interest in Canadian history including ethnohistory, the North and Ontario social, political and business history.

Reviews:

This is a valuable resource that clearly tells the story of an unusual migration of Associated Loyalists from New York to Lake Ontario with lots of names and biographical material for further research." The Federation of Genealogical Societies' FORUM Magazine, vol 13, number 2

Details:

180 Pages
6.25" x 9"
Illustrations
Map
Appendices
Index
Originally published by Mika Publishing, Belleville, 1984
This printing by Global Heritage Press, Milton, 1999, 2022 
ISBN 1-894378-08-3 (Hardcover )