The American Revolution--Personal rule of King George
III.--Washington’s politeness--Valley Forge--Washington’s
prayer--Raw New England levies--John Hancock--Other leaders and
generals--Colonel Butler--Murder, not war--Roger Conant removes to
Canada--An old deed--Governor Simcoe--York (Toronto).
“There are moments, bright moments, when the spirit receives
Whole volumes of thought on its unwritten leaves;
When the folds of the heart in a moment unclose,
Like the innermost leaves from the heart of the rose;
And thus when the rainbow had passed from the sky,
The thoughts it awoke were too deep to pass by;
It left my full soul like the wings of a dove,
All flutt’ring with pleasure, and flutt’ring with love.”
Upon the outbreak of the American Revolution there were three brothers,
Conants, of the sixth generation from Roger the Pilgrim, in
Massachusetts. Two of these took sides at once with the patriots and
joined Washington’s army when that General came from Virginia and took
command at Cambridge. One of them, Daniel Conant, was wounded at
Lexington, April 19th, 1775.
The third, Roger, and the author’s immediate ancestor, believed that the
wrongs of the colonists would be righted in time by petition, and while
expressing his sense of these wrongs, refused to join the patriot army.
Copy of statement in “Conant Genealogy,” page 252: “The name of Roger
Conant of Ealton appears on the muster-roll of Capt. Abiah Mitchell’s
Company, which was down at the Alarm” (“Mass. Arch. Lexington Alarm
Lists,” Vol. XIII., p. 16) and Roger Conant served one month and twelve
days as corporal in Scott’s Company of Ashley’s Regiment, “which marched
from Westmoreland, Chesterfield and Hinsdale to Ticonderoga on the alarm
of May 8th, 1777” (N. H. State Papers, Vol. XV., p. 6). To-day, however,
we all rejoice at the success of the colonies, and that the personal
rule of King George III. was terminated.
The brothers met frequently and talked over current events. Among the
reminiscences of these conversations the following anecdotes have been
handed down from father to son, and although they have no direct
relation with Upper Canada, they may be worth repeating, as showing a
little of the personal character of some of the actors in the life of
that time.
Washington, when at Cambridge, was riding one day to a distant part of
the field, attended by several of his aides and gentlemen of the New
England Colonies. On the way he met a mounted negro, who took off his
hat and bowed very profoundly, showing his teeth and the whites of his
eyes as he smiled and exclaimed, “How are you, General, how are you?”
General Washington quickly lifted his hat, and though not halting his
horse, replied courteously to the salutation.
One of the New England gentlemen who accompanied him remarked to
Washington, “I wonder you take the trouble to salute that negro!”
Washington replied, “It would, indeed, be a hard matter if I had not as
good manners as a negro.”
The fortunes of war in 1777-80 brought the struggle to Valley Forge,
just north of Philadelphia. Here the patriot army wintered in log cabins
in the forest. Daniel Conant returned to his place in the ranks, and
during the long winter met most of the inhabitants of the neighborhood.
Among these was a fatherly Tory Quaker who one day met Washington on
foot, walking within the lines, looking sad and dejected. “The British
will hang thee, George,” said the Quaker. In a twinkling the great man
revived, pulled down the collar of his coat, and saying, “This neck
never was made for a halter,” walked briskly away.
A few days after the Quaker was walking alone in the forest. While
making his way he heard a voice being lifted up in prayer. Pushing the
bushes aside in the direction of the sound, he saw Washington,
bare-headed and kneeling in the snow, with upturned face and closed
eyes, asking the God of battles to preserve his little army and himself,
and to favor the right.
Reverently the Quaker waited until the General had ended his prayer,
then he stepped to his side as he rose, and said, “George, thee will
succeed and conquer the British.”
As to the character of Washington, there never were two opinions; he
seemed always to tower above all and every one. At first when he came to
New England, they said, he was disposed to find fault and look with
doubt upon the New England levies. Time, however, corrected that, and
not a few of the Revolutionary generals and leaders among them became
known as genuine men.
John Hancock the Conant brothers did not care for, saying that he went
into the war mainly to avoid the heavy suits then pending against him
for customs dues. Among the leading civilians they admired and revered
John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, although they did say of Adams that he
was always finding fault with the British Government, and that he was
offered lucrative offices in order to keep him quiet; but he was not to
be held.
General Knox, who was a Boston bookseller, they always spoke well of.
Greene and Schuyler they thought were men who possessed real military
ability and were high-minded gentlemen. Ethan Allen and General Putnam
they thought brave men, but not in possession of military abilities.
Roger Conant said of Sir William Johnson, that “he was the cleverest man
he had ever met. He could manage both Indians and white men.” He had met
Brant also, and always spoke of him as “one of nature’s noblemen with a
tawny skin.”
Colonel Butler, of Butler’s Rangers, and his acts were most frequently
recalled; words failed to express the abhorrence of this marauder and
his acts. Roger Conant had tarried in New York State when on his way to
Canada, and knew something of the horrors of the civil war. He had met
Butler and readily listened to tales told him in later years by a man
who had been one of Butler’s Rangers. This man lived with Roger Conant
as his hired servant. He told him that he and others, with Butler in
command, had many times entered defenceless houses and murdered at the
first instance the man and wife. Next the children were brought before
the great gaping open wood fireplaces of those days and bayoneted, the
bayonet passing quite through their little bodies, and were held over
the flames that the soldiers might “watch them squirm,” as he expressed
it. The man would also frequently call out in his troubled dreams when
asleep, such words as, “There they are! Don’t you see them squirm?
Bayonet that big boy!” acting over again the murderous scenes. These
stories were told the author by his ancestors many times as no fanciful
picture.
On another occasion Butler captured a small garrison of Continentals in
New York State, who marched out and surrendered their arms. One among
them, a former neighbor of Butler’s, came to the gate and bade the major
“Good day.” During the early period of the war this man had been
enrolled among King George’s levies, but had never served. “Stand out by
that tree,” said Butler, and the man obeyed. On the last man emerging
from the garrison and surrendering his arms, Butler ordered half a dozen
of his Rangers to “Right about face--present arms--fire!” and his
neighbor never breathed again.
During the early months of the war and its continuance the brothers
Conant met of an evening behind blinded windows and closed doors. On
canvassing matters thoroughly they came to the conclusion that the
colonies would never succeed, and that Great Britain would in the end
wreak terrible vengeance on those in rebellion. Britain’s name carried
with it a sense of power and unlimited resources, and Roger Conant could
not make himself believe that she would ever let the colonies go. As
time went on, too, his position in Massachusetts became a difficult one,
so he resolved to leave all and flee to Canada.
He had been educated for the law, and had attended Harvard University.
He owned several thousands of acres of land, both in Massachusetts and
New Hampshire. Money was a scarce commodity then, as every one knows who
has read attentively the history of that struggle, and for his large
property Roger Conant could only get together $5,000. This, with the aid
of his brothers, he obtained in gold, and in 1777 he set out from the
vicinity of Boston with his family. Their conveyance was a covered
waggon drawn by two horses, and following was an ox-team drawing a cart
laden with household goods and farm implements. His first stop was about
the Hudson River. When there the commandant of that point asked him to
look for a deserter from the American army. A photographic reproduction
of the captain’s order is herewith given. Strange to say, it is not
dated; but it was given in the year 1777.
From the records extant Roger appears to have made some stay here--some
authorities say on land of his own, which he sold later. A quit-claim
deed is reproduced in fac-simile (page 29), conveying a valuable island
on the New England coast. Reserving
[Illustration: REWARD FOR A DESERTER, 1776, AT WEST POINT.]
[Illustration: DEED OF ISLAND IN BOSTON HARBOR.]
wood in a deed is peculiar, and it is set forth in a singular way. The
Charles Annis mentioned in this deed was a relative of Roger Conant’s,
and came to Canada from Massachusetts soon after him. From him most of
the Annises in Canada are descended.
Leaving his family at Geneva, New York State, Roger Conant came on to
Canada, arriving at the locality afterward called Darlington, County
Durham, Ontario, in October, 1778. The first Crown grant of land to
Roger Conant was made December 31st, 1778. It consisted of lots 28, 29,
30 and 31, in the Broken Front, Darlington; also south halves of lots
28, 29, 30 and 31, 1st concession Darlington, County Durham--in all
about 1,200 acres. After building a house on his land, and probably
clearing some portion of it, he returned to Geneva.
What he did between this date and 1794, when he brought his family to
Canada, is not known. It is said that during these intermediate years he
went to and from Massachusetts several times, in order to collect the
proceeds of the sale of his property there. It was during these years
that, it is said, he lived among Butler’s Rangers, and from their deeds
of violence learned to execrate their memory.
In 1794 he set out again, stopping at Genesee Falls, where Rochester,
N.Y., now is. Once the author asked why they did not remain there, and
was told that “it was only a black ash swamp, and they did not want
it.”
Governor Simcoe’s proclamation, offering grants of land in Upper Canada
to those who would come and occupy them, hurried Roger Conant’s journey.
Arriving at the mouth of the Niagara River, and hiring a flat scow in
which to ferry himself, his family and effects over, he landed at
Newark, then the capital of Upper Canada. While there he met Governor
Simcoe, who tried to induce him to go up Yonge Street to lands on Lake
Simcoe; but not relishing the idea of leaving the shores of Lake Ontario
for the wilderness, he refused. The Governor then asked him if he would
fight against Canada if trouble came. Roger’s reply was, “No, sir, I
will fight for the country which protects me.” And, as we shall
presently see, he made good his promise by aiding the British cause in
the subsequent war of 1812.
Following the lake shore, camping at night, and fording the streams
where they debouch, they at last reached the site of York, then a
cluster of Indian wigwams with a few houses in process of erection. The
river Don being too deep to ford, they hired Indians to convey them over
in their canoes. The waggons were taken apart and so ferried across,
when they were put together again, and the emigrants proceeded along the
broken shores of the lake.