4 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL IIISTCiRY SOCIETY. 



brother, Abraham, were about sixteen years of age when 

 the American revokitionar}' war began. '^Ihey were 

 ro^'alists, and incensed by the ill treatment of their father, 

 Nicholas, by the cowboys of the time, one of whom 

 removed the hat of the old man and substituted his own, 

 saying that it was good enough for a damned tory, they 

 crossed the Hudson at night and joined the British forces, 

 then on the eastern bank of the Hudson, near Tarrytown- 



Mcholas Gesner possessed a large property at Tappan- 

 town. The place where Major Andre was executed was 

 upon the property of the Gesner family at Tappantown. 



After serving in the war, the brothers were exiled 

 with other royalists when New York was evacuated by 

 the British, and went to Nova Scotia, where they were 

 granted lands in lieu of those confiscated by the Contin- 

 ental Congress ; the lands of Henry were situated in 

 Cornwallis, near Cornwallis Dyke ; those of Abraham in 

 Annapolis Valley, near the mouth of the Annapolis river. 



The brothers both remained staunch loj^alists all their 

 lives, and Henry often declared to his grandchildren that 

 he believed in no other government but that of God and 

 the king. 



Among the sons of Henry Gesner were Abraham, the 

 subject of the present biography, Gibbs and Henry. 

 There were also several daughters. 



Abraham, with the exception of the time he passed 

 at Guy's and St. Bartholemew^'s ho8i3itals in London, 

 and '^ walked the hospitals," as it was termed, enjoyed no 

 more than the ordinary instruction of the grammar 

 schools of the day, but was always a great reader and a 

 diligent student. 



His diary, begun on the 2nd May, 1818, when he 

 came of age, gives some revelation of his character at 

 that time. He made several ventures in business, one of 



