[siebert] the AMERICAN LOYALISTS 31 



If the year 1784 was the first of several years of disappointment 

 for the settlers at Sorel, it was a year of fulfilment of hopes for hundreds 

 of other loyalists, who had made their headquarters at this and other 

 stations on and off the Richelieu River. Numbers of these people 

 departed from this region to form settlements at more or less remote 

 points in Upper and Lower Canada. Thus, by the end of April, 1784, 

 Captain William Fraser and his Royal Rangers from Yamaska were 

 moving to Montreal, to be forwarded by way of La Chine* to the upper 

 country on the west side of the St. Lawrence. During the following 

 month, Sorel wa astir with preparations for the early departure of one 

 large party under Messrs. Van Alstine and Grass up the St. Lawrence 

 to Cataraqui (Kingston), and of another down he river to the Bay 

 of Chaleurs, f At i he ame time, St. Johns was the scene of similar 

 activities on the part of the provincial corps under Majors Jessup 

 and Rogers which were soon to settle on the great river in what are 

 now the counties of Leeds, Grenville, and Addington, and in the 

 country about the Bay of Quinte in the Province of Ontario, t 



Despite this exodus of provincial troops, it must not be supposed 

 that the only loyalists who found homes within the region the rangers 

 were now leaving were the eight hundred at St. Johns, Chambly, and 

 Sorel. Doubtless, many others had settled quietly in various com- 

 munities long before the British government took any steps to com- 

 pensât ; American Tories for their adherence, losses, or services. In- 

 deed, there were numbers of "ministerial tools" — as they were some- 

 times dubbed by their foes — who deliberately chose their abodes in 

 localities that Haldimand expressly wished them to shun. To the 

 Governor General's mind, the Canadian frontier along the New York 

 boundary was unsuited to loyalist occupation. In September, 1782, 

 he had — in his own words — ''received letters from Vermont and the 

 Colonies" reporting that a number of families, rebel as well as loyalist, 

 were coming to settle on the borders of Lake Champlain. He dis- 

 approved of this because, he said, it would afford means of conveying 

 news to the enemy, and create a rendezvous for deserters and rebel 

 emissaries. He therefore undertook, early in November, 1782, to 

 discourage the project by sending word into the States that noth ng 

 of the kind would be permitted.* One of those who helped to make 

 known this prohibition was Captain Justus Sherwood, who was in 

 command of some loyalists at Dutchman's Point. On April 4, 1783, 

 the Captain wrote to the authorities at Quebec that he had taken 



*Haldimand Papers, B. 138, p. 370. 



tibid., pp. 374, 379, 383. 



ÎLeavitt, Hist, of Leeds and Grenville, Ont., 16-20, 167. 



* Haldimand Papers, B. 139, p. 345. 



