[cRUIKSHANK] A STUDY OF DISAFFECTION IN UPPER CANADA 29 
Fugitives continued to make their way to Buffalo and other 
American posts on the frontier during the winter generally crossing 
Lake Erie on the ice. They agreed in reporting that the province was 
ravaged by disease and that “the most rigid iron despotism reigns. 
No person can speak his sentiments with freedom in relation to the 
Government.’’? 
Yet in February Hamilton Merritt took occasion to remark that 
Joseph Willcocks “had changed about and become a zealous loyalist. 
He has behaved very well on all occasions and so have all his party 
altho’ they are trusted with no office whatever.”’? 
Early in March, James Anderson one of the few militiamen who 
had enlisted with the enemy in July, 1812, and had since evaded arrest, 
was taken in company with six others some distance back of Detroit, 
presumably on their way to join the American army, having made their 
way through the woods from the headwaters of the stream known as 
the river Huron of Lake St. Clair where they had been hiding.* 
A resident of Detroit who had been deported about this time for 
having refused to take the oath of allegiance reported on his arrival at 
Buffalo that the militia of the township of Oxford had positively refused 
to march to the defence of the frontier, preferring to pay their fines 
rather than bear arms against the United States.* 
The temporary occupation of the provincial seat of government 
by the enemy at the end of April was accompanied by some remarkable 
demonstrations of disaffection. Several persons confined in the jail 
for seditious conduct or disobedience to orders were at once liberated 
and the invaders “were joined by a number of vagabonds who gave 
them every information” and seized the opportunity to plunder the 
public stores and private dwellings.® 
After the enemy’s departure the situation became so alarming that 
a special meeting of the magistrates was convened which was attended 
by the judges and by the Reverend John Strachan. It was unanimously 
resolved that energetic measures “should be instantly adopted to 
preserve order and prevent anarchy, to support and encourage the loyal 
and to inspire the wavering.”” They affirmed their opinion that “it is 
equally now as before this invasion high treason to aid, assist, counsel 
or comfort the enemy” and called upon all persons “ desirous to testify 

! Buffalo Gazette, January 23, 1S13. 
? Merritt to Catherine Prendergast, February, 1813. 
# Colonel J. Baby to Major-General Shaw, March 22, 1813. Can. Arch. 
Militia papers, U.C. 1813. 
* New York Statesman, March 29, 1813. 
5 Memo by A. Maclean, May 4, 1812; Can. Arch. C 688 B, pp. 190-1; statement 
by Major Allan in Jarvis MSS. 
