SECTION IT., 1916 [75] TRANS. RSC: 
The Refugee Loyalists of Connecticut 
By Proressor W. H. SIEBERT of the Ohio State University 
PRESENTED BY W. D. LESUEUR, LL.D., F-R.S.C. 
(Read May Meeting, 1916.) 
Loyalists began to flee from Connecticut to New York and Long 
Island as early as the summer of 1775 and continued to do so during the 
next four years. During this period also there were a few flights to 
Great Britain, Thomas Dare, tide surveyor, and Duncan Stewart, 
collector of customs, both in the port of New London, departing for 
England in 1776 and 1777, respectively; while John Saltmarsh of 
Norwich, glover and dyer, went to Ireland in March, 1779, after 
spending two years with the British fleet.! As most of the Connecticut 
Loyalists lived in the county of Fairfield, where the Episcopal Church 
had its strongest hold, it was from this region that the large majority 
of flights took place, the shore towns of Stamford, Norwalk, Fairfield, 
and Stratford, contributing notable numbers of refugees. 
The vigilance of local committees of safety impelled many Tories 
to cross Long Island Sound and find shelter within the British lines. 
The establishment of a post on Lloyd’s Neck, opposite the islands and 
coves lying between Norwalk and Stamford, shortly after the British 
took possession of New York in September, 1776, was especially ad- 
vantageous to the Tories of Fairfield County. The inhabitants of the 
region between the two towns were partly Episcopalians and partly 
Quakers, all being Loyalists of sufficient devotion to afford asylum 
and supply passage to those wishing to cross the sound. Walter 
Bates of Stamford, who was early driven into the mountains and 
forests for refuge and in the fall of 1778 fled to Long Island, tells us 
that his “three brothers and hundreds of others passed by night 
almost continually to the British Garrison’”’ at Lloyd’s Neck. Some 
of the more zealous and influential of these refugees were promptly 
sent back with commissions, or promises of commissions, to recruit 
men for the Loyalist corps which began to form at once. Already 
by the opening days of July, 1776, Stephen Hoit of Norwalk had 
raised a full company for Brigadier-General Montfort Browne’s 
Prince of Wales American Volunteers, and according to his sworn 
statement before the Commissioners of Loyalist Claims some years 
1Sec. Rep., Bur. of Arch., Ont., Pt. II, 1904, 1184, 1156, 1155. 


