[vooRHis] ANCESTRY OF ARCHIBALD LAMPMAN 115 



one branch going north to the Indian village of Oswego, whence they 

 sailed across Lake Ontario to Kingston, and the other trail continuing 

 due west to Niagara. The Mohawks and Iroquois whose lands and 

 villages had been devastated by the Americans as the result of their 

 loyalty to the King, joined the Loyalists in seeking new homes in 

 Canada. Among other bands, seven families of Loyalists migrated 

 together to Niagara and took up claims in Stamford township border- 

 ing on the Niagara river. They were the Mettlers, Hensels, Lamp- 

 mans, Bonks, Swayzes, Hoovers, and Seaburns. Among the original 

 settlers in Thorold were the Ostranders, Seaburns, and Uppers, while 

 the Swayzes, Hoovers, and Lampmans settled in Stamford. Four 

 hundred acres were granted to Frederick Lampman. At that time 

 all the territory between the Ottawa river and Detroit river, in 

 which the Loyalists founded homes, was part of the Province of 

 Quebec, but in 1788 Lord Dorchester divided the territory into four 

 districts for settlement to which he gave the names of Lunenburg, 

 Mecklenburg, Nassau, and Hesse. These names in 1792 were changed 

 respectively to Eastern, Midland, Home and Western. Hence the 

 district in which the Lampmans settled was called at first Nassau 

 and later Home. 



Twenty-five years ago Colonel E. Ryerson when collecting data 

 of the Loyalists, published a letter which he had received from Mrs, 

 Elizabeth Bowman Spohn, whose grandmother was a daughter of 

 Frederick Lampman. In this letter dated in 1861 Mrs. Spohn des- 

 cribed most graphically the sufferings of her grandparents at the 

 hands of the Americans, their rescue by the Indians, their journeying 

 to Canada and the fearful struggle for existence in the primeval 

 wilderness. Of the Lampmans she wrote: "My grandfather married 

 the daughter of a Loyalist from Hudson (North) river, Mr. Frederick 

 Lampman. He was too old to serve in the war, but his four sons 

 and two sons-in-law did. They were greatly harrassed but they hid 

 in the cellars and bushes for three months, the rebels hunting them 

 night and day. At length an opportunity offered, and they made 

 their escape to Long Island, where they jomed the British army". 

 Frederick Lampman upon the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth to 

 Peter Bowman in Canada gave her as a wedding present, a cow, bed, 

 six plates, and three knives, which portrays the destitution of the 

 Loyalists. 



Only fragmentary accounts are preserved of the struggles and 

 sufferings of the Loyalists during the starvation year of 1785 and for 

 years after. Frederick was sixty-five years old when he arrived in 

 Canada. He did not long survive the sufferings and losses which he 



