Section IL. 1914 [407] Trans. R.S.C. 



The Temporary Settlement of Loyalists at Machiche, P.Q. 



By Prof. Wilbur H. Siebert of The Ohio State University. 



(Presented by VV. D. LeSuEUR, F.R.S.C.) 



(Read May 27, 1914.) 



The flight of Loyalists from the Northern colonies into the Prov- 

 ince of Quebec during the Revolution was not confined to those able 

 to bear arms: women and children and old men accompanied, or soon 

 followed, the more vigorous members of their families. By the fall 

 of 1778 such refugees were arriving in considerable numbers at the 

 various posts below Lake Champlain, even as far north as Machiche 

 (now Yamachiche) at the western end of Lake St. Peter. Conrad 

 Gugy, seignior of the Parish of Machiche, who was a justice of the 

 peace and a member of the King's council of the province, reported 

 the arrival of such a group to Governor Haldimand in the middle of 

 September of the year named, and wrote that he proposed to lodge 

 them in his neighbourhood "to the end of having an eye upon them." 

 He described the party as consisting of women and children, besides 

 some officers, a dozen men who might be employed as artisans, and one 

 Adams who claimed to have been a schoolmaster in the colonies 

 and now asked for employment in the same capacity in the locality 

 to which he had come. 1 



The idea of lodging the Loyalists under proper supervision at 

 once recommended itself to Haldimand, especially as he had confidence 

 in Gugy, a fellow-Swiss who had been his secretary at Three Rivers 

 a dozen years before. 2 The need of succoring these people was already 

 apparent, and the Governor General wished to separate them from 

 the inhabitants as a precautionary measure. He accordingly trans- 

 mitted his recommendations to his former secretary, who soon selected 

 a site upon which to settle the refugees, and procured a large garden 

 plot and pasture for fifty cows as part of the establishment. The 

 letter containing the formal authorization of these arrangements 

 and ordering the erection of the necessary houses for the accommo- 

 dation of the Loyalists was issued from Sorel, October 6, 1778, where 

 Haldimand then happened to be. It also empowered Gugy to lay 

 down regulations for maintaining order among his wards and requiring 



1 Haldimand Papers, B. 164, pp. 1, 2. 



2 Mcllwraith, Sir Frederick Haldimand, 62, 254. 



