Re: Loyalist Ryerse/Ryerson - New Brunswick, Canada
-
In reply to:
Loyalist Ryerse/Ryerson - New Brunswick, Canada
Rebecca Walch 2/16/04
I have been reading "Looking Backward" by George Sterling Ryerson (Ryerson Press, Toronto, 1924).
Joseph Ryerson was his grandfather, and he makes mentions of Joseph, and his brothers Franci and Samuel coming to Canada following the American Revolution.
The Ryerson family homestead was in Pompton Plains News Jersey. At the outbreak of the Revolution, one brother stayed neutral, one became a Continental soldier, and three remained loyal to the British Crown.
From page 15 - 16 of the book:
"At the close of the war the Loyalist brothers' property was confiscated and tehy were forced, like so many other United Empire Loyalists, to emigrate to what was then the wilds of Canada.One brother, Francis, settled in Nova Scotia, while Samuel and Joseph took up land near Maugerville in New Brunswick.Samuel did not remain long in New Brunswick, but removed to Upper Canada, where he settled on the shores of Lake Erie and founded the village of Port Ryerse.He retained the old spelling of the name as do his descendants.Joseph, my grandfather, the youngest of the brothers, on teh advice of Samuel, sold his property in Maugerville in 1798 and joined his brother in Upper Canada.His allotment of land was near Vittoria, then a dense bush.While in New Brunswick he had married Mehetable Stickney, who came of a preloyalist family."
The above-mentioned book begins with some interesting geneological information on the Ryerson family.