[log in to unmask] wrote:

Besides the profile of "Billy" in the Virginia Dictionary of Biography, can
anyone offer profiles and documentation of bondsmen who escaped from
northern Virginia to the British during the American Revolution and the War
of 1812? Thanks.

I have been working on the Black refugees of the War of 1812 for the
last twelve years, and have accumulated a fair amount of information
derived from American compensation claims (NARA2, RG76), British naval
and colonial records (TNA/PRO ADM and CO), Canadian land records and the
Trinidad and Tobago Registry and National Archives. My main focus is the
community in Trinidad whose ancestors were those refugees who enlisted
with the British as marines, in the Corps of Colonial Marines, but there
were others taken to Trinidad from Louisiana and Florida. The majority
of refugees were settled in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

My book on the Corps of Colonial Marines is taking rather a long time,
and I should remind subscribers that many of you have given valuable
responses to my queries from time to time, for which I give my thanks.
Do some of you remember the saga of The Pleasure House, which diverted
us through the course of a wandering and fascinating thread? One or two
queries remain unanswered, and a search in the VA-HIST archives on my
surname will throw up a few threads on the subject.

In 2002 I published a booklet listing the refugees who settled in
Trinidad, itself a revision of an earlier edition, and as it is now
out-of-print I'm planning a new revision to come out around midsummer.
At the same time, on account of growing interest in the destiny of those
refugees who settled in Canada, I have decided to prepare a similar
publication dealing with them. In both cases a historical outline
prefaces lists of names of the settlers, giving (where accessible) their
American origins, including place (state, county, location, name of
farm, estate or plantation), proprietor (as stated in compensation
claims), vital data  (age, family, vocation, surname and aliases),
stated date and mode of escape, all from American records; accounts of
escape and transfer from ship to ship and to destination from British
naval records; references to later lives (landholdings, activities -
usually either religious or criminal, illnesses and death) from
Trinidadian and Canadian archives (and occasionally from UK archives).

A few subscribers on the list have seen the Trinidad publication in
first or second editions - the new one will have the title 'The
Merikens: Black American settlers in Trinidad 1815-1816'. The Canadian
publication will have as its main title 'On Stony Ground', referring to
the raw deal the settlers had in Nova Scotia, in contrast to the rich
land allocated in Trinidad; the subtitle will be, unless I can think of
something snappier, 'American origins of the Black Refugees of the War
of 1812 settled in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick'.

Both publications will include references to refugees from Virginia. My
database shows, in its present state, 1785 refugees from named Virginian
proprietors, plus four or five presumed free, and a further 300 odd
received into RN ships from Virginia locations, who may or may not be
equivalent to some of the 1785. As for known destinations (current
figures): 610 to Canada, 196 to Trinidad, 26 to the UK, around 20
remained in Bermuda (the staging post for most of the refugees), and
about 120 various, including those who died en route, around 20 who
returned (either during or after the war or were taken prisoner) and
those who joined RN ships' crews. The remainder have not yet been
tracked down to their destinations - in many cases they may have changed
their names to avoid being chased by their ex-masters' agents and have
still evaded identification two hundred years later. I could go on at
length about the naming difficulties, but any on this list who have
looked into family or military genealogies will be familiar with them.

I couldn't help responding at length, but my enthusiasm for my subject
is somewhat obsessive, originating in a quest for my ancestors-in-law,
my wife's ancestors, who quit their servitude in Camden county, Georgia,
in February 1815.

One question in response to Jenny Masur's posting - if you give me the
bounds of 'northern' Virginia I might be able to offer some more pointed
material.

John Weiss
Independent researcher, London
An outline of my project can be found at www.mcnish-weiss.co.uk

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html