[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