The Loyalist Simon Kollock in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia -Part Two

Compiled by Sanford "Sandy" Wilbur

November 2018


CHAPTER TWO

FOURTH GENERATION IN NORTH AMERICA

PLEASE NOTE: This is a “work in progress,” not a final report. Therefore, I welcome any comments, questions, corrections, new information, that will make it a better product. I’ll post additional generations as I finish drafting them.

 4. Simon Kollock [Shepherd3, Simon2, Jacob1], son of Shepherd Kollock and Mary Goddard, was born 11 March 1745 (modern calendar) [1], at Lewes, Sussex County, Delaware. He was from a prominent family of early settlers at Lewes. His occupation at Lewes was that of a cooper (barrel and cask maker), having apprenticed with Jonathan Evans [2]. I couldn't find any additional information on his early life [3].

   Simon married 1st on 31 October 1765 in Lewes, Catherine Perry, daughter of Charles Perry and Elinor (Eleanor?) _______ [1][4]. Catherine was born, probably at Lewes, on 28 July 1745 [1]. She died 14 September 1766, shortly after giving birth to a son, who also died [1]. I could not find where she was buried.

   About 1768, Simon married 2nd Anne Catherine Burton, who was born ca 1748 [5][6]. I could not identify her parents [7]. Their early married life was spent in Sussex County. In 1776, soon after the ratification of the American rebels' "declaration of independence," Simon opted to work with the British to put down the rebellion. His specific motives are unknown, but the rebel actions were not strongly approved and supported in the colonies [8]. Sussex County appears to have been an area of particular resistance, and many citizens joined the British or kept tentative allegiance to England  [9][10].

   Presumably, Anne and their children moved with Simon to New York City, as they would not have been welcome in Delaware. There, Simon was commissioned as a captain in the newly-formed Loyal American Regiment (LAR). The LAR was involved in a number of strategic battles during the war, but apparently spent much of its time protecting the British headquarters sites at New York City and on Long Island. Simon, himself, appears to have been used mainly as a recruiter of new troops, and for gathering intelligence on the rebel strengths, weaknesses, and movements[11][12]. One activity in which he appears to have been an important player was the spreading of counterfeit money in the colonies, used to buy immediate supplies for the British [13] and perhaps also to destabilize the rebels' economy [14].

   On 26 June 1778, the Delaware Legislature passed the Act of Free Pardon and Oblivion, giving the chance for most citizens who had sided with the British to swear loyalty to the new government. This offer was not made to anyone who had actively waged war against the rebels. Simon was on the list of unpardonables [15]. All his land and possessions were forfeit to the State [16]. Being an outlaw, Simon and family had to join with other Loyalists who the British Government transferred to Canada in the summer of 1783. Members of the Loyal American Regiment were granted Crown lands in New Brunswick's Saint John River valley.

   The Kollocks lived in or near Fredericton, New Brunswick, then in 1785 Simon petitioned for land in the northern part of the Miramichi River valley for himself and others [17]. In 1786, he had established himself at Bay du Vin, Northumberland County [18], where he lived until ca 1796. He then moved to Kouchibouguac (Kent County, then Northumberland County) [19]. He owned land at Richibucto, Kent County, but apparently he did not live on it [20]. He was appointed to the grand jury in 1793, held a number of local offices, and served as magistrate and justice of the peace for Northumberland County from 1800 to 1814 [21].

   Anne Catherine may not have moved to Northumberland County with Simon. Her name does not appear on the petitions for Miramichi land (although others, including their sons, are specifically identified) [17], nor did I find her name on any other document for Northumberland or Kent county. Perhaps of interest in that regard is that the widow Mary Iann, named in the 1785 petition, was identified as late as 1789 as "the woman who lives with Captain Kollock"  [22]. In April 1799 and June 1803, when Anne Catherine relinquished claim to the property in Fredericton acquired as their Loyalist land grant, Simon's name was not on either transaction [23] .

   Simon was with Anne Catherine in Fredericton in August 1802, when she was attacked by a man "with fists, sticks and stones," and apparently suffered serious injuries. That was the last record I found of them together [24]. Simon was living at Kouchibouguac in 1814, but in 1815 he was living at Truro, Colchester County, Nova Scotia, where on 10 January 1815 he married Esther (McClellan) (Cater) Eaton [25][26].

   Esther, daughter of Michael McClellan and Esther ___, was born in Ireland ca 1758 [27]. She came with her family to Nova Scotia in 1769, where they settled in Londonderry Township, Colchester County [28]. About 1783, she married William Cater [29]. William came to Halifax, Nova Scotia, ca 1782, with others from the Baltimore, Maryland, area, "whose (Loyalist) sentiments were too well known to allow of their remaining there any longer in safety" [30]. He was of Scottish heritage [31], but I wasn't able to learn anything more about him. William and Esther had three daughters between 1785 and 1790. He died ca 1790 [32].

   On 9 December 1791, Esther married 2nd Daniel Eaton (born 18 April 1769 at Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts), who had moved to Onslow, Colchester County, in 1790. They had four children, born between 1792 and 1797. Daniel died while on a visit to the United States in 1808 [32][33]. Apparently, Esther continued to live at Onslow with her children until her 1815 marriage to Simon Kollock.

   In 1820, Simon deeded his lands at Richibucto, New Brunswick, to his Harrington and McCully descendants [20]. That was the only Nova Scotia record I could find of him until his death at Onslow, 13 July 1832, age 88 [34]. Esther lived another 31 years, dying at Onslow 21 September 1863, at age 105 [27]. I didn't locate where either was buried.

   Some time after 1802, Anne Catherine Kollock moved with her daughter from Fredericton to Saint John, New Brunswick. She died there 7 June 1845, "after a protracted illness"  [35][36]. She was buried in the Loyalist Burial Ground, Saint John.

 Child of Simon Kollock and Catherine Perry:

5. Charles Perry Kollock (21 August 1766 - 22 October 1766)

 Children of Simon Kollock and Anne Catherine Burton:

            6. Jacob Kollock (ca. 1769 - )

            7. Joseph Kollock (ca 1771 - )

            8. Elizabeth Kollock (ca 1774 - 9 February 1861)

            9. William Shepard Kollock (20 November 1775 - 25 November 1807)

          

 NOTES

1. Turner, C. H. B. 1919. Some Delaware genealogical records. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 43(3):273-274.

   Apparently, the author discovered various records of the Kollock and Perry families hand-written in copies of two old books.

 2. Letter from Henry Fisher to the Pennsylvania Navy Board, from Lewistown [Lewes], Delaware, 25 June 1777. Page 169 in: Anonymous. 2012. Naval documents of the American Revolution. Bolton Landing, New York: American Naval Records Society.

 3. Further review of early Delaware records might yield more about Simon Kollock's early life. There is still so much confusion about which information goes with which of the various Simons that I didn't not attempt more research.

 4. Charles Perry's will, made a week before his death 3 December 1759, named his wife Elinor and three daughters: Margaret, Winifred and Catherine. I couldn't find any reference to Elinor's  family name. She died 9 January 1765, followed by daughter Winifred 15 February 1766 (in childbirth), and Catherine later the same year. I couldn't find any later information on the third daughter, identified as Margaret Cale in her father's will.

 5. I couldn't find a marriage record for Simon Kollock and Ann Kollock. The marriage year is presumed from the time of death of Simon's first wife, and the estimated birth of their first child.

 6. Anonymous. 1845. Death notice. New Brunswick Reporter (Saint John, N.B.), 13 Jun 1845.

  "Mrs. Ann Catherine Kollock, age 97, died at St. John on the 7th Inst. [7 Jun 1845] after a protracted illness. She was the wife of the late Capt. Simon Kollock of the late Loyal American Regiment, who emigrated to the Province with the Loyalists in the year 1783."

 7. There were many Burtons in the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia area. William Burton is said to have had eleven sons, a number of whom could have been grandfather or father to Ann Catherine.

 8. Spielvogel, J. J. 2008. Western civilization: since 1500. Belmont, California: Thompson Wadsworth.

   Page 572: "Complicating the war effort were the internal divisions within the colonies. Fought for independence, the Revolutionary War was also a civil war, pitting family members and neighbors against one another. The Loyalists, between 15 and 30 percent of the population, questioned whether British policies justified the rebellion... Since probably half the original population was apathetic at the beginning of the struggle, the patriots, like the Loyalists, constituted a minority of the population. The patriots, however, managed to win over many of the uncommitted, either by persuasion or by force."

 9. Anonymous. 1919. Delaware Archives - Revolutionary War. Volume III. Wilmington, Delaware: Public Archives Commission of Delaware.

   Pages 1281-1282, Letter 24 June 1777 from David Hall, Henry Fisher, William Peery, and John Cloves  (of Lewes, Delaware) to the President of Congress. They informed the Congress "of the unjustifiable practices carry'd on by numbers of the inhabitants of this County, who have ever declar'd themselves from their whole line of Conduct since the Commencement of the present Contest with Britain, Enemies of the American Cause, and in open violation of the Laws, & Constitution, of this State in particular, still continue to keep up a Criminal intercourse with the enemies Ships of War now lying in Delaware Bay, and supply them with all kinds of provisions that our County affords, and so bold are they now grown in this iniquitous Trade, that they fish and fowl together in common along the Shore. The enemy it is said are also recruiting Men very fast among them. Sixty Men we are told from the upper part of this County have lately gone on board the Enemies Ships, and are to  have liberty to choose their officers."

 10. Ryden, G. H. 1933. Letters to and from Caesar Rodney, 1756-1784. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.

   Pages 209-212, letter written 9 August 1777 from Colonel W. Richardson to the Board of War, Philadelphia: "From the best information I have been able to collect, & from my own observations it appears that a large majority of the inhabitants of this (Sussex) county are disaffected; and would I believe afford the enemy every aid in their power, except for personal service in the field, which the greater part of them want the spirit to do. They are a set of poor ignorant people, yet they are artful and cunning as foxes, tis hardly possible to detect the most open offenders, yet they are every day offending."

 11. Letter from Benedict Arnold to Capt. Simon Kollock, sent from Headquarters, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 19 March 1781, in: Papers of Colonel Henry Clinton. William L. Clements Library - University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan), Volume 150, pages 23-24.

   "Last evening nine sails of ships supposed to be French, anchored in Lenhaven [Lynnhaven]  Bay. I have dispatched the bearer to give you notice. You will govern yourself accordingly. The bearer is to call on the Commander, who can probably give him further information. If the suspicion proves true you will instantly dispatch him, in another vessel to New York with intelligence. They may get out from you when we are blocked up here."

 12. Anonymous. 1906. Report of American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Dublin, Ireland: His Majesty's Stationery Office.

   Page 255:  letter of 10 March 1781, Benedict Arnold to Simon Kollock, acknowledging intelligence Kollock had sent to him. George Washington was headed south, but Arnold's pleas to the Commodore to intercept him were denied; asked Kollock to keep sending intelligence.

   Page 269: Letter 17 April 1781 from Benedict Arnold, instructing Kollock  to go to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, then employ trustworthy people to go into the various towns to gain intelligence on enemy strength and numbers, provisions, activities, etc. He was then to return to Portsmouth with lumber that had been contracted for.

 13. Anonymous. 1919. Delaware Archives - Revolutionary War. Wilmington, Delaware: Public Archives Commission.

   Pages 1281-1282, Letter of 24 June 1777 from David Hall, Henry Fisher, William Peery, and John Cloves  (of Lewes, Delaware) to the President of Congress. "Within this week past a scheme has been discovered carrying on by some of the wretched Junto here, which if not an immediate stop put to, must prove very injurious to the United States. One Simon Kollock of this County, who last fall went on board the Enemies Ships, it is said has lately been on shore, and brought with him Seventy Thousand Pounds in Counterfeit thirty Dollar Bills, and has engaged some of his accomplices to purchase  Cattle with them (the High Sheriff of this County appears to be a principal) supposed to be for the use of the Enemy, and altho some of the Bills have been detected in this Town, not a single step has been taken by the Civil authorities to bring the perpetrators of this Villany to Justice."

 14. Wilson, T. J. 1998. "Old offenders" Loyalists in the Lower Delmarva Peninsula, 1775-1800. Department of History. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto. Ph. D. thesis.

   Pp. 172-175: "The British deliberately adopted a strategy for injecting quantities of counterfeit notes into the American economy in order to create a crippling inflation. A full six months before Independence was declared, they had begun producing counterfeit currency aboard one of the warships in New York Harbor..." (Note: I couldn't find a direct source for this suggestion.)

 15. Anonymous. 1797. Laws of the State of Delaware. New Castle, Delaware: Samuel and John Adams.

   Pages 636-643: An Act of Free Pardon and Oblivion, and for other purposes therein mentioned, passed 26 June 1778: recognized that a lot of Americans had sided with the British for various reasons, and gave most of them a chance to swear their loyalty to the new country, except for a number who had actively waged war with the British. "Simon Kollock, junior, cooper" on that list of unpardonables - "If they surrender not themselves to some judge or justice of the peace on or before the first day of August next, and abide their legal trial for such their treason and offenses, shall from henceforth be and is hereby declared to be absolutely forfeited to this state, subject nevertheless to the payment of the said offenders just debts; and all the sales and alienations thereof, and of all and any of the real estate of such offender made after the sixteenth day of May last, by him or any of his agents or attornies (sic), are hereby declared to be null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever."

 16. Several books state that Simon Kollock's property was sold for £111, but his wife was able to buy back some of his personal goods. I couldn't find an original source of that information.

 17. Simon Kollock petitioned twice in 1785 for land in the Miramichi area, once in March on behalf of  10 families, and once in October for himself (mis-identified as "Stephen" Kollock), his two sons Jacob and Joseph, Mary Iann and her son Jacob (probably, Thomas), and Henry Wheeler. From the records at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, it isn't clear which petition was granted.

 18. Anonymous. 1786. Acts of the General Assembly of His Majesty's Province of New-Brunswick passed in the year 1786. St. John, New Brunswick: Christopher Sower.

   Simon Kollock was among those "appointed commissioners to view the ground and make a straight and perfect survey thereof as near as may be from the western or Carleton district" to Fredericton, and from the Miramichi River to the Saint John River.

 19. In a petition to the New Brunswick government on 18 January 1793, Simon Kollock declared that, although he was one of the first settlers at Bay du Vin, he hadn't been granted any meadowland. He asked for a meadow currently being used by French settlers. Records of the Provincial Archives suggest that the petition would be denied, but Simon withdrew it when he sold his Bay du Vin property and moved to Kouchibouguac.

 20. On 16 August 1820, while living at Onslow, Nova Scotia, Simon Kollock transferred his lands at Richibucto (acreage unspecified) through William McCully and James Harrington to Mary Jane McCully, Catherine McCully, Ann Elizabeth McCully, James Simon Harrington, William John Harrington, and Charles Henry Harrington.

 21. It isn't always possible to tell where Simon Kollock was living between 1793 and 1814. Before 1826, present-day Kent County and Gloucester County were part of the much larger Northumberland County, and only if a specific place was named could one be sure where in the county he was living. From scattered records, it appears that he was at Bay du Vin in 1796 (Court of General Sessions of the Peace), and at Kouchibouguac by 1803 (petition filed with the New Brunswick government). Other records merely identifying "Northumberland County" are indefinite.

 22. I wasn't able to find anything about the origins of Mary Iann, and didn't find any later records for her. Her son, Thomas, is mentioned in a number  of documents, including applying for a land grant along with Simon Kollock's son, Jacob and Joseph, in 1789. That he became a part of the Kollock "family" is shown by his name appearing on the same gravestone with the husband and son of Simon's grand-daughter, Ann (Kollock) McCully. (Note: "Iann" has sometimes been interpreted as "Janns," but the wording is quite clear on his grave monument and in the 1785 land petition.)

 23. On 18 April 1799, Anne Catherine Kollock relinquished her claim to Fredericton town lots 91 and 92 to Nehemiah Beckwith. On 3 June 1803, she sold lots 89 and 90 to Henry Smith.

 24. New Brunswick Supreme Court records for 1802: Simon and Anne Catherine Kollock allege that on 18 August 1802, in Fredericton, Charles William Rudyerd "with force and arms, to wit, with fists, sticks and stones, made an assault on the said Anne Catherine"... and "bruised, wounded and to wit intimidated (her)... in so much that her life of then and there greatly despaired..." (Note: thanks to Valerie Bartlett of Lincoln, New Brunswick, for locating this record. I couldn't find any follow-up information.)

 25. Simon Kollock's marriage to Esther Eaton is included in "Marriage registrations, 1763-1935," Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax.

 26. I didn't find any record of a divorce between Simon and Ann Catherine Kollock. She continued to be indentified as the "wife of the late Capt. Simon Kollock" to her death in 1845.

 27. Longworth, I. 1895. A chapter in the history of the township of Onslow, Nova Scotia. Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society 9:39-71.

Recorded cemetery inscription: "Mrs. Simon Kollock died in Truro Sep. 21, 1863 aged 105 years."

 28. Campbell, C., and J. F. Smith. 2011. Planters and grantees of Cobequid, Nova Scotia, 1761-1780. Volume 2.  Truro, Nova Scotia: Colchester Historical Society.

   Pages 622-624, Michael McClellan and Esther, his wife.

 29. The Mormon Church records give a marriage date for Esther McClellan and William Cater of 24 August 1783, but I was unable to determine their source.

 30. MacDonald, J. S. 1868. Annals of the North British Society of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Citizen Steam Book, Job and General Printing Office.

  Pages 29-30: "This year (1782) was quite a stirring one in the annals of our Society, as several gentlemen joined...(including)...William Cater... Several of the above-named had just arrived from the neighboring Colonies, as their loyal sentiments were too well known to allow of their remaining any longer in safety."

 31. MacDonald, J. S. 1910. Memoir of Governor John Parr. Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society 14:41-79.

   Page 61: "The Scottish Guild of Merchants of 1761, had been reinforced in numbers by many Scotch Loyalists who at the beginning of the troubles leading up to the Declaration of Independence, in 1776, had for the past eight years, been gradually settling in Halifax. With Scottish prudence, they could only forecast disturbance and ruin, for many years ahead, for communities in revolt, and so came from Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore to this great centre of loyal Britons, where they could find a field for their enterprise and energies. Among them was Anthony Stewart, from Baltimore... With him came Charles Adams, William Shaw, William Cater..."

 32. I chose not to research the families of Esther McClellan with William Cater and Daniel Eaton, only following her when she married Simon Kollock.

 33. Eaton, A. W. H. 1929. The Eaton family of Nova Scotia, 1760 - 1929. Privately printed.

   Pages 28-29: Dr. Daniel Eaton came from Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1790, and settled at Onslow, Colchester County, Nova Scotia. He married Esther (McClellan) Cater 9 December 1791, and the couple had four children. "At some period in his married life Dr. Eaton left the Province for a visit to Haverhill, and from there went to Philadelphia, where he died in 1908."

 34. Holder, J. M. and G. L. Hubley. 1982. Nova Scotia vital statistics from newspapers, 1829-1834. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society.

Item 2104 - from "Acadian Recorder" 24 November 1832 - "Simon Kellock (sic) Esq., age 88, Capt. H. M. late Loyal American Regiment, died 13 Jul 1832. at Onslow, Nova Scotia."

 35. Anonymous. 1899. Provincial chronology - Deaths in June. The New Brunswick Magazine 2(5):341.

"Kollock - 1845. After a protracted illness, Mrs. Ann Catherine Kollock, aged 97 years, wife of the late Captain Simon Kollock, of the late Royal American Regiment, who emigrated to the Province with the Loyalists in 1783."

 36. Anonymous. 1845. [Ann Catherine Kollock]. New Brunswick Courier (Saint John, New Brunswick), 7 June 1845.

"Died this morning age 97 Ann Catherine, widow of Captain Simon Kollock of the late Loyal American Regt. who emigrated with the Loyalists in 1783. Funeral from her daughter's residence on Dorchester Street [Saint John] half past 4."


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