United Empire Loyalists
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United Empire Loyalists is the name given to the portion of British Loyalists who resettled in the future Canada when they were forced to leave the United States after the British defeat in the American War of Independence. This group of Loyalists settled in the two colonies of Quebec (including the Eastern Townships and modern-day Ontario) and Nova Scotia (including modern-day New Brunswick).
Modern-day descendants of those original refugees sometimes apply the term United Empire Loyalist to themselves as an honorific, represented by the letters "UE" written after a person's name. The practice is rare, even in the original Loyalist strongholds like southeastern Ontario, though the word "Loyalist" does appear frequently in school and street names. Belleville Ontario is an example of a loyalist settled community where the term "Loyalist" is applied to street, school, and business names. The arrival of the United Empire Loyalists marked the beginning of a predominantly English population in the future Canada west of the Quebec border.
See also: Loyalist (American Revolution)
Further reading
- Christopher Moore; "The Loyalists: Revolution, Exile, Settlement"; 1984, ISBN 0771060939.
- W. Stewart Wallace; "The United Empire Loyalists: A Chronicle of the Great Migration"; Volume 13 of the "Chronicles of Canada", (32 volumes ); 1914, Toronto.
External Links
- The United Empire Loyalists of Canada (http://www.uelac.org) - fraternal association for descendants of Loyalists
- Example of Loyalist claim from New York state (http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyherkim/regiments/loyclaims9.html)
- E-text of Wallace's Chronicle (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11977) at Project Gutenberg