Loyalist John Phillips UE - for United Empire Loyalists

Loyalist John Phillips UE
My Loyalist ancestor (my 3rd great grandfather) is John Phillips UE (1751 – 1844). My
daughters and I received our UELAC Certificates at the London and Western Ontario
Branch on 11 November 2008.
John Phillips' story of service on behalf of the Loyalist cause, and of his resettlement to
Canada, his death in Ekfrid Township, Middlesex County, and his family's movements
after his death in 1844, provide a wonderful and inspiring story of a man and his family
who gave up a settled and established life in the American colonies for an unsettled and
gypsy-like existence in the primeval forests of Ontario. This story would take a book to
describe but I have recently become more aware of his service details and would like to
tell about a military event in the week after 14 September 1780, that turned the tide of the
Southern Campaign in a negative direction. However, first, some background on John
Phillips UE.
Background of John Phillips UE
John Phillips UE was the grandson of a German immigrant who had settled in the
Schenectady area of New York. His parents had resettled in farm country in New Jersey.
At the start of the “troubles” in 1776, John was living with his mother and siblings in
Cumberland County, New Jersey, where he helped maintain a substantial apple orchard.
According to the death notice of his namesake son, John Phillips Jr., his father (also
named John Phillips) had died under General Wolfe at Quebec, in 1759. John had been
fatherless for about seventeen years, and was probably mindful of the duty expected of
him in his father's name.
Death report for John Phillips Jr., son of John Phillips UE, which references the
father of John Phillips UE
There died in Camden (Kent County) in October last year, John Phillips, 2nd Jun., an old
soldier, past 91. He was in the American War (1812), his father in the Revolution (1776 –
1783) and his grandfather was killed at Quebec, under Gen Wolfe, 1759.” 1
Records show that John Phillips the father served under James Delancey out of Albany,
according to the muster roll below:
LIST OF EACH OFFICER AND SOLDIER IN CAPt WILLm McGlNNES COMPANY …
[many names] John Phillips...” 2 Soldiers of this company did accompany General Wolfe
to Quebec.
When the Revolution Ended
At the end of the American Revolution, John Phillips was amongst those Loyalists who

was first resettled to Parrtown, Nova Scotia, (later New Brunswick). His name is found
on the “Post War Settlement; 2nd Battalion New Jersey Volunteers [List of names of
officers and men of the 2nd Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, who received grants of
land in King’s County, New Brunswick. Dated 14 July 1784.] 3
John filed a petition for land at Woodhouse, Norfolk County, Ontario, in 1801, as
follows:
“12 Feb 1801: John Phillips, Woodhouse – was in his Majesty's service during the whole
of the Revolution in America in the capacity of a Corporal in the 2nd Battalion, New
Jersey Volunteers commanded by Colonel Isaac Allen; discharged at St. John, New
Brunswick; now in the Province with an extensive family of a wife & 7 children &
without any land to support them; requested a grant; OC – Recommended for 200 acres.”
4
Although John states that he served under Lt. Col. Isaac Allen, the commanding officer
for all of the NJV, his immediate field commander was Robert Drummond. Robert
Drummond had returned to England by this date, after humiliating capture and defeat,
and was not likely a good person for John Phillips to reference in his land petition. Lt.
Col. Isaac Allen, though, is referenced for support many times in Loyalist petitions in
Loyalists in the American Revolution, 5 and his name would have drawn, and did draw,
immediate recognition from the land councils.
John Phillips UE in the American Revolution
Phillips, at age 25 or 26 6 , had first enrolled in the West Jersey Volunteers. This unit was
raised earlier in 1777 while the British Army was in Philadelphia. These men came from
Salem, Gloucester and Cumberland Counties. John Phillips was first transferred to the
First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, under Lt. Col. Joseph Barton. After August 1778,
he was promoted to Corporal, and moved to the Second Battalion, New Jersey
Volunteers, commanded by Robert Drummond.
“Drummond was a wealthy merchant and ship-owner at Acquakanonk Landing, New
Jersey. When trouble between this country and England first became apparent, his
thoughts and counsel were with the American cause; he was a member of the Provincial
Congress and its speaker for two terms, but when war broke out he tendered his services
to his king and organized the Second Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers and was
commissioned its major. He enlisted about two hundred men, principally from the Bergen
county side of the river. He saw service in the South, where most of his men fell victims to
disease consequent upon the climate. He was later promoted to Major. After the war,
Drummond removed to England, where he died in 1789.” 7
The New Jersey Volunteers received their uniforms in April of 1776. The uniforms were
green and white. Thereafter, their enemies often referred to them as “The Greens”. 8
For more detailed information on the New Jersey Volunteers, see the online history from
the Loyalist Institute, at http://www.royalprovincial.com/military/rhist/njv/3njvhist.htm.

In August 1778, John Phillips was in a military hospital for unknown reasons, on Staten
Island 9 . John was possibly treated by a doctor named 'Archibald Campbell', which may
account for the fact that John named his first son 'Archibald'.
By November 1779, the company was in good order at Savannah:
Muster Roll, Captain Robert Drummond's Company, Third Battalion, New Jersey
Volunteers, Savannah GA, 29 November 1779 ... [many names and ranks] Corporal John
Phillips.” 10
"On 14 September 1780, Col. Robert Drummond's Battalion of the New Jersey
Volunteers were camped at Fort Grierson, near Camp Augusta in Georgia. They did not
suspect that a combined rebel force was approaching on three fronts. The Rebel forces
were led Col. Elijah Clarke. Col. Clarke sent one element of his forces under Major
Samuel Taylor to attack the Loyalist Creek Indians at Indian Springs. He sent a second
element under Col. James McCall to circle south of Augusta and attack towards St. Pauls
Church and took the largest group with himself, to attack Fort Grierson. As the Loyalists
had superior forces, he had to depend on strategy and surprise. It turned out that he was
successful, and the Southern Campaign took significant losses and humiliation over the
four days of battle which followed.
St. Paul's (old Fort Augusta) and Fort Grierson (under Drummond and the New Jersey
Volunteers) were incapacitated. At Grierson, one soldier was killed, one sergeant and five
soldiers were wounded, and Robert Drummond and eighteen others were made prisoner.
Col. Clarke released and armed over seventy Rebel soldiers who had been in jail, seized
Indian “presents” valued at over £ 4,000, and “liberated” much of the arms and
ammunition that had been turned over by surrendering Loyalist forces. In the course of
the ensuing firefight through the streets of Augusta, Captain Andrew Johnson, of the
King's Carolina Rangers, was killed. " 11
This week's events spelled the end of the Southern Campaign in Georgia and South
Carolina. Major Robert Drummond failed to anticipate and defeat the enemy. Col. Elijah
Clarke had proven himself the superior adversary.
Hence we next see this service record:
“Muster Roll, Major Robert Drummond's Company, Third Battalion, New Jersey
Volunteers, 96, South Carolina, 60 days inclusive, 24 February 1781 to 24 April 1781, 61
days inclusive:
Major - Drummond, Robert (remarks) 'prisoner on parole at Charlestown' full roster
follows, including Corporal John Phillips (not a prisoner)” 12
By April 1782, the mention of Major Drummond being a prisoner is missing from the roll
13

“Muster Roll, Major Robert Drummond's Company, Third Battalion, New Jersey
Volunteers, Charlestown, South Carolina, 25 April 1782 to 24 June 1782, 61 days
inclusive:
1. Major Robert Drummond (no remark)
2. Lieutenant John Jenkins (no remark)
3. Ensign Lewis Thompson (remark: on command)
4. 3 Sergeants, (no remark)
Corporal John Phillips (remark: on command).”
By the end of December 1782, it was all over. Charlestown with the NJV sailed back to
the British garrison at New York. Finally, the N.J. Volunteers arrived in Parrtown (later
St. John) New Brunswick in October of 1783 aboard armed ships of the British fleet.
The next service record 14 states:
“Muster Roll, Major Robert Drummond's Company, Third Battalion, New Jersey
Volunteers, Dutch Kiln's, Long Island, New York, 25 December 1782 to 23 February
1783, 61 days inclusive ...” the entire company there, including Corporal John Phillips.
The Company has been evacuated to Long Island, New York.
It is estimated that 14,000 Loyalists from many regiments and companies, were resettled
in New Brunswick after the war ended in 1783.
Just before or after the muster role starting December 25 1782, John Phillips was married
to Isabella Phinney.
John Philips and Isabella Phinney married 178- -- --” [year, month, and date missing.] 15.
Their first child, Archibald Phillips, was born 1783 in New Brunswick. 16
The marriage record, noted in Schenectady, shows that this was the Phillips family
cluster to which John was connected, even though his immediate family had been in New
Jersey at the outbreak of the war.
Isabella Phinney (1763 – 1849), wife of John Phillips UE, is probably the daughter of
Peter Phinney UE (1737 – 1824). Peter Phinney UE appears on “The Old United Empire
Loyalist List” 17 , as follows: “Eastern District, Soldier Royal Regiment of New York,
Muster Roll. P.L.N.J. 1786”, with his son George Phinney. However, Peter Phinney
appears to have recanted and returned to the U.S.A. after 1786. John Phillips named his
third son Peter, born in 1786, and his youngest son George, born in 1812, perhaps in
honour of his Phinney in-laws.
In June 1787, John Phillip's lands in New Jersey were confiscated:
“A list of the names of all those Persons whose property was Confiscated in the Several
Counties of the State of New Jersey, for joining the Army of the King of Great Britain &c.
as returned to the Auditors Office, previous to the first day of May 1787 ... Cumberland

County NJ .... John PHILIPS... others... Extract from the publick books in my office given
under my hand this first day of June, One Thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven.” 18
The second son of John Phillips UE, also named John Phillips, says at the time of the
1871 Census, that he was born in 1784 “at sea” 19 . The intervening years provide an
illusive trail of gypsy-like family movement, which is still under research, where more
children were born, until, sixteen years later, he files the petition cited above at
Woodhouse in 1801. After that date, five more children were born, the youngest born
when Isabella (Phinney) Phillips was age 50. There were at least twelve known children.
One would think that this substantial family would lead to a large number of land
petitions by his children, as children of UE Loyalists, but there are none. Although it was
recommended that John Phillips UE and other Woodhouse veterans who landed in New
Brunswick, be placed on the UEL list and thus made eligible for land grants as children
of Loyalists, the names don't seem to have been placed on that list.
“25 Oct 1806 (W8/34) John is signer of a general petition of Loyalist officers and
soldiers resident in the London District who came from New Brunswick to Upper
Canada, requesting a grant of lands and their names on the U.E. List. (Woodhouse,
Norfolk County).” 20
There is no reply to this petition in the Norfolk archives. This seems to be a clerical or
administrative glitch which did not serve well, these early Canadian heroes.
Two of John Phillips' sons, John Jr. and Peter, fought in the War of 1812, with the Oxford
Militia, under Thomas Talbot, Colonel Commanding Militia, London District, Upper
Canada. 21
John Phillips UE died on 29 July 1844, and his wife, Isabella, died on 13 October 1849.
22 They were buried on their family farm in Ekfrid Township, Middlesex County, about
fifteen miles south of Glencoe, Ontario. Many of the children moved on, in the 1850s, to
Camden Township in Kent County, and the family farm changed hands.
About forty years ago, their grave markers were found by a descendant, resting against a
tree. The man who owned the farm requested that the stones be taken away as they meant
nothing to his family who had owned the property for many years. They had never heard
of John Phillips UE. The vigilant descendant, Harold Carruthers of Glencoe, picked up
the stones and they are now cemented in the Willy Cairn, a few miles away.
Here is a Loyalist who served his family traditions and his King and was one of the early
pioneers and founders who shaped modern Canada. He was not well rewarded for this
service but he did not pause to complain. He simply moved forward through the paths
and opportunities which life afforded.
One wonders what he thought, or what he might have done differently, in that fateful
week of 14 September 1780, when he saw his commanding officer outwitted and

captured in Georgia and the entire military operation collapse. It has been a long tradition
in Canada that rank-and-file soldiers in the field could have sometimes done better than
their British officers.
Richard Ripley UE, descendant of John Phillips UE.
Footnotes
1. The Age, (newspaper) Strathroy, Ontario, Friday, 21 December 1877, Vol. 2, No. 52, Whole No 571.
2. NEW YORK MUSTER ROLLS of New York Provincial Troops, 1755 -1764, Published by the New
York Historical Society. 1897.
3. New Brunswick Museum, "Collections of the New Brunswick Museum", F 75, B. 9.
4. Norfolk County Archives, Brad Rawlings, researcher, Photocopy of original document, August 2008.
5. (Loyalists) The Loyalists in the American Revolution, Genealogical Publishing Company, 13 volumes
accessible on CD, Copyright 1999. The Learning Company, Inc. and its subsidiaries.
6. Gravestone of John Phillips UE, moved from Lot 18 Range 4 South of Longwoods Road, now located
at Willy family Cairn, Lot 11 Range 4 ,Ekfrid Township, Middlesex County, Ontario, text: Phillips
(white marble) John Phillips / died July 29, 1844, aged 93 yrs 2 ms 14 dys. (read 2001). Ages in this
narrative are based on this information.
7. The Loyalist Regiments, online at http://www.usgennet.org/usa/nj/state1/loyalist_regiments.htm.
8. The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies, "Clothing & Supplies, New Jersey Volunteers
Uniforms & Accouterments", 1776-1783.
9. NEW JERSEY MUSTER ROLLS – AMERICAN REVOLUTION ... "Muster Roll of Lieutenant
Colonel Joseph Barton's Company in the 1st Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers camp on Staten
Island"
10. Loyalists, op. cit., "Loyalists in the Southern Campaign" (Southern Campaign), "New Jersey
Volunteers", page 130.
11. Rauch, Steven J., An Ill Timed and Premature Insurrection, "The Siege of Augusta, Georgia,
September 14-18 1780", volume 2, no. 9, September 2005, pp. 6-7. Available online at
http://www.southerncampaign.org/newsletter/v2n9.pdf.
12. Loyalists, Southern Campaign, op. cit., pp. 131-132.
13. Ibid, pp.134-135.
14. Ibid, pp. 135-136.
15. Pearson, Jonathon; Contributions for the Genealogies of the Descendants of the First Settlers of the
Patent and City of Schenectady, from 1662 to 1800; "Genealogies of the Descendants of the First Settlers
of Schenectady: (Ohle to Quinez), in SCPL's Schenectady Collection at Schdy R 929.1 P36c/, (Albany,
NY: J. Munsell, 1873). p. 68.
16. Family Member Research, descendant of John Phillips UE, 2008.
17. The Old United Empire Loyalist List, Appendix B, page 175.
18. Property Confiscations Salem, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Burlington Counties [Extract], 1787.
19. 1871 Canadian Census at Bothwell, Kent County, Ontario, LDS mf 0349136. Division 1, page 104.
Phillips, John, male, age 86, born on sea, Universalist, German, married (possibly a widower?).
20. Norfolk County Archives, op. cit.
21. The History of Burford, First Regiment of Oxford Militia, Pay Lists and Muster Rolls, 25th October
1812 to December 25, 1813, (signed) Thomas Talbot, Colonel Commending Militia, London District,
pp. 242-245.
22. Gravestone of John Phillips UE, op. cit, also Gravestone of Isabella Phillips; " In memory of / Isabella/
wife of John Phillips /died Oct. 13, 1849. Aged 87 yrs. (buried beside her husband; her marker also
moved to Willy cairn.).