Loyalists in the Revolutionary War

[Jim Simmons]

Wow .... In reading through this thread I have noted a number of posters from Pennsylvania, USA and Ontario, Canada. My family has a history dating to the American Revolution and linking both places. During the Revolution my ancestor, Ralph Morden, lived with his wife Ann Durham and children in PA. Being a Quaker, Ralph was not a combatant. But he was apprehended on May 12, 1780 by Patriots for giving assistance to his friend Capt. Robert Land, a British officer. James Morden was charged with treason, and was hung on Nov 25, 1780. Ann and family remained in PA, but she was subjected to persecution. In 1787, Capt. Land brought her and her family to Ontario, Canada, except for two children who had sided with the Patriots during the war. Ann settled at Dundas, Co., Ontario, renting 400 acres of land given her by the English government in recognition of being an United Empire Loyalist. In the later part of the 1800´s, one of Ralph and Ann´s great-grand children, James Morden, my great-grand father, returned to the USA and settled in Arkansas, my home State. To make a long story longer, after my father died several years ago, three Ladies of the Morden family traveled from Canada to Arkansas to attend my father´s funeral. I thought that that was very gracious.