All posts by D. M. Henderson, Q.C.

Richard Hiscott
76th Regiment of Foot

Richard Hiscott was born in 1790 in Wiltshire, England. His application for a land grant shows that he was a weaver before he enlisted with the 76th Regiment of Foot in 1809 as a Private and retired from the same regiment having attained the rank of Sergeant in 1830 (National Archives in Kew, WO 97/874/28). During his service he participated as a member of 76th Regiment of Foot in the Peninsular War as part of Wellington’s Troops. In 1814 and after the British success against French troops in Spain the 76th Regiment of Foot was transferred to Canada (The Service of British Regiments in Canada and North America, Charles H. Stewart, Department of National Defence Library, 1926, Ottawa, p. 316). There Richard Hiscott with his Regiment participated in the closing stage of the War of 1812-1814 at the Battle of Plattsburgh. Following the war Richard Hiscott stayed in Niagara. After he retired from the army he successfully applied for a land grant for his 21 years of service in the British Army (National Archives in Kew, WO 97/874/28). Continue reading Richard Hiscott
76th Regiment of Foot

James Clement UE
Lincoln Militia

Lieutenant James Clement, UE (1764-1813)

James Clement was born the 15 Jul 1764 in the Mohawk Valley, New York. He was the son of Ludovicus (Lewis) Cobes (1725-1781) and Catlyntje (Catherine Eliza) Poutnam (1726-1807). He was a United Empire Loyalist and served as an ensign in the Indian Department towards the latter part of the Revolutionary War. He received a 2,000 acre land grant in Niagara Township after the war, as well as a town lot in Niagara-on-the-Lake (Upper Canada Land Petitions, National Archives of Canada, microfilm No. C-1647); Continue reading James Clement UE
Lincoln Militia

Joseph Clement UE
1st Regiment Lincoln Militia

Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Clement UE, 1st Regiment Lincoln Militia (1790-1867)

Joseph Clement was born in Niagara Township on the 24 Aug 1790. He was the son of United Empire Loyalists, James Clement and Catherine (neé) Crysler, daughter of Loyalist, Adam Chrysler. James appeared on the muster of the Lincoln militia as early as 1797 according to A Holden papers at the Mayholme Library. The History of that Branch of the Crysler Family who Settled in the Township of Niagara by John M Crysler indicates that James was a despatch carrier and held the rank of Lieutenant during the War of 1812.

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1st Regiment Lincoln Militia

Walter B Dittrick UE
Flank Company
4th Regiment Lincoln Militia

Walter Dittrick was born on the 31 May 1793 on the family farmstead, 12 Mile Creek St. Catharines, Upper Canada as recorded in the family bible (St. Catharines Public Library, Special Collections). He was the fourth son of Sergeant Jacob Dittrick, former Butler’s Ranger, and Margaret Pickard. She was the daughter of William Pickard who along with two of his sons were also members of Captain Bernard Frey’s Company of Butler’s Rangers.

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Flank Company
4th Regiment Lincoln Militia

James Dittrick UE
Flank Company
4th Regiment Lincoln Militia.

Captain James Dittrick, commanded the Flank Company in Colonel Robert Nellis’s 4th Regiment Lincoln Militia. Of all five brothers who served in the flank companies of the Lincoln Militia during the War, James’s career is the most thoroughly documented. His “Reminisces of the early years of settlement in Niagara and St. Catharines” was published in the “Loyalist Narratives” compiled by British author George Coventry in 1860 and reprinted many times since; most recently by the Champlain Society. He was also interviewed by Benson Lossing who reported this meeting in the Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812 published in 1869. Being a contemporary, and neighbour of William Hamilton Merritt, he is mentioned several times (often competitively) in the Biography of the Honouable William Hamilton Merritt, authored by Merritt’s younger son. James is also recorded in the ”Merritt Papers” preserved by the Archives of Ontario.

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Flank Company
4th Regiment Lincoln Militia.

Jacob Dittrick UE
Flank Company
1st Regiment Lincoln Militia

Jacob Dittrick was born on the 12 Mile Creek at the family’s farmstead on the 12 Feb 1791 in St. Catharines. He was the son of Sergeant Jacob Dittrick of Captain Walter Butler’s Company (and later Captain Peter Hare’s Company) Butlers Rangers. Before the Revolutionary War Jacob senior was a Ranger in John Butler’s Colonial Indian Department, living along the Mohawk River in New York where their farm of several generations was located. Writing in the Loyalist Reminisces published in 1861 brother James reported the farm was situated 30 miles east of Utica New York.

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Flank Company
1st Regiment Lincoln Militia