Cyrenius Parke, U.E.L.

CYRENIUS PARKE U.E.L.,a direct descendant of Robert Parke

He was a colonist who remained faithful to the Crown during the American War of Independence (1775-1783),otherwise known as The American Revolution,and joined General Burgoyne's British Forces to fight the rebels along with his brother James Parke.They were driven from their homesteads by the rebels and were forced to flee the country leaving all their possessions behind.

They sailed from New York, reached Lachine, Quebec and continued to Sorel where they wintered in tents and hastily built cabins. The final stage of their journey was on flat-bottomed boats called "bateaux" and they travelled from Lachine up the St.Lawrence River to land at Adolphustown on June 16,1784.

Cyrenius,a UNITED EMPIRE LOYALIST,was granted a large tract of land from the Crown because of his position in the Army and settled at Hay Bay,near Napanee,Ontario,Canada.

He had eight children by his first wife. She died and he remarried and his second wife bore him twelve more children. Of those 20 children, 18 reached adulthood, married and thus propagated Ontario with Parke descendants.