Obadiah H. Tompkins

Capt Finaly's co Loyal American Regiment

During the American Revolution, a significant proportion of the population of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, East Florida, West Florida and other colonies was determined to remain loyal to the crown and desired to remain within the British Empire. The reasons were as varied as the people themselves, but the overriding principle was loyalty to the King.

Loyalists began leaving at the end of the war whenever transport was available. An estimated 70,000 Loyalists, approximately 62,000 white and 8,000 blacks (representing about 3% of the total American population of which 20-30% supported the Crown during the American War for Independence), left the thirteen newly independent states: 46,000 to Canada; 7,000 to Britain and 17,000 to the Caribbean. Beginning in the mid-1780s and lasting until the end of the century, however, a small percentage chose to return from the Caribbean and Nova Scotia.

Following the end of the Revolution and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Loyalist soldiers and civilians were evacuated from New York and resettled in other colonies of the British Empire, most notably in the future Canada. The two colonies of Nova Scotia (including modern-day New Brunswick), received about 34,000 Loyalist refugees, Prince Edward Island 2,000 and Quebec (including the Eastern Townships and modern-day Ontario) received some 10,000 refugees.

GEDCOM Source

@R-2146013911@ Public Member Trees Ancestry.com Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.Original data - Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.Original data: Family trees submitted by Ancestry members. Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=4762726&pid=...