Thousands of descendants living in North America may trace their ancestry to Maiden Rice, one of the most courageous women of pioneering Ontario times. Her story goes back to colonial Virginia, one of the few from that most patriotic of states to arrive in Niagara during the Loyalist period. She came not by choice, but under the coercion of an Indian band wandering very far in their raids and very late in the American Revolution indeed, if not after the spring 1783 peace.
There are two family traditions passed down in different branches of her descendants of how Maiden Rice came to Upper Canada. These do not match up entirely with period documents, but generally agree with each other and with the general circumstances. One written by Sara (Smith) Pickersgill is in the family files at the Norfolk Historical Society Archives. This colourful and somewhat convoluted and repetitive account begins on a plantation that Maiden Rice and her unnamed husband owned in Virginia. During the American Revolution, the family came under attack by Indians, and Maiden’s husband killed. The Indians took Maiden, her fourteen-year-old daughter, and her baby with them on their trek north. The Indians found the baby to be an impediment along the way and killed it. Towards the end of the journey, they met a group of the Loyalist Butler’s Rangers and sold the fourteen-year-old girl to Silas Secord.
Another account appeared in an announcement of granddaughter Elizabeth Killmaster Stearns’ ninetieth birthday at Port Rowan, Norfolk County. The clipping does not give the full name of the publication. It seems to be “_______ of Women” published in London, Ontario, issue of Thursday, 31 Jul 1941.
“Mrs. Stearns was her name, Elizabeth from her grandmother, Elizabeth Stacey, wife of George (sic: John) Killmaster and mother of Henry. The background of Elizabeth Stacey’s life reads like a pioneer saga. Her mother, a Mrs. Rice by an earlier marriage, was the wife of an English farmer in Virginia. And, in one of the sharp tragedies of the time, her husband was killed by Indians, while at work in his fields, and the young wife and her two small children were taken captive and, with their Indian captors went on the long trail to Fort Detroit. One of the little children was killed on the woeful journey. When Mrs. Rice and her remaining child reached the fort, they were imprisoned in a log hut, whence through the pitty and help of an Indian chief, they escaped across the river to Windsor. The mother and her little child walked the long miles to Chatham where they were sheltered in a British army camp. And there the commanding officer, Col. Stacey fell in love with the brave young widow and eventually married her.”
The first documented record found of this family trek concerns the daughter sold by the Indians to Silas Secord, Mary Rice. This entry appeared in the 1783 Census of Niagara taken on November 30th and December 1st, under the heading of “Return of Persons under the description of Loyalists in Capt. McKinnon’s Company of the Corps of Rangers, Niagara, December 1, 1783. This listed Sgt. Silas Secord aged 28 and Mrs. Secord 23.1 His wife’s trek apparently occurred during that year. Rather than being fourteen at the time as stated in the Pickersgill account she was nine years older if the record proves correct. The peace occurred in the previous spring.
Months later the first document of Mary’s mother occurred. This listed Maiden Rice, “Prisoner of War”, on the July 12, 1784 Provisioning List at Fort Detroit while it was still in British hands. With her were Jean aged 13, Ann aged 10, William aged 8, and Moses aged 6. She was allowed 2 rations per day. Obviously the Indians brought a much larger Rice family to Upper Canada than stated in the descendant accounts, and the Natives turned them over to their allies at the frontier post.2
These “captives” must have been somewhat of an embarrassment to the officials at Detroit. The Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolution had been in effect for more than a year. Indeed, the Indian raid might even have occurred after the signing. A government employee solved the problem for them.
In the summer of 1784, Maiden met and married John Stacy, a former carpenter on a British sloop in the West Indies during the American Revolution. He became a steward of the dockyards at Detroit according to his later Upper Canada Land Petition.3 This contradicts the descendant Stearns account that Stacy served as a Colonel in the British Army and met Maiden at Chatham. Both being at Detroit, and their only Stacy daughter being born there later, the storied trek to Chatham seems unlikely. As a note of clarification on the surname, John signed his name “Stacy” but others often wrote it as “Stacey” and the latter spelling came into common usage for the middle names of his daughter’s children and grandchildren. It has also been perpetuated in the name of Stacey Street in Port Rowan, Walsingham Township, Norfolk County.
The Stacy couple continued at Detroit until 1785, and a daughter, Elizabeth was born to them there according to the inscription on the daughter’s gravestone.4 With the turnover of Fort Detroit to the Americans imminent, Maiden and John with Maiden’s children next moved to Niagara, investigating their prospects in the British colony. Here they would have been reunited with oldest daughter Mary Rice, wife of Silas Secord.
The next document found includes both the Stacy’s and the Secord’s. In the December 14, 1786 Loyalist Victualing List at Niagara for Murray’s District, Silas Secord’s listing showed one man, one woman and one male child aged under ten. Under John “Steacy” were one man, one woman, two males aged over ten, one female over ten and one female under ten.5 Maiden’s daughter Jean Rice may have married by this time. No additional information has been learned of her.
On May 2, 1792 the Land Board of Upper Canada read the petition of John Stacey for a grant of 200 acres of land in Township No. 2 [Stamford Township, Welland County], examined into his loyalty and character, and found him qualified to receive two hundred acres of land. The oath of fidelity and allegiance was administered by the board and the order was referred to Acting Surveyor General Augustus Jones who assigned to him 100 acres in Lot 6 in the Township of No. 2. A note of Jones was added in the margin: “I apprehend this to be Lot No 7 as it appears by Major Hollands plan.” Another note of the Land Board on the reverse: “The Board authorize John Stacy to transfer the within named Lot No. 6 in the first Concession of the 2nd Township containing one hundred acres to William Mullinox.”7
This was located at the top of the escarpment overlooking the present village of St. Davids and a few miles from the Niagara River gorge. It might have been the location of Stacey’s settlement while in the area, but by the time of the survey and grant he had an interest in the Long Point Settlement westward.
Stacy and Secord took an early interest in the Long Point Settlement, as Norfolk County was then known, long before the surveys. Perhaps Maiden’s captors stopped there on the way from Niagara to Detroit or she and John Stacy noticed the area on their return to Niagara from Detroit. In the spring or early summer of 1790, Christian Warner, a former Butler’s Ranger with John Stacy, obtained permission from Major Gilbert Tice to explore and settle in the shore area of present Charlotteville Township on Long Point Bay.
Stacy located 200 acres immediately to the west of Turkey Point and Warner claimed 400 acres in the area.6 At that time only Asa Holmes had an acre cleared at present Troyer Flats in the front of neighbouring Walsingham Township. Warner did not stay but Stacy settled and began clearing his land. He was accompanied by his stepson-in-law, Silas Secord who was a witness on 27 Dec 1790 to a sale of Asa Holmes’ acre to John Troyer.8
In the spring of 1793, with his neighbours Tunis Cronk, Conradt Cope, and Jacob Darby, Stacy petitioned the Executive Council for his land.8 Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, seeking to prevent a disorderly development prior to the survey, but honouring earlier government commitments, allowed the men to remain on their lots, but advised them not to expand their clearings. The first 1794 Surveyor’s report on the area noted.9
“John Stacey, native of SomersetShire
Says he served three years Carpenter in a Kings Sloop during the War, in the West Indies; two years in the Dockyard Detroit, of which he was Steward.
By the Encouragement of Major Tice, he began an improvement near to Long Point, about Two Miles above Turkey Point, where he has a House, 10 acres cleared, sown & under Fence.
About a year and a half ago, he with four others his neighbours, petitioned the Governor for leave to settle there, and the man who was appointed by them to present the Petition brought them word that the Governor said they might return thither and work on their improvements but not to extend them till the land surveyed.”
By 1794, Stacy had ten acres cleared, sown, and under fence. On July 8, 1794, Stacy and Warner requested confirmation of their grant from the government, but the land not even being surveyed, their request was rejected.10 Stacy was then included in a 1795 report of the Surveyor General’s office as one who had a right to settle.11
After the first detailed survey of the front lots on Long Point Bay, Stacy’s name appeared in the report on Lot 6, on the Front Concession of Charlotteville Township. Seeking to expand his grant, Stacy petitioned in 1795 for family lands. He stated himself to be, “long in His Majesty’s service… native of Britain… came to the province in 1785… employed in His Majesty’s Dockyard in Detroit 5 years.” He noted that he improved on land at Long Point Bay, Lot No. 6. In response, the Council gave him rights for 300 acres in total.12 In a 1796 petition, Stacy repeated his previous government service and that he brought his wife and four children to the province in 1785. He had received 350 acres, 200 of which were in the Long Point area where he lived.13
Pickersgill’s account states that John Stacy’s father died in England and he was called home to settle the estate, he being the eldest son. His ship was lost and Stacy, going down with it, never returned to Canada.
Prior to leaving for the homeland, Stacy made out his will on August 2, 1799. This named his wife Maiden Stacy, his daughter Elizabeth Stacy, and his step-son Moses Rice. The two children were given joint inheritance of his estate. This was the first will filed with the newly formed London District Surrogate Registry. In the attached petitions, the date of death was given as 18 Nov 1799.14
A widow for the second time, Maiden Stacy continued with her son Moses on her husband’s grant in Charlotteville Township. Oldest son William Rice settled on Lot 6, Concession 2 behind his mother’s grant. Daughter Mary Rice with her husband Silas Secord settled on Lot 3, Front Concession, Charlotteville a little west of the Stacy’s. Daughter Anna Rice married John Mors in 1797 and seems to have left the county. Youngest daughter and the only child of the second marriage, Elizabeth Stacy married soon after the turn of the century to Thomas Smith, an English settler in Walsingham Township about ten miles to the west.
The Stacy home must have been a commodious one. The first two Courts of the Quarter Sessions of April 12, 1800 and July 9, 1800 designated it to be the location for the local Courts of Requests for Charlotteville Township. Moses Rice gained appointment as the first Constable of Charlotteville and Maiden’s son-in-law Thomas Smith the Constable of neighbouring Walsingham.15
Maiden Stacy was listed in the 1808, 1809, and 1810 Assessments of Charlotteville Township. In 1808, her tax ran to 8 days of roadwork, presumably performed by Moses. In 1809, she and Moses had 40 acres of land cultivated and 160 acres uncultivated. They made their home in a log cabin, and the livestock consisted of 1 horse, 4 oxen, and 2 cows. The valuation totalled £101.0.0. In 1810, the tax again was 8 days of road work.16
At the turn of the nineteenth century in Norfolk there were a number of widow matriarchs who influenced the development of the county. Maiden Rice’s courageous life from a developed Virginia plantation carried into the wilderness made an indelible mark on the Long Point Settlement reflected in the prominence of her many descendants.
Maiden Stacy died sometime between the 1810 and 1811 Assessments. On June 4, 1811, Moses Rice, as the heir of John Stacy, patented the Stacy grant then requested from the government a grant of the marsh in front of the lot. An attached certificate noted that his half-sister Elizabeth Smith had assigned her rights to Moses Rice.17
Moses Rice sold two sixty-three acre sections in the north part of the lot to William Moore and Philip Fonger and the south part to Robert Nichol in September 1811. He then made a further application for the marsh in front of the lot. The Surveyor General reported in 1812 a total of 117 acres of marsh in front of the lot and that it was grantable. The request was allowed by the Executive Council and patented by Rice in 1815.18
The other heir, only child of Maiden and John Stacy, Elizabeth Stacy, whose name is more commonly written as “Stacey” lost her first husband Thomas Smith as a casualty of the War of 1812. She remarried to prosperous businessman and Port Rowan village founder John Killmaster. Stacey Street in Port Rowan gained its name for her. The Killmasters formed a century long dynasty with business interests in South Norfolk County and in the later part of the century extensive lumbering interests in east central Michigan.
Sources:
1. “Census of Niagara 1783” in The Ontario Register, republished by Hamilton Branch, The United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada (Hamilton, ON: 1978), p. 209
2. National Archives of Canada, The Haldimand Papers, Volume 20
3. Upper Canada Land Petition “S” Bundle 2, Doc. No. 56
4. Gravestone of Elizabeth (Stacey) Killmaster in Bayview Cemetery, Port Rowan, Walsingham Twp., Norfolk Co.
5. Niagara Peninsula Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, Loyalist Provisioning Lists, 1786 (St. Catharines, ON), p. 2-3
6. Upper Canada Land Petition “W” 1, Doc. No. 33
7. Stamford Township Papers, Ontario Arhives, R. G. 1 C-IV, Document Numbers 0084, 0085
8. Upper Canada Land Petition “S” Bundle 2, Doc. No. 78
9. Report of Acting Surveyor General David W. Smith 23 Dec 1794 in “Surveyor General’s Letter Books”, Book 2, p. 615-622; OA MS 627, Reel 1
10. Upper Canada Land Petition “W” Bundle 1, Doc. No. 33
11. Report of Acting Surveyor General David W. Smith 21 Sep 1795 in “Surveyor General’s Letter Books”, Book 3, p. 1000-1009; OA MS 627, Reel 1
12. Upper Canada Land Petition “S” 2, Doc. No. 56
13. Upper Canada Land Petition “S” Bundle 2, Doc. No. 100
14. London District Surrogate Registry, Doc. No. 1
15. Fraser, Alexander, “Minutes of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace For the London District, 1800-1809, 1813-1818, in Twenty-second Report of the Department of Public Records and Archives of Ontario, 1933 (King’s Printer, Toronto, ON: 1934), p. 2, 4, 6
16. Yeager, William, Charlotteville Assessments 1808-1811, Norfolk Historical Society (Simcoe, ON)
17. Upper Canada Land Petition “R” Bundle 10, Doc. No. 46
18. Abstracts of Deeds Register of Charlotteville Twp., Vol. A, 1800-1947 Ontario Archives GS 2554