Mohawk Nation of Grand River

The Posterity: Unascertained

The Crown named a class in 1779, marked it in 1789, and in 1796 set the oath by which each of them would be known: an oath never taken. The Register takes it now.

The web edition of the poster · From Book V of the National Books, Honours, Heraldry and Ceremony, with Books II and XII

Two registers

The Crown’s register, as it ordered it kept in 1789 and 1796: for the class of the three villages, never kept.

The Register of the Nation, the Loyalist posterity, line by line, today. The names are specimens.

The line, peg by peg: at a desk with a computer the paper grows, poof by poof, as the pegs of your line appear, five generations with women among them, each proved by its record, to a Loyalist Mohawk of the three villages, who waves back; the Loyalist coronet stands on the line that joins you, then comes to your hand with the Crown’s mark, UE, at your side; and the desk gives way to the magistrate beside you, who raises the signed oath and waves, in 1796 at the quarter sessions and today a justice of the peace, the same office. Tap the picture to see it again.

The class: “some of the Mohawks” of Canajoharie, Tikondarago and Aughgugo who adhered to the Crown before 1783 and lost their homes for it, and their posterity by either sex, in any place and any life, those received by the Nation’s law of adoption among them. The Crown never ascertained them; the Register does.

The test is the village. On the Grand River almost everyone descends from Loyalists, Cayuga and Seneca as much as Mohawk, and they were Loyalists as much as any Scot, Dutchman or Englishman. Whether a line runs to one of the three villages is for each to find, peg by peg; the Register expects that seriousness, and takes nothing on the strength of the surname.

The oath of 1796, and what became of it

1789 · Dorchester’s Order in Council: the land boards are to keep a registry of the families who adhered, “to the end that their posterity may be discriminated from future settlers”, and their descendants by either sex are to carry the mark, UE.

1796 · Simcoe’s Register Proclamation: the registry “has not been generally made”; so all who adhered are “to ascertain the same upon oath before the magistrates in the Michaelmas quarter sessions”, in the form the magistrates are directed to receive, and those who neglect it “will not be considered as entitled” to the benefit.

What it required: one by one, on oath, before a magistrate, entered in a register. The Old U.E. List was compiled from those oaths and the rolls, for the settlers; for the class of the three villages, the oath was never administered and no register kept.

The missing link: an instrument to a class without named persons needs the persons ascertained; the Crown cured that itself by the mark of 1789 and the oath of 1796, then never performed the cure. That is the root of the latent defect in every later title, and the reason the posterity is unknown in number: not for want of the people, but for want of the oath.

What the Nation asks, Gazette No. 63: mandamus, that a magistrate perform the duty the 1796 Proclamation designates, receiving the oath, and that the Crown’s officers record it where titles are searched. The duty exists; it has never been performed.

The duty, dated.

How the Register ascertains a line, today

1
Start at the Loyalist ancestor
a Mohawk of the three villages, in the record of adherence: the Roll of Known Loyalists, the claims, the Indian Department’s rolls, Brant’s census of 1785
2
Trace down
the ancestor’s children, then theirs, by either sex
3
Trace up
from yourself, as far as your family’s records go
4
Meet in the middle
where a name, a place and a date line up
5
Prove each peg
by its record, each one ticked
6
Swear
before a justice of the peace: the oath the Crown set, taken at last; the Registrar General enters the line, with its Record Code

What the line gives, and who keeps it

Who is of the posterity

On the Grand River, a hundred people. Mohawk and the other five nations: in plum, those of Loyalist descent, nearly all; in gold, those who know it. Watch the plum spread, and one more find out every few seconds; tap anyone to wave.

In Brantford, a hundred people. In plum, those of Loyalist descent; in gold, those who hold the mark, UE: few of them Six Nations, most of them the city’s history-minded families.

Two marks, one line: for a Mohawk the line leads to the three villages and the covenant of 1784; for the other five nations some lines run to a Mohawk of the villages, and the rest hold the Crown’s mark as Loyalists, UE, under the Mark of Honour.

The mark: UE, the Crown’s, by either sex and by adoption, outside clan and band.

The right: a share of the covenant of 1784, the six miles, in right; the Register’s certificate of the line, with the Nation’s Edge Mark.

Who keeps it: the person keeps the right; the Register organizes, it does not control. The magistrate receives the oath; the Registrar General enters the line; the Secretary-General certifies.

In numbers: the posterity is unknown, because the Crown never counted it; the Register’s own count is its lines, one to a Loyalist ancestor at a time, published as it grows.

The printed poster

Download the poster as printed, A3, full quality: the-posterity.pdf