Chapter 4

PART II War and Relocation


Travels of Ethel Davis

Chapter 4 – War of Independence

Chapter 5 – Relocation


Mohawk River and New Haven

The War of Independence

Background to The Revolution

Industry in New Haven Colony was booming in the second half of the eighteenth century. Derby contained 1,000 inhabitants in 1756. America’s first newspaper was printed at Hartford on October 29, 1764. A stagecoach service operated between New York and Boston after 1772, running through Hartford: the trip took one week.

At the same time, disenchantment with the colonial status and repressions were growing. Rebels were ready to fight in 1774, and some went east to join General Washington in Boston after the battle at Lexington in 1775. By the end of the revolution, 30,000 men had joined the Continental army. Half of George Washington’s forces in New York in 1776 were from Connecticut.

People in the colonies were divided as to “Which is better: to be ruled by one tyrant 3,000 miles away or by 3,000 tyrants not one mile away?”. Some people felt that greedy merchants had unjustly incited the masses of poor to revolt. Loyalist adherence to British sovereignty ensured that “Some considerable division of sentiment existed as to the propriety and right of engaging in a war of resistance to the mother country.”

Early on in the action, this sentiment “made it necessary to watch the movements of all persons throughout the country, lest enemies at home do more harm than any abroad”. In Derby, this amounted to a Committee of Inspection on December 11, 1775 which included a John Davis, Esq. (Orcutt, 175). This “John D. Esq.” may have been the son of Samuel Davis, uncle of Dan Davis.

On the other side, the father of Ruth Wooster Davis had a cousin David who led a large force of Rebels when they attacked the British forces at King’s Bridge on January 17, 1777.

Des Brisay, History of the Colony of Lunenberg
Hall, The Glorious Revolution In America
Orcutt and Beardsley, History of the Old Town of Derby
Ultan, Legacy of the Revolution: The Valentine-Varian House


The Players

Ethel Davis

Early in the Rebels’ activity Ethel Davis and his cousins may have helped the Rebels by transporting supplies; possibly, for instance, in the action at King’s Bridge. The Rebels under Washington had constructed twelve different fortifications within two miles of the King’s Bridge over the Harlem River. However, the British still drove them north from New York in 1776 when they captured 2,634 Rebels in the defeat of Fort Washington. On January 17, 1777, three Rebel forces attacked from the north, trying to draw more British forces to engage them. General David Wooster’s force from New Rochelle came along the Boston Post Road, and by January 25, the Rebels had a British force of Hessians (German paid soldiers) under siege in Fort Independence; however, four days later, the Hessians managed to drive the Rebels back.

Sometime later in 1777, Ethel Davis, aged 21, was possibly taken by the British, along with his younger brother Isaac and his 22-year-old cousin John Davis. It might have been on March 16, 1777, when a group of forty Rebels and five teams of horses were collecting food for horses a few miles west and south of King’s Bridge. While they collected, another group of 40 Rebel scouts were shooting at a group of British, probably Roger’s Rangers. The scouts were captured and held by the British.

John escaped to eventually become a Colonel in the militia where his father Joseph was a captain. Ethel Davis and his cousin may have been “pressed”, however, into volunteering for the British. “During the war while the British forces occupied New York, they sent a body of troops all through southwestern Connecticut and forcibly carried off all the young men they could capture, hoping in this way to prevent them entering the rebel army, and also to try to induce them to join the British” (Davis, Genealogy ). Prisoners were treated better if they “volunteered” to serve the crown. Men were gathered into the Prince of Wales American Regiment (PWAR).

The P.W.A.R. was formed beginning in September 1776 by former Governor Montfort Browne. He began recruiting men in the beginning of 1777 from Loyal colonists and assembling them at King’s Bridge. By August 1777 there were 450 men enlisted. The infantry were foot-soldiers that may have ridden horses but fought on foot. The privates wore a red coat with green facing and blue lapels. P.W.A.R. was also identified as “Browne’s Corps” after Brigadier General M. Browne.

Colonel Stephen DeLancey led a group of his loyal troops from King’s Bridge northwards for supplies on July 1, 1777, returning the same day with twenty-five prisoners and twenty cattle. Although Ethel was not among the 450 men listed in Prince Wales American Regiment in August of 1777 near Kings Bridge, he was in a later list in Nov. 11. He was to be in the P.W.A.R. light infantry company for six years, from some time before November 11, 1777, to shortly after October 24, 1783.

Boatner, “Prince of Wales Loyal American Regiment”, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution
British Military and Naval Records: Record Group 8, Series C
Davis, A Genealogy of the Descendants of Colonel John Davis Jr. of Oxford, Conn.
Ultan, Legacy of the Revolution: The Valentine-Varian House



1776 New York City ( National Geographic Magazine, April, 1975 )

Christiana Margaret Hubbard

On August 17, 1783 Ethel Davis, age 27, married Christiana Margaret Hubbard, age 18. Margaret was the daughter of Adam and Catherine Hubbard, German immigrants who became Loyalists. They might have been married in the Lutheran Church of New York, where Margaret and her siblings had all been christened. They were not married in the German Lutheran church shown on the October 1776 map of lower New York city, since it had already been burned by the rebels. They also were probably not married in the British Officers chapel.

Of the seven church steeples in this drawing of New York City (pre 1776), one belonged to the German Lutheran Church where Margaret Hubbard and her sisters were likely christened (Public Archives of Nova Scotia).

Adam Hubbard

Adam Hubbard, the Loyalist volunteer who became Ethel Davis’s father-in-law, is listed in the records of the Kings Royal Regiment of New York (KRRNY) as a shoemaker from New York, born in a foreign place in 1734. At the beginning of the American Revolution Adam Hubbard had a 200 acre farm in the Mohawk River Valley of upper New York State, with house and barn, 25 acres of cleared land and much equipment. The farm was located at Turlough township, in Tryon County, south of the Mohawk River.

The name Hubbard was spelled many different ways: Huber, Heber, Hubert, Hoover and eventually Hubbard. The Huber children were christened in the Lutheran Church in New York City in the fall and winters of 1763-71. According to christening records of the New York Lutheran Church, however, there were two New York Lutheran families headed by men named Adam Hubor.

Three possible relations of Adam Hubbard were also confirmed Loyalists: James, Samuel, and Stephen Hubbard, yeomen from Graves End township of King’s County, Brooklyn Borough, who were included in an Albany County sheriff’s list of “enemies of the state of New York” in July of 1783.

Northern Frontier of the Province of New York. ( taken from Claude Joseph Sauthier’s map. )

Cruiskshank, The King’s Royal Regiment of New York
Fryer & Smy, Rolls of the Provincial/Loyalist Corps
“Return of the 1st Batallion of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York”
Scott, Rivington’s N.Y. Newspaper

The Action

The Attack on Albany

In 1776, Albany was taken by the Rebels. The British planned a three sided attack intended to converge at Albany. In the north, Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, 60 miles north of Saratoga, was recaptured in July 1777 from the rebels under General St. Clair by British General Burgoyne. In the South, Sir Henry Clinton amassed British troops at Kings Bridge, New York in August 1777. He moved his army from New York north to assist General Burgoyne, burning Kingston on the way.

In the west, Fort Stanwix, which had been restored and garrisoned by the Rebels for General Washington, was attacked by a force of British, Tories, and Indians on August 3, 1777, but successfully withstood a 3-week siege. In 1982, the Fort was standing in the city of Rome, N.Y.

Three days later, the two chiefs led their bands of Indians in the Battle of Oriskany. “The bloodiest encounter of the revolution” involved 800 Whig revolutionaries against perhaps 650 British, including Loyalist Tories and Indians. The colonists under General Nicholas Herkimer were badly mauled in the six hour battle. 600 Mohawk Valley militiamen, were ambushed by a large force of Tories and Indians en route to relieve Fort Stanwix. The Oriscany Battlefield has been marked with a granite shaft six miles east of Rome. A small museum was nearby in 2006.

Throughout this period “Adam Hubbard … was repeatedly made prisoner in his own house”. In her later claim for compensation for losses to Americans during the war, Adam’s wife described the courage of Adam

“who was Obliged by the rebels to take Up Arms with them or else quit his house and home, which last he Did on the 6th day of August 1777 and went and joined Sir John Johnson’s Rigement in the first battalion in Capt. Robt. Duncans Company”.

Her statement has mostly been confirmed, with two discrepancies: Military Records indicate that Adam Hubor, aged 43, enlisted on October 25, 1777 in Munro’s Company, of the Kings Royal Regiment of New York (Rolls of the Loyalist Corps). The First Battalion wore green coats and were known as Johnson’s Royal Greens.

painting KRRNY, Johnsons Greens;
[http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/4171/kingsmen.htm]

Adam was in the army for only two months before he became a prisoner. The Battle of Saratoga was fought on September 19 and October 7, 1777, with the British side led by British General Burgoyne. The British soldiers, who included Adam Hubbard, retreated northward for eight miles, where they were trapped. They surrendered to General Horatio Gates on October 17, at Old Saratoga (Schuylerville).

The prisoners were marched 40 miles south to Albany. According to Catherine Hubbard, Adam

“... was taken prisoner and lay 7 months in Albany Goal and was carried thence to Lancaster Goal where he remained 5 Months”.

Adam Hubbard was probably “carried” on a rebel prison ship, from Albany southward, down the Hudson River. The rebel prisoner ship would have had to pass undetected through the N.Y. harbour occupied by the British, who held Manhattan Island, Long Island and Staten Island. The Rebels would have “carried” the prisoners south past New Jersey, and possibly all the way to Virginia. Then they would have sailed north up Chesapeake Bay to the Susquehanna River, in order to land near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the temporary headquarters for the revolution while the British were occupying Philadelphia. At the time of Adam Hubbard’s transfer in June 1778, the British were evacuating Philadelphia by land and sea.

During the time Adam Hubbard had been in the army and in prison, the family farm was taken and sold by the Tryon County Commissioners of Sequestration. Catherine later protested in her land claim that

“... and in her said Husband’s Absence After General Borgaine was taken the rebels seized her goods and sold them at Public Vendue as follows …”:
[ pounds, shillings, pence ]

  L s p
a Copper Still compleat 97 00 00
a New iron tired waggon & gears 28 00 00
a wheel Plough 12 00 00
a foot Plough 02 00 00
a Harrow 01 10 00
a Pleasure Sleigh 04 00 00
1 . . . ditto . . . 06 00 00
1 Ox chain and Sythe 02 06 00
1 Large Grindstone 02 00 00
1 Cow L 6 & 2 Heffiers L 3 each 12 00 00
1 Heffier 63/ & 1 Stear 50/ 05 13 00
a Stack of Oats 05 00 00
Dutch wheat fan 16/ & 1 Calf 30/ 02 06 00
18 Sheep taken from her by the rebels at 16/ 14 08 00
12 Bushels of wheat, barley and pease at 4/ 02 08 00
Sundry tools and farming Utensials Value at 03 00 00
1 Barrel of Mint water 01 00 00
1 Horse taken away by the rebels 10 00 00
a Mans Sadle taken by the rebels 02 00 00
1 fat Hog 20/ & a fat Cow at L 6 by do. 07 00 00
a New Coat of her Husbands taken by do. 03 00 00
a flannel Sheet & 2 Barcelonia Handkerchiefs do. 01 10 00
in Cash & Dollars taken from her by do. 00 16 00
a fur Cap do. by do. 00 16 00
New York Currency L 225 13 00

as well as:
“200 acres farm with house and barn, 25 acres cleared, with 2 meadows, ...”.
“And from thence Made his escape and came to New York….”

Adam Hubbard managed to escape from Lancaster Goal in October or November of 1778. He then probably made his way across New Jersey to Staten Island, now Richmond County.

1776 – NewYork, showing Sandy Hook, site of the lighthouse that Adam Hubbard tended.

While traveling through rebel land in Pennsylvania, Adam may have been assisted by a loyalist partisan, James Moody. James Moody was well known for capturing prominent Rebels and important mail in Pennsylvania and giving them to the British in New York. His adventures were published in London in 1783. He was tortured by Benedict Arnold at West Point, until George Washington intervened and set a trial date. However, James Moody escaped the direct fire of seventy guns, and spent two days hiding in a hay stack in Pennsylvania, before making it to New York. Moody settled in Sissiboo, Nova Scotia. Benedict Arnold was later engaged in business with Lt. M. Hoyt of the P.W.A.R. in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Adam then managed to find his family. With their farm taken, they had joined former friends and relatives at Graves End. There Adam Hubbard spent time settling his family and recovering from his stay in prison, before signing up for the army again, in Duncan’s Company. He is said to have kept the light “for a time” at Sandy Hook. James Moody was at Sandy Hook on June 10, 1779.

Catherine Hubbard later claimed to the British authorities in Canada that “3 years her husband was a soldier in the army for which he never was paid”. Twelve of these months were between August 1777 and August 1780, and 24 of these months were between 1781, when he became a soldier in Duncan’s Coy, and October 1783, when the Hubbards left New York. Adam Hubor is listed as working as a shoe maker in New York and in Duncan’s Coy between 1781 and 1783. This means he reported for military work 3 years after his 1778 escape.

A.A.A. Tour Book: Connecticut, Mass., Rhode Island and New York
Brown: Yarmouth, N.S., A Sequel to Campbell’s History
Calneck, History of the County of Annapolis
Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Hubert, C., “Claim for Compensation for Losses to the Americans”
Johnson’s Hall Brochure
Fryer & Smy, “Rolls of the Provincial/Loyalist Corps”
Raymond, “Loyalists in Arms: A.D. 1775- 1783”
Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution

Ethel Davis’s Military Career

Ethel was listed in action at six different locations, as seen in excerpts from 15 muster rolls

no. LOCATION MUSTER DATES
1 King’s Bridge NY 1777, Nov.- 1778 Feb.
  Staten Island NY 1778
2 Lloyd’s Neck NY 1779, Nov.
3 Flushing Fly NY 1780, Mar.
4 Charles Town SC 1781, Apr.24; Jun.24.
5 Beaufort SC 1781, Dec.24
  CharlesTown SC Evacuated 1782, Dec. 14
6 New Utrecht NY 1783, Feb.

Muster Location #1 near Kings Bridge


Ethel Davis in Muster Calls around New York City.

Private Ethel Davis is listed on four muster rolls in the Light Infantry Company under Captain John Collett: November 11, 1777; December 24, 1777; February 5, 1778 and February 26, 1778. Ethel might have met his younger brother Isaac Davis, and sometimes they might have talked to cousin John Davis. After being transferred from Kings Bridge, Ethel probably lost contact with them; however, he may have met Isaac a few years later on a ship to Charlestown.

For the roll call of February 5, 1778 he was away “with Col. Pattinson”. Ethel may have been taking care of Col. Pattinson’s horses, at the Van Courtland Mansion, which often entertained British Officers.

Staten Island

From the spring of 1778 until the fall of 1779 Ethel Davis was probably on Staten Island, where the P.W.A.R was stationed. “The British maintained a strong point at Fort Hill in St. George,” at the north end of Staten Island, close to Manhattan Island. Ethel may have helped the escaped prisoners, that Moody had recovered, make their way from New Jersey to the Manhattan ferry boat, and could have met Adam Hubbard for the first time.

Muster Location #2: Lloyds Neck

Ethel is listed on November 15, 1779 and December 25 1779 as being under Captain Daniel Lyman, P.W.A.R. Lyman later became “one of the first members for York County in the House of Assembly” including Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Lloyds Harbour, in Suffolk County, Long Island, N.Y., is located on Long Island Sound across from Stanford, Conn. and may be near the “Lloyd’s Neck” muster location. Loyalist prisoners held in the Suffolk County jail were among those set free by James Moody. Brigadier-General Skinner wrote in 1783 that “While Mr. Moody was under my immediate direction, ... broke open the Suffolk jail, rescuing a number of Loyalists that were imprisoned in it, one of whom was under sentence of death” (Brown, 243).

Around this time Ethel Davis would have been in the army for two years. He may have enlisted “for two years or during the continuance of the war”; some men left after their time was completed. On November 15, 1779, The P.W.A.R had 352 men. Of a total of 613 enlisted, there were 261 “non-effectives”: 113 deserters, 74 dead, 30 transferred, 25 discharged and 19 prisoners.

Muster Location #3: Flushing Fly

Ethel Davis was returned to his former Captain John Collett, who promoted him to Corporal and put him in charge of a platoon of men sometime after the muster date of March 9, 1780 and before April 24, 1781.

South Carolina


( Lefler, Atlas of American History )

The P.W.A.R. was moved out of New York with Lord Rawdon, and was stationed at Charleston, South Carolina in the spring of 1780—even though, when they enlisted they were told they would be used to protect their homelands, and not be moved away to fight for other people’s land. Corporal Ethel Davis was probably with these troops. On board ship, he may have met up with his younger brother, Isaac, and thus have heard that their cousin, John, had deserted the army—taken a “french leave”.

In May of 1780, 5,000 Rebels under General Benjamin Lincoln lost Charlestown to 8,000 British soldiers. A detachment of the P.W.A. regiment was “virtually annihilated at Hanging Rock”, 25 miles north of Camden, SC on August 6, 1780 ( Encyclopedia of the American Revolution ). However, the P.W.A.R. was said to have “rendered good service in the southern campaign, particularly in the battle of Hanging Rock, South Carolina, where they materially assisted in the defeat of Col. Sumpter.” (Raymond, “Loyalists in Arms” ).

Less than two weeks later, “another detachment of the P.W.A.R. was annihilated” through the hit-and-run tactics of guerrilla leader Francis (“Swamp Fox”) Marion at Great Savannah, August 15, 1780 ( Encyclopedia of the American Revolution ).

On August 16, Gates fled with 4,100 Rebel troops without firing a shot, from 2,200 British under Tarleton at the Battle of Camden. Lord Cornwallis held South Carolina and Georgia with 8,000 British. On October 7, 1780, Maj. Patrick Ferguson, leading 1,100 Loyalist troops north, were surrounded by 900 Frontier Riflemen. 200 Loyalists were killed at the Battle of Kings Mountain, South Carolina.

2,500 more British troops arrived from New York on January 2, 1781. They joined Cornwallis at Camden, SC and marched north. But part of Cornwallis’ army lost a battle at Cowpens, S.C., on January 17, 1781 to Rebel troops 600 British were trapped by a fake desertion of rebel troops.

Cornwallis pursued the Rebel army, then under Commander Nathaniel Greene, through North Carolina into Virginia, destroying his own supplies to travel faster. General Daniel Morgan moved the remaining British troops northwards to join Greene in North Carolina. Perhaps Ethel Davis was reluctant to leave his wounded buddies; perhaps he helped to burn the wagons so the Patriots could not use them.

Cornwallis then turned back to Hillsborough, N.C. to regroup his men, and found that only 2,000 were able to fight. Green received reinforcements until he had 1,700 Continental troops and 2,800 militia, and then moved his army south and met Cornwallis. In the Battle of Guilford Court House, the Rebel militia fled. Ethel probably could not have believed they could scare them off so easily! Cornwallis then marched on to Wilmington, NC near the coast; while Greene’s Rebel army went down into South Carolina, where Lord Rawdon commanded 8,000 British troops. They met at Hobkirk’s Hill where the Rebels lost. Rebel forces were defeated again trying to capture the frontier outpost of Ninety-Six, which Rawdon later abandoned.

Muster Location #4: Charlestown

On April 24, 1781 and June 24, 1781, Corporal Ethel Davis was in a company led by Captain Stephen Holland and was “on command”. He may have been away fighting, or on duty.

“Tory Maj. Andrew Maxwell (of Maryland) who surrendered Fort Granby, 1781, May 15, was an officer of this same (P.W.A.R.) regiment, and presumably the garrison included men of the unit”.

In July of 1781, Cornwallis erected fortifications at Yorktown, Virginia. By the end of September, he was attacked with only 7,000 troops by 9,000 Americans and 7,000 French with ships. The British surrendered Yorktown on October 17. On the same day Graves had left New York with 7,000 troops, too late to help Cornwallis.

By July, 1781 the British held only Savannah and Charlestown. Col. Alexander Stuart replaced Lord Rawdon as commander of the British army in the south. Greene met Stuart at the Battle of Eutaw Springs in August, 1781, each with 2,300 men. The British lost and abandoned camp, leaving their supplies. The Rebel Continental troops stopped to celebrate by drinking British rum. Then the British turned and drove them from their camp. The British retreated to hold Charlestown until 1782.

Muster and Inspection Rolls of the Prince of Wales American Volunteers
Commanded by Brigadier General Montfort Browne
Light Infantry Company, Capt John Collett: (Camp near Kings Bridge)

Date Place Line # Rank Name Notes Page Volume
Nov 11, 1777 (near) Kings Bridge #9 (private) Ethel Davis     1895
Dec 24 Kings Bridge #10   Ethel Davis      
Feb 5, 1778 Kings Bridge     Ethel Davis with Col. Pattinson    
Feb 26 Kings Bridge #8   Ethel Davis      
Prince of Wales American Regiment              
Light Infantry Company, Capt. Daniel Lyman:              
Nov 15, 1779 Lloyd’s Neck #8   Ethel Davis      
Dec 25 Lloyd’s Neck #9   Ethel Davis      
Mar 9, 1780 Flushing Fly #6   Ethel Davis     1896
Capt Stephen Holland’s Company:
Apr 24, 1781 Charlestown   Cpl Ethel Davis on command
Jun 24 Charlestown   Cpl Ethel Davis on command
Dec 24 Beaufort   Cpl Ethel Davis
Major Charles McNiells Company:
(Dec 25, 1782)
Feb 24, 1783 New Utrecht   Cpl Ethial Davis 1897
Apr 24     Sgt Ethel Davis
Jun 24     Sgt Ethel Davis   26 1897
Aug 25 to Oct 24     Sgt Ethel Davis by leave in NY 45

Abstract of Sixty-one days pay for the Commissioned Staff and New Commissioned Officers and private men from 25th August to 24th October 1783 inclusive:
Sergeant E. Davis – Discharged – broken period from 25 Aug to 17 Sept, 24 days (pay)
(Transcribed by Frank Davis from British Military & Naval Records.)

Muster Location #5: Beaufort

On December 24, 1781, Corporal Ethel Davis was present at the muster roll at Beaufort, South Carolina, on Port Royal Island, located on the coast between Charlestown and Savannah.

Muster Location #6: New Utrecht.

Savannah and Charlestown were evacuated in the summer of 1782. Ethel probably returned to New York when the British troops left Charleston on December 14, 1782, because he is next listed at New Utrecht, New York on February 24, 1783.

Corporal “Ethial” Davis was in a company under the command of Major Charles McNiell for the pay period of December 25 1782 to February 24, 1783. Three miles east of New Utrecht, at the start of Kings Highway, Hessian soldiers were housed. The Hessians were soldiers that the King of England had rented from a kingdom of Germany. They were known by their tall hats. 22,000 were sent to the British colonies, mainly from the highlands of central Germany.

Perhaps Ethel Davis recognized an older man working on some military boots. At some point Ethel visited the Hubbards at Gravesend, near his barracks, and there met another soldier, Christian Klingsher, also visiting the Hubbard family. Christian Klingsher married Margaret Hubbard’s sister Christine, and become Ethel Davis’s brother-in-law.

For the period between December 25, 1782, and February 24, 1783, Ethial Davis is listed as one of his companies three corporals. He was the only one to turn out for the muster call on February 24; one corporal, James Clark, was sick, and the other was dead.

The spring of 1783 was particularly cold and wet, with heavy rains lasting from mid-May to mid-July. Sometime before April 24, Ethel was promoted to become one of four sergeants in Major Neil McNeil’s light infantry company, in command of soldiers in the P.W.A.R. The uniform for a sergeant had a scarlet coat, but with blue lapels and green facing, like that of a private or a corporal.

Neil McNeil became Commander of a Company of 28 Loyalists claiming land on Long Island, N.S. He lived at Cow Ledge, Freeport till 1790, when he was called to Digby to be the first collector of Customs, Import & Excise.

Muster Location: Not Specified

Sergeant Ethel Davis was on duty for muster calls of 1783 on April 24, and June 24, 1783.


A Plan of the City of New York, after 1777.

During the pay period of August 25 to October 24, Sergeant Ethel Davis is recorded as “by leave in NY”.
Also he was “Discharged — broken period from 25 Aug to 17 Sept. —24 days (pay)”.
Possibly at the muster call of August 24, one of his officers heard of Ethial Davis’ marriage of August 17 and immediately gave him three weeks off.
Then on 20 Sept, he is getting supplies on a British vessel frigate Clinton.

On Sept. 18 the vessel was located at East River, and moved to “off Staten Island” on 27 Sept.
184 people were named as receiving supplies on the 20 Sept. 1783. The Hubbard family, with newlywed sergeant Davis, were included in the lists as follows:

list number Name age
Men 48. Ethel Davison
  49. Adam Hubbert
Women 94. Christ’na Davison
  95. Christ’na Hubbert
Children >10 149. Jacob Hubbert 13
  150. Fred’k Hubbert 11
<10 28. Eliz’th Hubbert 4

On 27 September, Sailing vessel HMS Clinton had 187 “Supernumeraries” at Staten Island.
Davis & Hubbard probably were loaded at East River, NewYork, before the vessel loaded more people at Staten Island.

The 28 September, 1783 at New York [ “off Stasen Island” ], victuals were given to another 229 people.

Commander-in-Chief of New York, Guy Carleton, who had been a colonel in the capture of Quebec and the governor of Quebec, declared to the rebels that he would not evacuate New York until the Loyalists left for safety. Loyalist refugees left New York in three fleets: the spring, June, and fall of 1783.

In the first fleet, led by Admiral Digby, Carleton packed 6,000 Loyalists onto 44 ships which left Long Island New York for Shelburne on April 27, 1783. It was scattered by a storm, and ended their voyages in Shelburne, Digby and Saint John.

Ethel Davis and the Hubbards departed New York for Quebec in the third fleet. Ethel probably planned to travel with his in-laws to Quebec where Adam Hubbard, as member of the K.R.R.N.Y. had a land claim, rather than settling with his own P.W.A.R. regiment in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

The Hubbards were among the last New York refugees to leave. They left in the third fleet of evacuees from New York early October 1783.

Vessel Clinton left NY after 27 Sept. and before the 6 Oct. Supplies issued 20 and 28 Sept. HMS Clinton was at sea 6 Oct.

Margaret Davis later stated:”... and when the Loyalists left New York, Oct. 1783, we took passage in the frigate Clinton, ...”. A frigate was a warship with 28-60 guns on the main deck.

HMS Clinton muster of Oct. 6, and Oct. 13, while “at sea” had 384 “Supernumeraries”. (see: Appendix A for list)

Ethel Davis in muster of 24 Oct. while at sea on the vessel Clinton. Refugees discharged 26 Oct.1783 at Port Roseway.

Britt, “The Loyalists”, National Geographic
Davis, Frank, “Muster Table HMS Clinton, 1783” (Appendix A)
Loyalist Gazette, Vol.XXXIX, No.2, Fall 2001, p.23.
Magee, Loyalist Mosaic: A Multi-Ethnic Heritage
Wright, Blue Guide to New York
Raymond, “Loyalists in Arms: A.D. 1775- 1783”*
Boatner, “P.W.A.R.” Encyclopedia of the American Revolution
Ultan, Legacy of the Revolution: The Valentine-Varian House