Acorn, Private John

From: An Island Refuge- Loyalists and Disbanded Troops on The Island of Saint John, The Abegweit Branch of UELAC, 1983

JOHN ACORN was born at Broad Bay (Waldoboro) Maine, in 1761. His grandfather was Matthias Eichorn, who had emigrated from Germany c. 1740. It has been presumed that John was the son of Matthias, who died when John was in his early teens. After the death of his father, John was raised by his grandparents, Matthias and Margaret. During the American Revolution, John served for three and one half years in Robert Rogers’ Kings Rangers—3rd Battalion.
He came to the Island of St. John in May of 1782 with Capt. Samuel Hayden, and was one of the group of these soldiers who chose to remain here. These men were promised the same treatment as the loyal refugees from the United States. Apparently they did receive the same treatment, which as we all know, was not what they had expected. In 1833, John Acorn was one whose testimony before the Commission on the Loyalist situation was published in the minutes of the Legislative Assembly. By order in council dated 18 April 1784, John Acorn was to receive a grant of one hundred acres at Orwell Point. The Orwell Point land was never deeded, but John did receive a deed to one hundred acres of land in Vernon River in 1788, from Governor Patterson. Acorn testified that the reason Patterson gave him the land in Vernon River was that he wished Acorn to remain on Prince Edward Island and start a mill.