Darby, Benjamin

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

  • Benjamin Darby, a native of Devonshire, England emigrated to Rhode Island possibly during the Seven Year’s War. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War he joined the Loyalist forces and served throughout the War as a scout in Rogers’ Rangers, carrying dispatches from General Howe to Sir Guy Carleton, from New York to Montreal.
  • Benjamin Darby was registered in Newburg, New York, where he and his wife were members of St. George’s Episcopal Church. The family at this time consisted of Benjamin, his wife and two daughters. Two sons had died in their youth.
  • Family tradition has it that on learning that Washington’s soldiers were marching on Newburg the family hastened to escape, taking the mother and new-born baby from a sick bed. Such was their haste, they left the dinner cooking on the stove. Mrs. Darby and the baby died on the voyage to Saint John, New Brunswick and were buried at sea. The father and his two daughters first settled at Grand Lake in Queen’s County, New Brunswick.
  • Benjamin Darby was one of fifty-five Loyalists of the town of Gagetown who in 1785 presented a petition to Thomas Carleton, Esquire, Captain General and Governor in Chief of the Province of New Brunswick. They stated that since their arrival on the River St. John in 1783 they had no place to call their home. The town of Grimross near the center of Gage Township, one mile from the main river, had been surveyed and laid out with its bounds and privileges. Accordingly there were seventy-two lots given to as many as assembled at the Draught but not all had received title to their grants and were loath to clear and make further improvements fearing their labour would be in vain.
  • Apparently Benjamin was not satisfied with conditions at Grimross, so, along with two other Loyalists, John Foy and his future son-in-law, John Welling, he proceeded to the Island of Saint John, accompanied by his two daughters and his second wife, Sarah Bremble, a Loyalist widow. The Bremble girls, possibly four in number, came with their mother but soon married and established homes of their own.
  • At the peace, Darby had been placed on the half pay list of Rogers Rangers. The Governor gave him a Commission in the Island Fencible Corps but in 1786 permitted him to sell out and return to half pay. From Governor Fanning he received a grant of 500 acres of land in Lot 17. The date of Instrument was July 30, 1794, and the date of Registry was February 25, 1795. On one side it was situated the Daniel Green property, and on the other side that of George Linkletter.