Green, Daniel

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

  • DANIEL GREEN was born in Pennsylvania about 1757. His parents belonged to the Society of Friends, — commonly called Quakers. His grandfather is claimed to have been among the group of Quakers who came from England in 1682 with William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania.
    The Quakers had been persecuted in England on account of their religion, and those who came to America had hoped to be able to live there peaceably, in accordance with their belief in toleration and non-violence.
  • Although to take up arms was contrary to Quaker teaching, they were also taught to be loyal to the king. Consequently, when the American Revolution broke out into actual combat at Lexington, Massachusetts, — which was early in the morning of April 19, 1775, — Daniel Green was one who fought on the side of the King. He was imprisoned at Concord by the Rebels.
    The next information we have of Daniel Green is that he married Martha Oat, daughter of George and Sarah Oat, by a license issued June 7, 1776, in the Province of Pennsylvania. Martha was born in April, 1756. Their first child, George, was born in New York in 1780. Their second child was born at sea off the coast of New Brunswick, near St. John, on May 4, 1783, on board the sailing vessel, Spencer. They named the child Spencer, after the ship.
    At that time, Daniel and Martha, with these two children, were among the many Loyalists who were on their way to Canada, to find a new home.
    We get a glimpse of them, and the difficulties they experienced, in Robert Allan Rankin’s book, Down At The Shore:
    “Daniel petitioned for land that year and was directed to take his family and settle upon ‘…any vacant lands he could discover and improve upon…’. The Greens proceeded up the St. John River and put down stakes on desolate, uncultivated Musquash Island. There they erected a house and ‘…cleared and improved a considerable piece of land.’