Jessup, Edward

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: R. Arthur Bowler, “JESSUP, EDWARD,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/jessup_edward_5E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Army officer, land speculator, judge, office holder, and militia officer; b. either 4 or 24 Dec. 1735 in the parish of Stamford, Conn., son of Joseph Jessup and Abigail James; m. 1760 Abigail Dibble, and they had two children; d. 3 Feb. 1816 in Prescott, Upper Canada.
    • About 1764 Edward and his brother Ebenezer moved to Albany. There they formed a partnership, and over the next decade the two engaged in land speculation on a grand scale in the upper Hudson and Lake George areas. In their speculations they were no doubt aided by their close relationship with Sir William Johnson and John Butler. The brothers eventually established a community, with mills and a ferry, about ten miles above Glen Falls on the Hudson. This settlement, which became known as Jessup’s Landing, was a focus of loyalism in the years just before the revolution, and when Sir Guy Carleton succeeded in driving the American forces out of the province of Quebec in the summer of 1776 the Jessups led a party of some 80 loyalists to join him at Crown Point (N.Y.).
    • The Jessup party was first attached to Sir John Johnson’s King’s Royal Regiment of New York, but on 7 June 1777 the King’s Loyal Americans corps was tentatively established with Ebenezer as lieutenant-colonel and Edward as captain. Although the corps was not fully formed, the Jessup brothers took part in John Burgoyne’s campaign, with Edward as commander of the bateaux service on the Hudson. Both Edward and Ebenezer were taken prisoner in the Saratoga campaign but were paroled and allowed to make their way to Quebec.
    • With the war lost, Jessup began in the summer of 1783 to plan the resettlement of his corps and was one of those who proposed the Ottawa River and the upper St Lawrence for that purpose. Although his proposal for structured settlements based on military rank was rejected, Haldimand incorporated a number of his other ideas into the plan finally adopted. In that plan Jessup’s Rangers were allotted townships No.6 (Edwardsburg), No.7 (Augusta), and part of No.8 (Elizabethtown), all on the St Lawrence, as well as No.2 (Ernestown), west of Cataraqui (Kingston). Jessup spent the summer of 1784 supervising the settlement of his men on their new lands.
    • In the post-war years Jessup resumed his career as a land speculator. As a loyalist and a major he was entitled to considerable land beyond his 1,200 acres.
  • Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=4212
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/131407610/edward-jessup