Leonard, George

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Ann Gorman Condon, “LEONARD, GEORGE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/leonard_george_6E.html
  • DCB profile:
    • Office holder, politician, militia officer, and agricultural improver; b. November 1742 in Plymouth, Mass., son of the Reverend Nathaniel Leonard and Priscilla Rogers; d. 1 April 1826 in Sussex Vale (Sussex Corner), N.B.
    • Of the fifth generation of his family to live in Massachusetts, George Leonard pursued a conventional existence until the American revolution. He established himself as a “corn and flour” merchant in Boston, clearing £800 annually before the war; he married Sarah Thatcher of Boston on 14 Oct. 1765 and began a family of ten children.
    • Leonard asserted that he “opposed the riotous proceedings in Boston from the earliest period,” and with his childhood friend and fellow loyalist Edward Winslow he served under Lord Hugh Percy in the battle at Lexington in April 1775. From then until the end of the war and beyond, Leonard’s fate was inextricably linked with the loyalist cause.
    • Leonard participated in the siege of Boston, serving in Abijah Willard’s company, and in March 1776 was evacuated with the British troops to Halifax. That summer he was present at the British capture of New York City, and in the spring of 1778 he was with the troops in Rhode Island. His most conspicuous service in the war was his command of a small fleet of vessels which raided seacoast towns from southeastern Massachusetts to Long Island Sound in the summer of 1779.
    • In 1780 Leonard went to England in hopes of receiving compensation for his expenses and of obtaining a pension and other employment in the loyalist cause. There he impressed the secretary of state for the American colonies, Lord George Germain, with a proposal to establish a Board of Associated Loyalists in New York, which could organize additional loyalist offensive excursions on a large scale. The board was formed with Leonard and other loyalist worthies as directors, but the British commanders took little advantage of this new force.
    • Like so many loyalists quartered in New York, Leonard resolved to move his family to “the asylum pointed out for the Kings Friends” in the northern British colonies. They arrived at the future Parrtown (Saint John) with the “spring fleet” in 1783 and Leonard was soon made a director of the town, charged with the distribution of town lots. He took this duty seriously; indeed, he seemed to consider himself a guardian of the new settlement whose views on its development must prevail. Leonard’s energy and talent were valuable assets in the wilderness, but his self-righteousness antagonized many.
  • Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=4650
  • Finda a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/187921359/george-leonard