Welch, Thomas

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Daniel J. Brock, “WELCH (Walsh, Welsh), THOMAS,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/welch_thomas_5E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Surveyor, office holder, militia officer, and judge; b. 5 Nov. 1742 in Maryland, son of Francis Welch and Elizabeth Pierce; m. first in 1769 a Miss Johnson; m. secondly 11 May 1788 Mary (Polly) Mitchell in Harford County, Md, and they had two children; d. 2 July 1816 in Charlotteville Township, Upper Canada
    • In February 1775 Welch refused reappointment as deputy surveyor and coroner and later declined a commission in the revolutionary forces. Fearing for his safety on the outbreak of hostilities, he conveyed his farm to a friend and made his way to the British lines. In October 1778 he was commissioned quartermaster of the Maryland Loyalists. The unit was stationed at Pensacola (Fla) for three years, during which time he also served as assistant engineer. The Spanish captured Pensacola in May 1781; the British prisoners were exchanged in July and then sent to New York City, where Welch learned of his wife’s death.
    • At New York Welch was appointed captain of a company of loyalist refugees which he accompanied to what is now New Brunswick. He was soon named a deputy surveyor and may also have been engaged as a conveyancer. He received a grant of 550 acres of land, only 25 of which he considered cultivable.
    • After residing in New Brunswick and Quebec for nearly five years, he decided to return to Maryland to look after his affairs there. En route he was shipwrecked and lost all his possessions, including the deed to 1,000 acres in Florida which he had purchased while stationed there. With the aid of friends he eventually made his way back to Frederick County where he resumed his former professions; soon after, he moved to Havre de Grace, remarried, and became manager of the Legh Furnace, an ironworks owned by an old business associate, Legh Master. He was, however, advised that generous grants of land were being made to loyalists who settled in Upper Canada.
    • In mid September 1793 Welch left Maryland with his family and several members of his wife’s family, arriving at Queenston, Upper Canada, in November. He was appointed a deputy surveyor in Lincoln County and became a captain in the local militia. In June 1794 he was granted 2,500 acres in Lincoln; he moved to the vicinity of the Sugar Loaf in Humberstone Township and subsequently to Thorold Township.
  • United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=8905
  • Find a GRAVE: Cannot locate.