Willard, Abijah

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Ann Gorman Condon, “WILLARD, ABIJAH,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 4, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/willard_abijah_4E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Army officer and office-holder; b. 27 July 1724 at Lancaster, Massachusetts, second son of Samuel Willard; m. 2 Dec. 1747 Elizabeth Prescott of Groton, secondly in 1752 Anna Prentice of Lancaster, and thirdly in 1772 Mary, widow of John McKown of Boston; d. 28 May 1789 in Saint John, New Brunswick.
    • After the battle of Lexington, in April 1775, he offered his services to the British army and was commissioned a captain in the first company of the Loyal American Associates. When the British evacuated Boston in March 1776, Willard accompanied the troops to Halifax and then to New York.
    • Signed the controversial petition of the Fifty-Five Associated Loyalists. This petition, in which the signatories requested special grants of 5,000 acres in Nova Scotia for themselves, was bitterly resented by other loyalists, and the fact that Willard’s was the first signature made him particularly vulnerable to criticism. The British government did not agree with this criticism; the claims commissioners pointedly praised Willard’s scrupulous handling of his wartime accounts and granted him compensation of £2, 912 as well as a yearly pension of £150. In addition, he was appointed to the Executive Council of the new province of New Brunswick, a post he held until his death.
  • Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=9091
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/199899524/abijah-willard