Young, David

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

  • DAVID YOUNG is remembered by his descendants as “Soldier Dave”, who fought in the American Revolution and in the Battle of Waterloo. Be this as it may, it is known that David Young was born in 1759 in Ecclefechan, Parish of Hoddam, a village in the Scottish County of Dumfries, that is known as the birthplace of Thomas Carlyle of Sartor Resartus fame. For five years he served as a non-commissioned officer in the 25th Regiment of the North British Fusiliers, which came to the Island of Saint John through Shelbourne in 1785 when David Young was twenty-five years old. Governor Paterson, in his initial burst of generosity to the Loyalists, granted him two hundred acres of land on Lot 56, but “in the midst of uncultivated woods and above eight miles from any settlement”. As the others granted land in this wilderness left, so did David Young, who then settled in Three Rivers, now Georgetown, where Governor Fanning granted him “Lot 3 in the second range of Pasture Lot 52” in October, 1787 and encourged him “not (to) take up that grant” in Lot 56 in hopes of something better turning up later. He was further assigned Lot 4, Letter H, and pasture Lot 22 from James Mason in 1789. It was from Georgetown, in 1822, that he petitioned on the 27th August that he be granted either the original two hundred acres or a similar amount of land elsewhere. But, as he hadn’t settled on his original land grant, and as the first flush of enthusiasm for the Loyalists had waned, he was refused.
  • David Young was married to Elizabeth Rae, also from the Parish of Hoddam, and apparently the sister of Margaret Rae, wife of John Wightman of Wightman’s Point, Lot 59, and possibly the sister of Alexander Rae, another Loyalist, who petitioned in 1841 for the rights of the Loyalist claimants. David and Elizabeth had a number of children.