Hardcover Edition Book-on-CD Edition

• Prologue


• Acknowledgment


• PART ONE: GERMANY
  • I The Palatinate on the Rhine
    • Table I: Locations of Schweitzers, Imbergers, Hacks and Lorentzes before 1710
    • Table II: Descent of John and David Dulmage from Johan Adam Dolmetsch
    • Table III: Descent of John Lawrence from John Lorentz
  • II Exodus and Encampments
    • Table IV: Encamped at Blackheath, May to August 1709
• PART TWO: IRELAND
  • I The Palatine Colony on the Southwell Estate
    • Table V: Original Palatine Families on Southwell Estate
  • II Childhood in Ballingrane Table VI: Youths born on the Estate who were later in Camden Valley, N.Y.
  • III Before the Wesleyans Came
  • IV "Ireland Will Repay"
  • V "Her Habitual Resource"
  • VI "Have Landlords No Common Sense?"
  • Table VII: Passengers on the Ship Pery
• PART THREE: NEW YORK CITY
  • I Environment and Private Lives
  • II Petitions and Political Upheaval
  • III Making Friends and Building a Chapel
• PART FOUR: CAMDEN VALLEY
  • I Caught Between Yankees and Yorkers
  • II Clearings, Cabins, Crops and Commissions
  • III "My Partners Insisted on my Writing"
  • IV Tragedy in the Valley
  • Table VIII: School-age Children in Camden Valley 1773
  • V Community Changes and "A Continual State of Alarm"
• PART FIVE: FATEFUL DECISION
  • I "Treated With Additional Severity"
  • II "He Collected His Loyal Friends"
  • III Separation
  • IV With Burgoyne's Campaign
  • V After the Battle
  • VI Displaced Persons
  • VII "Leake's Corps Being Dispersed"
• PART SIX: "UPON THE GROUND ALLOTTED FOR THEM"
  • I Montreal and Mississquoi Bay
  242
  • II Bay of Quinte
  253
  • III Augusta Township
  • Table IX: Hecks, Lawrences and Dulmages in Augusta and Edwardsburgh 1785
  • IV Bay of Quinte Chapels and a Schoolmaster for the Mohawks
  • V The Significant Seventeen-Nineties
  • VI Farewells and Memorials
  • VII The. Excellent of the Earth
• EPILOGUE
• APPENDICES
  • A Family Origins and Traditions
  • B A Tantalizing Tradition
  • C Background on Carscallens
  • D Was the Palatine Colony in County Limerick a Success?
  • E Letter from Thomas Bell to John Wesley, 1769
  • F Dulmages in Jamaica
  • G Abraham Bininger's Accusation
  • H Churches in the U.S.A. Named for Philip Embury
  • I Some Canadian Members of Parliament Descended from Camden Valley Families
  • J Marriages of Daughters and Granddaughters
• NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX

This is a fascinating tale that weaves together the stories of fourteen families identified in the Camden Valley, New York area, who became United Empire Loyalists. All but one of the families were Palatine immigrants from Ireland.

The book itself is divided into six sections. The first describes the migration from Palatine in April 1709 to England then to the estates of Sir Thomas Southwell in Co. Limerick, Ireland. The second section talks about the development and prosperity of the colony in Co. Limerick and most significantly, its exposure to the preaching of Rev. John Wesley. Philip Embury and Barbara Heck, founders of American Methodism, were both born in Ballingrane, Co. Limerick and were among those converted by Wesley.

Members of the colony migrated to North America in 1756 and by 1760 were in New York. Section three deals with the time in the city of New York and the building of the first Methodist Church. The process of petitioning for land and the subsequent grant in the Camden Valley are described.

Sections four and five look at the migration and settlement in the Camden Valley and how impending war affected their actions. The settlers were caught in the Revolutionary War, fighting as Loyalist as part of Burgoyne’s campaign and in subsequent activities. The last section deals with the Loyalist settlements in Montreal, Mississiquoi Bay and the Bay of Quinte and tells how the settlers came to own their own land. The spread of Methodism by these families into Canada is interwoven into the life stories described here.

Throughout the book, the details of the individual families come together into historical context: a war in Europe, A migration to England, Ireland, American and finally Canada. The story includes conversions to Methodism and the subsequent construction of the first Methodist Church in North America. The individual details are not all footnoted, but there are plenty of original and secondary sources to further explore family connections. This is a fine example, worthy of emulation, of integrating family history into the larger historical context

Review by Paul Milner, Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS), Forum magazine