My 5th great grandfather John Adair (1759 – 1812) was the son of David & Abigail Adair, Loyalists from Pencarder Hundred, Delaware. Loyalists believed strongly that the Stamp Act and the Coercive Act would not benefit the lives of the early Americans but felt that a peaceful means to resolve these issues was the better way. They also felt independence would mean a loss of economic benefits in the British mercantile system. Life for the Loyalists was not easy. The Adairs had their property confiscated so they moved to New Jersey.
At age 18, on 4 April 1777, John enlisted in Lt. Col. Joseph Barton’s Company, 5th Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers. Between October and December of 1780 John was captured and kept a prisoner of war in a coal mine. At the end of the war in 1783 he was paroled to a restricted, select area of New Jersey and was not allowed to enter British territory until 1795. At that time, John and his wife, Phoebe (née Mills), joined John’s parents in Clinton Township. (Upper Canada, later Ontario). Land grants were given by the crown to the Loyalists. He petitioned for and acquired land in Clinton Township on 6 July 1795. He succeeded his father as clerk of Clinton Township from 1806 to 1812.
John enlisted with the 4th Lincoln Regiment during the War of 1812. In a war that as many men died from disease as from bullets, John Adair died of disease on 18 December 1812 at the army camp at Niagra-on-the-Lake.
Ginny's Genealogy Gems 
Interesting story – some of the Loyalists left great accounts of their histories in the petitions for land in Canada.
Did you find evidence that your man’s or his family’s lands were confiscated in 1777 due to Loyalist activities? Did you find legislation authorizing this confiscation? Did you locate a deed recording sale of their lands in Pencader Hundred?
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I am still searching for that information. I have read up on the history of the loyalists from the Pencader Hundred area. It seems that only about 50 loyalists had their property confiscated but I haven’t found the specific records yet.
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In the process of acquiring data about my ancestors and kin in Sussex County, the first data I noticed regarding action against Loyalists began in 1778. One noted Loyalist, evidently seeing something on the horizon, sold his land before it was confiscated.
Like many areas, and perhaps more than most, in Delaware Rebels and Loyalists were living side by side, and the Loyalists were often wealthy and influential.
In the event you have not looked up data around your relatives’ petition(s) for Canadian land and surrounding information, blogger Randy Seaver (Genea-Musings) had a really great step-by-step post a couple of months ago about looking up his own relative’s Canadian land grant data. This material can be really rich.
Also, Ancestry.com recently uploaded many deeds books for Delaware — but not all of them. I have not had an occasion for in-depth research in Kent or New Castle counties, so do not have a sense as to which ones are indexed and which are missing. For Sussex county, several of the 18th-century deeds books were not uploaded. Unfortunately, when lands were seized by the government, if it was later resold the deeds were not indexed by the former owners.
I wish you success, and hope you will post findings.
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Thanks for the leads. I will check out the blog on the Canadian land grants. I have tried to follow that without much success. It was actually John’s father David who would have applied from New Castle County. John was living in New Jersey when he applied for a land grant. If I find something I will post the finding.
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