William married Mary DURHAM on 3 Mar 1830. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Isaac served during the Revolutionary War with the British Army. For his
services, he was granted 1200 acres of land in Pelham Township and Niagara
Township. He lived in Queens ton, where he was Inspector of Customs for
the Niagara District. He was also a member of the Legislature of Upper
Canada from 1792-96, 1801-1808, and 1813-1820. He also served in the War of
1812 in charge of Provincial Royal Artillery drivers. Afterwards, he was a
Colonel in the First Lincoln Regiment.

ISAAC SWAYZE
[b.1751 - d.1828]

History records the crimes, follies and misfortunes of humanity.

Isaac Swayze, a noted British secret agent during the American Revolution, was elected member for the 3rd Riding of Lincoln in the Assembly in Upper Canada's first Legislature. According to Lord Dorchester, Swayze also served as a scout for the British army in New York and was known as "the pilot to the New York army."

His services for the 'Tories' and the King made him a marked man in the rebellious colonies and he had many narrow escapes. On one occasion he was concealed in a cellar when Americans broke into the house. Failing to find him the frustrated rebels wounded his younger brother whose blood dripped down on Isaac secluded in the cellar below.

Called a "spy" by his enemies of whom he had many, Swayze was badly wounded and twice made prisoner during the war. On the first occasion he was sentenced to death. While awaiting execution was visited by his wife. Tradition has it that he exchanged clothes with her and so escaped. He eluded his captors by slipping out a side door silent as a ghost except for the faint jingle of his spurs and fled with a $5,000 reward on his head. Swayze led a troubled life and suspicions of criminality swirled about the man for most of his existence. Described as a spry man with a swarthy, sandy complexion, Swayze was 5 ft. 8 or 9 in. tall and had a bullet scar on one temple. Prior to coming to Niagara he had been arrested on a robbery charge and was released on condition that he leave town immediately.

The Swayze family emigrated from Germany in the early 17th century and eventually settled in Morris county, New Jersey, where Isaac was born in 1751. Isaac came to Niagara in 1784 and settled at St. Davids. After his house was destroyed by fire in the war of 1812, Swayze is thought to have lived for a time in Thorold on land which is now part of Brock University. Fellow settlers doubted his loyalty, but he successfully proved his allegiance and was granted land as a Loyalist. He was married three times to Bethia Luce, Sarah Secord and Lena Ferris.

In the first Legislature Swayze had the reputation as something of a radical and was considered by the conservatives as a leader of the common people. He claimed to have the confidence of the "farmers and the general classes" because he had their interests at heart. When he was scorned and criticized by the Tories, he said it was because of his "integrity that shafts of malice were hurled at him by those who "ranked themselves high." Swayze led the popular fight against the wording of deeds which some people feared would prohibit the sale of their land.

Times were tense in the exposed little colony because of fears of republicanism from both France and the United States. For this reason anyone at all critical of the government for any reason was suspected of subversive activity. For his rebellious behaviour, Swayze was charged and tried as "an Exciter of Sedition." He was convicted and fined 10 pounds and forced to find sureties for good behaviour for two years. His light penalty was probably indicative of the fact that Swayze's criticism of the government was thought to be due more to personal disgruntlement than traitorous thinking. Despite his conviction Swayze later received a commission as justice of the peace.

Swayze was not elected to the second parliament, but campaigned in earnest for election in 1800 to the third. Prominent merchants led by Robert Hamilton of Queenston advocated financing extensive and costly improvements to the Niagara portage by levying higher charges for their goods. This caused widespread anger and opposition and Swayze emerged as leader of this group. He opposed the powerful commercial leaders of the province and won. He supported legislation favourable to small merchants, farmers, Loyalists and small office holders.

During one election campaign, Swayze became the centre of a controversy when he was accused of having been a horse thief. In spite of this accusation, he was elected. Even after his election the allegations continued in the columns of the Niagara Herald. Swayze sued the paper and the accusations stopped. By the time he was elected for the riding of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Lincoln in 1804, Swayze had become considerably more conservative. In fact, he had established a reputation as a rabid anti-republican. The reformer had suddenly become a conformist, and before long he found himself within the circles of power. However, his former allies discovered that his support had a price.

Swayze still attracted trouble. When he was appointed inspector of 'shop, still and tavern licences' for the Niagara District, he reported that three men had broken into his house and stolen 500 pounds in licence fees. He petitioned the Assembly to be excused from restoring the money, but when his story of the theft was met with outright suspicion, he quickly withdrew his petition. Swayze's son repaid the licence money in four annual installments after his father's death.

Swayze became a `hatchet' man and tackled with relish the dirty work of politics. He chaired a committee which found an opposing member's language "false, slanderous and highly derogatory" for which the member was jailed. In return the member pressed for Swayze's prosecution for circulating counterfeit bank notes. To ingratiate himself with the establishment, Swayze named his first son Francis Gore Swayze after the lieutenant-governor and his second son, William Dickson Swayze after an important personage in Upper Canada society.

At the outbreak of the War of 1812 Swayze was appointed captain of a troop of men he raised called the Royal Artillery Drivers. The appointment of this famous or infamous individual appeared to be of great interest to the Americans, one of whom reported on it as he carefully observed British preparations for war taking place across the river. "The noted Isaac Swayze has received a captain's commission for the flying artillery of which they have a number of pieces." Despite resigning his command at a crucial moment during the war, he was cited as deserving of "the greatest credit for his indefatigable exertions." After the Battle of Queenston Heights, he was mentioned in dispatches for his daring. When Niagara was burned by retreating Americans in 1813, Swayze lost his house valued by him at 200 pounds. Many of his war claims were returned to him marked "Not Allowed" in red ink because there was a strong suspicion that Swayze, characteristically, was attempting to get more than his due.

Following the war Swayze resumed his role as a dependable government gofer and hater of republicanism. When the Assembly moved to question Governor Gore about the disbursement of a 2,500 pound civil list, Swayze voted against calling him to account. He also opposed taxing "wild lands," a measure directed against absentee landlords, many of whom were government officials. Swayze was a stooge of the executive government and became the eyes and ears of civil authorities in the Niagara peninsula. He became a vocal opponent of reformer Robert Gourlay, an outspoken critic of the government, whose attempts to get information from settlers for an 'Immigrant Guidebook' were thought to be tantamount to treason. Swayze's allegations against Gourlay were carefully framed to fit the provisions of the Sedition Act. Swayze swore before the legislature that Gourlay was "an evil-minded and seditious person" and he promised the governor's secretary that Gourlay would soon be "in safe keeping or sent across the river." Swayze also informed on the editor of the Niagara Spectator for printing Gourlay's article titled, "Gagged, Gagged, by Jingo!"[See Below *]

Swayze was quite prepared to perjure himself to please the circles of power into which he wished to be accepted. He became a fanatical anti-democrat who spent the rest of his life doing the unpleasant tasks of others.

Swayze himself narrowly escaped prosecution for the murder of a man named William Morgan who had threatened to disclose the secrets of Freemasonry and then mysteriously disappeared. It was determined that Swayze, who was a Freemason, had nothing to do with the disappearance despite having boasted about it. Morgan's disappearance was never satisfactorily explained.

Amazed that such a rascal could regularly be re-elected, Gourlay asked the question, "How could such a man as Isaac Swayze be elected and repeatedly elected?" He answered his own question. "Swayze covered all the stains upon his character with hypocrisy." Whatever his formula for electoral success, it failed to work in 1820 when Swayze, "the puppet of executive influence," was soundly defeated. It was his final political campaign. He retired from the fray after the election and spent the last years of his life quietly as a member of the Presbyterian church and proprietor of the Niagara Library. He died near Niagara in 1828.

[*] When the Legislature passed a law "to prevent certain meetings within this province," Gourlay wrote an article of protest which he titled, 'Gagg'd, Gagg'd by Jingo.'
"Dear sweet Canada! Thou art gagg'd at last,
A babe of mighty Wellington, come o'er the sea,
Has, with thy own foul fingers, gagg'd thee."

http://www.uppercanadahistory.ca/ucfel/ucfel3.html viewed July 7, 2015

Swayze, Isaac

On 1 Sep 1797 The Crown granted a patent to Isaac Swayze for all 220 acres in Lots 38, 39 and Broken Lot 38 Thorold Twp.

On 5 Apr 1818 (Reg 10 Feb 1819) Israel Swayze sold to John Darling 100 acres in Lot 79 Thorold Twp. (A110 #5534)

https://sites.google.com/site/niagarasettlers2/thorold-3 viewed July 7, 2015

Isaac married Lena (Eleanor) FERRIS on 18 Sep 1806. Lena was born about 1777 in New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Caleb Swayze
Little is known about Caleb Swayze Sr., except that he lived in Morris County, New Jersey and that he was a Loyalist. After the Revolutionary War, he came to Canada with his wife Elizabeth and his son Isaac and his family. He died in 1794 at the age of 72.
His eldest son, Caleb, Jr., also served as a Loyalist, working for the British in the Revolutionary War, and became a wanted man. The following account from September 1782 describes the events leading up to his death.
Last Thursday morning, a person in the neighbourhood of Battle Hill, near the Great Swamp, being early up, discovered two armed men pass by, one of which he supposed to be Caleb Sweezy jun, late an inhabitant of Black River, but who had joined the enemy, and having many connections in this country who harbored him, was enabled by their information and assistance to commit several atrocious robberies, which required the governor to offer $200 reward for apprehending him. The person who saw them pass gave information, when Captain Carter and his officers, with 10 of their men, took the necessary steps for the apprehending them, and knowing the propinquity between Isaac Badgley’s wife and Sweezy, sent a person to lay in ambush near said Badgley’s house to be a spy upon their conduct, and if possible find out their lurking place - when he saw Badgley’s wife carry victuals into the swamp twice. Being thus fully informed, the party entered the swamp some miles from Badgley’s house, to prevent the least alarm being given, and proceeded within a few rods of the house (placing sentinels as they passed, at the avenues it was supposed they would endeavour to make their escape through), when they suddenly came upon them: and being unprepared for defence, the flints being out of their pistols, they endeavoured to make their escape by flight, - when Sweezy received the fire of one of the sentinels, which put a period to his existence in a few minutes. The other one, John Parr, who was concerned in the robbery of Mt. Stewart’s house at Hackettstown, was slightly wounded, and taken, and is now confined in Morristown jail.
The three sons of Caleb Jr., Caleb, Richard and Samuel, went as refugees to Upper Canada where, being sons of a Loyalist, received a grant of land of up to 500 acres.
The second son of Caleb Sr., Isaac, served as a guide with the British army during the Revolutionary War. He fought through many of the battles from 1776 to 1780, and was greatly hated by the rebels. He was finally taken prisoner, and sentenced to be shot. On the eve of his execution his wife came on horseback to the prison and asked for permission to see him one more time: her wish was granted. She was a large woman and, during the private interview, she hastily dressed in her husband’s clothes and he in hers. Then, mounting her horse, Isaac made his escape. She was held prisoner, and he never saw her again. He was unable to find out what had happened to her, but believed she was killed either by the rebels or by the Indians. Isaac was one of the early settlers on the Niagara frontier. In 1794 he petitioned for land as a Loyalist and was granted 1,200 acres for his loyalty and his losses. He was also given land in Niagara Township, and later lived at Queenston where he was Inspector of Customs. He served as a member of the Legislature of Upper Canada for 20 years, from 1792 to 1796, 1801 to 1808 and 1813 to 1820. During the War of 1812 he was a captain in charge of a Troop of Provincial Royal Artillery Drivers. He died in 1828, aged 77 years.
Caleb Swazey Sr’s eldest daughter Susanna was born in December 13, 1760 in Roxbury Township, Morris County, New Jersey. On September 7, 1778 in Morris County, New Jersey, she married Anthony Sharp and they came to Upper Canada after the war.. On August 20, 1811 she was granted land by order‑in‑council as she was “the daughter of Caleb Swayze, a United Empire Loyalist”. She died on July 28, 1858 and is buried in the Garner Cemetery at the corner of Southcote Road and Garner Road. She is Adam’s fifth great grandmother.
submitted by John A. Hammill UE

http://uel-hamilton.com/2011/12/20/caleb-swayze/ viewed July 1, 2013

Caleb married Elizabeth PITNEY in 1744 in Roxbury, Morris, New Jersey. Elizabeth died on 6 Oct 1796 in Hope, Warren, New Jersey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Samuel Swayze moved from Southold, Long Island, New York, to Roxbury Township,
New Jersey, in 1737. He was one of the first justices of the peace in Roxbury
Township. He was also a big land owner, leaving nearly 1000 acres of land to
his children. He is buried in the graveyard of the First Congregational
Church at Chester, one of the oldest cemeteries in the state of New Jersey.

Samuel married Penelope HORTON in 1708 in Southold, Suffolk, New York. Penelope was born on 14 Feb 1690 in Southold, Suffolk, New York; died on 1 Dec 1746; was buried in Chester Congregational Cemetery, Chester, Morris, New Jersey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]