| Notes |
- It is mentioned in "History of the Counties of Argenteuil, Quebec and Prescott, Ontario", by Cyrus Thomas (1896) that Duncan Dewar married "Margaret McCallum of Caldwell's Manor" in 1807. Margaret was almost certainly the niece of John and Mary (McDiarmid) Dewar of Caldwell Manor, which is in Missisquoi County, Quebec, very close to the border with Vermont. This relationship is revealed in an 1802 document in which John Dewar petitions the Lower Canada government for a grant of additional land on the grounds of a large number of relatives to support. His family includes his 16 year old niece Peggy McCallum (Peggy and Margaret were interchangeable names). The land petition document is at Library and Archives Canada at
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/lower-canada/001043-119.0 1e.php&document_id_nbr=24928&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=uk489qs6qiddv1ao01 06m9ilt2.
It thus seems likely that this John Dewar was somehow related to the family of Duncan and Peter Dewar, but the exact relationship is at present unclear. What is known, from the books "Scottish Soldiers in North America", and "The History and Muster Roll of the King's Royal Regiment of New York", is that this John Dewar was born in Perthshire, Scotland around 1745, and emigrated to the colony of New York in 1768, settling in Jerseyfield, Tryon County in the Mohawk Valley. During the American Revolution, he was a loyalist, and served as a private in the King's Royal Regiment of New York from 1777 to 1783. After the war, he and his wife, Mary McDiarmid, settled in Caldwell Manor, taking up land offered to United Empire Loyalists. In the Haldimand Papers - a list of loyalists - John and his wife were said to have one child. The 1802 land petition does not mention their own child, but lists, in addition to John and Mary: his sister, Christian Dewar, age 25; his godson Alexander Dewar Campbell, age 5; his nieces, Flora McCallum, age 18, Peggy McCallum, age 16, Jane Dewar, age 15, and Nancy Dewar, age 13; his nephews, Daniel McCallum, age 14, John Dewar, age 17, Duncan Dewar, age 7, Peter Dewar, age 4, and Alexander Dewar, age 2; and Jane Dewar, the widow of his deceased brother Daniel. An article in the 1965 Eighth Historical Report of Missisquoi County, titled "The Seigniories of Noyon and Foucault" states that John Dewar also served as a militia Captain in the War of 1812, and describes a naval/land battle he was involved in near Caldwell Manor in 1813. The author of this article was Donald McCallum, a great-great grandson of Daniel McCallum, John's nephew. It should be noted that the mothers of several of the Dewars born in Killin, Perthshire had the surname McCallum.
The Cyrus Thomas book on Argenteuil County contains many contributions by Colin Dewar, the youngest son of Duncan Dewar and Margaret McCallum. In one of them he states that Margaret's grandfather was Archibald McDeirmid, who "left his comfortable home on the Mohawk River, and after suffering incredible hardships, arrived at Caldwell's Manor, on Lake Champlain, where he had to begin life anew, without deriving any substantial benefit for his loyalty to king and country." Archibald was undoubtedly related (perhaps the brother or father) of Mary McDiarmid, the wife of John Dewar. Thus the Dewars who settled in Argenteuil County undoubtedly have connections to at least two United Empire Loyalists - Pvt. (later Captain) John Dewar and Archibald McDiarmid, both of whom settled after the American Revolution in the border county of Mississquoi.
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Abt 1781 - 1826 (45 years)
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