So obstinately loyal : James Moody, 1744-1809 / Susan Burgess Shenstone.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shenstone, Susan Burgess.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Moody, James, 1744-1809.

Moody, James.

American loyalists--New Jersey--Biography.

American loyalists.

United Empire loyalists--Nova Scotia--Biography.

United Empire loyalists.

United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (355 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal : Ithaca, [NY] : Published for Carleton University by McGill-Queen's University Press, c2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

James Moody's story begins in New Jersey, where he was "a plain contented farmer" before enlisting in a Loyalist provincial corps. Why he, and others like him, did so, defying republican neighbours and seeming political imperatives, is a compelling and largely untold aspect of Colonial history. Once called "that villain Moody" by George Washington himself, and "the best Partizan we had," by William Franklin, the Loyalist governor of New Jersey, Moody risked his life recruiting, gathering intelligence, and freeing prisoners behind American lines. Next came dispossession and exile in London, where he strove to obtain British recognition of his losses, and wrote the objective, exciting account of his fateful choice, and the exploits that inspired this book. So Obstinately Loyal culminates in Weymouth, Nova Scotia, where, along with almost 40,000 other Loyalists, Moody had to remake a life among the Acadians and earlier Yankee settlers. His complex career encompassed ship-building, efforts to found an Anglican parish, military service as an officer in a regiment formed to defend against invasion from revolutionary France, and building on his American experience to work for constitutional reform. Moody's life was shaped by the growing pains of fledgling nationhood on both sides of the border. Yet he and people like him also helped to shape the destinies of nations. This complex weave of precarious existence and nation-building, of adaptation and "staking one's all," emerges clearly from Susan Shenstones's meticulous research and vivid writing.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

List of Figures and Tables

Preface

New Jersey (1744-82)

The Early Years

“The Black Cloud Gathering”

What is a Tory?

“Disarming the Disaffected”: The Power of Example

“To Terrify the Enemy”: The Seasons of 1778 and 1779

“Lurking in the County,” 1780

New York, 1780-82

Capturing the Mails: Spring and Summer, 1781

The Philadelphia Expedition: Autumn, 1781

Not with a Bang but a Whimper: Spring, 1782

England (1782-86)

London: Settling the Past

Nova Scotia (1786-1809)

Arriving in Nova Scotia, 1786

Building Ships, 1786-87

Putting Down Roots, 1787-89

The Prosperous Years, 1789-92

The Official Years: The House of Assembly, 1793-99

A Second Military Career, 1793-99

A Second Session in the House of Assembly, 1800-06

The Weymouth Church and the Acadians, 1797-1809

Fading Out, 1806-09

Epilogue

Family

Legend and Legacy

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [315]-325) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-86427-0

9786612864278

0-7735-7416-6

OCLC:

180704151