UE LOYALISTS & THE MONARCHY

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This year I have been asked to speak at the annual dinner of the Monarchist League in Nova Scotia on 4 June 2026 and will be making a presentation on United Empire Loyalists and the monarchy.  It has encouraged me to remember one of my own experiences and some of the history.

In 2018 I was asked by John Yogis, Secretary of the Halifax Branch of the Monarchist League of Canada to attend the official opening of the Queen Elizabeth II Walkway in the Public Gardens at Halifax, Nova Scotia.  John was a friend and professor of mine  while attending  Dalhousie University Law School.  He knew of my United Empire Loyalist ancestry.  As well he had seen me dressed as a re-enactor  and asked me to be sure I wore a red Loyalist uniform.  At the event, on 9 September 2018, I wore the uniform of a Private in the 84th Regiment of Foot and was pleased to meet the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, the Honourable Arthur J. LeBlanc, ONS, QC.

Photo with Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia 

Arthur J. LeBlanc was the 33rd Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia to serve as the personal representative of the Monarch or Crown.  An earlier person who was appointed to that position was the first President of the United Empire Loyalist Association in Nova Scotia in 1887.  Arthur Gilpin Jones was appointed as Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia on  26 July 1900 and held that role until he died on 15 March 1906.  He was the grandson of Stephen Jones , a Loyalist from Weston, Middlesex County, Massachusetts who settled in Digby County, Nova Scotia on the Sissiboo River.

Joseph Howe, son of Loyalist John Howe who came to Halifax in 1776 with the evacuation of soldiers and Loyalists from Boston,  was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia the month before his death on 1 June 1873.  He was known as a journalist, politician, public servant and poet who became a provincial legend. He was intensely loyal to the British Crown and said he wished to live and die a British subject.  However, he strongly advocated for provincial rights and argued that Nova Scotians deserved the same rights to responsible government as citizens in Britain. 

On 29 November 1916 another descendant of a United Empire Loyalist, in the name of MacCallum Grant was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. He was popular and created a new standard for the occupants of the viceregal office, reaching out to minorities and utilizing his charm and humour to engage everyone he met.  One of his ancestors was Captain John Grant, who served with the 42nd Regiment (Black Watch) and settled after the American Revolution at Summerville, Hants County, Nova Scotia.           

On the occasion of the Loyalist Bicentennial, marking the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the United Empire Loyalists in Nova Scotia, a Loyalist Cairn was unveiled on 6 August 1983 in Digby, Nova Scotia, by the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, John Elvin Shaffner  He was also present for the placement of a plaque and dedication of a commemorative tree in the Halifax Public Gardens on 5 November 1983.  

In New Brunswick, Robert Duncan Wilmot , a Mayor of Saint John and Father of Confederation, was the Lieutenant Governor of the Province from 1880 to 1885.  He was the grandson of Lemuel Wilmot , who served in the Loyal American Regiment during the American Revolution, and his wife Elizabeth (Street). They were from New York and settled in Fredericton. 

On May 18, 1983, the first Loyalist Day in New Brunswick was proclaimed by Lieutenant Governor George F.G. Stanley, a noted historian and designer of the Canadian flag,  to mark the arrival of the Loyalist refugees.  The date was chosen because the first fleet of Loyalists landed at the Upper Cove, now Market Slip in Saint John, on May 18, 1783.  Ruth Lynette Hill, wife of George Stanley, had strong Loyalist roots in New Brunswick and was an honorary member of the UELAC.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip visited Ontario in 1984 to celebrate the arrival of the United Empire Loyalists there 200 years earlier.  On the 22 September 1984 they participated in the dedication of the Loyalist Parkway  at Ernestown in honour of the Bicentennial.


Sign on Loyalist Parkway

In more recent years, Mayann E. Francis, the 31st Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia from 2006 to 2012 was the descendant of Black Loyalists who settled in Nova Scotia. On the passing of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022 she commented: She was a role model for me from the time I was a child, and because my family were strong monarchists, I just loved her. 

Eugene A. Forsey  (1904 - 1991), member of the Senate of Canada from 1970 to 1979, also a United Empire Loyalist descendant and documented member of the Sir Guy Carleton Branch of the UELAC,  was a staunch monarchist who advocated strongly in favour of the constitutional monarchy form of government in place in Canada.   He believed that it was vital to Canadian democracy as set out in his book How Canadians Govern Themselves, published in 1980.



Further Reading:

Former N.S. Lieutenant Governor Mayann Francis mourns the death of her role model Queen Elizabeth , published by CBC, posted 9 September 2022, accessed May 12, 2026

Joseph Howe in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, accessed May 12, 2026

The Hon. Alfred Gilpin Jones and the Loyalists of Nova Scotia by Brian McConnell, UE, published by UELAC in 2014

How Canadians Govern Themselves by Eugene A. Forsey, accessed on May 12, 2026

Loyal Hill & Captain John Grant by Brian McConnell, UE, published by West Hants Historical Society, accessed May 12, 2026

Presiding By Desire - Nova Scotia's Popular Lieutenant Governor Hon. MacCallum Grant by Scott J. Burke, published 2020 by Tellwell Talent



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