THOMAS BYNG - Slave, Black Loyalist, Schoolmaster....a likely lad

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One of the best researched and most informative books which I have read in recent years tells the life story of an enslaved Black man from South Carolina who became a Black Loyalist and came to Digby, Nova Scotia.


In 2019, Barry Wright authored Thomas Byng - Slave, Black Loyalist, Schoolmaster...a likely lad.

Wright, whose wife Pat is a descendant of Thomas Byng,  researched the book by traveling with Pat from his native Australia to North America and visited Digby where he spent time at the Admiral Digby Museum.   In his book he acknowledged and thanked the Museum for its assistance in finding information. 

He writes:

...thanks are due to Mrs. Hilma Woods at the Genealogical Division of the Admiral Digby Museum for her helpful responses to the first requests for information ... back in the early 1990s. Special thanks are also due to Sue Beard at the Admiral Digby Museum for her many communications by post and email ... and her more direct assistance when we visited the Museum in 2010.

Thanks also to Vincent Giles (former President of the Admiral Digby Library and Historical Society that operates the Admiral Digby Museum) for his help in Digby in 2010 in connecting us with Nova Scotian descendants of Thomas and John Byng.


Plaque & Photo in
Hilma A. Woods Genealogy Room


At the Admiral Digby Museum, the Genealogy Room is named after long time volunteer Hilma A. Woods.

On the shelves of the reference library in the Genealogy Room at the Admiral Digby Museum is a copy of the book by Wright and a second one by him entitled Black Byng, published in 2021.  Black Byng is a sequel to the first book and tells the story of Byng's son, Thomas Byng.  The author again thanks the Admiral Digby Museum and their volunteers and staff. 

Two Byng Books on shelf in Genealogy Room 
at Admiral Digby Museum 

Both books have interesting colour or black and white photographs plus charts as well as helpful endnotes after each chapter that include further information and references. 



Further Reference:

Thomas Byng by Barry Wright. available to preview on Blurb as well as purchase, accessed July 28, 2026

The Loyalist Rector who helped establish a School for Blacks in Digby by Brian McConnell, UE, mentions Thomas Byng, as one who signed Petition for School in Digby, accessed July 28, 2026

Black Byng by Barry Wright, available to preview on Blurb as well as purchase, accesssed July 28, 2026




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