John Stockwell (1764 - abt. 1818)

Born 18 Jul 1764 in North Nibley, Gloucestershire, England

Husband of Elizabeth (Loveless) Stockwell — married 12 Sep 1780 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States

Descendants

Died about 12 Oct 1818 at about age 54 in Essex, Ontario

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John Stockwell was a United Empire Loyalist.
UEL Status:Undetermined
Date: Undated

Biography

United Empire Loyalist Status - Proven

John Stockwell was born on July 18, 1764, in North Nibley, Gloucestershire, England. His father, Robert, was 25 and his mother, Elizabeth, was 25. He married Nancy Agnes McCormick in 1805 in Essex, Ontario. Their child, Eliza, was born in 1818 in Essex, Ontario. He died on October 12, 1818, in Essex, Ontario, at the age of 54.

Sources

• http://www.uelac.org/Bicentennial-UEL/abouttheloyalists/essex-kent-county-loyalists

• Loyalist Directory UELAC [1]

"On reaching Detroit 1 the Indians... readily bartered off the two captives. Martha Evans was purchased by a man near Detroit who soon released her, upon which she found employment and kind treatment in the family of James Donaldson, a resident of the place. Mary Moore was bought, for half a gallon of rum it is said, by John Stockwell, a refugee loyalist. Of him we have but little information ; the little we have induces no desire for more. He lived at "New Settlement" (near modern Amherstburg), which was founded at the close of the Revolution, as a center of loyalist refugees. Documents preserved among the Askin Papers in the Burton Historical Collection indicate that he was a man of violent, domineer- ing temper. Thus, in July, 1792, Henry Ramsey made oath that while he was at the house of a neighbor, Stock- well came and after "verry abusive language" challenged him out to fight ; and although several persons told him that Ramsey was unwell, Stockwell assaulted him, knock- ing him down and stamping on him with his feet. So much did some of his neighbors dislike Stockwell that, although he was an officer of militia whose zeal for the King's service was undoubted, in 1794, when the local militia was called out for service against General Wayne in Ohio, they refused to serve under him. In time of civil war, bitterness on the part of the contestants toward their opponents is to be expected ; but so well did Stockwell cherish his bitterness against his former compatriots that as late as 1814 he was reported by a British authority as "thirsting" to distinguish himself against the Americans, and as ambitious to "play havoc with his neighbor settlers [Americans]" if allowed to lead a few Indians against them.

Such was the man to whose tender mercies forlorn Mary Moore now found herself committed. He made of her a household drudge, and subjected her to grossly brutal treatment. Meanwhile, not far away her brother James was living with his French benefactor. When he learned of his sister's presence in the vicinity, he improved an early opportunity to pay her a visit. He found her "in a most abject condition, almost naked, clothed in a few dirty, tat- tered rags, an object of pity indeed." Thus the joy over the reunion was mingled with sorrow over the shocking condition of Mary's life and grief at the mournful tale she imparted concerning the sad fate of the remainder of the family.

Into our story pleasantly flits for a moment the man who has acquired the most malodorous reputation of all that lurid time. Living near Amherstburg, but frequently at Detroit, was Simon Girty, the mere mention of whose name sufficed to blanch the cheeks of women and rouse to fury the men throughout all the American border. To him young Moore appealed for assistance in securing his sister's release from servitude to Stockwell, and Girty went with the boy to Alexander McKee, Superintendent of Indian Affairs at Detroit. That official heard Moore's story, and seems to have required Stockwell to appear before him. The upshot was that although Mary's servitude con- tinued, it was agreed that when an opportunity for her to return home was presented, she was to be released by Stockwell without remuneration. What measure of influ- ence Simon Girty may have exercised in this transaction, we have no way of knowing, but his intervention on behalf of the oppressed girl stands out in marked contrast to the general story of his misguided career." <Two Captives of Old Detroit By M. M. Ouaife https://archive.org/stream/cognatefamiliesolinc_6/cognatefamiliesolinc_6_djvu.txt>

• https://www.ancestry.ca/family-tree/person/tree/120155685/person/350193235880/story