Jerusha Peers 1771 - 1813

Jerusha Peers, my third great grandmother lived through a period in history that changed the future of North America.  She was born in Westchester County in the province of New York, British North America in 1772 to Alexander Peers and Mary Bolding.  Family lore has it that Alexander came to America in about 1765 with his brother, Henry.  Mary, on the other hand is thought to have come from the south; likely from North Carolina or Louisiana.  They were married in Long Island City, New York in 1766 and went on to have a family of six children with Jerusha being the older of two daughters.

The family made a comfortable living, farming on a 123 acre plot of land at Philipse Manor in what is now called Brooklyn in the city of New York. While they owned 7 acres where their home and outbuildings stood, the remaining land was leased from the family of Frederick Philipse.  The Philipse Patent, as it was called was made up of hundreds of these small land holdings and together the inhabitants made up a bustling, thriving community.

Philipse Manor today

It was a busy life, with much to do.  For the men, there were animals and crops to be cared for, improvements to be made to their buildings, fences to mend and  daily chores to be seen to.  The women, on the other hand had children to tend, meals to prepare, washing to do,  wool to be carded, spun and woven into fabric for the family’s clothing and other domestic duties. 

Descriptions of these early Peers’ have been handed down through the generations.  Alexander was said to be quite tall for the times and lean with a hawkish nose and hollow cheeks.  He would have worn a course woolen shirt, breeches, buckled shoes and a tricorn hat.  With his strong British accent and staunch Church of England ways, he was undoubtedly a man of high moral character and one who accepted adversity with some stoicism. He was a Tory and fiercely loyal to his native land.

The women in the family would have dressed in homespun dresses and sported a lace or woolen cap.  Mary, with her southern accent  and southern Methodist upbringing was most likely a hard working, no-nonsense sort of woman. 

When Jerusha was just four years old, the first shots in the Revolutionary War rang out at the Battles of Lexington and Concord.  Life for a loyalist family soon became difficult as they tried to carry on.  Many of their neighbours were Patriots, tired of the heavy hand of their British Rulers.  They wanted to live in a free country where they could write their own laws and collect and keep the taxes .  Often mobs of patriots would set upon a loyalist farm, burning buildings, stealing livestock and assaulting the inhabitants.

By the following year, Alexander and Mary, fearing for their family's safety  had quickly moved the children away from their home to relative safety behind British lines.  Alexander, by this time, had joined a British Militia unit and was glad to have his family settled at Morrisania.

Winter Camp at Morrisania

Life in the camp, however, was difficult.  The Peers family moved into a dingy log hut with a dirt floor and no windows.   Having had to abandon their possessions when they fled, the family had little in the way of tools and household staples.  Women and children were given only half rations, although they could earn a little extra in the way of food, blankets and the like, by cooking, washing and cleaning for the soldiers.  Children could earn a loaf of bread for hauling water or gathering firewood.  Winters were bleak and cold and summers brought extreme heat, humidity and biting insects.  Sanitary conditions were abysmal, with a shortage of clean drinking water and little or no sewage treatment.  Disease ran rampant among the soldiers and their families and many children died before the age of 5.

Jerusha likely learned to sew and made a little extra to help feed her family for taking in mending.  There were no schools in the camp and it is likely she did not learn to read and write. There was certainly no time for a little girl to play.

Towards the end of the war, Jerusha’s older brothers, Ezekiel and Ephraim also joined their father in the Militia.  They were assigned to the regiment commanded by Col. James DeLancy, known as Delancy’s Cowboys or The Westchester Refugees.

By July 1873, the war had drawn to an end, the British defeated and the Loyalists in fear for their lives.  They were pushed back until they reached the ocean, where Governor Guy Carleton had ships waiting to transport them out of America and on to new lives in Canada, England, and the Caribbean.

Wallace Bay - formerly the Remsheg

Alexander and Mary, thankful to have their family still intact and safe, elected to go to Nova Scotia, where grants of land were promised to the Loyalists by a grateful British Monarch.  After wintering at Fort Cumberland that first winter, the Peers family made their way to the Remsheg, a place now called Wallace Bay in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia.  Jerusha, at this time was 12 years old.

Again, the family had to begin with nothing but within a few years had established a thriving farm and a good life.  Because they had fought in the war, Jerusha’s older brothers also received grants of land and a bustling community grew up around Wallace Bay.

Daniel Teed was the son of another Loyalist family.  His father died during the war.  We don’t know for sure what happened to Daniel Sr. but the conjecture is that he succumbed to Typhus or some other deadly disease caused by the poor living conditions.  As a young man, the younger Daniel joined the British in their defence of British North America.  Like the Peers family, Daniel came to Nova Scotia in 1783 and claimed his father’s grant land.

In February of 1790, Daniel Teed and Jerusha Peers were married near his home in Malagash.  The couple went on to have 11 children, including my Great great grandmother, Hannah.  Over the years they created good life and a happy family.

Jerusha died in Wentworth in 1813, at the age of 41 and Daniel lived on  until 1869.  It is believed that they were buried in the old cemetery at Wentworth, but no trace of their graves can be found.

Jerusha certainly had adventures during her life and many new beginnings.   I hope she’d be glad to be remembered almost 200 years after her death.