ly and respectfully, and expressed
his regret that his orders were to burn, but that he would spare the
house, which he did; and he said, as a sort of justification of his
burning, that the buildings were used as a barrack, and the mill
furnished flour for British troops. Very soon we saw columns of dark
smoke arise from every building, and of what at early morn had been a
prosperous homestead, at noon there remained only smouldering ruins. The
following day Colonel Talbot and the militia under his command marched
to Port Norfolk (commonly known as Turkey Point), six miles above
Ryerse. The Americans were then on their way to their own shores. My
father had been dead less than two years. Little remained of all his
labours excepting the orchard and cultivated fields. It would not be
easy to describe my mother's feelings as she looked at the desolation
around her, and thought upon the past and the present; but there was no
longer a wish to return to New York. My father's grave was there, and
she looked to it as her resting-place. Not many years since a small
church was built on a plot of ground which my father had reserved for
that purpose; in the graveyard attached are buried two of the early
settlers--my father and my mother. A.H."

* * * * *

The writer of the following paper seems to have been perfectly
acquainted with the subject on which he writes, but is entirely unknown
to the author of this history. The paper appears to have been written
shortly after the decease of Colonel Ryerson, and was enclosed to the
author on a printed slip. It throws much light on the history and
character of the times of which it speaks:

"_Last of the Old U.E. Loyalists._

"Died, at his residence, near Vittoria, county of Norfolk, on Wednesday,
the 9th of August, 1854, after a short illness of three days, Colonel
Joseph Ryerson (father of the Rev. Messrs. George, William, John,
Egerton, and Edwy Ryerson), in the ninety-fourth year of his age.

"Colonel Ryerson was born near Paterson, New Jersey, about fourteen
miles from the city of New York, the 28th of February, 1761. His
ancestors were from Holland; he was the seventh son; he lost his father
in childhood. At the breaking out of the American revolution, two of the
brothers entered the British army. Samuel (father of Mrs. Harris, Eldon
House, London) was nine years older than Joseph, and was the first in
that part of the country to join the Royal sta