Its time to register for:

The United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada

2011 Conference

Being held from June 2 to June 5, 2011

Join fellow Loyalists and friends in the eastern Ontario City of Brockville to Catch the Spirit of those original Loyalists who settled along the mighty St. Lawrence River and beautiful 1000 Islands.

Register early; save money and ensure you “Catch the Spirit”

Click below for;

Registration form (PDF format)

Conference Schedule at a Glance

Conference Overview

Conference Information Videos

Accommodation information

Travel information

See – on our dinner cruise Manitouana (Garden of the Great Spirit) – the First Nations’ name for the world famous 1000 Islands.

See - on our Old Stones Tour the Rideau Canal – North America’s oldest continuously used waterway opened in 1832 and designated a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site.

See - The Frontenace Arch Biosphere – one of only 15 UNESCO biosphere reserves in Canada that are designed to demonstrate the sustainability and balanced relationship between man and nature.

Your host

Colonel Edward Jessup Branch

The Colonel Edward Jessup Branch of The United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada received its Charter to form a branch on February 24, 1968.  The official presentation of the Charter took place on Saturday, May 11, 1969 at the August Township home of Sterling Leroy Spicer, the first president, who named the branch after Colonel Edward Jessup, a prominent Grenville County Loyalist who founded the St. Lawrence River community of Prescott in 1810.  Conference 2011 is being held in the city of Brockville, the county seat for the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville.  Named after Major General Sir Isaac Brock, commander of forces in British North American and hero of the War of 1812, Brockville is the oldest incorporated municipality (1832) in Upper Canada (now Ontario).  It was founded by Loyalist William Buell, a former officer in the King’s Rangers, who arrived with a group of disbanded soldiers and their families at the mouth of Buell’s Creek in 1784.

Your Conference Schedule at a Glance

Conference Overview

Thursday June 2

Registration at the Holiday Inn Express

Genealogists’ meeting

The Genealogists’ Meeting will take place at the Holiday Inn

Welcome Ceremony/Reception

The Welcome Reception will take place at the Brockville Rowing Club situated on the shores of the St Lawrence River and beside Canada’s first railway tunnel. Guests will be treated to an entertaining evening with light refreshments while enjoying views of this picturesque waterway which provided Loyalist settlers with their only means of travel, by bateaux, to reach their land grants along and inland from the river.

Friday, June 3

Heritage Tours

St. Lawrence (Tour A) – This tour along the St. Lawrence River will first visit the home of Loyalist Dr. Solomon Jones, then the monument of Loyalist Barbara Heck before arriving at Fort Wellington – a restored National Historic Site in Prescott. The tour will continue on to the Battle of the Windmill site (where conflict occurred in 1838) before visiting Iroquois to view an impressive lock on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Lunch is included.

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Old Stones (Tour B) –  Going west to the Wiltsie Pioneer Cemetery (a Col. Edward Jessup Branch 2014 project) then on to the 200-year-old Delta Mill (once operated by Loyalist Abel Stevens) then Jones Falls, a major lock station at the halfway point of the Rideau Canal System the oldest continually operating canal system in North America.  Self-guided tour of the locks, dams and buildings. Tour is entirely within Frontenac Arch Biosphere. Lunch is included. Mobility is required.

Click here for more of Tour B information  http://www.2011brockville.com/TOUR-B.html

Dinner cruise in the Thousand Islands

Your evening will begin with a 45-minute bus trip along the Thousand Islands Parkway which skirts the majestic St. Lawrence River and Thousand Islands between Brockville and Gananoque. Upon arriving in Gananoque, we will board a Gananoque Boat Line (ganboatline.com) triple decker cruise boat in preparation for our two-hour buffet dinner cruise through the world famous Thousand Islands. While on the tour you will pass through a portion of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere. Designated a world biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 2002, the region is also the sight of the St. Lawrence Islands National Park which consists of over 20 islands and holds the distinction of being Canada’s smallest and first national park east of the Rockies. The region also includes numerous New York State parks as well as private islands with palacial summer homes and not one but two castles including the famous Boldt Castle which we will pass during our cruise.

Saturday, June 4

Annual General Meeting of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada

Dominion Council Meeting

The AGM, luncheon and the Dominion meetings will be held at the Brockville Yacht Club which is located on the St Lawrence River beside Buell Creek which attracted the first settlers to the area in 1784.

The meeting will take place in the old Shirreff Manufacturing Co. building that was built on the site in 1905. Over the years the building has served a house hold appliance manufacturing facility, a tannery, a furniture manufacturing facility and a laundry before becoming the home to the Brockville Yacht Club

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Merrickville Historic and Shopping Tour

For those not attending the Annual Meeting, conference organizers have arranged for a bus tour to Merrickville – The Jewel of the Rideau.  Founded by Loyalist William Merrick, this historic village in northern Grenville County is located on the Rideau Canal which is used extensively by pleasure boaters. The community’s well-preserved 19^th century architecture is home to many restaurants, pubs, artist’s studios, art galleries, unique country stores and much more. There is an excellent walking tour for those that want to take in the town’s history. Lunch is the responsibility of the participants.

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Gala Banquet

Attendees are encouraged to wear period dress and have a chance to win a prize.

Special Presentation

Major James Morrow Walsh

Northwest Mounted Police

Friend of Sitting Bull

Among the first members of the Northwest Mounted Police, forerunner of The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, James Morrow Walsh was born in Prescott east of Brockville and distinguished himself in policing service in Western Canada in the 1800s including having a relationship with the great American chief Sitting Bull.  Walsh returned to live in Brockville after he retired from the Northwest Mounted Police.

Presented by Brian Porter

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Sunday, June 5

Church Service

Those attending Conference 2011 have been invited by the congregation at First Presbyterian Church in Brockville to join them for their worship service on Sunday, June 5 during the year-long celebration of the church’s 200^th anniversary.  Some members of the church’s original congregation were Loyalists.  A lunch will be served following the service.

Attendees are encouraged to wear period dress to help the congregation celebrate the church’s 200th anniversary

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Accommodation

Your host committee has negotiated blocks of rooms with preferred rates for conference attendees at 3 hotels all of which are located within 300 meters of the Holiday Inn Express which is the base for the conference. To get these preferred rates rooms must be booked before April 30^th 2011

All 3 hotels below are close together and have a check-in of 3:00 p.m. and check-out of 11:00 a.m.  All offer free breakfast, free newspapers, free parking & high speed internet access. . These Hotels are;

 Holiday Inn Express

7815 Kent Blvd., Brockville, Ontario K6V 6N7 Front Desk Tel.:  (613) 342-1883, 1-877-234-8285  Fax: (613) 342-0673. New hotel features fitness centre, indoor pool, on-site guest self-laundry, service animals only.

Rate: $139.00 + tax single/double, $10.00 additional for each additional adult

Cancellation must be received 5 days prior to arrival to avoid a penalty of one night’s room and tax.

Rooms can also be booked through the Intercontinental Hotel Group’s Friends and Family Program with the following link on line http://www.ihgfriendsandfamily.com/ihccm . Rates can be as low as $99.23 once you register but must be paid with your credit card at time of booking and is non-refundable.

Travel Lodge

7789 Kent Blvd. Brockville, Ontario K6V 6N7

Tel.: (613) 345-3900  Toll Free: 1-800-578-7878 Fax: (613) 345-3953

Features fitness facilities & pets are allowed

Rates: $74.00 single & $84.00 double + tax

Cancellation must be made 24 hours prior to arrival

Comfort Inn

7777 Kent Blvd., Brockville, Ontario K6V 6N7

Toll Free: 1-800-228-5150 Fax: (613) 345-4868

Features complimentary guest passes for YMCA, complimentary coffee & pets are allowed.

Rate: $110.00 + tax single/double

Cancellation must be made 72 hours prior to arrival.

Please ensure you book before April 30^th and mention the UELAC Conference to get the preferred rate.

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Travel

Other places to visit…

hose attending Conference 2011 may also wish to visit other historical and interesting attractions in and around Brockville including the following:

Walking Tour of historic Downtown Brockville, the first incorporated municipality (1832) of Upper Canada (now Ontario).  Brockville Tourism Office, Market Street West, open daily.

Brockville Railroad Tunnel – Canada’s first railroad tunnel built between 1854 and 1860.  Open daily.

Brockville Museum – Where History Lives – serving as the repository of the city’s collective past and is the cornerstone of Brockville’s heritage community.  Also houses archives of the Leeds and Grenville Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society for genealogical research. Open daily from 1 pm to 4 pm.

Fulford Place – A restored, 20,000-square-foot mansion and adjacent gardens built between 1899 and 1901 in the east end of Brockville by patent medicine entrepreneur and Loyalist descendant, George Fulford.  Open daily.

Fowarders’ Museum (Prescott waterfront) – Featuring details of Prescott’s importance as a trans-shipment point for goods brought up the St. Lawrence River.

   Grenville County Historical Society Archives - 500 Railway St., Prescott  (an excellent facility for research)

   Please visit their site  http://web.ripnet.com/~gchs/

Heritage Place Museum in Lyn – Housing many 19^th century artifacts and details of how Loyalist brothers, Abel and Richard Coleman, founded this once-active industrial centre (now a quaint village) just northwest of Brockville.  Open Sundays.

Arthur Child Heritage Museum of the Thousand Islands (Gananoque waterfront) – Located in a building reminiscent of the original island cottages and fabulous hotels built during the region’s Golden Era, this former railroad station features dioramas, videos and interactive displays designed to educate and entertain. Open daily.

And for those who want to stay in our region for a longer time there is:

Ottawa (Canada’s Capital) – with its plethora of museums, attractions, magnificent parks, scenic drives and of course, the Parliament Buildings and the National Archives, all of which is just 90 minutes from Brockville.

Kingston – once the capital of Canada, gravesite of Sir John A. Macdonald and also site of the historic Fort Henry, the Royal Military College Museum, Marine Museum of the Great Lakes and only a one hour drive west of Brockville.

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We look forward to seeing you at

“Catch the Spirit”

the 2011 Conference

of  the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada

Register Now