THE JESSUP FAMILY

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Jessup Steps

Each year increasing numbers of tourists arrive in Leeds and Grenville looking for records of their ancestors who once resided in this area. Perhaps the family name appears in the phone book but for others the only visible trace is a street sign bearing the name. All the descendants of the settlers who came here in the late 1700's or early 1800's may have moved on to other points in Canada or to the United States. One such is the founding family of Prescott, the Jessups.

The Jessup family came from England, probably prior to 1649. By 1663, Edward, a son of the immigrant who was also named Edward, had established himself in Connecticut. Here he raised a large family, including a son, Joseph, who became the father of three sons, Edward, Joseph and Ebenezer.

Whi1e in Connecticut Edward and Ebenezer married sisters, Abigail and Elizabeth Dibble, daughters of Jonathan Dibble. In 1764 the whole family moved to Albany, New York. They became large land ho1ders, prominent businessmen and 1umber barons in New York State. When the Revolutionary War began the three brothers remained loyal to the British and became involved in the military. Their families apparently remained at Albany while the men went to join the forces.

Edward, accompanied by his brothers, Joseph and Ebenezer, and his son, also named Edward, led a party of about eighty men into Canada to join the British troops preparing to invade New York. A corps of loyalists which became known as Jessup's Rangers or the King's Loyal Rangers raised by Edward remained active throughout the Revolution. His corps served in Burgoyne's army and was at some time attached to the Naval Department where he was in charge of the Batteau service. They were sent to Montreal to improve fortifications there in 1778. In 1780 they were among the troops invading New York and in 1781 were in raids on the Mohawk River. Ebenezer and Joseph were in command of companies in the corps.

Some of the activities of the corps were of a less military nature. In the summer of 1782, Major Jessup was charged with sending a foraging party out to cut 250 tons of hay for use at various posts. Fifty riflemen accompanied them for protection. The following winter his best woodsmen were ordered to accompany troops into the woods to teach them "hunting" and survival in the forest.

In December 1783 instructions were given for the reduction of the Loyalists corps and the task began of sett1ing the men from his command and their families. Surveys had been done along the St. Lawrence and in the Cataraqui (Kingston) area and land was allotted according to rank. Food, clothing, arms, tools and seed had to be provided. Jessup was anxious that cattle be purchased for the settlers. Soon, he was promoting the establishment of saw and corn mills. With in a year he was suggesting that an iron works be established some where between his settlement and

Cataraqui. He also felt that the men could make barrel staves for sale in the West Indies.

Edward had been granted 1200 acres in concession one of Augusta, lots 1,2 and 3, as well as land in other areas. He set about having the land cleared and raising buildings. In 1810 he had town lots surveyed on the front of lots 2 and 3 for the town which he named in honour of General Robert Prescott, who had been Governor- in -Chief of Canada. He continued to serve the community as commandant of Militia of Edwardsburg, Augusta and Elizabethtown.

At the end of the war Ebenezer took his family to England where he was pressing his claims for compensation for losses. He then went into government service in India and did not return to Canada. Joseph lived at Sorel, Lower Canada for a time, then had a grist mill in Elizabethtown. He is buried in Sandy Hill Cemetery in Prescott along with Edward and his family. The land for this cemetery was willed to the town of Prescott in 1830 by Edward Jessup III, grandson, of the Major, although the members of the family had already been buried there.

Edward and Abigail had two children. Their daughter, Abigail, married James Walker, a surgeon, and had four children. Their son, Edward, had served as a Lieutenant in the Rangers. At the close of the war he too settled in Augusta where he became a captain in the local militia, representative of the Eastern District in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada and Clerk of the Peace for Canada. He married Susannah Covell and had seven children. One son, Hamilton Dibble Jessup practiced medicine in Prescott for many years, was in the militia at the Battle of the Windmill and held local offices including collector of customs.

The children of both Edward Jessup Senior and Junior were entitled to grants of 200 acres of land as sons and daughters of Loyalists. Their petitions, can be found in the National Archives of Canada at Ottawa.

It is many years since members of this family have lived in Prescott but Jessup, Dibble and Edward Streets are named for them. The local branch of the United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada has been named The Colonel Edward Jessup Branch in his honour.

Submitted by Myrtle Johnston

Photos by Fraser Carr

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