John Young UE (1742 - abt. 1811)

Born 1742 in St. Johnsville, New York

Ancestors

Husband of Catherine (Hill) Young — married Sep 1765 in Mohawk Valley, New York

Husband of Priscilla (Ramsay) Young — married about 1793 in Upper Canada

Descendants

Died about 1811 at about age 69 in Seneca Township, Haldimand County, Upper Canada

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Biography

Lt. John Young UE served with Loyalists during the American Revolution.

John was born in St. Johnsville but moved to a spot on the Mohawk River near to the Upper Mohawk Village (Canajoharie) not long after his father obtained a patent there when John was ten or eleven. He learned the Mohawk language and met his future wife there.

In 1777, his neighbor's mill was burned in an act of sabotage. The neighbor was a Patriot and John was a Tory and suspicion soon fell on him. When an arrest warrant was issued, he fled the scene. After he left, his wife and children were driven off the property and took refuge in the Mohawk village. After John's father's house was torched (see Adam Young), they were taken into custody and held at Tice's Tavern along with John's mother, Catherine Young, until a prisoner exchange was arranged in 1780.

John spent the Revolutionary War working for the British as an officer in the Indian Department. Among the many duties he performed, he scoured the countryside for provisions and recruits for Butler's Rangers. A September 1778 memorandum gives a sense of his work:

"Captain Caldwell of the rangers, Captain Powell of the Indian Department, and Mr. Joseph Brant, are at Aughquaga, employed in scouting from there to the Deleware river, as low as the Minnesinks and to Schoharie, as well to annoy the enemy as to gain intelligence. Mr. Pawling is also detached from Aughquaga with thirty rangers and a number of Indians to Wyalusing, upon the Susquehanna, with directions to scout as low as Wyoming, to watch the motions of the rebels said to be assembling there. Mr. John Young, detached from Aughquaga with thirty rangers, is constantly scouting towards the German Flats and Cherry Valley."^[1]

John's father, Adam Young, as well as his three brothers, Daniel Young, David Young and Henry Young would all serve in Butler's Rangers.

After the war, his property having been seized by the State of New York, he settled on land given to him by the Six Nations. He would be joined there by his father and his siblings. They were the first white settlers on the Grand River.

After Catherine died, he married the widow of Henry Nelles. In his will, he leaves her various effects, including the Negro woman Dean, the Negro man Jack and the Negro woman Laya.

John died between May 20, 1811 and July 17, 1812. He is probably buried in the Young Tract Burying Ground, Seneca Township, Haldimand, Ontario.

Sources

1. ↑ The Story of Butler's Rangers, pg. 51.

• BIOGRAPHY OF LT. JOHN YOUNG (JOHANNES JUNG) by David K. Faux.

• The Wife of Lt. John YOUNG, by David K. Faux.

• Dr. David K. Faux: Descendants of Johannes Young, Generation 4.

• and Adam Young (1717-1790) and Catherine Elizabeth Schremling (1720-1798)

• The Story of Butler's Rangers by Ernest Cruikshank, 1893.

• The Young (Jung) Families of the Mohawk Valley 1710-1946

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Dave Rutherford for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Dave and others.