David Blakeney UEL (abt. 1745 - 1825)

Born about 1745 in Newtownards, County Down, Ireland

Husband of Elizabeth (Unknown) Blakeney — married 1770 in 96 District, Granville County, South Carolina

Descendants

Died 11 Jul 1825 at about age 80 in Petitcodiac, Westmorland, New Brunswick

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Cynthia Allan [send private message]

Biography

David Blakeney UEL migrated from Charleston, South Carolina to Halifax, Nova Scotia 21 Nov 1782 on ship Argo.

David Blakeney was a United Empire Loyalist.
UEL Status:Proven
Date: 1783

David Blakeney was born in 1745 in Newtown Ards, County Down, Northern Ireland son of William Blakeney and Elizabeth Chambers. He passed away in 1825.

Based on the birth of first child in South Carolina, David married Elizabeth before 1767, probably in South Carolina. During the American Revolution, he served for the British side with several companies, including, supposedly, one Captain Noah Abrahams' Company in 1780 in South Carolina. He was present during the 28-day Siege of Ninety Six, the longest field siege of the Revolutionary War (May 21 to June 18, 1780).

He and his family were eventually evacuated on the ship Argo to Halifax NS in Nov and Dec of 1782 and thence to Saint John as United Empire Loyalists.^[1] David Blakeney had been awarded £54 in compensation for his losses and he settled in Petitcodiac. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Gubbins described his wilderness homestead in 1811, one year after his daughter Phoebe was born:

[His household] entertains travellers, but very miserably, except that excellent...salmon...are to be had at this season [summer] in abundance. From some unaccountable cause no salmon had been known to frequent a small river called the Paulet, which falls into the Petitcodiac, until one of the inhabitants brought a few and put them into it, since when it has been as well supplied with them as any other.^[2]

Getting to the Blakeney property at this time was very difficult. Gubbins described the road from the head of the Kennebecasis River as “an execrable track lately cut through deep swamps encumbered with roots of trees and stumps recently cut down.” The Blakeney homestead remained a landmark for several years. For example, Acts of the New Brunswick House of Assembly in 1816 and 1817 gave his house as a landmark on the main road between Fredericton and the Nova Scotia border.^[3]

David passed away 11 Jul 1822 in Petitcodiac, Salisbury Parish, Westmorland Co., New Brunswick.

Notes

• Military (Militia?) service with Captain Noah Abrahams Company in 1780 in South Carolina
  
• Arrived 21 Nov 1782 in Halifax, Halifax Co., Nova Scotia from South Carolina
  
• Arrived in 1783 New Brunswick^[4]
  
• David received land as UE Loyalist grant in New Brunswick (PANB:MC1/Blakeney, 18 pages: file contains The Blakeney family of pioneers in Salisbury Parish, Westmorland County, New Brunswick by J.E. Humphreys as well as research notes, data on Loyalist claims, land in NB, letters). It appears that five sons went to South Carolina in 1767 and three served in the Kings Army during the war and came to Canada as Loyalists.^[5]
• Loyalist Directory

Sources

1. ↑ Military Career
2. ↑ Howard Temperley, editor, Gubbins' New Brunswick Journals 1811 & 1813, Fredericton: New Brunswick Heritage Publications, 1980, p. 13
3. ↑ Humphrey, J.E., Some Account of the Blakeneys, 1931, p. 7
4. ↑ U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [1]
5. ↑ Information on the Loyalists [2] and [3]

See Also:

• Collection of Garnet M Allan
• Family Search G4Q7-3WJ
• U.S. Census Reconstructed Records, 1660-1820 [4]
• South Carolina, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1790-1890 [5]
• ICCANB [6]
• Descendants of David Blakeney [7]
• Petitcodiac - A Village History [8]
• Geni [9]
• Digging Down East [https://diggingdowneast.blogspot.com/2015/05/my-canadian-branches-loyalist-david