For
a long time I have wondered how it would feel to find an ancestor who
had fought against my country in a war. Every veteran of WWI or WWII
thus uncovered in my family fought either for the U.S. or one of its
allies, and my Civil War ancestors have all been on the side of the
Union. There are even a few Revolutionary War patriots hidden in the
branches of my family tree. But now I have finally stumbled across an
ancestor—a direct ancestor, too—who fought against the United
States.
The
line goes like this: my Grandpa Jack’s father was Francis Albert
Hoyt, Sr.; his mother was Parmelia “Minnie” Nelson; her mother
was Maria Dianna Soper (who surprised me as the first Canadian in my
direct line); her father was Harley Soper; and his father was Timothy
Soper, the subject of this post.
Timothy
Soper may have been born in Vermont; more research will be necessary
to untangle all the various Sopers. At this point, the earliest
period I can confidently identify Timothy, he was living in Kitley,
Leeds county, Ontario. Thad. W. H. Leavitt’s
History of Leeds and
Grenville Ontario recounts
this
anecdote:
For a long time Mr. Soper acted as a general agent for the settlers, in bringing in supplies, doing to milling, etc. Upon one occasion he had taken a grist to Merrickville for Thomas Connor. Returning with it in the night, he left it beside the main road, at a point where the path leading to Mr. Connor’s house diverged. Having a piece of chalk in his pocket, he wrote upon the sack:--
“Here I lie upon my back,My name it is an Irish sack;Touch me not, upon your honor,For I belong to Tommy Connor” (Leavitt 117).
I
must say that is one of my
favorite extracts regarding
an ancestor I have yet come across, illustrative as it is of his
playfulness and sense of humor, even if not, perhaps, of his
diligence.
In
June
of 1812,
America declared war on the British. The Americans expected to be
welcomed by their neighbors to
the north, but the Canadian colonists saw the Americans as an
invaders. By
September of that year, Timothy Soper had joined up with the Militia
of Leeds county, to be specific, Captain John Howard’s Company in
the 1st
Regiment Leeds Militia. Although
this company does not appear by name in Officers
of the British forces in Canada during the war of 1812-15,
the volume does state that the 1st
Regiment of Leeds Militia fought against the American raid on
Elizabethtown/Brockville (the village was in
the process of being
renamed in honor of a commander in the war) and it took part in the
attack on Ogdensburg (Irving
50).
Both locations are less than 40 miles from Timothy’s hometown of
Kitley.
After
the war, Canada headed (though
not necessarily intentionally) toward
independence of British rule. An early agitator,
if that is the word for it,
was Robert F. Gourlay. When Gourlay held a meeting in Kitley in 1818,
Timothy Soper was a member of the committee (Leavitt 43).
Timothy
Soper died on 12 Dec 1847 and was buried in Soper’s Cemetery in
Kitley. As you can see, there is still much research to be done to
flesh out Timothy’s life. And this will be my first serious foray
into Canadian genealogical resources, so there is much to learn!
Selected Sources:
CanadaGenWeb's
database and images, Canada GenWeb's Cemetery Project (accessed 13 Jun 2016); entry for Timothy Soper, buried in Soper's
Cemetery, Ontario.
Christine
Beek, OntarioGenWeb, War of 1812 Paylist Rolls
(accessed 17 Jul 2016), Timothy Soper included in a list of Capt.
John Howard's Co, citing Folios 349-351, microfilm T-10381, North
York Public Library, Yonge St., Toronto.
Irving,
L. Homfray and
Canadian
Military Institute,
Officers of the British Forces in Canada During the War of 1812-15 (Welland Tribune Print, 1908).
Thad.
W. H. Leavitt, History of Leeds and Grenville Ontario, From1749 to 1879, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers
(Brockville, Ontario: Recorder Press, 1879).
