The manifest of The Union, thought lost for more than 100 years, has been rediscovered.

The Union brought the first Loyalists to Saint John in 1783; luckily, a transcription of its passenger list (its manifest) was published in an 1889 booklet edited by New Brunswick historian Rev. W. O. Raymond.

Historians and genealogists pored over Raymond’s list for decades, hoping someday to see the original. The last person known to own the manifest was William Fyler Dibblee of Woodstock, a grandson of Fyler Dibblee, the compiler of the manifest. William Fyler died in 1903, but no one knew what became of the precious document of which he was so proud.

The location? The New Brunswick Museum Archives on Douglas Avenue. By asking the right questions of the right people, writer and amateur historian Audrey Fox of Toronto (Fyler Dibblee’s 4x great-granddaughter) discovered that the manifest was in the archives. Of course, the staff of the archives knew that the manifest was in its collection, but no one else did.

Stephen Davidson’s e-book The Burdens of Loyalty: Refugee Tales of the First American Civil War tells the stories of those passengers of the Union before and after the ship landed in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.  Burdens of Loyalty will be published by Trinity Publishing this spring.

Source: Stephen Davidson and Audrey Fox, 2007