| Notes |
- "Spragg Family: Canadian Line Descendants of Capt. Thomas Spragg", by Dale Wilken.
Capt. Thomas Spragg in 1783 at the end of the Revolutionary War moved from Duchess County, NY to New Brunswick, Canada. He moved with all of his family. He had a farm in Dutchess County before the war to which he had moved from Hempstead, Long Island, New York after his marriage to Mary.
From Hal R. Spragg, correspondent.
The following is from private e-mail communication by Hal R. Spragg and Pastor Jim Swanson of Hatfield Point Baptist Church, Hatfield Point, New Brunswick in October 1998.
Dear Sirs:
I am seeking information on Thomas Spragg, the church founder. The information I have is:
SPRAGG, THOMAS. A captain. Went to St. John, New Brunswick at the peace, and was a grantee of that city. He died at Springfield, King's County, in 1812, aged eighty-two.
Hal R. Spragg
From Pastor Swanson:
Sorry I am late in getting back. We had special meetings this week and I was unable to get to the graveyard. His grave is just a block from here. It was the original stone, and two other stones over the grave spots, to mark 100 and 200 years from settling here. The stones of his relatives all spell the name Spragg, but on the bicentennial stone they mention the Sprague family and Sprague's point, the original name of this community before it was changed in the 1880's.
His stone says that he arrives in May of 1784 and died 22 Feb 1812 in his 83rd year. It says he was of Hempsled Long Island. The word Hempsled is not clear (moss covered) so it could be Hempsied or Hempsted. It is hyphenated on the stone.
The next stone says Mary Spragg his wife, died Oct 18, 1828 at age 92. (So she was 7 years younger) The third stone says Elizabeth Spragg was the wife of Elijah and she died Oct 4th, 1821 at age 50. The fourth stone says Elijah was the youngest son of Thomas and he died Nov 9th, 1837.
I think he was Anglican, not Baptist. The baptist church was started here in 1809 and the Anglican then moved 5 km down the road to Springfield where it still is today. I don't know anything more about this family but since there are still Spraggs around here, I imagine more is known. In fact, I just visited Ned Sprague two weeks ago in the hospital."
Pastor Jim Swanson.
Church founded by Thomas Spragg, loyalist.
"During and after the Revolutionary War, loyalists migrated into eastern Canada, including the St. John River valley. By the end of the 18th century, Captain Thomas Spragg had brought his family to the Belleisle Bay to settle. The early 1800's saw Baptists move into the area so these Church of England folk moved up the road to Springfield. Meanwhile, the Baptists began to meet outdoors (all year around) and in 1820 build their first meeting house. It was called the "First Springfield Calvinist Baptist Church," and later changed to "Hatfield Point Baptist Church."
"In the 1960's, the church withdrew from the Baptist Convention and became independent. The present pastor, James Swanson, is a graduate of Lawrence University (B.A.) and Temple Baptist Theological Seminary (M.R.E., M.Div.)."
Loyalists of the American Revolution, Vol2, p.324
Loyalists of the American Revolution, Vol2, p.580
Spragg, Thomas Event: Living
Year: Abt 1783
Province of record source: New Brunswick
Comments: Loyalist
Source: The Loyalists of New Brunswick
Author: Esther Clark Wright
Publisher: Lancelot Press
Publication place: Hantsport, NS
Volume/Page(s): 330
Spragg, Thomas
Event: Living
Year: Abt 1785
Province of record source: New Brunswick
Source: Early New Brunswick Probate Records 1785-1835
Author: R. Wallace Hale
Publisher: Heritage Books Inc.
Publication Place: Bowie, Maryland
Volume/Pages: 333
"Early Spraggs of Hempstead, Long Island", by John R. Sprague III, J.D., published in "The Genealogist", Spring, 1998, pages 3-42 (note, the reader is left to review the original manuscript for references cited in Attorney Sprague's work.).
Thomas Spragg, a loyalist, moved before the Revolution to Fish kill, Dutchess Co., N.Y., then afterward to New Brunswick, Canada.
From Robert I. Spragg, Sr., correspondent in Web Site http://home.att.net/~rspragg.thomasspragg..htm.
Thomas Spragg was born in 1729 in Hempstead,L.I.,NY. He was the son of Edward (4) And Margaret (Gritman) Spragg. He was married to Mary Carman on Oct 31 1752, in Hempstead, NY, at the ST. George church.
He moved from Hempstead, up the Hudson River (about 75 miles) to Fishkill, Dutchess Co. NY. His son Caleb Spragg was born in Fishkill in 1766. Thomas Spragg had a large farm near Fishkill, near the "Wappinger cheek".
Thomas and his wife Mary had eight children: Richard, Thomas Jr. Caleb, Mary, Elizabeth (Peggy), Elijah, Hannah, and Jane.
From the book
"ROYAL RAIDERS OF THE TORIES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION"
When the American Revolution started, Thomas Spragg refused to sign the association papers to support the revolution. He was taken into custody,and later escaped. He was forced to leave his family to the hardships of the war. His farm was taken over by the revolutionaries, by a Lt. Codwis. The farm (186 1/2 acres) was later sold in a forfeitures sale ( Mar 27 1782) and the mother and children put off the farm. The same Lt. Codwis was the purchaser of the farm.
Thomas Spragg with twenty-eight other men left for New York City. With these men, (that he had engaged in Dutchess Co to serve under him), he became a part of the "Rogers Corp" of the British army. Because he was a farmer, he was not given a commission by the British and he fought as a private in the war. He and these men fought as part of the successful assault on Fort Montgomery on the Hudson River.
Thomas Spragg received a "ball" in his arm, which remained for as long as he lived. One of his sons was sent nearly fifty times by the British officers, into the country- side for intelligence (this would have been son Richard).
At the close of the war, in 1783, all Tories had to leave the new United States. Thomas Spragg was made a captain of a company of Torie Loyalist. With his and the families of the other Tories, they moved to St. John river area, of Kings Co, New Brunswick, Canada. As a result of their adherence to the Royal cause in the American Revolution, they asked the British for aid and relief for their loses in the revolution. Thomas Spragg received a grant of land of about 2000 acres on the "Belleisle Bay" on the St. John River, in Kings Co. New Brunswick, Canada. This area was called Spragg's Grant or Spragg's Pt. It was later changed to Hatfield's Pt
Note: Weeden Hatfield had married Elizabeth Spragg, grand daughter of Thomas and Mary Spragg)
apt. Thomas Spragg and his wife Mary lived out their lives in New Brunswick. Thomas died Feb 22 1812, and Mary dies Oct 24 1821. Both are buried in the Bayview cemetery in the small town of Hatfield Pt. Thomas Spragg had given the land for the new cemetery and church. The cemetery is on a hill that over looks the "Belleisle Bay".
This is the epitaph on his stone
"HERE LIES THE BODY OF CAPT THOMAS SPRAGG OF THIS PARISH, A NATIVE OF HEMPSTEAD, LONG ISLAND.
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE 22 Feb 1812 IN THE 83RD YEAR OF HIS AGE.
Stop traveler, if you have a tear to lend, beneath these sods is interred a faithful friend, a loving husband and father kind. A tender heart that felt for all mankind.
We trust with all Angels host above. He is singer anthems of redeeming love."
I visited this grave site in 1996.
It would appear that all or most of the children of Capt. Thomas and Mary Spragg lived near them or around them in Kings Co. It was only the next generation that many of the descendents moved on to new parts of Canada and back to the U.S.
Today the descendents are found all over the U.S. and Canada: Many are still in New Brunswick and many in Iowa, Montana and Mass.
From Virginia Watterson, correspondent.
* According to Esther Clark Wright in "The Loyalists of New Brunswick", page 208 " ... Jesse Gillies, who had been a sergeant in the New York Volunteers, was to be found on the Belleisle instead of the Keswick because he had married a daughter of Captain Thomas Spragg, who had sailed from New York as head of Company 46."
In his will of January 25, 1800, Thomas Spragg names a grandson, Samuel Gillies, as a beneficiary. (Kings County Probate Records) Samuel was the son of Jessie Gillies. (See Gillies Genealogy completed by myself, 1976.)
In a petition to Governor Thomas Carleton dated June 9th, 1785 Jessie Gillies states, "These circumstances your Petitioner thinks proper to mention to shew, that if he had not been a soldier, he would have been entitled to a Draft (of land) with the Loyal Refugees on this side of St. Anns (present day Fredericton) and if that had been his good fortune, he would have had the happiness of the aid of a brother in law at the head of Belleisle Bay - William Harding, by name - who is willing and able to afford him great assistance in settling." (See Land Petitions: Kings County Series I, #21.)
According to Elizabeth Estabrooks Palmer, a grand-daughter of Jessie Gillies, Jessie Gillies married Elizabeth Sherwood Fowler (daughter of Weeden Fowler). According to a genealogy recently donated to the Provincial Archives; the Gillies-Fowler marriage took place Jan 1, 1794.
The founder of the Spragg surname in Springfield Parish (Belleisle Bay) Kings County, N.B. was Captain Thomas Spragg formerly of Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York. (Jessie Gillies was formerly of Ulster County, New York).
In 1783 Captain Spragg led Co. 46 (32 men, 20 women, 10 children & 4 servants) from New York and sailing into Saint John Harbor in the late Fall of 1783. He was accompanied by his wife, Mary and at least three of their children: Caleb, Richard, and Elijah. Also among the group were John Underhill who first settled along the Kennebeckasis River before returning to the United States and Weeden Fowler who eventually settled among the Hammond River, Kings County.
Upon disembarking, Thomas was granted a 40' by 100' lot (960) in Parrtown on the East bank of the St. John Harbor. His son, Richard, received a similar sized lot nearby (965). The lots were located on Charlotte Street near Queens Square, St. John City. At 54 years of age, Thomas was now to begin a new life in a new world still a virtual wilderness devoid of institutions and conveniences of civilization left behind.
Like other late fall arrivals, Thomas and his family faced serious hardships. Little, if any, preparation had been made for their arrival. Most Loyalists were compelled to spend the winter of 1783 in rude huts or tents made from ships' sails and bedded with spruce boughs brought from Partridge Island. Illness inevitably broke out and many died.
Shortly after their arrival, Thomas and his sons were granted lands a short distance up the St. John River on the Northwest side of Belleisle Bay. It was here that the Spragg family established its "roots" and where many succeeding generations were raised.
According to Esther C. Wright in "The St. John & Its Tributaries", pp. 92-93:
"... It was a grant to Thomas Spragg, formerly of Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York, who had raised 28 men for the British Forces, but had not received a commission because he was a farmer. He served as a volunteer in the Loyal American Regiment, and his son and two sons-in-law, Caleb Davis and Jessie Gillies enlisted as soldiers ... With his wife and seven children he settled "on a new farm where he and his children laboured hard and expect they must continue to do so, where he hopes to live contented and die happy". He was made happier by the grant of 2000 acres on the northwest side of the Belleisle, but there was one catch, his name was spelled Sprague on the grant, and he and their children had to change their name."
In 1786 Thomas purchased a mill situated on the Belleisle from a Mr. Foster. The early years of settlement were difficult. In 1796 a neighbor, Peter Drake, petitioned th New Brunswick colonial administrators, stating that he was "alarmed to find Mr. Thomas Spragg had extended part of his survey across part of his (Drake's) rear land which if he is allowed to holdwise will render your petitioner's land unfit for anything but commons as it is entirely destitute of timber for fuel or fence and depends entirely on the Back Land for both articles. (Preliminary research does not indicate how the dispute was resolved.)
Thomas Sprague died Feb 22, 1812 at age 83 years of age. His wife Mary died October 18, 1828. Both were buried at the Bay view Cemetery at Hatfield Point, Springfield Parish, Kings County, N.B.
The above material was drawn from:
Esther C. Wright, "The Loyalists of New Brunswick", appendix pp. 330, 283, 337.
William O. Raymond, "The River St. John"
Kings County Land Petitions, Series I #574, September 28, 1789.
Kings County Land Petitions, Series I #350, 1786
Kings County Land Petitions, Series I #721, June 3, 1796.
Gravestone Inscriptions, Bayview Cemetery, Hatfield Point.
Daniel F. Johnson : Volume 90 Number 703
Rank 176
Date July 29, 1893
County Saint John
Place Saint John
Newspaper The Daily Sun
The old burial ground at Hatfield's Point (Kings Co.) which occupies and eminence at the back of the village and overlooks the bay, is one of the most ancient in the province, but the inscription on some of its oldest monuments are undecipherable. With the aid of a couple of ladies who filled the office of 'Old Mortality', I have copied a few of these inscriptions: Here lies the body of / Captain Thomas SPRAGG / of this parish / a native of Hampstead, Long Island / who departed this life / 22nd February, 1812 / In the 83rd year of his age. / Stop, Traveller, if you have a tear to lend / Beneath these sods interred's a faithful friend; A loving husband and a father kind; / A tender heart that felt for all mankind. / We trust with all the angelic hosts above / He is singing anthems of redeeming love. -- In memory of / Caleb DAVIS / Died April 20th, 1833 / Aged 73 years /He was one of the Loyalists who came to this province. / Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of man means peace. / Also / Mary DAVIS / His wife, and daughter of the late Captain Thomas Spragg, died 20th Deceamber, 1815 in the 54th year of her age. -- -----In Memory of / Mary SPRAGG / wife of / Captain Thomas Spragg / who departed this life / Oct. 18, 1828, aged 92 years -- Sacred / To the memory of / Mary UNDERHILL / wife of William UNDERHILL / a native of Queens County / who departed this life / April 13th, 1813 / Aged 67 years. -- In memory of / Captain Egbert SPRAGG / Youngest son of Captain Thomas Spragg / who departed this life / November 9th, 1837 / In the 69th year of his age / He was one of the earliest settlers in this province. -- In an addition to the ancient cemetery, I observed several red and gray granite and white marble monuments to the memory of men and women who were once well known in St. John. From these I copy the following: In memory of / Rev. W.A. COREY / died 27th March, 1882 / Aged 46 years / Erected by the friends and relatives of our late pastor -- John H. WILSON, M.D. / Born December 2, 1828 / Died November 10, 1889 / His wife / Mary Isabella WILSON / Born October 2, 1835 / Died December 20, 1891 -- Frank D. GANONG / Died September 26, 1887 / Aged 69 years -- In affectionate remembrance of / Debbie E. HUGGARD / wife of / J.W. HUGGARD / Born February 8th, 1863 / Died November 9th, 1884 / Her end was peace -- In memory of / Nettie KIERSTEAD / wife of / J.A.S. KIERSTEAD / Died 24th January, 1880, aged 29 years / As a wife devoted, as a mother affectionate, as a friend ever kind and true / Also their daughter / Elista WEST. -- signed H.L.S., Hatfield's Point, July 26.
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