John Foy was born[1] 1 April 1762 on Staten Island New, York, son of John Foy and Mary Van Pelt. His parents were married[2] in New York in 1756. This first John Foy was born in Fernanagh County, Ireland in about 1730. Maria Van Pelt was born 3 June 1734 on Staten Island, New York, the daughter of Teunis Van Pelt and Maria Drageau.  The following is the will of Mary Van Pelt’s father Tunis Van Pelt in 1745:
 
John Foy fought during the American Revolutionary War with the British Forces. He is recorded at the age of 19 with the Prince of Wales American Regiment at Charlestown, South Carolina between 25 April 1781 and 24 June 1781 (61 days). He was under the command of Brigadier General Montfort Brown in Captain John Collett’s company. How long he served with the regiment I do not know.
 
On 12 September 1783 as the end of the war was approaching, 173 loyalist officers and men, 28 servants, 68 women and 61 children left New York for the Saint John River in New Brunswick. They were disbanded on 10 October 1783. The last British Forces finally evacuated New York on 25 November 1783, two days later General George Washington and Governor Clinton entered and took control of the city.
 
In the fall of 1783 John Foy made his way, with his fellow soldiers, to Grimross on the Saint John River, New Brunswick. Some found accommodation, others had a very difficult time finding accommodation and sustenance that first year in New Brunswick.  
 
John Foy is next seen on a Petition for Land in 1784, along with 58 other petitioners in Saint John, New Brunswick. They were former members of the Prince of Wales American Regiment. He appears on another petition in 1785 as 90 petitioners, including some fifty-five loyalists from the town of Grimross (Gagetown), Queens County, New Brunswick presenting a petition to Thomas Carleton, Captain General and Governor in Chief of the Province of New Brunswick. 
 
In a story[3] in the United Empire Loyalists association of Canada records, it states as follows:
 
“ Apparently Benjamin (Darby) was not satisfied with conditions at Grimross, so, along with two other Loyalists, John Foy and his future son-in-law, John Welling, he proceeded to the Island of Saint John, accompanied by his two daughters and his second wife, Sarah Bremble, a Loyalist widow. The Bremble girls, possibly four in number, came with their mother but soon married and established homes of their own.”
 
We do know that Benjamin Darby was on Saint John Island by 1786 as he was given a Commission by the Governor in the Island Fencible Corps that year. During this early period John Foy met Mary (Polly) Warren and they were married on 20 September 1788. Her father Captain William Warren, a veteran of the French & Indian War, and his wife Jane (Gouldrup) Warren had arrived from Quebec City and settled on Tryon River in 1768 on Lot 28. Lot 28 had granted to Captain Samuel Holland, the Surveyor General for General Wolfe, Lord Dorchester and Guy Carleton.
 
Saint John Island became a possession of the British in 1763 as a result of the Treaty of Fontainebleau, after the fall of New France. In 1764 Captain Samuel Holland was given a commission to survey the northern district, including Saint John Island. He submitted the record of his survey in 1765.
 
On 22 February 1794 John Foy Senior made a petition for land on Lot 17 on Prince Edward Island. His companions, Benjamin Darby (500 Acres) and  John Welling (300 acres) had received land on Lot 17. He relocated to Lot 28 as he is included in the 1798 census at that location.
 
 
John is included in the 1798 census for Saint John Island. The entry is the only Foy family in the 1798 census for Saint John Island. John Foy is referred to as “Esquire” because he had been appointed Justice of the Peace at Tryon. The male under sixteen listed is John Foy junior. From the 1851 and 1861 census of New Brunswick we can ascertain that John Foy Junior was born between 1794 and 1796.
 
In 1799 the name of the Island was changed from Island of Saint John to Prince Edward Island.
 
A family history[5] of the Warren family prepared before 1900, is quoted following. The author, William Henry Warren (born in 1845), was also a descendant of Captain William Warren and Jane Gouldrup.
 
“A large and sturdy family grew up in the house of William Warren whose names were Polly, Nancy, William, James, Joseph and Martha, the lives of whose offspring it will be interesting briefly to indicate:
 
Polly Warren linked her destiny in marriage with John Foy, whose familiar homestead at Tryon is still an object of note in the locality. To them were born Jane, Nancy, Phoebe, James, Rachel, Mary, John, Joseph and William.  How intimately their names are interconnected with present residents of the community may be readily seen in a brief statement of their matrimonial connections.
 
Jane was united in marriage to James Woods; Nancy became Mrs. McKinnon, whose daughter was the late Mary Henderson; Phoebe became the wife of Joseph Robinson; James married Elizabeth Callbeck; Rachel assumed the name of Mrs. Benjamin Boulter; Mary was known as Mrs. Samuel Thomas; John took Mrs. Henderson to wife; Joseph married Phoebe Callbeck, and William made Edith Farrow his bride. The descendants of these couples are almost numberless.”
 
From the above it may be inferred that the author of the article knew the family relatively well, however, did not know John Foy junior and his wife closely, or he would have included her first name. This could be because John had moved over to New Brunswick. In a book[6] it states that John Foy junior “married Widow Henderson”. Yes, there was a widow Henderson involved, but it wasn’t his wife, rather  her mother.
 
So it appears John Foy Junior left Prince Edward Island and moved to New Brunswick. His future mother-in-law, Ann Henderson, wife of George Henderson, in 1817 made petition[7] for a grant of land confirming the lands her first husband, Donald McGregor. Donald McGregor had been promised and had improved the lands. All the children of Donald McGregor and Ann are noted on the petition. They are Mary Ann born in 1796; Peter born in 1797; Ann born in 1799; Mary born in 1803; Elizabeth born in 1805; and Susannah born in 1807. In the original in the New Brunswick Archives someone has written on the original in different handwriting the name of the husbands of three of the daughters John Forth, John Malone and John Foy. I suggest this was done sometime around the time of the second petition in 1825, since John Foy wasn’t married until 1824.
 
On 25 March 1824 John Foy and Elizabeth McGregor were married in Chatham, Northumberland County New Brunswick, where he was living at the time.
 
On 27th of June 1825 Ann Henderson again petitioned[8] for land in Northumberland County. This time George Henderson, her second husband, had died in 1823. This petition mentions specifically John and Elizabeth Foy. This petition records  that Donald McGregor was one of the earliest settlers on the South West Branch of the Miramichi River in Northumberland County and that all their children were born in New Brunswick. It also mentions the grant of land given to William Davidson, deceased. William was a lumber merchant, shipbuilder and politician who had received a land grant for 100,000 acres constituting a 13 mile strip on either side of the Miramichi River. He built a sawmill at the Northwest Millstream to mill his timber, a lot of which he shipped to Britain.  The mill was close to Quarryville, Nelson Parish and Derby. He and his partners lost a lot of ships on their journey to Britain. One of his daughter married a George McGregor, whether he was related to Ann Henderson’s first husband I do not know.
 
Ann Henderson’s petition was processed and sent to council on 6th March 1826. There is said that when the officials reviewed Ann’s Petition of 1817 they had judged she was entitled to 30 acres on the first of the three properties, not the 200 acres on the first property and the petitioners had not agreed and therefor none of the three properties had been granted. It appears that in 1826 they granted Ann Henderson 30 acres of land.
 
So at least now we know the name of John Foy’s first wife, Elizabeth McGregor aka Henderson. Her mother was definitely Widow McGregor and then Widow Henderson, maybe causing the confusion over Elizabeth being a widow.
 
Two years later John Foy senior died, his will is dated 28 February 1828 and the will was probated on 24 March 1828. His will states in part as follows:
 
The will goes on to say that John’s 200 acre farm at Tryon River is to be split between his younger sons Joseph and William. This seems to support the theory that John Foy junior had relocated to New Brunswick at an earlier date. The will mentioned all of John and Mary Foy’s children, except for James. The will was witnessed by George Bynon, James and Phillips Callbeck, who was married to Nancy Warren, a younger sister of John’s wife Mary (Polly) Warren.
 
Elizabeth Foy must have died around 1840, possibly with the birth of Mary Ann in 1841, as John Foy married Margaret Stewart on 12 April 1843 at Nelson Parish, Northumberland County, New Brunswick, as follows. It would appear that Mary Ann was named after her mother’s eldest sister Mary Ann McGregor. The marriage was witnessed by Frances Peabody Henderson, I believe a son of George and Ann (McGregor) Henderson. There was another son Alexander James Henderson.
 
The 1851 census for New Brunswick includes John and Margaret and their children. Their youngest child Katherine Foy was born in 1852, as shown below in the 1861 the census. You will note that John’s profession is listed as Blacksmith, consistent with Catherine McLeod’s following story, so the business must have collapsed before 1851. The census lists John Foy age 55; Marg age 34; Mary Ann age 9, John age 7, Elizabeth age 4, Christine age 2 and Glorina age 3 months. Katherine was born the following year.
 
In New Brunswick family tradition tells us that John Foy junior started a business with his cousin of the Prince Edward Lord family. The following is a story[9] told by Catherine Arabella McLeod, wife of Nathaniel James McLeod, son of Katherine Foy.
 
I have not as yet found business records of ‘Lord and Foy’, however there is a brook named ‘Lord and Foy Brook’ in Gloucester, New Brunswick. From the source “Origins of Some Place Names
on N.B.’s Eastern Shore”:  it states ‘Lord & Foy Brook’ is so named after early lumberman”.
 
In the 1861 census John and Margaret are living in the Parish of Derby, County of
Northumberland. Derby was created in 1859 from all of Nelson Parish north of the southwest Miramichi River and Beaubears Island.  The 1861 New Brunswick Census[10] lists John Foy (Junior) and Margaret his wife and 5 children. Notice that the birthplace of John Foy is Prince Edward Island: The census lists John Foy 67 born on Prince Edward Island; his wife Margaret 50 born New Brunswick, and children Mary Ann age 21; John age 17; Elizabeth age 15; Christian age 13, Gloriana age 10, and Katherine age 8.  In a letter from the 1960s Ruby Underhill, wife of Peter Lebans, she advised that three of Katherine (Foy) Lebans sisters married three MacDougall brothers.


[1] Ancestry.com; Staten Island, New York Church Records, 1749-1828
[2] The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (quarterly) 1871, Published New York, New York.
[3] Elizabeth Crouch; Oldest Loyalists mostly from An Island Refuge; Abegweit branch of UELAC; under Benjamin Darby.
[4] Duncan Campbell; History of Prince Edward Island; Mika Publishing; Belleville, Ontario, 1972; page 214.
[5] W.H. Warren; The Warren Family; Prince Edward Island Magazine; Volume 12, February 1900; pages 411 and 412.
[6] An Island Refuge – Loyalists and Disbanded Troops on the Island of Saint John; Abegweit Branch of the United Empire Loysalist Association of Canada; edited by Orlo Jone and Doris Haslam; 1983; page 110.
[7] New Brunswick Archives; Land Petitions; 1783-1918 (RS108); Northumberland; Microfilm F4179.
[8] New Brunswick Archives; Land Petitions; 1783-1918 (RS108); Northumberland; Microfilm F4205.
[9] Letter from Catherine Arabella (McLeod) Lebans to Daphne Lebans, dated 12 March 1967.
[10] 1861 New Brunswick Census, Parish of Derby, Northumberland County.; sheet No.98