Whatever Became of the British Loyalists?

A group of Loyalists held firm to their status as British subjects, resisting and undermining the call for revolution, which left them in a compromised position at the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783.   

An Act of Free Pardon and Oblivion, was an official order in 1778 that pardoned Delaware loyalists as long as they took an oath of allegiance to Delaware and the new United States and provided, they had not taken up arms against their neighbor or supported the British with aid.

This was on the heels of several major uprisings in Kent and Sussex Counties, with one being just miles away from the temporary capital in Dover in 1778. The 1780 uprising in Sussex County, known as the Black Camp Rebellion, included over 400 loyalists, however, the uprisings were very quickly put down by the state’s militia. With said pardon, the former loyalists were no longer seen as traitors.

At least 25 people were exempt from these pardons, however. Many of these men served as officers in provincial regiments of the British Army, gave intelligence and supplies to the British or raided the homes of their fellow Delawareans. Of those 25 only 3 would ever return to Delaware and 1 would be subject to death by hanging.

Cheney Clow, who was on the exempted list, led the uprising west of Dover in 1778. He was later apprehended. During his arrest a sheriff’s deputy was killed either by Clow or friendly fire. Clow was later acquitted of treason but hung for the murder of the sheriff’s deputy in 1783. He is the only known Delaware loyalist to have been executed by the state. The rest were never allowed to return and their property and belongings were confiscated.

One of these men was Simon Kollock, Jr. of Lewes. Kollock served as an officer in the Loyal American Regiment. While Simon Kollock Jr. fought for the Crown during the war his brother Shepard Kollock, also of Lewes, fought for Independence as an officer of the Continental Army. Shepard would later resign his commission so he would not have to fight his brother on the battlefield. The War of Independence was a deeply complicated time during a pivotal moment in history when you could not always predict who would be friend or foe.