The Colonists Are Not Happy
In the thirteen American colonies, anti-British sentiment was on the rise. Taxes levied directly on colonists by Britain to pay for the Seven Years War which had ended in 1763 were deeply unpopular. Britain repealed some of these taxes but continued the tax on imports of tea. Colonists had been largely self-governing with elected representation and control over taxation. Tensions simmered. Things came to a head when a group calling themselves ‘The Sons of Liberty’ dumped a shipload of tea into Boston Harbour on December 16, 1773 in protest.
At this time, our United Empire Loyalist ancestors were living in upstate New York. Richard Wragg, a master blacksmith, his wife Mary, and their children arrived in North America from Yorkshire in 1768. In that small amount of time, Richard purchased 386 acres fronting the Hudson River in Saratoga County for ₤220. He had improved the farmland and was combining this with a thriving blacksmith business. His son-in-law John Platt was also a recent immigrant. A native of Derbyshire, John ran a blacksmith shop near Fort Miller, just north of Richard’s homestead. In later documents, Richard wrote that prior to hostilities his family had lived a comfortable life.[ii]
Quebec
In 1773, French Canadians were still coming to terms with the impact of the Treaty of Paris signed ten years earlier. When France ceded Quebec to Great Britain, King George III at once issued a Royal Proclamation, replacing French Canadian institutions, laws, and customs with English ones, including the law of habeas corpus, the right to a trial by jury, and elected representation. There had been an expectation that a flood of British settlers would immigrate to Quebec, but that did not happen. This ill-advised attempt to assimilate the predominately French Canadian and Catholic population caused resentment among the province’s elite.
The Quebec Act
Governor James Murray and his successor, Guy Carleton, believed that the French Roman Catholic Canadians must be governed by institutions and practices familiar to them. Both governors pressed the British government to restore elements of the old French regime.[iv] Recognizing the need to change course, Britain passed the Quebec Act in 1774, replacing the 1763 unpopular Royal Proclamation, with the goal of appeasing French Canadians and forestalling rebellion. The Act came into effect on May 1, 1775. [v]
Specifically, the Quebec Act:
- Allowed Catholics to obtain good jobs in the government with the stipulation that such persons take an oath of allegiance to the British Crown.
- Reinstated French civil and property law, although English criminal law was kept.
- Granted more power to the Catholic Church which was given permission to again collect tithes from Catholics.
- Reinstated the seigneurial system of land ownership.
- Centred political power in the Governor and Legislative Council appointed by the Crown.
While the Act restored rights and power to landowners and the Catholic Church, the lower habitant class chafed under reinstated tenancy dues and tithe obligations. The much smaller English-speaking Protestant population were also unhappy. They wanted the English laws and customs kept, especially the ones which gave them preference over Catholics.
The Quebec Act also enlarged the territory of the Quebec Province and prohibited settlement in the Ohio Valley. This was welcomed by the indigenous peoples, traders and merchants at Montreal, but was unacceptable to the American colonists who were already looking to expand westward.
The Fourteenth State?
Britain punished the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the Boston Tea Party in 1774 with four acts called The Coercive Acts. Americans called these, along with the Quebec Act, the Intolerable Acts.
The first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26, 1774. Twelve of the thirteen colonies sent representatives. The focus of this congress was to consider ways in which to respond to Britain’s actions. While some representatives wanted diplomatic appeals and a trade boycott if the Acts were not repealed, representatives from Massachusetts presented their own “Suffolk Resolves” which instructed “people to ignore the Coercive Acts and told the towns to raise militia forces.”[vii]
In October 1774, the first Congress sent a letter—it was really a propaganda pamphlet—to the inhabitants of Quebec. Using heightened language, the Americans pointed out the injustice the French Canadians suffered under the tyrannical British rule via the Quebec Act. Congress invited disaffected Canadians to send representatives to the next Congress scheduled to be held May 1775.
The letter — 18 pages in all — was translated into French by Pierre Eugene du Simitiere and Philadelphia printer Fleury Mesplet printed 2,000 copies. Although the copies were distributed and discussed in town meetings throughout the Province, the reaction was mixed, and Quebec did not send any delegates to the Second Continental Congress.[ix]
The letter included references to French philosophers and the French enlightenment:
What would your countryman, the immortal Montesquieu, have said to such a plan of domination, as has been framed for you?…
What advice would the truly great man before-mentioned, that advocate of freedom and humanity, give you, was he now living, and knew that we, your numerous and powerful neighbors [emphasis mine], animated by a just love of our invaded rights, and united by the indissoluble hands of affection and interest, called upon you, by every obligation of regard for yourselves and your children, as we now do, to join us in our righteous contest, to make common cause with us therein, and take a noble chance for emerging from a humiliating subjection under Governors, Intendants, and Military Tyrants, into the firm rank and condition of English freemen, whose custom it is, derived from their ancestors, to make those tremble, who dare to think of making them miserable?
Would not this be the purport of his address? “Seize the opportunity presented to you by Providence itself. You have been conquered into liberty, if you act as you ought. This work is not of man.”[x]
I find a veiled threat in the letter. The bolded text makes it clear to me that the Americans viewed themselves as the dominant culture and they felt justified to interfere where they had not been invited. The letter goes on:
In this present Congress, beginning on the fifth of the last month, and continued to this day, it has been, with universal pleasure and an unanimous vote, resolved, That we should consider the violation of your rights, by the act for altering the government of your province, as a violation of our own, and that you should be invited to accede to our confederation….
That Almighty God may incline your minds to approve our equitable and necessary measures, to add yourselves to us, to put your fate, whenever you suffer injuries which you are determined to oppose, not on the small influence of your single province [emphasis mine], but on the consolidated powers of North-America, and may grant to our joint exertions an event as happy as our cause is just, is the fervent prayer of us, your sincere and affectionate friends and fellow-subjects.
So here (and again, I used bolded text to show my emphasis) Congress was telling Canadians that their influence was negligible compared to the new union.
The underlying message to Canada? Join us or suffer the consequences.
There were certainly American sympathizers in Montreal. However, Congress’ belief that the French Canadians would immediately revolt against the British and join the Americans was a fantasy. Canadians did not send representatives to either the first or second continental congress. While Congress placed great emphasis on reports received from English Protestants in Quebec, they paid scant attention to the views of French Roman Catholics.
The beginning of armed hostilities and the American capture of Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point pushed Congress to act. On June 27, 1775, Congress passed the following motion:
Resolved, That if General [Philip J.] Schuyler finds it practicable and that it will not be disagreeable to the Canadians, he do immediately take Possesion of St. John’s Montreal and pursue any other Measures in Canada, which may have a Tendency to promote the Peace & Security of these Colonies.[xi]
George Washington, Commander-in-Chief, in a letter to the inhabitants of Canada, circa September 14, 1775 wrote:[xii]
Come then, my Brethren, unite with us in an indissoluble Union, let us run together to the same Goal.—We have taken up Arms in Defence of our Liberty, our Property, our Wives, and our Children, we are determined to preserve them, or die. We look forward with Pleasure to that Day not far remote (we hope) when the Inhabitants of America shall have one Sentiment, and the full Enjoyment of the Blessings of a free Government.
And with that, the invasion of Canada began.
[i] W.D. Cooper. “Boston Tea Party.”, The History of North America. London: E. Newberry, 1789. Engraving. Plate opposite p. 58. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (40) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party#/media/File:Boston_Tea_Party_w.jpg : accessed 03 Jun 2026).
[ii] Library-Archives Canada (LAC), “Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1764-1841,” RG 1 L3L, Vol. 207, pages 96985-96988, digital images 17-20, Memorial Richard Wragg, Montreal, 26 Nov. 1795. I downloaded a copy of this file from LAC in 2009. When I returned to the LAC website, I was unable to locate the file. LAC is revamping its website and appears to be moving many of their digital images to Heritage Canadiana. It may be there but I cannot find it.
[iii] Robert Havell Jr, “View of the Hudson River from Tarrytown, Old Dutch Church, Beekman Manor House”, circa 1866, oil on canvas. Wikimedia Commons,
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:View_of_the_Hudson_River-Robert_Havell_Jr-1866.jpg&oldid=1099839666 : accessed June 7, 2026).
[iv] Desmond Morton, A Short History of Canada (17th ed), (McLelland & Stewart, 2017) 6.
[v] Maxime Dagenais, “Quebec Act, 1774.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published August 12, 2013; last edited June 03, 2026 (https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec-act : accessed 01 Jun 2026).
[vi] Les Frères Maristes, map “Province of Quebec, 1774” in Atlas-Géographie. Étude physique, politique, économique de la Province de Québec, Montreal, Granger Frères Ltée., 1923 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Province_of_Quebec_1774.gif : accessed 08 Jun 2026).
[vii] Harry Searles, “The First Continental Congress—America’s First Government”, American History Central: The Encyclopedia of American History (AHC), entry published October 12, 2022; last edited March 1, 2026 (https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/first-continental-congress/ : accessed 07 Jun 2026).
[viii] From official brochure (posted online) of the Office of the Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives, “The Rev Jacob Duche offers the first prayer for the Continental Congress, September 7, 1774, in Philadelphia, PA.” Original painting by Tompkins Harrison Matteson, 1848 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Continental_Congress_prayer.jpg : accessed 07 Jun 2026).
[ix] Seales, “The First Continental Congress—America’s First Government”, AHC.
[x] Gordon Lloyd, ed. “First Continental Congress, October 26,1774”, Journals of the Continental Congress published on the website The American Founding (https://americanfounding.org/entries/act-i-wednesday-october-26-1774/ : accessed 08 Jun 2026).
[xi] Philip J. Schuyler to George Washington, July 1, 1775, Letters to Washington and Accompanying Papers. Published by the Society of the Colonial Dames of America. Edited by Stanislaus Murray Hamilton. The congressional motion is included as an editorial footnote (http://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw4.033_0632_0634 : accessed 03 Jun 2026).
[xii] George Washington, “To the Inhabitants of Canada, ca. September 14, 1775,” Document in The Political Writings of George Washington: Volume I: 1754–1788, edited by Carson Holloway and Bradford P. Wilson, 75–76. The Political Writings of American Statesmen and Women. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.
Tatting the Family Threads... 
