Searching for Jonathan Jones

Thirty-five ago, as I was researching the earliest days of Baddeck, Jonathan Jones came into view. He was on the edges of the history I was exploring, yet not quite in focus. But he and his family were intriguing.

Jonathan Jones signature

Then, I read a letter from the Beaton Institute archives at Cape Breton University in Sydney, N.S., that Jonathan Jones had written in 1797. It compelled me to find out more.  Since then, I have uncovered more letters, specifically in the Solomon Jones fonds at Queens University Archives in Kingston, Ontario, downloading more than 1700 digital documents found in centuries-old account books, letters, and notes covering the time between 1780s to 1830. I have dug into digital files at the Public Archives of Canada, the National Archives of Britain, the Library of Congress in D.C, as well as the New York State Archives and the Saratoga National Park for documents about Revolutionary War battles, colonial life in New York, United Empire Loyalists, early settlements in New York, Ontario and Cape Breton. I have amassed a library – real and virtual, of more than 50 books written by award-winning historians like David McCullough (1776) and Richard Ketchum (Saratoga: The Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War) as well as local town histories compiled by citizens. Each providing another piece of this obsessive puzzle.

Now, for the first time, I am telling his story.

The beginning of Jonathan Jones letter to his brother.

In the 1790’s Jones and his family were some of the first non-native people to settle along the Baddeck River.  The more I learned about his life, the more I asked why?  Why here? Why Cape Breton when he could have gone to Ontario? Why Baddeck, when he could have settled in the new and growing garrison town of Sydney where he also owned land?

I would soon discover he was witness to many historic moments, iconic events that remain much written about and often referred to, even today, almost 250 years later. Historical figures were real life friends, neighbours and associates for Jones. Names like John Burgoyne, John Jay, John Hancock, Jane Macrea, Alexander Hamilton were moving in the same circles as Jones. I would eventually learn about his experiences during the war. He watched as his home, farm and business were burnt by the rebels. His wife and young family were taken prisoner. His lands were seized by the new government and sold. He was indicted, named an enemy of the state and banned from ever entering the new country again.

The letter introduced me to Jonathan Jones, not second-hand descriptions or tales, but the man who had lived through some of the worst horrors imaginable and lived. Embedded in his beautifully written words are his deeply held cares, his philosophies of life and his sense of humour.

It is written in the spring of 1797 by Jonathan to his brother Solomon, who had settled along the St. Lawrence River in what would become Maitland, Ontario. Nearby are brothers David, Daniel and John and their families as well as their widowed mother, who lives with Solomon and his family. All the Jones brothers fought in the Revolutionary War, lost their lands and businesses and were in the process of pioneering new communities.

Communication over distances was infrequent as there wasn’t a postal service established yet. A courier service had just been established between Halifax and Montreal a decade before this letter was delivered to banks of the Baddeck River.  

What follows are excerpts of an eight-page letter that started this journey and sent me back in time searching for Jonathan Jones.

Baddeck, March 26, 1797

My Dear Brother,

I almost began to despair of every hearing from you, and had been just talking of it, when on the ninth an Indian came in with a letter, I soon saw from whence it came.  Broke the seal and began to peruse it, my family, who were all present gathered about me and as soon as I had finished one sheet, handed it to my wife.  From her it went to son Billy and so on in regular graduation through the whole family, till it returned to me again when I could not resist a second reading, which it went through as before. From this you may form some small idea of the pleasure it gave us. 

Site of Jonathan Jones home on the banks of the Baddeck River.

In words of this letter, we are witness to the reunion between two brothers, introducing each other to their new post-revolution realities:

“I believe I told you that I am settled here entirely alone, thirty miles from any soul …except one family two and a half miles from me and three or four single men, honest old soldiers…They have small farms near me… You will ask how we pass away our time in long winter evenings, I will tell you I get a book in my hand and then I am satisfied.  My wife always at work, spinning, knitting or sewing.  Hatty also knitting or sewing, Billy upstairs with a book, sometime writing, Junior sometime ciphering, Sally reading and writing. Now this is the sum total of our winters evenings amusement, except sometimes when the ice is good, the young gentleman from Sydney pay us a visit and stay a few days which has been the case three or four times this winter.  I pity the young folks, but don’t tell them so……. My coming here when they were so young, preventing my giving them such education as I could wish.  But by the assistance of their eldest brother Billy they have got a little and may continue to improve themselves as mentioned in their evening amusements…You see how we live, separated from all the world, a little republic of our own.”

Jonathan describes his farm and wants to understand how Solomon is situated:

… “This land also brings exceedingly good wheat nearly equal to yours.  Tell me is yours spring or fall wheat?  Our winters are long, though not in general very cold.  We allow one ton of hay per head for horned cattle, which is quite sufficient…Tell me what sort of winter you have had…How far are you from Montreal? How do you travel by land or water?  What sort of roads have you? How long are boats going up?  Where is your market? Have you a school? Have you a church to go to or do you live as savages as we do.  Answer me all those questions.

Embedded in the words is a shared understanding between siblings:

… “I don’t like to idle.  You would laugh to see me attending a little grist mill, not much bigger than a peddlers box, but it’s no matter it makes good flour and plenty of it and that’s enough for me.  I have learned to be content with little things ----"

He introduces his children to their cousins:

“Billy writes by this opportunity to his cousin Thomas and Hattie to her two cousins Polly Anderson and Abby Lamson by which means they may in some measure become acquainted, though perhaps they will never see one another”

And: 

“You want me to say something about the children.  They are all well and with me and I am happy to have it in my power to tell you that they constitute the principal part of the pleasure that I enjoy or ever expect to enjoy in this life.”

Near the bottom of the last page, as space and light are running short:

“I beg you will write as soon as you receive this and give me an account of your proceedings in your new assembly…Tell me something about everybody… Tell me if Dr. Young is yet alive? What is become of Capt. Sherwood? You had best be careful how you ask for a long letter again. For I think this will try your patience...I have been writing by candlelight till I can’t see what I am about.”

The letter answered some questions, but raised more. I was still searching for the basics of his life - where was he born? When was he born? Who was older Jonathan or Solomon? Answer me these questions.

I had to keep searching.

The next installment in “Searching for Jonathan Jones” will be posted on August 6, 2025.