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Anthony, A Short
History based on
information researched and published by Deon Smith:
The Hollingshead Rollins Family, a Heritage of Strength and Honor A. M.
Stackhouse: Some Genealogical Notes of the Hollinshead Family Morley
Thomas: The Hollingsheads and Hills of Yonge Street and the
extensive research of Frank Johnson We are indebted to each of these caretakers and the
many others who have thoughtfully recorded and preserved our heritage. in the
beginning: Anthony was
born about 1730 in Chester Township, Burlington County in the British colony
of West New Jersey. He was
one of five children born to William Hollinshead and Hannah Rudderow. He was a great grandson of John and
Grace Hollinshead, Quakers who emigrated to West Jersey from London, England,
about 1680, seeking religious freedom.
While his mother belonged to the Anglican church, Anthony’s father was
the product of two generations of Quakers who preceded him. Anthony appears to have been raised
in the Anglican church but with a strong Quaker influence. Anthony’s wife, Elizabeth Conrow, was
born and raised as a Quaker but was dismissed from the Society of Friends for
‘marrying out’, upon wedding Anthony.
Although outside the Society of Friends, Anthony and Elizabeth raised
their children with deep-seated Quaker values. Upon settling in Upper Canada, Anthony was accepted into
the Society of Friends in 1816.
Most, if not all, of his grown children had joined the Society prior
to 1816. the
difficult years: New England
colonists became bitter and then angry as Britain’s treatment of them grew
increasingly arrogant. The
likelihood of armed rebellion grew ever stronger, dividing communities and
families. It became clear that a
revolution was inevitable.
The pacifist Quakers faced their own dilemma - whether to sit by,
taking no part in revolution, or to abandon the religious convictions handed
down by their grandparents and fight for their political destiny. Anthony,unlike
most of his Quaker relatives, elected to fight for what he believed was
right. As much as he might have
agreed with the rebels’ cause, he could not support taking up arms against
the King. Consequently, he
joined the New Jersey Loyalist forces upon the outbreak of armed conflict. At this time, he and Elizabeth were
the parents of six children. When the
Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in 1776, Anthony and his family
were obliged to abandon their home and belongings in Morris County to seek
asylum within the Royal lines at New York. He became a Lieutenant in the Third Battalion of a Brigade
of New Jersey Volunteers (Loyalist) under Brigadier General Courtland
Skinner. During the course of
the war, Anthony’s land, buildings, furniture, tools and stock were seized
and sold. The family members
were allowed to retain their clothing and provisions sufficient for three
months. During this period,
their last child was born. Of
Anthony’s wartime adventures: “. . . he went out secretly amongst the Rebels at the risk of his life
and recruited men for His Majesty’s Service, after which he joined a Band of
Loyal Refugees and erected a Block House on the banks of the Hudson River,
which they nobly defended against the attacks of the Rebel General Wayne who
had five times their numbers, whom they defeated and retook the cattle the
Rebel General was driving off, in which Engagement Mr. Hollingshead was, and
was informed he behaved very gallantly.” He left the
army in 1779. Although the war
was effectively over in 1781, Anthony and his family remained in New York,
prevented from returning to their homes by post war hostility. The peace treaty signed in 1783
extinguished any hope of their remaining in New England and they, along with
thousands of other Loyalists, were evacuated by sea. After investing the hopes and the
dreams, the sweat and the prayers, of four generations linked over a hundred
years, Anthony and his family left New York in a refugee ship for Nova Scotia
with little more than the clothes on their backs. the Nova
Scotia Years: Anthony and
his family arrived in the Annapolis Basin of Nova Scotia in the summer of
1783. They settled just south of
the coastal town of Digby. In
1784, Anthony was granted three hundred acres of forest-covered land. A year or two later, he also had a
dwelling on Water Street in Digby.
Accounts of early Digby life refer to Hollingshead Bridge and
Hollingshead Brook. Like the
other Loyalist pioneers, Anthony and his family started with only the barest
of essentials to open up their new land. They fashioned their own clothing, furniture, soap,
candles and tools. They helped each other build
houses and barns. The forests,
originally a barrier, became a source of opportunity as the population
required homes, furniture and ships.
The early Hollingsheads became exceptional builders and carpenters, a
tradition which has continued through generations of blacksmiths,
wheelwrights, mechanics, engineers and scientists. Through 1794
and 1795, Anthony and Elizabeth, and most of their now-married children, left
Nova Scotia for less crowded land and greater opportunities in the frontier
area around Newmarket. the Upper
Canada years: When Anthony
and Elizabeth arrived in Upper Canada, Anthony petitioned the Crown for land
as was his due as a United Empire Loyalist. He was granted Lot 32 of Concession 1, 190 acres on the
east side of Yonge Street, near the village of Thornhill and Lot 5 on
Concession 4. He built a two
room house on the Thornhill property and completed his settlement duties by
1801. He lived there until 1817
when he sold it to George Crookshank.
In the meantime, Anthony’s Digby property was transferred back to the
Crown for lack of completion of settlement duties. Newmarket
was by now the centre of a thriving Quaker community. In November 1815, Anthony requested
to be joined in membership with the “Friends”. In January 1816, he was received into the Society of
Friends. It is
believed Anthony died about 1818.
The specific date and burial location are not known to the writer at
this time. the Family: George (1760-1848) married
to Sarah Elizabeth (1762-1845) married to Peter McMullen Sarah (c1764-1818) married
to John Hill Isaac (1766-1813) married
to Mary Hill William (1768-1819) married
to Ann Hill Achsah (1770-1862) married
to Daniel Soules Anthony (1780-unknown) married to Eleanor Crossley |