Sneak Preview! Molly Brant a British Spy?

August 5th, A Pivotal Day in the Life of Molly Brant

To be released by Dundurn Press, April 2015.

Molly Brant, Mohawk widow of Sir William Johnson, one of the most influential white men in 18th century New York, had taken their children and moved back to her native village of Canajoharie after his death.

There, a loyal supporter of the British monarchy, Molly began watching the movements of one of her neighbours — General Nicholas Herkimer. Through her surveillance she learned that he was planning to take the entire Tryon County militia to aid in the defence of Fort Stanwix, already under siege by British forces and their native allies.

On August 5, 1777 Molly sent a native runner to warn her brother, Joseph Brant, that the rebel militia — some 800 strong —  was on its way.  

After the bloody encounter that ensued, the Americans were more than ever convinced that Molly Brant was a spy for the British. Subsequently, they harrassed her, threatened her, stole her cattle, even murdered her foreman, until she and the children were forced to flee for their lives.


Stay tuned for further previews!
 Molly Brant, Mohawk Loyalist & Diplomat

Standing in History's Footprints

Have you ever felt the thrill of standing in the footprints of history? Knowing that some famous person stood in the exact same spot? I'm sure world travellers get that feeling all the time as they visit historic sites around the globe.

Since I began writing biography I've found it helpful to visit some of the settings that my subject frequented during her lifetime. It's as if by breathing the same air I come closer to the spirit of my subject. I can imagine being with her in that place.

When I was writing Laura Secord I visited Port Oswego, the place where a young Laura Ingersoll embarked for Canada with her parents and siblings. I saw her home in Queenston and the town of Chippawa where she spent her later years, the forts of Niagara, and the battlefields of the War of 1812, a war that was so much a part of her story.

And now for Molly Brant I've twice visited the Mohawk Valley, toured Canajoharie named for the village where she was born, and the city of Johnstown, built by her influential, white husband Sir William Johnson, initially as a place where the staff at his manor house would live, and I saw two of Johnson's stately homes. My first glimpse of the Mohawk River brought tears to my eyes.

Sir William built Fort William Henry in 1755 after the Battle of Lake George that took place near the southern end of the lake. There is an interesting marker on the pier there with the pictures of many famous people who have stood in that place. They would have looked out over the lake, north toward Lake Champlain and the surrounding mountains. I was seeing the same lake, the same Adirondack Mountains, the same sun setting in the west and painting the clouds with fire.

Several people who appear in Molly Brant's story are among those pictured on the marker.

Centre, coloured picture of Sir William Johnson

They include the Mohawk sachem King Hendrick and leader of the French forces, Baron Dieskau. as well as many others.

Some Local Colour

Upper Castle (Canajoharie) Church, built in 1769.

Sometimes, while researching, I'll come across a small story, an interesting tidbit of colour in the midst of all the dates and details. Such is the following that I found while investigating the life of Molly Brant.

More has been written about Joseph Brant than Molly, his older sister. That could be because he was male, and historians of the 18th and 19th centuries tended to ignore female subjects; and Captain Joseph Brant, a decorated military veteran, was a more flamboyant figure. But both are credited with keeping five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy on the side of the British during the American Revolution.

In 1769 Sir William Johnson, Molly Brant's common-law husband and the father of her eight children, had a church built for the Mohawk of Canajoharie. The wealthy and influential Superintendent of Indian Affairs of the northern colonies, Sir William was also a member of the Society for the Preservation of the Gospel. He paid for the church out of his own pocket, as a favour to Molly and her people.

The loyalist Mohawk had fled the area for their lives, heading to Canada in 1777, along with Molly and Joseph. Sometime later, some of them returned, arriving in the middle of the night with a plan to steal the bell from their church at Upper Castle.

They managed to lower the bell from the steeple and secure it to a branch in order to carry it between them. They hadn't tied down the clapper, however, and as they were leaving the scene, the clapper clanged against the bell, waking the locals. These stout souls scrambled from their beds and hurried to save the bell from the would-be thieves. 

One can only imagine the scene that ensued!

The little church still stands today, just off Route 5 South, near Canajoharie in central New York State. It was moved and remodelled in 1850, but the bell is as it was the night the Mohawk tried to reclaim it.

November Rambles through Molly Brant Country

At Fort Johnson, on the western edge of Amsterdam, NY, I got my first look at the Mohawk River. Here on the riverbank in 1749 Sir William Johnson, one of the most powerful white men in 18th century America, built his third Mohawk Valley residence. He was thirty-four.

The Mohawk River, the largest tributary of the Hudson, flows generally east through the Mohawk Valley. It was the waterway used by many British sympathizers in their flight to Upper Canada during and after the American Revolution. (Laura Secord's family, the Ingersolls, travelled 100 miles against the current of the Mohawk before portaging to Oneida Lake. Then it was on to Port Oswego and the final leg of their journey across Lake Ontario.)

Fort Johnson, home of William Johnson & Molly Brant

Around 1759, Sir William brought the young Mohawk woman, Molly Brant, to live with him as his wife in Fort Johnson, the name he gave this stone manor house. William Johnson was forty-four; Molly in her early twenties. Here at Fort Johnson a number of their children were born.

Plaque showing a northern view of Fort Johnson, Sir William's estate.

 

 

From Fort Johnson we followed Route 5 along the Mohawk River, west towards Palatine Bridge where we crossed to the south side of the waterway and the village of Canajoharie. This village is named after the Upper Mohawk Castle where Molly was born, about 1736.

Unfortunately, Wintergreen Park that affords public access to the overlook above Canajoharie Falls was closed for the season. Here, millions of years ago a glacial river cut a three-mile gorge through the rock.

"Canajohie" means "a pot that washes itself" and it was so-called by the Mohawk people because of a large circular pothole, ground into solid rock near the lower end of the gorge through which the creek flows. The name was used for the Upper Mohawk Castle as well as the creek, the gorge, the falls, and today's village.

Village sign with photo of "the pot that washes itself."

Back in town, we visited the very attractive Canajoharie Library and Art Gallery, one of the finest small art galleries in the US. Here we were able to pick up brochures and maps of the area and talk to the very helpful staff. The art gallery's core collection consists of 350 paintings by American artists, including 21 oils and watercolours by Winslow Homer. It is well worth a visit.