The united counties of Leeds and Grenville are in southern Ontario, Canada on the border with the United States.The county seat is Brockville.
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) was between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the 13 colonies which became the newly formed United States.
The first European settlements in Ontario were after the American Revolution when 5,000 loyalists left the new United States.
Ephraim Ayers was born on June 13, 1733 in Brookfield, Worcester County Massachusetts. His parents were Edward Ayres and Jemima Davis.
He served during the French and Indian War. In 1757, he was on the payroll for the Ware River Parish expedition under Lord Loudon.
In 1762 he was on the payroll of Captain Thomas Cowden (1720-1792).
Pay Roll of Capt. Thomas Cowden's Co. Mar. to Dec. 1762.
Lt. Daniel Walker, Ens. David Getchell, Stephen Ayres, Ephraim Ayres, Solomon Cummings, Daniel Dodge, Charles Dorothy, Jacob Getchell, Henry Gilbert, Jesse Gilbert, Moses Gilbert, Jonas Hayward, William Mace, Samuel Palmer, Daniel Rolfe, Caleb Thayer, Nathaniel Wait, Richard Wait, Solomon Walker, Zebulon Walker, Samuel Whiston, Samuel White, all of Brookfield.
In 1772 the family was in Skenesboro, New York.
In 1775, Ephraim was in Captain John Stevens' company.
To the Honourable His Majesty' s Council and House of Representatives of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, in General Court assembled, July, 1775:
Most humbly sheweth that he, John Stevens, served as a Captain under Colonel Benedict Arnold,at the taking of the Fortresses of Ticonderoga, &c, at the westward; that lately the said Colonel Arnold has disbanded his Regiment, and directed your petitioner to present the Roll of his Company to this honourable Court ....
John Stevens, Captain, enlisted May1st;
Peter Castle, Lieutenant,
Eliphalet Castle and Nathaniel Stevens, Sergeants,
John Metlenge and Jonas Putnam, Corporals,
Efferon Putnam, Edmund Frost, Samuel Morrison, Nathaniel Burr, William Clark, Peter Griffin, David Towsey, Hugh Morrison, Ephraim Eayres, James Wells, James Bolton, and Peleg Hart, enlisted May10th;
Gershom Flagg, Amos Cook, Alexander Kidd, John Walker, John Bolton, Ebenezer Newell, Daniel Beman, John Cowm, Andrew English, John McDonald, William Sutherland, Asaph Putnam, John Varnum, and Robert Shannon, enlisted May 17th.
Between December, 1775 and August, 1777, Ephraim was with Jessup's Rangers.
I do hereby certify that Ephraim Eyers joined the Royal Standard previous to the year 1783 and that he was employed as a confidential man on Secret Service in the late American war, given at Augusta the 19th day of Feb. 1807.
He was captured by Arnold on Lake Champlain in 1775.
Ephraim escaped from the Albany jail in 1782 and went to Canada.
His children may have included:
Phebe Ayers (1783, married Israel Mallory), and
Classen (Clossen) Ayers (1791, married Catherine Mallory).
On July 27, 1785 the west half of lot 21 and the east half of lot 22 on the Broken Front in Yonge Township was granted to the Ephraim Eyers family. Ephraim Eyers transfered the property to Lemuel Mallory.
An affidavit signed by Aaron Comstock said that half of lots 20 and 21 were sold to Jeremiah Mallory on March 2, 1798. This property is located at Mallorytown landing.
He died at Elizabethtown (now Brockville), Ontario. Canada in 1802 at age 69.
William Ayers, Catherine Malory Ayers, John Ayers, and Zeno Ayers appeared on the census lists of Yonge Township, Leeds County Ontario in the 1840s.
Brockville, Ontario was called Elizabethtown. The area was first settled by English speakers in 1785, when Americans who had remained loyal to the crown fled to Canada after the American Revolution.
Brockville
1840
United Empire Loyalists were Americans who remained loyal to King George III and the British Empire. They moved to Canada after the American Revolution.
The French and Indian War lasted from 1754 to 1763 and was the North American phase of the Seven Years' War.
from The American Ruling Cases as Determined by the Courts edited by Basil Jones
The controversy is as to whether the complainant, Henry McCarthy, is an heir of John Earl, deceased, and entitled to an interest in the lands of which he died seized. Complainant claimed to be an illegitimate son of Susan Champion, who was the mother of John Earl. It is admitted that Earl was an illegitimate son of said Susan Champion, whose maiden name was Ayers. She originally lived in Elizabeth township, near Brockville, Ontario, Canada. There she was married to Elias Champion in 1830. John Earl ‘was born to Susan Champion (then Susan Ayers) in 1822, and after her marriage to Elias Champion he became a member of his mother's family and lived with her up to the time of [92] her death, in 1893, usually being known by the name of John Champion. . .
