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Contents
Introduction
Oral History
Philip Long -
not born in the 1750's but in the 1740's
Updated list of Philip Long prior to 1775
Philip Long -
born in 1742?
Philip Long - Arrival at Philadelphia, 1754
John or Philip Long
English or Scottish?
Future Research
Note: This text is by Benoît Long, webmaster for
the Philip Long GENWEB, unless otherwize indicated.
This part of Philip
Long’s life remains pretty much a mystery. Only oral history and
conjectures are available at this time to satisfy our
curiosity and strong desire to know something more of our ancestor(s)
and our common roots. We are indebted to Mgr Ernest Lang for his
description of oral history on the origins of Philip Long. Time will tell when definitive
conclusions and evidence can be discovered on our ancestry.
Based on the work of Mgr.
Ernest Lang (1899-1989) and oral family history:
-
Philip Long would have been born in 1757.
-
According to Mgr. Lang,
and as he so aptly says "for some, and while for others" [free
translation], Philip
Long could have been born in Philadelphia and could have been of
Scottish ancestry. In a very real sense, this is the best
information we have to date on the origins of our common ancestor.
Given that this
is the best we have, we think it is important to understand as far as we
can what, if any, evidence exists to corroborate or invalidate any of
this oral history. This is done in a generous spirit and not to
demolish decades of beliefs around certain facts. Investigating
the truth does require some scepticism in order to test hypotheses and
then develop, based on every shred of fact or belief or conjecture, the
most likely scenarios around an ancestors life shrouded in such a fog of
history.
Was
Philip Long really born in 1757?
We believe the year 1757
was obtained by
subtracting the declared age of Philip (according to oral history) when he joined the American
Revolution (18 years old) and the beginning of hostilities in 1775.
We have no evidence to contradict Mgr. Lang's assertion that oral
history transmitted down from generation to generation that Philip was
18 when he committed this act of bravery. Mgr. Lang's text is
without equivocation. Philip Long was aged 18 when he committed
his act of bravery. It is therefore really impossible to know if
Philip was really 18 or younger or older.
Scenario 1
- Philip Long was 18 when he committed his act of bravery
Under this
scenario, it is easier to determine what is the likely date or range
of dates when Philip could have been born. At the latest,
Philip was engaged in the conflict by the Fall of 1781 in Captain
Attwood's Company in the KAR. If we believe [as the author of
this document] that our ancestor was also previously in the West
Florida royal Forresters as early as the Spring of 1781, he would at
the latest been born by the year by 1763. He could have also
been born as early as 1757 if we believe Mgr. Lang's retelling of
oral history that he did indeed commit this act of bravery in the
earliest days of the conflict. Of course, it becomes even more
interesting if not downright difficult when one takes the death
certificate literally and factors in the fact that if he died at 90
years of age in 1832, he would have been born in 1742, and therefore
to have committed this act at the age of 18 would have meant that
his act of bravery actually took place in 1860, not 1775 as conveyed
to us by Mgr. Lang! We have presented elsewhere what we
believe to be very strong evidence, corroborated through other
researchers, in particular Donald and Gilles Long, that the 1831
Census in what would become Clair [la petite Décharge], actually
fundamentally alters our understanding of of Philip Long's age.
That census indicates that an elderly man of between the ages of
80-90 lived in Romain Long's household - the strongest evidence that
Philip Long did indeed die at 90 years of age in 1832.
If we
accept that Philip Long was 18 when he committed his act of bravery
and ninety when he died, the only possible date when he would have
committed this act is 1760. Of course, 1760 is far from the
American Revolution years of 1775-1783. What did take place in
1760 was the last year of the Seven Year War between the Britain and
France, a war that saw the final concession of New France to England
after the series of battles including the Plains of Abraham.
How could he have been reputed to have "escaped to the British with
an American Mail" in the Seven Years War? This is not possible
in our opinion which means that once again, we have to (1) either
disbelieve the oral history that he was 18 when he committed this
act of bravery or that he was not ninety years of age at his death.
The latter requires us to believe that both the census and the death
certificate are wrong, a situation that stretches all bounds of the
credible in our opinion. It is difficult to believe that both
a government worker would be lied to during the Census and that his
age of death would have been recorded incorrectly (and yet
remarkably similarly) by witnesses outside of Philip Long's
immediate family at his funeral. Not a single sibling appears
to have been at the church in Ste-Luce when the death was
registered. However, the possibility exists that family
members were there but simply did not record their presence in the
official documents of the Church.
Is it more
likely that both the Census and the death records are equally wrong
with very consistent dates, or that the age at which Philip
committed his act of bravery is not the result of an accurate
passing down, from generation to generation, of a factual date but
rather the likely and reasonable conjecture through the years that
18 was a likely good date for a young man to have committed such an
act of daring and superlative heroism? The writer must declare
his bias toward the latter supposition and conclusion. If
Philip was indeed born in 1742, then the earliest he could have
committed an act that could reasonably be described as told to Dean
and Kavannagh as "escaped to the British with an American Mail"
would be in 1775, or later around 1781 when we know that Philip was
officially engaged in the conflict as a member of cavalry units.
That would mean that in fact Philip would have been at least 33 or
perhaps older at 39.
There is
further evidence to support this conclusion, in our opinion, in the
actual texts from Deane and Kavannagh. Mgr. Lang might have
had access to the original English text from the Maine Archives from
the survey which reads exactly as follows: Next, ....".
The words "escaped to the British" are incontrovertible in their
meaning. The following scenario is constructed from an initial
premise suggested by Donald Long in 2005 in a series of emails.
The definition of the word "escaped" is the following from
dictionary.com:
1. to slip or get away, as from confinement
or restraint; gain or regain liberty: to escape from jail.
2. to slip away from pursuit or peril; avoid capture,
punishment, or any threatened evil.
3. to issue from a confining enclosure, as a fluid.
4. to slip away; fade: The words escaped from memory.
5. Botany. (of an originally cultivated plant) to grow wild.
6. (of a rocket, molecule, etc.) to achieve escape velocity.
–verb (used with object) 7. to slip away from or elude
(pursuers, captors, etc.): He escaped the police.
8. to succeed in avoiding (any threatened or possible danger or
evil): She escaped capture.
9. to elude (one's memory, notice, search, etc.).
10. to fail to be noticed or recollected by (a person): Her
reply escapes me.
11. (of a sound or utterance) to slip from or be expressed by (a
person, one's lips, etc.) inadvertently.
–noun 12. an act or instance of escaping.
13. the fact of having escaped.
14. a means of escaping: We used the tunnel as an escape.
15. avoidance of reality: She reads mystery stories as an
escape.
16. leakage, as of water or gas, from a pipe or storage
container.
17. Botany. a plant that originated in cultivated stock and is
now growing wild.
18. Physics, Rocketry. the act of achieving escape velocity.
19. Computers. a key (frequently labeled ESC) found on
microcomputer keyboards and used for any of various functions,
as to interrupt a command or move from one part of a program to
another.
–adjective 20. for or providing an escape: an escape route.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Origin: 1250–1300; ME escapen, ascapen <
ONF escaper (F échapper) < VL *excappāre, v. deriv. (with ex-
ex-1) of LL cappa hooded cloak (see cap1)]
There
is a purpose in putting so much emphasis on the word "escaped".
In Mgr. Lang's telling of the act of bravery, Philip Long was
described as having volunteered to be a sentinel or scout, and to
have been sent by the British in one of the most watched sectors in
order to find precious intelligence for his side. It was on
that mission that he, by accident, encountered a group of enemy
emissaries accompanied by some Indians, who were carrying a bag of
mail that contained secret military orders sent to enemy (Patriot)
units. Under the very eyes of the soldiers, Philip stole the
bag of mail and ran for his life in the woods. He was pursued
ferociously, splitting into two groups so to try an capture our
ancestor. He ran for three days and nights, without food, and
finally brought the bag of mail to his military commanders who
extracted a significant advantage from the stolen documents.
Mgr. Lang indicates that this story was told under different forms
in the family, from generation to generation, and that he often
heard this story from his own father . This story is obviously
captivating and it is hard not to feel pride and admiration for a
man who would be able to accomplish such an act.
However,
and there is one huge one, it is difficult to believe that such a
feat would have been accomplished in this particular way by a man of
perhaps 33 or 39 years of age. That the mail was stolen is
probably clear. What is less clear are the circumstances of
this theft. Based on the text from Deane and Kavannagh, the
word escaped, as the numerous definitions demonstrate, is more
likely to be understood as "having escaped with" rather than
"escaped from". The two have very different meanings since the
first implies that one was one one side then went to the other side
with the bag of mail rather than escaping from the American with
their mail. The French equivalent of escaped is in its latin
root of "échapper" is not "livrer" as in Thomas Albert's translation
of the Deane and Kavannagh text. Why change the sense of
escaped to deliver in the translation? Who should we believe,
the original words used by Dean et al. or the translation in
Albert's Histoire?
Here is the key passage:
However, due in large part to the primary research by my brother Donald Long
and others,
we now believe that 1757 as a birth year for Philip Long is incorrect.
Here are the reasons why the
1757 date is probably wrong.
-
1757 is arbitrary
and unfortunately does not fit with the available evidence. It
was deduced by subtracting the approximate age of eighteen years to
the year 1775. Although on the surface it seems reasonable, it
is felt that this amounts to forcing history to fit into our
pre-conceived notions of the age at which people do things (e.g.
getting married in our early twenties). Life is sometimes
stranger than we think.
-
Philip Long's death
certificate indicates that he died when he was "ninety years old".
Given Mgr Lang's assertions on Philip's age, we believe that this
date came about more because of some pre-conceived notions in order
to make the story work according to what seemed like reasonable
assumptions (e.g. Philip could not have been fifty years old when he
married Marie-Julie).
-
The belief was always expressed
that old people sometimes exagerated their age in order to amplify
their sense of self and that is why Philip would have said that he
was much older than he actually was. It is true that old
people tended to exagerate their age and so one would approach this
carefully. Unfortunately, there
has never been any evidence that the date in the death certificate
is actually wrong. This position was entirely based on
-
(1) an assertion that he was likely around 18 years old in 1775
when the conflict started. Not unreasonable but unsupported to
this day;
-
(2) he could not have been ninety when he died because he
would have been fifty years (50) old when he married his wife Marie
Julie Couillard-Després. Rather old for marrying, particularly
when you have such a large family later. However, this is now
much more likely and reasonable based on our available information
than any other alternative uncovered to date. Donald Long's
perseverance in this matter must be noted here.
-
Philip Long was actually
enumerated as part of the 1831 report by Deane and Kavanagh on
behalf of the new State of Maine (recently separated from the state
of Massachussetts). In this report, his age is not reported
but he is listed as having recently moved to this location in 1828.
From testimony given by his son Jean-Baptiste, we now know that this
date was slightly off since his son arrived in the late Fall of 1827
and is likely to have brought his father with him at that time.
It is however possible that Philip himself only arrived a few months later
in 1828.
-
Philip was enumerated in
the 1830 census (http://www.upperstjohn.com/1830/)
along with his sons Jean-Baptiste and George. All of the Longs
at this point were still residing in Clair, New Brunswick across
from the mouth of the Fish river in Maine, U.S.A. In this
census (done by and for the State of Maine because the territory was
still in dispute between England and the United States),
he is
listed as having an age falling between 80-90 years, not 73 as he
should have had if he had actually died at the age of seventy-five
in 1832 as asserted by Mgr Lang.
-
Therefore, and no matter
how challenging this might prove for many of Philip's descendants,
including myself, there are at least two pieces of genealogical record that point to
the fact that Philip Long was indeed ninety when he died and
that he was actually born in 1742 (or thereabouts) rather than 15
years later in 1757.
-
his death certificate
shows his age as ninety years old in 1832;
-
the 1830 census
indicates that there was a person of age 80-90 in the household
of Jean-Baptiste Long when the census was taken (enumeration
likely took place in November 1830)
-
as additional
confirmation that Philip was much older than anyone has been
willing to admit is a reference in the 1815 letter from
George Heriot, Postmaster General, dated December 13, 1811 at
Quebec and addressed to Noah Freer, Esquire. His letter is
intended to bring the Governor, through Freer, to understand the
arrangements for paying Long our of the military chest directly
a stipend for living at the head of Lake Temiscouata.
In this letter, he refers to Philip Long as " an old servant
of the Government". Donald has persisted, correctly in our
view, in asserting that a person would not have that label of
"old servant" if he was in fact born in 1757, and so have been
54 at the time of the letter. Rather, it is much more
likely that he was in fact "old" because he was in fact 69 in
1811.
-
The consequence of
accepting that Philip Long was much older throughout his life is a
critical element of how to establish his birth date and his place of
origin. Because everyone has taken for accepted fact that
Philip was 17-18 in 1775, a number of Philip Long's whose
genealogical records exist but contradicted this "oral history" view
were eliminated. However, when we take the new timelines into consideration, and we
thank Donald Long for uncovering this, there is a Philip Long, born
in 1742, who might fit our timelines. Over time, this and many
other Philip Long's will be discovered and every line eliminated
until only one is left. The information on the 1742 Philip
Long is
valuable enough to provide a separate section to describe and
analyze its potential as the true origins of Philip Long.
Let us start with the current
state of this research. There is no definitive information on a
Philip Long that would end all speculation. It is possible that we
will never know for sure, unless a trail with signatures from Philip can
be established that pre-dates his participation in the Revolutionary
War.
In 1790, there were a total of
464 Long enumerated in the US Census for that year. (Donald Long).
It is therefore unlikely that the number of Long's before 1775 was
anywhere greater than a few hundred. That is good thing from a
research perspective since it narrows the various directions that a
researcher might consider taking.
Over the years, a number of
researchers have gathered information on various Philip Long's from
sources such as births, deaths, marriage, ship manifests, etc ...
Here is the currently known list of Philip Long's that have a record
that is prior to 1775.
This portion of this page is under construction.
Best Cases to date
NOTE: Thomas Albert's book , History of Madawaska, mentions "John Lang".
His book was based in many areas on notes from Prudent Mercure who had
done much of the primary research. I have a copy of Mercure's
notes and he wrote Lang. However, from the originals of the
Journal des Missions obtained by Ghislain Long, the text is much closer
to Long than Lang, and I have concluded that the notation of John Lang
in Albert's book should have have been John Long. It remains that
there is quite a discussion among descendents of Philip on how he was
referred to as John Long rather than Philip Long. Was he
called John by everyone even though he always signed Philip Long only?
Are there any other possible
Philip Long's that have been uncovered that could fit the profile of our
ancestor? Information from various researchers will be collected to
enhance this section of the site.
Cultural ancestry
There is no evidence to support that Philip was Scottish except oral
history - generally, that is pretty powerful since the assumption is
made that the information was transmitted from generation to
generation. We obviously cannot rely on family linguistics (accents) to
determine our heritage. The entire first generation was French
due mainly to location and Marie-Julie's heritage and language.
However, it is evident that the sons (at least Jean-Baptiste and Romain) were partially literate and most if not many of Philip's
children would have spoken some English. This is due in part
to the fact that the "business" they managed required them to
converse with a multitude of people from different backgrounds and
languages. It is also unlikely that Philip would have
neglected to speak to his children in his own tongue, at least part
of the time. In the Philip-Romain-Paul-Joseph line, there is
definitely Scottish blood but it came later in the marriage of
Joseph and Annie Douglass in the late 1800.
Philip Long as a Scotch-Irish
We can reduce some possibilities by looking at alternatives and
eliminating them. One very valid one would be that he was a
Scotch-Irish. In this case, the likelihood is very low.
Why? Because the vast majority of the immigrants from this cultural
group were fervent supporters of the Patriot cause, particularly in
Pennsylvania. There were exceptions, and probably no fewer
than in New York where people stayed on the sidelines longer than
anywhere else. The majority of these immigrants were
Presbyterians. After the Revolution, the Irish immgrants were
mostly Catholics.
"It is computed that during 1771-1173 twenty-five or thirty
thousand emigrants sailed from Ulster alone to ports in the New
World, especially to those on the Delaware."
"All of the authorities are agreed upon the statement, and the
evidence warrants it, that Irish emigration to America in the
eightteeth century was overwhelmingly Protestant and mainly
Presbyterian; and that the bulk of the emigrants were Ulster Scots,
although there was a respectable number of Protestants emigrating
from other parts of Ireland. The emigration of the Catholics Irish
was very slight in this period, nor did it become noteworthy until
well into the nineteeth century."
"Of great significance also as a cause of emigration was the
religious persecution suffered by the Ulster Scots at the hands of
the Established Church of Ireland, where the church of England,
though represented by but the small part of the population, had been
established by law. The religious suppression of the Protestant
Dissenters, mostly Presbyterians in Ulster, weighed heavily upon the
inhabitants."
The Scotch-Irish in the Revolution
"They alone of the major racial groups had any unanimity of
opinion respecting war and independence, and they alone appear to
have had no Tories and no pacifists in their ranks."
Poem by Mrs. Samuel Evans
"And when the days of trial came
Of which we know the story
No Erin son of Scotia's blood
Was ever found a Tory."
See also W. E. H. Lecky, A History of England in the Eigtheeth
Century, II, 262; et S. G. Fisher, The Making of Pennsylvania, p.
177. The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania, pp. 39-40.
Question: If Philip was really Scottish, how did he support a
King that was hostile to his class and religion?
Current Hypotheses on the
Origins of Philip Long as well as a description of our current program
of research
This section is under construction.
Where does that leave us today
The only thing we can really
be sure of is that Philip Long was in fact a Long, not a Lang.
Subsequent generations, priests, and the normal course of linguistic
transformations have created two family names born from the same root:
the Long and Lang families of Clair, New Brunswick. It was not
until Mgr Ernest Lang confirmed the signature from Philip that the
debate ended.
On everything else, there is
still a great deal that we do not know about Philip Long. We
continue the search.
Current research continues with new insights every day. A
strong push is now underway to seek the roots of Philip Long. We
can only hope that this work will succeed ... soon!
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