Welcome to the official web site for Prescott's Bicentennial. Throughout 2010 our Historic Fort Town on the St. Lawrence River is celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the founding of our town by Col. Edward Jessup a United Empire Loyalist. 

Edward Jessup, 7th generation from Prescott's founder, Colonel Edward Jessup, at Prescott's Bicentennial Fundraiser on November 14th, 2009

 The United Empire Loyalists

The Loyalists were comprised of men, women and children who came from all walks of life including clerks, clergymen, lawyers and labourers, soldiers, college graduates and people who could not even write their own name.  Most were farmers and craftsmen.  Not all were from British stock and those in the migration included such diverse groups as former Black slaves, French Huguenots, Iroquois and recent immigrants from Germany, Holland and Scotland.  They had little in common except their opposition to the revolution.

In 1784, a year after the end of the American Revolution, an estimated 80,000 left the fledgling United States of America. Issued with meagre supplies by the British government, the Loyalists hacked farms out of the wilderness.  Slowly, settlements were established and these began to be connected by trails and later roads. An estimated four to six million Canadians, about one fifth of the population, can trace their heritage to a Loyalist ancestor.  Much of Canadian citizen’s traditional loyalty and devotion to law and order can be attributed to the Loyalists.