Who Were the Loyalists?
Background information for Teachers

Biographies of the Loyalist Era

Gilbert Hyatt, Loyalist

Gilbert Hyatt was born Arlington, New York (now in Vermont) in 1761. He died in 1823 in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Gilbert Hyatt came to Canada with his father, Abraham Hyatt. His father was in the British Army when General Burgoyne was defeated at Saratoga. The family followed the Army back to Canada. He joined the Major Jessup's King's Loyal American regiment to fight the Revolutionaries. This group was involved in some attacks and scouting in the Lake Champlain area during the rest of the Revolutionary War.

After the Revolutionary War, he settled in the Missisquoi Bay area in the northern end of Lake Champlain. He settled there with many Palatine Loyalists who came from the Albany, New York area. Then the Constitutional Act of 1791 was passed and created Upper Canada and the Eastern Townships for the Loyalists.

Hyatt moved east when he was allowed to survey the land in the new Township of Ascot in June 1792. Six of his brothers joined him to settle in Ascot. He built a road from Bedford, near Missisquoi Bay, east to Ascot, and started to survey the land. He then built bridges, roads and a grist mill, at a great cost to himself, to build a settlement. The settlement was built along a small valley where the Saint François and Magog rivers met, called "Big Forks". It was soon called Hyatt's Mills. It was later named Sherbrooke after the retiring Governor, Lord Sherbrooke.

Finally, in 1803, Hyatt was officially granted land in the Township of Ascot. He also became one of the land agents for the area. In the end, he received too little land to divide and sell. He was not able to replace the money he had spent building the settlement. He had many financial problems in his later life. Some of his properties were taken away to pay his debts. But he continued to help build the settlement until his death of a heart attack in 1823.