On this day 250 years ago Scottish-born John Allan, a prominent landowner and merchant in Nova Scotia who had been a justice of the peace in Halifax, Clerk of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, Clerk of the Sessions, and member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, arrived in Passamaquoddy Bay heading to Machias, Maine (then part of Massachusetts). Allan fled his home in Nova Scotia and crossed the border to Maine after being charged with treason for loudly expressing his agreement with the American grievances against Britain. In retribution for Allan’s “treason” his wife was imprisoned, his farm was burned, and his crops, horses, and cattle were confiscated by the government of Nova Scotia. Allan eventually made his way to Philadelphia where the Continental Congress named him Superintendent of Eastern Indian Affairs and commissioned him as a colonel in the Continental Army. Allan returned to Nova Scotia only once, leading a failed invasion with a small force of Massachusetts militia, Canadian sympathizers and Micmac and Maliseet Indians in 1777, but would continue in service to the United States for the remainder of the War. Eventually his wife and children were allowed to join him in Maine, but John Allan would never recover his properties in Nova Scotia.

Sources: https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=2233; https://coljohnallan.org/