Monarchist Profile: Laura Secord

If you are not a native of Her Majesty’s Dominion of Canada you will probably never have heard of Laura Secord. However, for proud Canadians she is a heroine of the early history of their country; possibly even a savior of it. She was born on September 13, 1775 as Laura Ingersoll in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Her family, of course, were loyalists (like all good Americans were in those days) and her father, Thomas Ingersoll, served in the local loyalist militia during the Revolutionary War. This, naturally, made things rather difficult for the family after the separatists won the war and established the United States. Like many loyalist families the Ingersoll clan decided to relocate to Canada in 1795 where the British Crown still reigned supreme. At that time, Canada was the “land of opportunity” and there were many like the family of Thomas Ingersoll who hoped to recover family fortune they had lost in the Revolution due to their loyalty to King and country.

 Because of all of this it should be no surprise that the family, again like most, was staunchly monarchist and steadfastly loyal to the British Crown, their loyalty having been tested in the extreme and not found wanting. In 1797 young Laura married James Secord, a member of the United Empire Loyalists, whose father had also been a loyalist in the Revolutionary War having served as an officer with Butler’s Rangers, a particularly fierce group of American Tories. James and Laura Secord settled down to a life of domestic bliss, setting up house in Queenston, Ontario (or Upper Canada as it was known then). Laura Secord lived the life of a typical wife on the northern frontier of the British Empire until trouble with the United States brought another war to her doorstep. After years of increased tensions the United States declared war on Great Britain in 1812 and immediately launched an invasion of Canada. War Hawks south of the border boasted that taking Canada would be a ‘mere matter of marching’ and believed that the people would welcome them as liberators from the “oppressive” rule of the British monarch. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

Laura Secord bravely kissed her husband goodbye as he rushed to the colors to defend Canada from the Americans. The Crown forces were grossly outnumbered but they had an advantage in the dynamic and audacious leadership of General Isaac Brock who organized his handful of redcoats, Canadian militia and local Indians to repel the American invasion. He had already thwarted one attempt before meeting the U.S. army at the battle of Queenston Heights where General Brock was mortally wounded. James Secord helped remove the body of his fallen commander and, in the process, was wounded himself. Laura risked the perils of the battlefield to search for her husband and, after finding him, caring for his wounds. The couple were almost killed by a group of American soldiers but were spared thanks to the arrival of Captain John E. Wool. A friend for life was made and that Captain Wool later became a hero in the Mexican-American War and a general in the War Between the States.

The war went on and in the spring of 1813 the U.S. Army made another effort to invade Canada. Fort George was captured and an American column moved to take control of the Niagara Peninsula which could have been of great importance. Colonel Charles Boerstler was dispatched with a sizeable force to surprise the British outpost at Beaver Dams, paving the way for future American advances. However, Laura Secord overheard the plans for this operation from a group of American officers who had quartered themselves in her home. Slipping away, Mrs. Secord braved a long and hard journey, barefoot through the wilderness to reach the British outpost and warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon of the imminent American attack on June 22, 1813. There were over 600 regular U.S. Army soldiers against only 50 British redcoats and around 400 Indian warriors but FitzGibbon had time to prepare and the result was that the Crown forces were able to ambush the advancing Americans and totally defeat them with a minimum of losses. This hot little engagement so stung the U.S. forces at Fort George that they never made any further aggressive moves and finally abandoned the fort.

Laura Secord went back to a normal life with word of her exploits spreading by word of mouth but never being officially recognized, despite the efforts of Lt. FitzGibbon on her behalf. James Secord predeceased his wife and she fell on hard times in her old age but in 1860 the future King Edward VII, who was visiting Canada at the time, heard about the 85-year old widow who had saved Crown forces from a probable defeat and promptly donated a hundred pounds to her (a vastly greater sum at the time than it seems now). She died on October 17, 1868 and was buried next to her husband at Holy Trinity Church in the village of Chippewa (now Niagara Falls, Ontario). As the years went by her story spread through history books, articles and even plays. Today there are numerous memorials honoring Laura Secord in Canada as the heroine of the War of 1812, paying tribute to the brave woman who had risked her life in defense of her King and country.