Molly Brant - Molly Brant : Mohawk loyalist and diplomat

Born in Toronto, Peggy Dymond Leavey was one of five children in a family where books and reading were an important part of everyday life. While still a youngster, she discovered a love of writing.

Her first book, The Movie Years, grew out of her love of history, and she has been a contributing editor for three books of local history. Her numerous articles and short stories have been published in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. Peggy is also the author of nine novels for young readers, including Sky Lake Summer , The Deep End Gang , and The Path Through the Trees , all of which were nominated for the Silver Birch Award. Growing Up Ivy, published by Dundurn in 2010, was a starred selection in the Canadian Childrens Book Centres Best Books for Kids & Teens, 2011 .

Peggy has two previous Quest Biographies to her credit: Mary Pickford: Canadas Silent Siren, Americas Sweetheart and Laura Secord: Heroine of the War of 1812, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Speakers Book Award.

For seventeen years Peggy worked as a librarian in Prince Edward County. She continues to be a member of The Writers Union of Canada, the Canadian Society of Childrens Authors, Illustrators & Performers (CANSCAIP), the Spirit of the Hills Writers Group, and a number of local arts associations.

Peggy and her husband live near Trenton, Ontario, where she enjoys reading, writing, the outdoors (in good weather), and spending time with her family.

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Copyright

Copyright Peggy Dymond Leavey, 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Unless otherwise credited, photos are by the author.

Project Editor: Allison Hirst

Copy Editor: Jess Shulman

Design: Laura Boyle

Epub Design: Carmen Giraudy

Cover Design: Carmen Giraudy

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Leavey, Peggy Dymond, author

Molly Brant : Mohawk loyalist and diplomat / Peggy Dymond Leavey.

(A quest biography)

Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-4597-2893-6 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-1-4597-2894-3 (pdf).-

ISBN 978-1-4597-2895-0 (epub)

1. Brant, Molly, 1736-1796. 2. Mohawk women--Biography. 3. United Empire loyalists

-Biography. I. Title. II. Series: Quest biography .

E99.M8L42 2015 971.0049755420092 C2015-900573-6

C2015-900574-4

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

The publisher is not responsible for websites or their content unless they are owned by the publisher.

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She seldom imposed herself into the picture,

but no one was in her presence

without being aware of her.

(description of Molly Brant, circa 1763)

Key Locations in Molly Brants World.

Prologue

It is a fine day in 1831. Two women step down from a carriage that has pulled up in front of a manor house in the Mohawk Valley of central New York State.

Margaret Farley and her travelling companion are both in their mid-sixties, Margaret the widow of Captain George Farley of the 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot. She is also the third daughter of Molly Brant, Mohawk Loyalist and diplomat, the woman who is credited with keeping her Native people on the side of the British during the American Revolution, and Sir William Johnson, one of the most influential men in British North America in the eighteenth century.

The women hesitate on the shoulder of grass, looking up at the house. Flanked by two stone blockhouses, Johnson Hall is a frame structure, Georgian in style and painted grey, its wooden facade cut to look like stone.