My Loyalist Ancestors - Benjamin Thompson AKA Count Rumford

 

The Count Rumford birthplace in Woburn, Massachusetts

This is the second blog post on a Loyalist ancestor I have written this year for the 250th anniversary of the United States.  Benjamin Thompson is my first cousin, six generations removed.  His mother, Ruth Simonds (b. 1730) is the sister of my 5th great grandfather, Caleb Simonds (1720 - 1811).  Benjamin Thompson was born 26 March 1753 in Woburn, Massachusetts in the house of his grandfather, Captain Ebenezer Thompson.  He attended the local schools until he was eleven years old, when he was sent (along with his young friend and neighbor Loammi Baldwin) to Medford to study mathematics, astronomy and science.  

At age 13 he was bound as an apprentice to a Salem merchant, John Appleton.  Thompson went home to Woburn soon after because Appleton lost his business when the relations between the colonies and England became strained. Then he taught school in Wilmington in 1768 and 1769.  Later in 1769 he again studied science (anatomy and physiology) under Dr. John Hay, a doctor in Woburn. In 1770 he studied at Harvard with his friend Loammi Baldwin.  In 1772 he began to teach school in Rumford (now Concord, New Hampshire). 

By 1772 he married Sarah Walker, the widow of Benjamin Rolfe, and daughter of Rev. Timothy Walker of Rumford. She was a very wealthy woman, age 33, and Benjamin Thompson was only 19 years old. He joined the New Hampshire regiment, and had to chose sides to be an American or a Loyalist.  When he was denied a commission to be an officer in the Continental army he joined the British. Benjamin and Sarah had one daughter, Sarah, born 18 October 1774. 

When the British evacuated Boston on 17 March 1776 he fled to England and left his wife in New Hampshire. He was elected to the Royal Society of Science in 1779, returned to America as an officer in 1781 - 1782, and was knighted in 1784.  Then he left England for Germany, where he served the Prince of Bavaria for 18 years, where he was made a count of the Holy Roman Empire. He chose to be named Count Rumford, after the town in New Hampshire.

In 1803 he settled in France where he remarried to the widow of the French chemist Lavoisier.  His new wife was Anne Marie Pierette Paulze. While in France he invented a calorimeter, a photomete, and a drip coffee maker.  His studies of heat lead him to be the first to understand that heat was a form of motion.

He endowed the Rumford Medals at the Royal Society, and the Rumford Medals at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Rumfor chair of science at Harvard College (now Harvard University). He, along with Sir Joseph Banks, founded the Royal Institution of Great Britain.  He also made some practical inventions such as central heating, the smokeless chimney, the kitchen oven, the first pressure cooker, and other. His name lives on for the invention of the Rumford Fireplace, which reflected more heat back into the room than previous versions of fireplaces. 

As Count Rumford in Europe, he had several love affairs, including a woman Victoire Lafevre (his housekeeper) who bore him a son,  and the Countess Baumgarten with whom he had another daughter named Sophia, born in 1798.  Count Rumford also had an affair with her sister, the Countess Nogarola.  

Benjamin Thompson, AKA Count Rumford, died 21 August 1814 in Auteil, France and is buried there. His epitaph reads "Benjamin Thompson, Conte De Rumford. The celebrated physicist and enlightened philanthropist, whose discoveries on light and heat made his name illustrious and whose work to help the poor will always be dear to the friends of humanity."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt said that Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, was "one of the three greatest minds America has produced" (the others were Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson).  

By Thomas Gainsborough - Corel Photo CD, MASTERS I, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9516763

For the truly curious:

Previous blog posts on Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford:

"Two Cousins", 17 May 2012:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/05/two-cousins.html   

"The Count Rumford House", 14 May 2012:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/05/count-rumford-house.html   

"Colonel Loammi Baldwin", 24 October 2013:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/10/colonel-loammi-baldwin.html  

Memoir of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, with notices of his daughter, (with an edition of Rumford's complete works) by George E. Ellis, published by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, 1875. 

Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford and the Royal Instituation, by the Royal Society, 1999. 

White Knight, Red Heat: The many lives of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, by John and Mary Gribbin, 20023

Benjamin Thompson at Wikipedia:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Thompson 

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "My Loyalist Ancestors - Benjamin Thompson AKA Count Rumford", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 15, 2026, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/09/my-loyalist-ancestors-benjamin-thompson.html: accessed [access date]). 

My Loyalist Ancestors - The Hessian soldier, Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

An exhibit on the German soldiers

Saratoga National Historical Park visitor center

photographed 16 August 2026

This is the first blog post I've written this year about a Loyalist ancestor, for the 250th anniversary of the United States.  Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman was born at Hammersleben, Magdeburg, about 1751 and came to North America with Baron de Riedesel's Brunswick Regiment in 1776.  Magdeburg is on the Elbe river in Germany, in Saxony-Anhalt.  He was my fourth great grandfather, and would have been about 25 years old in 1776.

In January 1776 King George of England contracted with the Duke of Brunswick to send troops to America. These soldiers left Brunswick in February under the newly promoted Major General Friedrich Adolph Riedesel. Sixteen ships traveled across the North Atlantic in six weeks, reaching Quebec City in June.  The Baron de Riedesel's wife and children followed, and arrived in July. They were part of a British plan under General Burgoyne to cut off New England from the other southern colonies. The first big battle of this campaign was at Bennington, Vermont, in August, and was soon followed by the battles at Saratoga, New York in October. The British forces lost both battles, and surrendered at Saratoga on 17 October 1777.  The defeated army was marched to Cambridge (outside of Boston, Massachusetts), including the de Riedesel family and all the captured prisoners of war - German and English.

Johann Daniel Bollman was the compagnie feldscher (company surgeon) under Captain Julius Poellnitz's company of the Braunschweig Infantry Regiment under Major General Von Riedesel.  This was all under Burgoyne's army in the Northern Campaign of 1777.  He was part of the Battles of Saratoga, including the Battle of Freeman's Farm fought on 19 September 1777. 

Dr. Johann Bollman was taken prisoner at Saratoga when he was wounded. As a prisoner he aided wounded British soldiers, and was part of the field hospital set up along banks of the Hudson River below the battlefields.  He was part of the march to Cambridge, and was included in the prisoner exchange when some British troops were sent to Halifax.  Most of the other prisoners, known as the Convention Army, were marched south to Virginia.  Under the terms of the "Convention of Saratoga" it was agreed by truce that the troops would be sent back to Europe and not fight again in the conflict. It is estimated that about 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers were captured at Saratoga (British, German, Canadian and other loyalists).  In Cambridge about 1,300 escaped. Another 600 men escaped during the march to Charlottesville, Virginia later in 1779. They were held there for about four years. 

We know that Dr. Bollman must have been part of the earlier prisoner exchange to Halifax prior to 1779, since he petitioned for compensation for providing medical services in Nova Scotia for the period of 25 November 1779 to 10 March 1780.  He married, Jane Bremner, the widow of German settler Philip Augustus Knaut, in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on 14 February 1782.  

The Baron Von Riedesel's wife, Frederika Charlotte, kept a journal of her experiences in America. Her writing includes witnessing the Battle of Freeman's Farm on 19 September 1777 in Saratoga.  She describes the battle, and caring for the wounded in the aftermath.  She witnessed the surrender at Schuylerville on 17 October, and traveled with the defeated army to Boston with her children.  She and her family, including the children, were prisoners for four years as part of the Convention Army.  Her letters and journal were pubished in a book in 1800.  Although she never names Dr. Bollman, he must have worked with the Baroness, and seen the same horrific wounds and sights.  It is a valuable book for understanding the battle and the prisoners of war. 

Later in Nova Scotia, Dr. Bollman became active in politics and served as a member of the House of Assembly representing Lunenburg Township from 1793 to 1809.  He was appointed one of the first Health Officers in Nova Scotia on 14 May 1799.  In the Nova Scotia Archives there is another petition of John Bolman to the House of Assembly requesting reimbursement for vaccinating Mi'kmaq in Mahone Bay for small pox in 1817. 

Dr. Bollman also appeared before the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in 1793.  He was running for office agains Lewis Morris Wilkins. After Dr. Bollman's election was announced, Wilkins and some followers trashed Dr. Bollman's house and apothecary shop in Lunenburg. They destroyed 150 window panes as well as doors and furniture. In the medicine shop over 100 bottles were destroyed. Bollman's lawyer wrote "His said dwelling house was rendered uninhabitable, his family and himself obliged to fly from the same and his business and trade as a Druggist and Apothecary was totaly prevented, stopeped and put to an end so that the said John Bolman being obliged to ship up his said shop the windows thereof and the Drugs and Medicines as aforesaid and divers other wrongs and outrages then and there committed against the peace of our Lord." According to Dr. Bollman, Wilkins called him "that Hessian Bugger".  (see the book Surgeons, Smallpox and the Poor below) 

Johann Daniel Bollman and his wife, Jane, had eleven children born in Lunenburg:

1. Jane, born 1 Jan 1764, married John Pernette

2. John, born 1785, died 16 May 1811 at the Battle of Albuera in Spain

3. Henry, born 1 August 1787, married to Mary (Unknown)

4. Mary, born 25 Noember 1788, died 9 February 1865 in New Dublin, Nova Scotia (unmarried?)

5. Ann, born 22 December 1790, died 21 March 1872 (unmarried?) 

6. Robert, born 1 April 1793, died 8 August 1817 drowned at sea

7. James Bethel, born 26 May 1795, died before 1833

8. Caroline, born 16 May 1797, married Roger Aitkan

9. Edward Bremner, born 23 October 1799, married Sarah Creighton

10. Bremner Frederick (my 3rd great grandfather), born 25 February 1802, married Sarah Elizabeth Lennox and had three children. I descend from from their daughter, Ann Margaret Bollman (1835 - 1923) who married Professor Caleb Rand Bill of Nictaux, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia and they removed to Salem, Massachusetts (my great, great grandparents). 

11. Charles Morris, born 23 December 1805, married Clara Collins

In the records of the Anglican church in Lunenburg you can find the deaths of Johann Bollman and his wife.  He died on 17 September 1833 and she preceded him on 6 March 1829.  There doesn't seem to be a tombstone for either one of them in the local cemeteries. He served as a doctor in Lunenburg for 54 years. 

For the truly curious:

"Surname Saturday ~ BOLLMAN, my Hessian Ancestor", posted 1 March 2014:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/surname-saturday-bollman-my-hessian.html    

"The Hessian soldier who stayed in the New World", posted 19 November 2009:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-part-4.html   

Frederika Charlotte Riedesel,  Letters and Journals relating to the War of the American Revolution, and the Capture of the German Troops at Saratoga, by Mrs. General Riedesel. Translated by  William L. Stone, published at Albany 1867.  Available to read and download at Google Books online. 

The Hessians of Nova Scotia, 1994, compiled by Johannes Helmut Merz.  

The Diary of Adolphus Gaetz, 1965, University of Michigan, see page 111 for references to Dr. Johann Bollman. 

Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor: A History of Medicine and Social Conditions in Nova Scotia, 1749-1799,  By Allan Everett Marble, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, pages 160- 161 for references to Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman. 

A Directory of the Members of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, 1758 - 1958, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1958. 

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "My Loyalist Ancestors - The Hessian soldier, Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 1, 2016, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/09/my-loyalist-ancestors-hessian-soldier.html: accessed [access date]). 

Surname Saturday ~ FINCK of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

The waterfront of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, seen from the sloop Eastern Star in the harbor

Last week I wrote a post about my ancestors, the SCHUPP family of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.  In this post I wrote how the early Germans setters were foreign Protestants brought in by the British to repopulate Nova Scotia in the wake of the expulsion of the Acadians.  You should read that post for background information on the history of these German families.  Click HERE.

The immigrant ancestor of the FINCK family in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia was Christian FINCK.  He was a smith from Wurtenburg in Germany, and he arrived with the foreign Protestants on board the ship Gale on 12 June 1751, which sailed from Rotterdam to Halifax, Nova Scotia.   He was granted land B-40 in the NW Range in Lunenburg, and he was listed on the 1755 victualing list as FINK under the names Christian, Maria, Margaret, Anna, Catherine, and Frederick.

Christian Finck’s will was sealed on 17 October 1779.  It stated that his burial was to be arranged by his son Frederick, and that his son shall keep his mother, Anna Maria and “allow her to stay and upkeep all her natural life”.  It also named his daughters by their married names.

Christian Finck’s daughter Anna Margareta married Johan Justinias Schupe, the son of settlers Richart and Apollina Schupp.  His grand daughter, Anna Margareta Schupp, married a Scots Immgrant, John Lennox.  His great grand daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Lennox, married Bremner Frederick Bollman, the son of a Hessian soldier of the American Revolutionary War.  These three German surnames highlighted in red are the only known German surnames in my family tree.

My Finck genealogy:

Generation 1:   Christian Finck, born about 1711 in Wurtenburg, Germany, died 19 July 1784 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia; married to Anna Maria Unknown.  She was born about 1713 in Germany and died 13 September 1794 in Lunenburg.  Five children.

Generation 2: Anna Margareta Finck, born about 1749, died 5 May 1801 in Lunenburg; married on 1 November 1763 at Saint John’s Anglican Church, Lunenburg to Johan Justinas Schupe, son of Richart Schupp and Apollina Unknown.  He was born about 1746 in Litrelinden, Wielbourg, Germany and died about 1813 in Nova Scotia.  Eleven children.

Generation 3:  Ann Margaretha Schupp m. John Lennox

Generation 4: Sarah Elizabeth Lennox m. Bremner Frederick Bollman

Generation 5: Ann Margaret Bollman m. Caleb Rand Bill

Generation 6: Isabella Lyons Bill m. Albert Munroe Wilkinson

Generation 7: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/surname-saturday-finck-of-lunenburg.html 

Copyright ©2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Surname Saturday ~ SCHUPP of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

St. John's Anglican Church
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

The story of the SCHUPP/SCHUPE/SHUPE family is intertwined with the history of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.  This town was one of the first settlements of protestants by the British before the expulsion of the Acadians.  It was settled in 1753, and raided nine times by the native Mi’kmaq and Acadians during its first six years.  The British government encouraged “Foreign Protestants” to come settle this area. The Germans who came here named it in honor of King George II, who was also the Duke of Bransschweig-Luneburg.

Richard Schupp arrived in Nova Scotia aboard the Ann on 28 June 1750 with a family of six from Zwingberg in Darmstadt, Germany.  At the Public Archives of Nova Scotia  (PANS) there are lists of 47 groups of settlers, in groups of six male names.  Richard Schupp is on this list.  He lived at Lot 6 on Townsend Street.   His son, my 5^th great grandfather Johan Justinas Schupe, was born in Germany about 1746. 

 Johan had two wives, and had eleven children.  He named his children, and his second wife, Catherine Magdelena Unknown, in his will.  His daughter Ann Margaretha married a Scots settler, the Lunenburg innkeeper John Lennox.  Ann and John Lennox are my 4^th great grandparents.

The best resources for researching the Schupp family, and other early German families of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia are the histories of the area, the vital records and the church records.  There are early “Victualling Lists” that provide information on the settlers who received food and supplies.  These lists were transcribed by Winthrop Bell and are available online and at PANS.   There is also a South Shore Genealogy Society in Lunenburg that provides information on these early settlers www.ssgs.ca

Rootsweb Lunenburg Genealogy Resources page http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canns/lunenburg/

Nova Scotia Genealogy Network Association http://nsgna.ednet.ns.ca/

The town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia http://www.explorelunenburg.ca/

My Schupp genealogy:

Generation 1:  Richart Schupp, born about 1725 probably at Litrelinden, Wielbourg, Germany; married first to Apollina Unknown.  She died 26 July 1751 in Halifax, Nova Scotia;  married second to Maria Margaretha Ringels.

Generation 2:  Johan Justinas Schupe, born about 1746 in Germany, died about 1813; married first to Anna Margareta Finck on 1 November 1763 at Saint John’s Anglican Church, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.  She was the daughter of Christian Finck and Anna Maria Unknown, who were also settlers at Lunenburg from Germany. She died 5 May 1801 in Lunenburg.  He married second to Catherina Magdelena Unknown.  Eleven children by his first wife.

Generation 3: Ann Margaretha Schupp, born 18 September 1773 in Lunenburg; married on 19 March 1797 at Saint John’s Anglican Church in Lunenburg to John Lennox.  He was born about 1763 in Stirling, Scotland and died 1 October 1817 in Lunenburg.  Six children.

Generation 4:   Sarah Elizabeth Lennox m. Bremner Frederick Bollman

Generation 5: Ann Margaret Bollman m. Caleb Rand Bill

Generation 6: Isabella Lyons Bill m.  Albert Munroe Wilkinson

Generation 7: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/surname-saturday-schupp-of-lunenburg.html 

Copyright © 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

World War 1 German Surname Changes

Boston Latin School
founded in 1635

The Schallenbach family members were German immigrants to Boston. John P. Schallenbach was born about 1820 in Cologne, Germany. He must have immigrated with his wife, Mary Frances Lamberts, to America before 1855 because their five children were all born in Massachusetts after that date. He was a cabinetmaker. His son Ernest went to the Boston Latin School, and to Harvard Medical School, and endowed a scholarship at the Latin School in honor of his mother, to be awarded to the graduate with the best work in Latin during the year. According to the Latin School website, this prize is still being awarded.  Megan Pitts, of the Latin School, wrote me "...considering that scholarship was given out in 2009 and years prior, it is safe to assume that it is in fact still given out to graduating seniors.  Pretty amazing, isn't it?"

Another son, John Adolph Schallenbach, born 1 August 1855, married Sarah Burnham Emerson, who was my Great Great Grandmother Mary Katherine’s sister. They lived on Nixon Street in the Dorchester section of Boston, and had a son named Albert Emerson Schallenbach, born 9 August 1887 in Boston. Albert was another scholar, and he graduated from MIT. On 15 September 1915 in Boston Albert was married to Eunice A. Shiverick.

I couldn’t find any records on Albert after 1920. He wasn’t listed in the census or vital records, and any references to Schallenbach in Boston after this time were usually for the Latin School scholarship. However, in the Volume XXI “Technology Review” (the MIT Alumni magazine) of 1919, on page 634 I found him listed under the name Emerson, and that he worked with the Vacuum Oil Company in Chicago. “Albert Emerson Schallenbach, 1911, writes that he had his name changed by court order to Albert Emerson”. Using these clues I was able to find him in the 1920 Census in Chicago, Illinois, and the 1930 Census in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania.

Obviously, when the war broke out in 1918 Albert Emerson Schallenbach was influenced by popular opinion and “anglicized” his German name. There was much anti-German sentiment at the time of World War I. In Chicago some street names were changed to English names in an effort to appear patriotic. Michigan Representative John M. C. Smith even introduced a bill to the US House to ban German geographic names from the United States. The British Royal Family also changed their name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor at this same time, and thousands of German-American families followed suit. The vast majority of families, however, kept their German surnames.

If your German ancestor or family member seems to disappear from the records after 1918, this might be a significant clue. In the case of Albert, he simply took his very familiar Yankee middle name of Emerson as a new surname. I find this very sad, since the Schallenbachs were a very well known family who contributed much to Boston.

The image of the Boston Latin School is from WikimediaCommons.org by Cliff1066

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Amanuensis Monday- Lines from a Diary

Dr. Bolman's House in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

from the Diary of Adolphus Gaetz, page 41

June 1858 Monday 7th- "Married at 12 o'clock noon, at the house of Mrs. Trider, under whose care the Bride had been brought up, Mr. C. R. Bill, formerly at teacher of vocal music in this place, to Miss Annie Bolman, daughter of the late Bremner Bolman. At 2 o'clock the married couple started on their way to New Brunswick, they were escorted as far as Mahone Bay by several young men and maidens who had been at the wedding. The above were married by the father of the Groom, Rev'd I. E. Bill, baptist preacher, at St. John, New Brunswick, who came here for the purpose."

In 2007 I went to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia for the first time, to see where my ancestors lived. The Bolman family of Lunenburg is descended from Dr. Johann Daniel Bolman, a Hessian surgeon captured at the Battle of Saratoga, and never returned to Germany. He settled in Lunenburg, married a widow of German descent, and entered Nova Scotia politics.
A published copy of Adolphus Gaetz's diary was in my room at the Lennox Inn, the Lunenburg B&B where I stayed (owned and operated by another ancestor, John Lennox, in the early 1800s). As soon as I picked up the book and perused the names inside, I noted this passage mentioned my great great grandparents, Annie Bolman and Caleb Rand Bill. She was the granddaughter of Dr. Bolman.

An advertisement from Salem, Massachusetts

for a photography studio to restore old photos

The couple depicted is Annie and Caleb Bill

When I returned home from Nova Scotia I found another copy of Gaetz's diary at the New England Historic Genealogical Society library in Boston. Only a snippet view is available on line at Google Books, but it is also in the card catalog at Ancestry.com and can be read or browsed online. The diary is full of references to Lunenburg families, and other goings on in Nova Scotia. Adolphus Gaetz wrote his diary from 1855 to 1873. He noted births, deaths, marriages, politics and other historical events in great detail. It is surprisingly easy and fun to read, as well as a wonderful genealogical treasure trove. I was able to find many references to ancestors in 19th century Lunenburg.

Adolphus Gaetz was born 13 May 1804 in Werheim, Germany, and immigrated to Lunenburg in 1832. He had a dry goods shop, was registrar of probate and county treasurer. He married Lucy Dorothea Zwicker in 1834, the granddaughter of German immigrant to Nova Scotia Johann Peter Zwicker. He died on 12 April 1873.

Sources for Adolphus Gaetz’s Diary:

The Diary of Adolphus Gaetz, edited by Charles Bruce Ferguson, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1965

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canns/lunenburg/gaetz.html website listing deaths mentioned in Adolphus Gaetz’s diary

Ancestry.com. The Diary of Adolphus Gaetz [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: Fergusson, Charles B.. The Diary of Adolphus Gaetz. Halifax, N. S.: 1965.

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 4

The Hessian Soldier who stayed in the New World


Part four in my Thanksgiving series about ancestors who DIDN’T arrive in the New World on the Mayflower. My 4x great grandfather Johann Daniel Bollman was a surgeon from Hammersleben in Saxony, Germany. He came to North America with Baron de Riedesel’s Brunswick Regiment of Hessian Soldiers in 1776. The Duke of Brunswick had contracted with England to send 3,964 foot soldiers and cavalry to America. They arrived in Quebec and their military objective was to cut off New England from the other colonies by driving troops down to Albany. They lost the battle at Bennington, Vermont when 200 Germans were killed and another 700 were captured. Again, at Saratoga, the Americans trapped them and took the Germans as prisoners of war for the duration.

Fortunately, as an officer and a surgeon, Johann Daniel Bollman was a valuable prisoner. He was also wounded at Saratoga, and while being held he tended to the other sick and wounded. He was exchanged as a prisoner of war, and sent to Halifax. Eventually he settled as a permanent resident of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, the home of many German speaking settlers.

Dr. Bollman was not only a physician, he also became active in politics and served as a member of the House of Assembly representing Lunenburg Township between 1793 to 1809. In 1782 he married Jane Bremner, daughter of Scots settlers and widow of Phillip Knaut, an original Lunenburg grantee. His granddaughter removed to Massachusetts in the 1870s and joined the family tree in the United States.

Bollman Family Tree:

Generation 1: Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman, born about 1751 in Hammersleben, Magdeburg, Saxony, Germany, died 17 September 1833 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada; married on 14 February 1782 in Lunenburg to Jane Bremner, daughter of Robert Bremner and Margaret Stewart, born about 1764 and died on 6 March 1829 in Lunenburg. Eleven children including two sons who were surgeons…

Generation 2: Dr. Bremner Frederick Bollman, born 25 February 1802 in Lunenburg, died on 15 December 1838 in Lunenburg; married to Sarah Elizabeth Lennox, daughter of John Lennox and Ann Margaretha Schupp, born 16 February 1805 in Lunenburg. Three children…

Generation 3: Ann Margaret Bollman, born 11 September 1835 in Lunenburg and died 1923 in Salem, Massachusetts; married on 7 June 1858 in Lunenburg to Caleb Rand Bill, son of the Reverend Ingraham Ebenezer Bill and Isabella Lyons. He was born on 30 May 1833 in Billtown, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, and died on 30 December 1902 in Salem, Massachusetts. See my blog posting on October 4, 2009 “Bill Family Reunion” for a continuation of this lineage.

Sources:

“The Diary of Adolphus Gaetz” describes life in early Lunenburg, Nova Scotia between 1855 and 1873. Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/

“Johnny Bluenose at the Polls” by Brian Cuthbertson, Formac Publishing, Halifax, 1994

“Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor: A History of Medicine and Social Conditions in Nova Scotia, 1749-1799”, by Allan Everett Marble, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal

Johannes Schwalm Historical Association http://www.jsha.org/ website of Hessian Soldiers and their Descendants in the New World

The records of Saint John's Anglican Church, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 4", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 19, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-part-4.html: accessed [access date]).