Black Loyalist

Nathaniel Wandry [Wansey] 23, appears to have defected to the British either during or immediately after the Battle of Brandwine in Pennsylvania where his patriot owner was arrested by the British army enroute to Philadelphia. He and his wife were members of the Methodist community but they are not in the Nova Scotia musters, so may have been indentured to a Loyalist family. They went to Sierra Leone in 1791.

Wansey had a farm in Sierra Leone where he was a member of the rebellious Methodist Community and led the resistance to the Sierra Leone Company. Conflict came to a head in September 1780 when warrants were posted for Isaac Anderson and Nathaniel Wansey for “treasonable and rebellious practices.” They escaped out of the town with about forty men and set up camp by the bridge on the road to Granville Town. After being attacked by a company of Maroons, Anderson was taken prisoner and executed. Wansey took refuge with the local African people, the Koya Temne, and he led their warriors to attack Freetown on November 18, 1801 and again on April 11, 1802. They were beaten back and several settlers were killed. The governor of Sierra Leone successfully negotiated with the Mandinka chiefs, who were harboring Wansey, he was handed over and subsequently executed.