The Byers Family Family Tree Byers Family View Family Tree

John and Amelia Byers were two of four slaves brought to Prince Edward Island with Colonel Joseph Robinson. Robinson’s other two slaves were probably John’s brother’s Sancho and Peter, who were hanged on Gallow’s Hill in Charlottetown circa 1813 for stealing bread. John and Amelia’s four children were baptized at St. Paul’s Anglican Church. In these baptismal records, it is documented that John was a “Negro of Colonel Robinson.”

The Royal Gazette newspaper published a “Report of the Select Committee on the Petition of American Loyalists”on the 8 January 1833. In this report Joseph Robinson stated that he had come to PEI in November of 1784, along with twenty other Loyalist families, sailing from Shelburne, Nova Scotia. While in Shelburne, he had saw several proclamations posted throughout the town that offered lands to Loyalists upon arrival in PEI. Joseph made application for land and was put in possession of 500 acres on Lot 32, but never did get a deed for the land, although he had made several applications to Governors Patterson, Fanning and Desbarres.

John and Amelia were therefore settled on PEI with the Robinson family in Lot 32 by 1784. John and Amelia’s children were all born on PEI, with their first child William, born in 1789. Amelia had herself and four of her children baptized all at the same time in 1795 at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Charlottetown. In this baptismal record, it is documented that Amelia was a native of Virginia.

On the 24 October 1828, Amelia Byers filed a land petition: “Of township 34, St. Peters Road, native of Virginia, a widow with two children and 40 years of age wants pl 522 in Charlottetown...” It was ruled in court, within a few weeks of her application, and ordered that “A license of occupation do issue.”

One of John and Amelia’s children, William, married Mary Shepard, the daughter of David and Kesiah Shepard. This was the first union of what would become the two most prolific black families on PEI. The 1861 and 1881 census documents five Byers families living in the Charlottetown area. The 1901 census documents only two Byers families living on PEI. Many of the Byers descendants eventually moved to the New England area with the exodus of other Islands in the late 19th century. One notable descendant of the Byers family is Benny “Budge” Byers who achieved notable success in the boxing ring in the late 1800s.

Today, there are descendants of John and Amelia Byers still living on the Island, although there are very few individuals with the name “Byers.”

Surnames appearing within the descendants of John and Amelia Byers:
  • Braddock
  • Brown
  • Gallant
  • Gauthier
  • Godfrey
  • Hartinger
  • McKeigan
  • McPhail
  • Rhyne
  • Wakefield
  • Williams
Legend