Loyalist House will open on July 2, 2024, Monday to Friday, until the end of August. Our September and October during cruise ship season we depend on volunteers to run the museum, so open hours are hard to predict at this point. Please check Facebook for any updates or send a message to: [email protected]
Admission cost: $5 per adult; $2 per child under 12. Payment can be made by cash or card. To help support Loyalist House maintenance and operations, please make a donation via Canada Helps: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/new-brunswick-historical-society/
Loyalist House is a museum and National Historic Site located in Uptown Saint John, New Brunswick. It was the home of the prosperous Merritt family, who occupied it from its completion in 1817 until 1958. It was taken over by the New Brunswick Historical Society in 1958. Its current address is 120 Union Street. The Merritt family were United Empire Loyalists, originally from Rye, New York. In May of 1783, along with approximately 8,000 other Loyalists, they landed at Parrtown, New Brunswick, having fled the American Revolution. The patriarch of the Saint John Merritts, Thomas Merritt (1729–1821), lived with his wife and seven children in Parrtown (what is now the south end of the City of Saint John). Despite being initially of "modest circumstances," the family soon became prominent in the city, with the second generation amassing great wealth. David Daniel Merritt, the third of Thomas' sons and a wealthy shop keeper, purchased the Loyalist House property, on which construction began in 1810. The house took until 1817 to complete, likely due to the War of 1812. The property was, at that time, just within the city limits. As a consequence, the area surrounding the property was sparsely populated, allowing the Merritt's to keep livestock well into the later half of the century. While the house was originally at street level, as the city expanded the streets were dug down to lessen the strain on the draught horses coming up Germain Street. The family owned the house until 1958, and lived in it on and off until the death of Louis Merritt Harrison that same year. The house was then occupied by Mr. Harrison's housekeeper until the sale of the property to business interests in 1958, at which point the New Brunswick Historical Society opened the house as a museum three years later in 1961. RESEARCH QUERIES:
The New Brunswick Historical Society is not able to respond to queries about family, Loyalist, Saint John or New Brunswick history, but we can post your query on our Facebook site. Please let us know if we can assist in that way. Below is a list of useful contacts for researchers:
New Brunswick History Research Contacts:
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick: https://archives.gnb.ca/archives/?culture=en-CA
New Brunswick Museum Archives and Research Library: https://www.nbm-mnb.ca/archives-and-research-library/
Centre of Acadian Studies (Université de Moncton): https://www.umoncton.ca/umcm-ceaac/
Library Archives Canada: https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Pages/home.aspx
New Brunswick Genealogical Society: https://www.nbgs.ca/
Saint John Free Public Library (Reference department): https://www1.gnb.ca/0003/pages/en/biblio-e.asp?CODE=FM
The Loyalist Collection, University of New Brunswick: https://loyalist.lib.unb.ca/home
Fredericton Regional Museum: https://www.frederictonregionmuseum.com/
King’s Landing: https://kingslanding.nb.ca/
Keswick Ridge Historical Society: https://www.keswickridge.ca/
Musée Acadien de Caraquet: https://www.museecaraquet.ca/en/
Saint John Jewish Historical Museum: http://jewishmuseumsj.com/
New Brunswick Military Museum: http://nbmilitaryhistorymuseum.ca/
The Moncton Museum: https://www.resurgo.ca/moncton-museum
The New Brunswick Black History Society: https://www.nbblackhistorysociety.org/
Charlotte County Archives: https://ccarchives.ca/
Carleton County Historical Society: https://www.cchsnb.ca/
York-Sunbury Historical Society; https://yorksunburymuseum.wordpress.com/
Kings County Museum: https://www.kingscountymuseum.com/
Kingston Peninsula Heritage: https://www.kingstonnb.ca/
8th Hussars Museum: http://www.8chassociation.com/museum.html
Albert County Museum: https://www.albertcountymuseum.com/
Keillor House Museum/Westmoreland Historical Society: https://keillorhousemuseum.com/
Quaco Historical and Library Society: https://quaco.ca/
Grand Manan Museum: http://grandmananmuseum.ca/
