Knowing Staats

It is amazing how much I know about my great-great-great-great grandfather Staats Springsteen. He was an illiterate farmer born in colonial America. I know very little about his father Simon or his son Jacob, through whom I came to be. However, I’ve learned so much about Staats that I almost feel like I know him. I’m still wondering about more.

How did Staats leave so many traces of his existence? Getting crossways of the law is a pretty reliable start for notoriety. I previously discussed court cases involving Staats:

Disregard of formalities

Staats Springsteen had a hard time complying with rules. He seems to have been an opportunist. I first learned of his penchant for run-ins with authority while attending a conference of the Ontario Genealogical Society in 2006. I knew that Staats had served in Butler’s Rangers during the American Revolution. I was hoping to learn something about the rangers at the conference, but I had no idea that I would learn anything about Staats. To my surprise a fellow attendee, noting my name tag, asked if I was related to Staats Springsteen. He informed me that Staats and his ancestor John Stoner raised trouble well up the chain of command during the war. They had abducted recruits intended for another corps, an episode described in a book about another Loyalist.^[1]

As former soldiers in Butler’s Rangers, Staats and his older brother Caspar were granted land in Upper Canada, which rewarded their loyalty to the king and served as a potential line of defense in the event of invasion from the United States. Before land boards and formal grants were established, certificates were issued for surveyed lots. Staats failed to register the land he was allotted in the Niagara district and variously claimed that his certificate was lost or burned. Staats also failed to register his brother Caspar on a Loyalist list, a matter that is cited in a guide to Loyalist research in Upper Canada.^[2]

Staats generated a great deal of documentation when he developed land across lot lines. This led to a series of petitions that ultimately resulted in redrawn allotments. In the course of that series of deliberations, Staats publicly insulted one of the land board members, which might have had something to do with his trial for sedition.

Deeming himself entitled to more land, he started developing land near Lake Erie’s Long Point and then petitioned for a grant of that land; his petition was denied.

The sedition trial

I don’t know when or where this trial was held, nor do I know the jurisdiction. Upper Canada was under British law, with two levels of court trials. Minor criminal and civil cases were tried at the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the local district, held four times a year and commonly called Quarter Sessions. Serious offences that could result in capital punishment or penitentiary imprisonment were tried at Courts of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol (Jail) Delivery, commonly called Assizes. The Assizes were under direction of judges of the provincial Court of King’s Bench. These offences included murder, manslaughter, larceny, grand larceny, perjury, bigamy, uttering (floating counterfeit money), rape, and theft of cattle or horses.^[3] The summary of another man’s indictment for uttering preceding Staats’ indictment for sedition suggests that this trial might have been conducted at the annual Assizes.

Sedition sounds like a serious charge but seems not to rise to the level of insurrection. It appears to be a challenge to civil authority. Might this be a result of his blatant disrespect of authority in land board deliberations? His fine would have been at least a week’s wages for a skilled laborer and likely a greater burden for a farmer.

The 1794 trial

I know that Staats faced charges at the Assizes in 1794. Claims were filed on behalf of Garret/Gerret/Gerrit Seeger of Albany to recover payments made by him as security or partner for Staats. Staats had taken livestock and other items for clients at Albany to sell at Niagara in 1785 but seems not to have returned proceeds reliably.^[4] I don’t know the outcome of this case, but it doesn’t appear to be the sedition trial. Among the references and people providing affidavits for this trial were Frederick Seeger, Mynder Brat [sic], Gerret I. Seeger and Staats Bradt.

I need to learn more about these trials, but travel to Ontario isn’t as convenient as it used to be.

Garret Seeger might have been a brother of Staats’ mother Maria Seger [surname variously spelled]. Another brother Johannes and his wife Maria Bradt were witnesses and presumed godparents for Staats’ baptism in 1755.

Staats might have been raised by Segers from a young age. Unsupported online claims state that his father Simon died in 1757 and that his mother Maria died in 1758. A daughter, Anna Maria, was reportedly born to Simon and Maria in 1758. Anna married Loyalist Joseph Pringle or Prindel.

On a more favorable note

Staats was not just a scoundrel. In one of his petitions, he claimed to have brought in more than a hundred recruits during the war. Butler’s Rangers operated as part of the Indian Department, not under the British army. Staats was known to be conversant in one or more native languages, a skill that he used in saving the scalp and probably the life of a former employer during the Ballston Raid in 1780.^[5]

Additional insights can be found in other articles posted here:

Notes

^[1] Fryer, Mary Beacock, John Walden Myers, Loyalist Spy, Dundurn Press, 1983; pages 150-152, 238.

^[2] Merriman, Brenda Dougall, United Empire Loyalists, A Guide to Tracing Loyalist Ancestors in Upper Canada, Global Heritage Press, 2006; pages 149, 151, 166.

^[3] Nickerson, Janice C., Crime and Punishment in Upper Canada: A Researcher’s Guide, Dundurn Press and Ontario Genealogical Society, 2010, electronic format; pages 51 and 54/213.

^[4] Archives of Ontario, Court of King’s Bench criminal filings, File RG 22-138-0-17, King v. Staats Springsteen; accessed November 14, 2025.

^[5] Watt, Gavin K., The Burning of the Valleys: Daring Raids from Canada against the New York Frontier in the Fall of 1780, Dundurn Press, 1997; pages 128, 211, 286, 287, 289.