Select Loyalist Memorials : 1975.

            William Stewart MacNutt was a highly regarded and widely known scholar in the field of Atlantic Canadian History. He was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on 4 July 1908, the son of Thomas and Marian (Cotton) MacNutt, and received his early education at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown. In 1930, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and continued his formal education at the University of London, England. When he returned to Canada, he began his teaching career at Rothesay Collegiate School, then served during the Second World War with the North Nova Scotia Highlanders as a supply officer in Italy. He joined the History Department at the University of New Brunswick as an assistant professor in 1946, became associate professor in 1949,and full professor in 1952. In the same year, he married Mary Bernice Gunn on 18 June 1952. 
From 1964 until 1970 he served as Dean of Arts at the University of New Brunswick. The publication of an article in the Canadian Historical Review in 1949 entitled, The Politics of the Timber Trade in New Brunswick, first brought Stewart MacNutt to the attention of the national scholarly community. In the years that followed, a series of publications established his reputation as a distinguished historian of the Atlantic Provinces. He published, The Days of Lorne (1955); New Brunswick: A History, 1784-1861 (1963); and The Atlantic Provinces; the Emergence of Colonial Society, 1713-1865 (1965).
 At the time of his death, he had completed the compilation of a volume entitled, Select Loyalist Memorials. The manuscript of this work was never published in print form, but has been reproduced in microfilm and is now included in the Loyalist Collection at the University of New Brunswick.
 Dr. MacNutt received many honours and awards in recognition of his contributions to teaching and scholarship including, honorary degrees from several maritime universities, and his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal HistoricalSociety. He served as President of the Humanities Association of Canada and as the Canadian Chair of the International Programme for Loyalist Studies and Publications. At the time of his retirement, he was conferred with an honorary doctorate of letters degree and named professor emeritus of history by the University of New Brunswick.            

            Two hundred and eight-six Loyalist memorials were selected by Dr. MacNutt for inclusion in the manuscript, Select Loyalist Memorials.  The sources he used in his research are described more precisely by the wording of the subtitle: "The Appeals for Compensation for Losses and Sacrifices to the British Parliamentary Commission of 1783 to 1789 from Loyalists of the American Revolution who came to Canada." and Audit office 13. 
The original Memorials used by Dr. MacNutt are held by the Public Record Office (British archives) in the class designations, Audit Office 12 and Audit Office 13.
Select Loyalist Memorials begins with a long introductory essay on the course of the American Revolution and on the role of the Loyalists in the conflict, their treatment by the rebels, and the story of their settlement as refugees in a new land. Following the Introduction, the main body of the work, in which the Loyalist's stories are revealed, is arranged by colony. Bibliographical references follow both the Introduction and the Contents. At the end of the Introduction, Dr. MacNutt sums up both the purpose and the importance of his work with the words, "this volume has the advantage of enabling the Loyalists to speak for themselves, a facility frequently denied them".            

            An index of the names in Select Loyalist Memorials has been created by the author of the Loyalist Collection Inventory.
 The Index of Names is available in print and shelved with the Loyalist Collection Finding Aids and on the World Wide Web.