-ələ̇st noun
( -s )
: a person who is or remains loyal to a political cause, party, government, or sovereign: as
a. : an American opposed to separation from Great Britain during the Revolution : tory
a descendant of loyalists who left the American colonies for Canada — Current Biography
b. : an adherent to the Union cause during the Civil War especially in a southern state
c. usually capitalized : an adherent to the constitutional republican government during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
rushed off to help the Loyalists — E.O.Hauser