The Journal of Alexander Chesney,
a South Carolina Loyalist in the
Revolution and After
Edited by
E. ALFRED JONES
of
London, England
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
PROFESSOR WILBUR H. SIEBERT
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
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CONTENTS
PART I
The Journal of Alexander Chesney
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PART II
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
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Lord Charles Greville Montagu
Colonel John Phillips
Indians in the War
Colonel Thomas Fletchall
Colonel Ambrose Mills
Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Robinson
General Andrew Willlamson
Lieutenant-Colonel James Vernon
Colonel Zacharias Gibbs
Major Patrick Ferguson
Colonel Alexander Innes
Captain Abraham De Peyster
The Battle of King's Mountain
Brigadier-General Robert Cunningham
Colonel Daniel Plummer
Lieutenant-Colonel John Harris Cruger
The British Legion
John Cruden
Colonel Robert Ballingall
Colonel Isaac Hayne
Major John Robinson
Major Michael Egan
James Barber
Philip Henry
James Simpson
Captain James Miller
Lieutenant-Colonel Evan McLaurin
Colonel Richard Pearis
Major Patrick Cunningham
Captain Moses Kirkland
Lieutenant-Colonel John Fanning
Captain John Saunders
Major Thomas Fraser
Lieutenant-Governor William Bull
The Loyal Militia of South Carolina
Loyalists' Warrant
South Carolina Loyalists in Nova Scotia and Elsewhere
Important Claims and Awards of Some South Carolina Loyalists
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PART III
APPENDIXES:
I.
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Minutes op the Examination of Alexander Chesney by the
Commissioners of American Claims in London
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II.
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Alexander Chesney's Memorial
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III.
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An Estimate of Chesney's Property
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IV.
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Evidence on Chesney's Memorial
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V.
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Various Other Papers Relating to Chesney:
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A. His Orders for Wood Cutting
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B. His Commission as Captain
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C. His Commission as Lieutenant of Independent Scouts
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D. Testimonial to His Services in Connection with Sequestered Estates
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E. Other Testimonials to Chesney's Services
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F. Letter to the Commissioners from Colonel John Phillips
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G. Major John Doyle's Certificate to Chesney
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H. Colonel Zacharias Gibbs's Certificate
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I. Chesney's Letter to the Commissioners
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J. Lewis Wolfe's Letter to the Commissioners
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K. Lord Cornwallis's Letter to the Commissioners.
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VI.
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Resolution of the Loyalists on Pacolet River, South
Carolina (1775)
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VII.
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Party Divisions in South Carolina Families
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VIII.
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Justification of Taking the Oath to the State by the
Committee of South Carolina Loyalists in London
(February 21, 1785)
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Bibliography
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INTRODUCTION
By Wilbur Henry Siebert
The Journal of Alexander Chesney may be divided into four
parts, namely, (1) the account of Mr. Chesney's family connections
and of the migration of his father, Robert, with wife and children,
from county Antrim, Ireland, to the Pacolet river. South Carolina
(pp. 1 to 5); (2) Alexander Chesney's' experiences in the Revolution
to April 5, 1782 (pp. 5 to 28); (3) his life, after his return
to Ireland, as a loyalist applicant for relief and compensation (pp.
27 to 36); and (4) his career as a revenue officer at Mourne, Ireland, to about 1821 (pp. 36 to 56)
.
In many respects the vicissitudes through which Alexander
Chesney passed are typical of the experiences of numerous other
American loyalists. His story, briefly sketched, is that of an adherent
of the British crown who, as a youth, served as a guide for
Tory refugees. For this he was imprisoned for a few days and then
given the alternative of joining the Whigs or standing trial. As his
father's family had been threatened with ruin for harboring some
of these refugees, Alexander joined the Whigs in the hope, he says,
of protecting his kindred. He served with them as a private from
April, 1776, in campaigns against the Creek and Cherokee Indians
and was at Augusta, Georgia, with them in the summer of 1779.
Between these expeditions he engaged in conveying produce by
team to Charleston, South Carolina, which was then in the possession
of the Whig forces.
When, at length, the British troops captured Charleston, May
12, 1780, and General Sir Henry Clinton issued a proclamation summoning
the king's friends to embody, Mr. Chesney went within the
lines, June 25, and became a lieutenant in the loyal militia. From
this time on he served the crown faithfully in various capacities
and quickly won the confidence of Major Patrick Ferguson, who was
placed in command of Fort Ninety-Six. On August 9, 1780, Mr.
Chesney was appointed captain and, after participating in a few
minor engagements, was in the defeat and surrender of Ferguson's
force at King's Mountain, October 9. Soon after this Chesney escaped
and reached home, October 31. There he remained for the next
three weeks, concealing himself in a cave part of the time and staying
with his father-in-law at intervals. Hearing that Lieutenant-Colonel
Tarleton had defeated Sumter at Blackstock's Hill, November
20, Chesney raised a company of militia and joined a strong
party of Tories under Brigadier-General Cunningham on Little
river. In December Chesney was placed in command of the militia
guard at the jail of Ninety-Six, but went with Tarleton when the
latter came to that neighborhood and was with him in the defeat
and dispersion of his force at the Cowpens, January 17, 1781.
Chesney again retired to his home, only to find it despoiled of all his
personal effects except two horses, with which he was able to bring
his wife and child to Robert McWhorter's place on the Edisto
river. Leaving them there, he proceeded to Charleston where he
was paid for some cattle and provisions he had supplied to Ferguson,
and was assigned one of the sequestered houses and plantations
of the Whig proprietors of the Charleston district, together with
a quantity of provisions and the use of three negroes. Accordingly,
in March, 1781, he removed his family to comfortable quarters on
the Ponpon river, a tributary of the Edisto, and, employing additional
negroes, began to cultivate a crop of rice and Indian corn.
On his return to Charleston in May Chesney raised a troop of
horse by direction of Colonel Balfour and was stationed with it at
the British post at Dorchester, South Carolina, whither he now
brought his family. He promptly informed Lord Rawdon of the
activity of the Americans in that vicinity and accompanied a detachment
to clear them out. During this skirmish he was wounded
in the thigh by one of the enemy. Early in July Chesney went with
Rawdon's force to relieve Fort Ninety-Six. The besieging Americans
withdrew, crossed Broad River, and moved down the left bank
towards Charleston. Rawdon, fearing for the safety of the loyalist
inhabitants in the direction of Long Cane creek, sent his light
troops to bring them in and with the remainder of his men took the
road back to Charleston, but was soon cut off by the enemy. Under
these circumstances Chesney volunteered to carry a letter from
Rawdon to Balfour at Charleston, asking aid. In reply to this
appeal Colonel Balfour sent forward a detachment which enabled
Rawdon to advance.
After Lord Rawdon led his force from this section of South
Carolina, Chesney joined a corps of three companies raised for the
protection of the sequestered Whig estates by John Cruden, Esq.,
the commissioner "for the seizure, superintendence, custody, and
management of captured property" in South Carolina. Meantime,
the Americans had been rapidly regaining control of the Province
and by December, 1781, the British found themselves confined to
Charleston and its immediate vicinity. Chesney was now appointed
to superintend the cutting of wood, which was made necessary by
the winter season, and took pleasure in relieving the destitute condition
of a number of refugee loyalists by employing them in this
work. Chesney had lost his wife at the close of November, 1781,
and was compelled by ill health to give up the supervision of the
wood cutters early in the following January. As he grew worse,
instead of better, he sent his child to its relatives and sailed from
Charleston, April 5, 1782, landing at Castle Haven, Ireland, May 19.
By June 4 he was in Dublin, where he was introduced to a loyalist,
Mr. Philip Henry, who had been exiled with others from South
Carolina in June, 1778, and was now an officer in the Customs
house at Dublin. Mr. Henry advised Mr. Chesney to seek a position
in the revenue service and to file a claim for the losses he had
suffered in the American war. After a short stay in Dublin Chesney
paid a brief visit to his relatives in county Antrim and then
proceeded to London, where he submitted a memorial, supported by
testimonials, to the lords of the Treasury, August 3, asking for
immediate relief. Having thus begun this negotiation, he took
lodgings at 58 Crown street, Westminster. Through the kindness
of his landlord Mr. Chesney made the acquaintance of Mr. Lewis
Wolfe, a clerk in the Treasury, who then or later acted as the agent
in London for those American refugees who had returned to the
north-east of Ireland. Mr. Wolfe proved to be helpful in various
ways to our applicant.
Later Mr. Chesney attended a large meeting of the Association
of American Loyalists in London at the Crown and Anchor tavern
in the Strand, where it was determined to petition the king's ministers,
Mr. Chesney being named one of a committee of three to prepare
the petition on behalf of those loyalists who had rendered services
to Government and lost their property. After drafting another
memorial and copying his testimonials for Lord North, arranging
with two loyalists to send him any word from the Treasury,
calling on Sir Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis about his personal
affairs, and authorizing Mr. Wolfe to act for him in his absence,
Alexander Chesney took his departure from London, August 16.
On his journey homeward he waited on Lord Rawdon, from whom
he received a letter soliciting the interest of General Burgoyne
— now commander of the forces in Ireland — in having the bearer
appointed to a position in the Irish Customs. At length, on August
30, he boarded the packet at Liverpool on his way to Dublin. Calling
on Burgoyne in the latter city, he was given little encouragement
in regard to the desired appointment. By September 7 he was
back in county Antrim with his relatives. A few days later a
letter from Mr. Wolfe asked for a sworn statement of his losses in
America, accompanied by certificates from Cornwallis, Tarleton,
and others. These documents he supplied promptly, his estimate
of his losses totaling £1,998. 10s.
By the middle of December, 1782, Chesney heard from Lord
Rawdon and, by the latter's direction, returned to Dublin to see
about the Customs appointment. The outcome of this mission was
an appointment as tide waiter at Waterford, whither the appointee
betook himself to remain, as it turned out, only two weeks, for
neither the location nor the duty pleased him. He, therefore, got
himself removed to Belfast, and on March 1 married his second
wife.
The honeymoon had lasted but little more than a fortnight
when a letter from Mr. Wolfe called for the presence of the bridegroom
in London, in connection with his claim as a distressed
loyalist. Obtaining leave of absence from the Irish board of Customs,
Chesney made his second journey to the British capital, arriving
March 24, 1783. He spent the next week or more in getting
his papers ready for the Treasury office. It was not, however, until
May 6 that he was examined by the commissioners on Loyalist
Claims. He also served as a witness for some of his fellow exiles
when their claims were heard. Additional days were spent in calling
on his own witnesses and in paying occasional visits to the
Treasury. After spending two months in London and receiving a
temporary allowance of £50 a year, he returned to Belfast.
On October 13, 1783, Chesney found it necessary to go to Dublin
again to prepare a new memorial for the commissioners on
Loyalist Claims. He did not overlook the opportunity afforded by
this visit to apply for another appointment in the Customs. After
returning to Belfast for a few days he, in company with two loyalist
friends, journeyed for the third time to London, where he
learned that he had been named coast officer at Bangor, a post that
paid well and was not distant from county Antrim. Once more he
wrote out his memorial, this time preparing copies for all the Commissioners.
In addition he got his claim certified by other refugees
from South Carolina, whose claims he certified in turn. He then
returned to Belfast and removed his family to Bangor late in
December, 1783. In the fall of the year following the commissioners
put him to the further trouble of furnishing more proofs
that his property had been confiscated.
On Christmas day, 1785, Mr. Chesney visited Mourne and
effected an exchange with the coast officer at Annalong, which was
a fishing village in county Down, where the new Customs officer
was to have some exciting experiences with the nest of desperate
smugglers harboring there. He brought his family from Bangor
to Mourne, February 14, 1786, and in August received £133. 12s. in
part settlement of his claim, the remainder of the award, namely,
£255. 18s. coming to hand in November. Thus, it had cost our South
Carolinian three visits to London, the repeated submission of memorials
and testimonials, and much correspondence since August
3, 1782, to obtain an annual allowance of £50 and an award of less
than £400 on a total claim of £1,998. 10s., which seems to have been
later reduced to £1,564. 10s. Either at this time or later Mr. Chesney's
annual pension was cut down to £30. Needless to say the
recipient of these sums was not pleased with the results of his
efforts, and alleged that both his award and pension had been reduced
by the commissioners on account of his employment in the
Customs which, he said, they included as part compensation.
During the year 1789 the boatmen and smugglers at Annalong
formed a combination to get Coast Officer Chesney removed from
his place. However, he succeeded in thwarting them, clung to a
position which was proving to be profitable, despite the risks of life
and limb undoubtedly connected with it, and invested his compensation
money in a town property. That smuggling was not declining
at Annalong is indicated by the fact that Chesney reported to
the lord lieutenant the arrival in Glassdrummond Bay on February
19, 1793, of five vessels engaged in the contraband trade. Accordingly,
that official, in conjunction with the Irish board of Customs,
sent several cruisers and two detachments of troops to protect
the coast. By this time Chesney's personal affairs were prospering,
and he thanked God "for health in the family and plenty of
everything."
Already in 1791 the Association of United Irishmen had been
formed, and in the fall of 1796 its members in county Down and
several neighboring counties were secretly drilling in preparation
for revolt. This activity did not escape the notice of Mr. Chesney,
who obtained a commission and embodied the Mourne Infantry at
the end of January, 1797. His company was the first under arms
in county Down, a circumstance to which he was inclined to attribute
the prevention of a general insurrection in Mourne.
Despite the pressing nature of his official and military duties
at this period. Captain Chesney was none the less attentive to the
interests of his children. His oldest daughter, Eliza, was already
thirteen and in a boarding school at Newry, and he was applying
for a cadetship for his boy, Francis, who was only a few months
more than nine years of age. He was promised an appointment for
Francis, but was informed that the boy would not be eligible until
he was fourteen. Nevertheless, the ambitious father obtained a
commission for this youth in the Mourne Yeomanry from Lord
Castlereagh in May, 1798, attributing his success to that nobleman's
ignorance of the appointee's age. At about the same time Mr.
Chesney reluctantly became a justice of the peace.
Late in May the Mourne companies, which had been put on
permanent duty on account of the outbreak of the rebellion, were
ordered to Newry. Early in the following month Captain Chesney
returned to Mourne with part of the cavalry, surrounded the
houses of the suspected leaders there during the night, and carried
them off to Newry as hostages for the protection of the inhabitants,
in case of a rising during the absence of the corps. After going
with a detachment to Dundalk where, according to report, the
rebels were under arms, Chesney and the Mourne Yeomanry
marched back to Mourne, and half of the corps were released from
permanent duty; but the order was rescinded, August 25, 1798,
three days after the French had landed at Kallala Bay.
The closing pages of Alexander Chesney's Journal, which ends
with the year 1820, is filled for the most part with items concerning
his children. On March 24, 1803, his elder son, Francis, who
was now fifteen, started alone on his way to London in the hope of
being admitted to the Royal Military Acadamy at Woolwich. Being
found deficient, he was placed successively in the Walworth and
Diptford academies and the Royal Military College at Great Marlow,
Bucks, a preparatory college for Woolwich. Eighteen months
from the time of his first leaving home, Francis was gazetted to a
second lieutenancy, to the evident satisfaction of his father who,
in January, 1805, sent his younger son, Charles, to follow in his
brother's footsteps, having obtained for him the promise of an East
India cadetship. The expense of Charles's schooling, together with
some trifling debts, proved somewhat embarrassing to his father
during the year 1806; but the latter rejoiced in the thought that certain
seizures he had made would "set him free." In 1807 Charles
was in the Military Academy at Woolwich, and Francis was quartered
with his company at Portsmouth, but was moved in the opening
days of March, 1808, to the island of Guernsey. In the following
June Eliza married Captain John Hopkins, and in October,
1809, Charles, now a lieutenant in the artillery, sailed for India,
arriving at Madras, February 1, 1910. Jane visited with her sister,
Mrs. Hopkins, who with her husband, spent part of this year
in Dublin. Francis remained in Guernsey until November, 1813,
when he resigned his staff position there and sought for military
employment on the continent. Mr. Chesney, Sr., with the aid of
Francis and several friends outside the family, tried to get an appointment
in the Customs for his son Alexander, but within the
limits of the Journal seems not to have succeeded. The birth of
still another son, Thomas Crafer Chesney, is mentioned as having
occurred on March 13, 1808, but no other entry appears regarding
him. On February 13, 1814, Matilda died of a fever, which had attacked
other members of the family. In the following September
Francis, who had been on "an excurtion to France and along the
ports of Holland," was assigned to a company at Woolwich. In
1815 he was promoted to a captaincy and in the next year was
stationed at Leith Fort in Scotland. On November 22, 1816, Jane
married the Reverend Henry Hayden, while Captain Hopkins retired
from the service on a good pension. In the autumn of 1817
the fever again broke out in the Chesney family and left Mary,
Anne, and Charlotte much debilitated. In February, 1918, Mr.
Chesney was greatly surprised at receiving a letter from his eldest
son, William, of whose survival he was not even aware, stating that
he was living in the State of Tennessee, but was not in flourishing
circumstances. The letter also referred to his grandfather, Robert
Chesney, as being still alive.
Meantime, Charles had married in the island of St. Helena
and, being in poor health, had brought his wife to England and
later to Ireland. Here they had taken a lodging at Rosstrever and
were visited by Charlotte, Anne, and Mary, who had not yet fully
recovered from their former illness. In September, 1819, Charlotte
married George Washington Bell. Three months later the Reverend
Mr. Hayden lost his curacy in county Roscommon and brought his
family to stay with his father-in-law until the following spring,
when he was sent out as a missionary to St. John, New Brunswick,
by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
In January, 1820, Mr. Chesney was charged with neglect of
duty by Customs officers at Newry, but was cleared by the surveyor-general
who heard the case fully, and the matter ended with the
approval of the defendant's conduct by the board of Customs.
During the previous dozen years at least smuggling had been
going on at Annalong, as shown by occasional brief references in
the Journal, and, according to Chesney, outside of Mourne where
he had been able to hold it in check by the employment of a number
of guards, the smuggling of tobacco into Ireland had been much
stimulated by the close of the Napoleonic wars. Naturally, Chesney's
success in foiling the smugglers had aggravated them and led
him into many quarrels with them. The marked increase in the
clandestine trade and the falling off in the import duties had
aroused the lords of the Treasury to try their hand at the suppression
of smuggling in the summer of 1820 by sending the royal
naval inspector-general of the Preventive Water Guard to survey
the Irish Channel with a view to establishing a preventive force.
The Irish board of Customs instructed their revenue officers to cooperate
in this project by supplying every assistance and information,
an order which Mr. Chesney appears to have complied with to
the best of his ability, although he was to learn at the end of the
year that the Water Guard, when established, would supplant his
office. However, he had made many seizures during the year, for
which he had received a considerable amount of money, and he began
at once to make arrangements for building on his farm at Ballyardle.
Not only is Chesney's record of thirty-five years in the Irish
Customs highly creditable to him, as affirmed by the surveyor-general
and the board of Customs in Ireland, but so also was Chesney's
concern for the welfare of his children, including his son William,
from whom he had been so long separated. In the closing sentences
of the Journal Alexander Chesney notes that he has authorized
William to draw on Mr. Crafer and thinks it better that he should
receive his portion of his father's estate and "turn it to account
where he is," than spend money coming to Ireland "where he would
find most things unsuited" to him.
The publication of this Journal, with it accompanying documents
and its wealth of valuable notes, will add an important number
to that small group of personal records by American loyalists
which comprises the Journal and Letters of Samuel Curwen; the
Letters of James Murray, Loyalist; Colonel David Fanning's Narrative;
the Correspondence of Thomas Barclay; the Recollections
of a Georgia Loyalist; The Journal of a Voyage from Charlestown,
S. C, to London, 1778; Lieutenant Anthony Allaire's Diary (printed
in Dr. Lyman C. Draper's King's Mountain and Its Heroes); the
Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson; Lieutenant James
Moody's Narrative of His Exertions and Sufferings in the Cause of
Government since 1776; The Narrative of the Transactions, Imprisonment,
and Sufferings of John Connelly, an American Loyalist
and Lieutenant-Colonel in His Majesty's Service; J. F. D. Smyth's
Tour in the United States of America; The Case of Ferdinand
Smyth Stuart with His Memorials to the King, &c.; The Winslow
Papers; Joseph Galloway's Letters to a Nobleman on the Conduct
of the War in the Middle Colonies; The Examination of Joseph Galloway
before the House of Commons; C. Stedman's History of the
Origin, Progress, and Termination of the American War, and Judge
Thomas Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary
War.
It may be objected that some of the above named publications
are not diaries, journals, or personal narratives; that at least one
of them is a book of travels and that others are historical in nature.
It would be futile in the space at command to attempt comparisons
among the publications listed above. Suffice it to say that the
authors of all of them were American loyalists and that even those
publications which, according to their titles, are most removed from
the autobiographical, will be found on closer inspection to contain
not a little of the distinctly personal. All of these writings have
their value for the student of American Revolutionary history and
especially for the one who is interested in the Tory phase of the
subject.
It is scarcely necessary to speak of the special qualifications of
Mr. E. Alfred Jones for the task of editing The Journal of Alexander
Chesney, since the admirable results of his labors are manifest
in this volume. The present writer can not, however, deny himself
the pleasure of saying that Mr. Jones has long been familiar
with the abundant materials relating to the American loyalists that
are to be found in the Public Record Office, the British Museum, and
other collections in London. Nor can he forbear to add that the
Editor has greatly increased the value of this volume by his copious
annotations, many of which contain information not easily available
and some, information not accessible at all in print. Mr. Jones
found Chesney's Journal in the British Museum (Additional MSS.,
32627).
——————————
THE JOURNAL OF ALEXANDER CHESNEY
A SOUTH CAROLINA LOYALIST IN THE REVOLUTION AND AFTER
I was born in the townland of Dunclug near Ballymena in the
County of Antrim Ireland the 16th or the 12th of September 17561
on Sunday; as appears by a register in my father's Bible.2 My
father Robert Chesney3 or McChesney was only son to Alexander
Chesney of Dunclug aforesaid, and of Jane Fulton his wife; His
sisters were Ann married to William Purdy of Glenravil who was
brother to my mother consequently my uncle before this marriage;
they are now with their family settled in South Carolina. Second
Martha Chesney married to Matthew Gillespey4 who went to Carolina
and died there shortly after their arrival about the year 1768;
her husband is married again and lives near Enoree-River, South
Carolina. Third Sarah Chesney who married James Archbold a
pensioner and lives in County Antrim,
My grandfather Chesney had several brothers, I recollect to
have seen some of their sons, who came from County Tyrone, and
near the Bann-river.
My grandmother Fulton or Chesney had many Sisters and only
one Brother named (I believe) George her sister Jenny was married
to David Wilson of Dunclug County Antrim, Margaret was
married to John Symonton near Lough-neagh; Sarah had been married
to John Cook who died in Pensylvenna.5 She removed to Pacholet-
River6 South Carolina where she died a few years ago and
where her children are married and settled, Also Martha who had
been married to Niesbet7 in the Waxhaws in South Carolina8 they
are both dead but they have left children who live there. My
Grandmother had several other sisters.
My mother's name was Elizabeth Purdy youngest daughter of
William Purdy and Martha his wife of Ballyreagh near Clough
County Antrim. My father and mother were married about two
years before I was born. My grandmother Purdy's name was
Martha Peden daughter of Thomas Peden and (I believe) of Jane
Grier his wife of County Longford she was born the same year in
which the conditions and capitulations of Limerick9 were made.
Lived to about to the year 1780 and died with her son Wilham Purdy
in Glenravil County Antrim.
My Grandfather and Grandmother Purdy had twelve children,
of which my mother was the youngest. I knew William who lived
in Glenravil and went with his family to South Carolina; Robert
who died in Killymorris near Clough; Jennie who married Alexander
Wylie and lived in my Grandfather's farm in Ballyreagh; Jane
had been married to John McCleland she died in a few years and
left only one daughter Martha who since married John Barclay;
Thomas and John went to Pensylvenia and live near Carlile10 if
alive. Margaret who married Pouge or Pogue lives near them I
suppose the other children had died young for I do not recollect to
have heard their names.
My father's farm in Dunclug being too small for his family he
removed to Kirkinreallough or Kirkmareally to one something
larger, and having lived there about five years went to South Carolina
in the Snow called the James and Mary of and from Larne;
John Workman master James bold mate, Wilson second mate.
My father's family consisted of my father mother Alexander
(myself) Ann, Martha, Jane, William,11 Robert, John, and Peggy
about 8 months old who died of the small pox on the passage; in all
eight children, my father and mother making ten, went on board
& sailed from Larne the 25th. August 1772 and arrived safe in the
Harbour of Charleston, South Carolina after a passage of seven
weeks and three days which was I suppose about the 16 October
1772.
The small Pox having been very severe in the Vessel during
the passage, when the Surgeon came on board an(sic) reported to the
Governor12 the state of the passengers we were obliged to ride Quarantine
first three weeks and then a second three weeks and 8 days;
making seven weeks and one day; nearly as long as we were on
the passage.
There is no disorder the Americans are so much afraid of as
the small Pox, and with good reason as few of them have had it;
We had a large house during the Quarantine allowed for the sick on
Sullivan's Isle, which was kept for the purpose of an hospital; one
Robinson has a salary from government for living there, We went
back and forwards between the Ship and hospital which made a
change, and beguiled the time a little; When the crew and passengers
were recouvered(sic) we landed at Prichard's ship-yard on Town
Creek,13 a few miles above Charles-Town from whence the passengers
proceeded to country as soon as they could respectively find
Waggons destined for that part of the country where they meant
to settle. My father and family agreed with John Miller of Turkey
Creek14 to leave his family &c at John Winns15 old place (now Winnsborough) on Jackson's Creek with his waggon for which we
paid one penny per pound Weight. When we came near Jackson's
Creek16 I went before and acquainted our relations (by marriage)
Mr. John now Colonel Phillips17 who with Mrs. Phillips his wife
met them at Winn's old place, and brought them to their House.
We got 100 Acres of land surveyed there, built a cabin and cleared
some of the land; when my father received a letter from his Aunt
Sarah Widow Cook (mentioned before as a sister to my grandmother)
who resided Pacholet River about 60 miles higher up in
the country, inviting them to settle there, on which I proceeded on
foot in a right direction for that place, there being no direct road
but I was to enquire for John Quin blacksmith on Sandy-River18
about 20 miles off which was nearly the first house I called at; from
thence to Ned Neils on Broad-River, but crossed the river something
lower down on account of a Canoe being there, thence to
Eliza Wells' on Pacholet where I crossed being then within 5 miles
of my Aunt Cooke's; she had two sons Hugh, and John, and daughter
Nancy who lived with her unmarried. Thomas and Sarah were
both settled with their families in the neighbourhood; Sarah was
married to Charles Brandon;19 the whole family were remarkably
civil to me, and the greater part of the settlers near them being their
relations gave them weight; they soon found me a vacant track(sic) of
400 Acres which having got surveyed for my father I returned;
and removed the family to Pacolet where we settled20 on the north
side near Grindall's shoal21 about 12 miles from where it empties
itself into Broad-River 50 miles below where the Indian line crosses
that river, and 15 miles below the place where the Iron works22 are
now built; 60 miles north-east of Ninety-six;23 and 250 miles24 nearly north of Charles-town; to which place I went in 1774 to
hurry the patent of my father's lands through the offices.
My cousins Cooke came back with me to assist in moving the
family, bringing with them two horses which being put into a
pasture of Col Phillips' on Jackson's Creek strayed away and were
not found for 3 months after.
Our family lived at my Aunt Cooke's in the first instance whilst
a Cabin was building by me and some land cleared which I did in
part without any assistance; before planting time in 1773, when
the family was established in the new residence and began the usual
farming occupations increasing stock and clearing additional land
without any particular occurrence save the birth of my brother
Thomas and sister Eliza untill(sic) 1775 that resolutions were presented
for signatures at the Meeting-house25 by the congress party and
I opposed them.
When the war broke out between England and America the
congress party early in 1775 were sending a quantity of Ammunition
and clothing as presents to the Indians;26 On which the loyalists
who had not joined them assembled and went to Ninety-Six a
wooden-fort after besieging the place for some days took it,27 and
the stores; after distributing the Ammunition amongst the loyalists,
both parties agreed to a Cessation of Arms for some weeks untill
several of the leading men could go and return from Charles-town
to receive Lord William Campbell's28 directions on the business;
Colonel Flechall29 and Captain John Mayfield30 were two of the
delegates sent under the faith and sanction of a treaty; they were
lodged in the goal of Charles-town and the papers they had received
from the Governor Lord William Campbell were seized. In
the meantime the congress party sent to the neighbourhood of
Ninety-Six an Army under the command of Colonel Richardson31
who seized the leading men of the loyalists and put them in goal
and disarmed the rest; all this was accomplished before the expiration
of the truce.
I went down to Jackson's Creek when Colonel Richardson's encampment
was at Congaree32 and piloted Capt. James Phillips33
and his company34 to my father's and provided them a man (Charles
Brandon)35 as a guide to take them to Coll. Mills'36 in North Carolina
who found guides through the Cherokee and Creek nations of
Indians, on their way to St. Agustine(sic) in East Florida37 where they
were kindly received by the Governor38 and continued there during
the greatest part of the war, having been embodied in the South
Carolina Regiment,39 commanded by Major now Coll Joseph
Robinson40 a neighbour of mine; which Regiment distinguished itself
throughout the war particularly at the seige of Savanah where by
their meritorious exertions they saved the garrison. I piloted all
the loyalists who came in my way and amongst Captn Buchanan
supposed to be of the Royal Navy who endeavoured to keep up the
spirits of the loyalists amongst whom a regular correspondence
was kept up. [1776] For which I was made a prisoner, my house
ransacked, and Kept a prisoner41 in the Snowy Camp on Reedy
River42 for about a week; Coll Richardson released me, but the
congress party held me at enmity and forced me either to be tryed
at Richardson's camp or to join the Rebel Army43 which latter
alternative I chose in order to save my father's family from threatened ruin, he had been made prisoner already for harbouring some loyalists;44 and served from April 1776 untill June 1777 as a private during which time I was at Charlestown and Bolton's landing place
opposite Long-Island whilst the British army was encamped there
under Sir Henry Clinton; going on a reconnoitring party one day
towards the British lines on Long-Island a gun with grape shot was
fired, one shot of which was within a few inches of killing me having
struck the sand close by where I had squatted down to avoid
the discharge; I endeavoured with some others45 to get to Genl.
Clinton's Army but failed for want of a boat46 and returned to the
Americans.
We then marched against the Indians,47 to which I had no objection,
helped to destroy 32 of their towns under General Williamson48 with Coll Sumpter.49 We had a severe battle with the Indians
near the middle settlements; in the course of the engagement five
or six of them concealed behind a log fired at me as I ascended the
hill before the others, and one of their balls struck a saplin(sic) of about
six inches diameter opposite my breast; fortunately the young tree
broke the force of the ball and saved my life.
We were at this time on short allowance and my small portion
having been put in the bag with the ammunition I threw it away to
get at the powder &c and was nearly starved in consequence.
On returning towards Charles-town we were encamped at
Tachaw near Nielson's ferry50 on the Santee; from thence marched
to Puriesburg51 on the Savannah-river; then by water to Savannahtown
which time we killed a number of Alligators with rifle guns;
then marched to Sunbury; thence to Fort Barrington52 on the Altamaha
near East Florida where we arrived the 25th March [1777]
(trees then beginning to bud).
A total eclipse of the sun53 happened when we were at
Ogreechy-River54 on our march to Sunbury.55
While at Fort Barrington we had several scrimishes with the
Creek Indians, in which I was always a volunteer.
The Altamaha rose gradually (like the Nile) whilst we remained
there.
Returned to Tacaw latter end of May and home in June 1777;
when I purchased a tract of land on Pacholet River from Peter
Howard where I remained some time. At a muster soon after I was
chosen Lieutenant in Captn Bullock's56 company of Militia by my
loyal friends. Went with a party to Bailis' fort57 on the Indian
line at the head of Pacholet River about 50 miles from home, and
repaired the fort continued some months there — And was relieved
the May following 1778 by the white inhabitants making peace with
the Indians at Duet's corner.58
This winter I began to trade to Charles-Town with a waggon
at which I had success and realized a good deal, the profits being
with care 300 per cent.
In the summer I went out again after the Indians to Georgia
in Captn McWhorter's59 company of Volunteers as first lieutenant,
the whole under command of Genl. Williamson; We were out as far
as the Altamaha, during this excurtion I suffered greatly from an
attack of the Flux; in about three months the whole party returned.
Col. Phillips60 was there also.
In the summer of 1779 I was at Augusta61 under General Williamson
again, who marched to join General Lincoln, I was down at
Stono for some weeks, and returned home on business62 before the
attack was made on the British lines at Stono, by General Lincoln.63
I continued to go frequently to Charles-town with the waggon laden
with produce and returned with goods. One waggon and team were
impressed last summer to Augusta & left there when we marched
to join Lincoln the Waggon and Horses value 2000 currency were
lost.
On the 3rd January 1780 I married Margret Hodge eldest
daughter of Willm Hodge64 and Elizabeth his wife who was a
daughter of Widow Cook a sister to my grandmother Chesney my
wife of Margret was born 30th 175965 as appears by an entry in
her Bible a part of which was torn by accident.
It was firmly believed in the beginning of the year that Charlestown
would be reduced by the British, which happened accordingly
on the 12th May following,66 and Sir Henry Clinton having issued a
proclamation commanding all His Majesty's faithful subjects to
embody for the defence of his government; a number of loyalists
assembled at Sugar Creek67 and the waters of Fair Forest68 under
the command of Coll Balfour,69 I took protection the 25th of June 178070° from Isaac Grey71 Captain South Carolina Regt. And about
the middle of June embodied with the Militia as Lieut. I commanded
in an affair at Bullock's' Creek72 where the rebel Party was
defeated in attempting to cross the ford; My father was present on
this occasion and hearing the bullets whistle without seeing by
whom they were fired, asked me where are they? I placed him near
a tree until the affair was over, and resolved he should not be so
exposed again.
I then joined Coll Balfour and was in an affair at James Wood's
house73 above the Iron-works on Pacolet but not finding the opposition
there that we expected, returned again to fair forest; Coll
Balfour then returned to Ninety-Six, and Major Ferguson74 succeeded
to the command under the title of Coll and Inspector General
of Militia. Shortly afterwards he marched to Thickety Creek75
encamped, and requested me to carry an express to Captn Patk
Moore76 then commandant at Anderson's fort77 with a particular private message to him to hold the fort till the last minute and before
I could return the army had decamped about midnight and retreated towards Captn Lewis Boboes78 on Tyger-River, where I
joined them, and we got an account that Col McDole79 had without
opposition reduced Anderson's fort and made them prisoners, Moore
having shamefully surrendered it thus disappointing Ferguson's
scheme of bringing the Americans to battle whilst attacking it.
Major Gibbs80 came to me in this situation of affairs, showed me a
paper containing instructions to go McDole's camp at the Cherokee
ford81 on Broad-River and learn there(sic) numbers, their commanders name what carriages they had how many horse and foot, and whenever
they made any movement towards Coll Ferguson to return and
let him know, and that there would be a handsome reward. I told
Coll Gibbs that what services I could do were not with any lucrative
view and that I would undertake this difficult task for the good
of H M Service since he could not procure a qualified person to undetake(sic)
it, I set out immediately and at Pacolet got a man to go with
me, who was acquainted with the North Carolina people; we went
to McDole's camp at night without being noticed counted all their
tents and waggons found out who were their leaders, and that 500
horsemen were gone down to attack Nochols' fort,82 with this news
I returned, and on my way found a loyalist in whom I could confide
and sent him off with the particulars by one route to Coll Ferguson
whilst I went by another and the Coll got intelligence time enough
to intercept them at the Iron-Works and defeat them,83 in returning
I was taken at Grindall Shoal by a party of Rebels under Eusaw
Smith84 and Desmond who took from me a Rifle gun borrowed of
John Heron my brother in law, but as soon as they set out for the
rebel camp I made my escape joined Coll Ferguson at Culbered85 and
received his thanks and friendship; on the 9th August I was appointed
Captn and assistant Adjutant General to the different Batalions(sic)
under Coll Ferguson; and same day we attacked the enemy
at the Iron works and defeated them with little trouble to ourselves
and a good deal of loss to the Americans in whose hands I
found some of our men prisoners whom I released.86
Our next rout [August 12] was down towards the Fishdam-ford
on Broad-River,87 where there was a fight near the mouth of
Brown's Creek with Neale's Militia when we made many prisoners
amongst the rest Esaw Smith;88 who had taken me so recently;
after this we crossed that River and formed a junction with the
troops under the command of Coll Turnbull89 and the Militia under
Col. Phillips90 and having received authentic accounts that
Sumpter91 had cut off our retreat to Lord Cornwallis' Army at Camden,
we had it in contemplation to cross Broad-River and retreat to
Charles-town at this time the halfway men (as those not hearty
in the cause were called) left us; we then marched to the Rebel Col
Winns'92 and encamped there waiting for more authentic accounts.
On the 16th we heard a heavy firing towards Camden, which kept
us in the utmost anxiety untill the 18th when a letter was received
from Captn Ross93 aid de camp to Lord Cornwallis informing us
that his Lordship had attacked & defeated Gates' Army had killed
or taken 2,200 men 18 Ammunition Waggons and 350 waggons with
provisions and other stores.94 This news made us as happy as
people in our situation could possibly be; until the next night when
we received an express that the rebels had defeated Coll Ennis95
at Enoree;96 this occasioned a rapid march that way. The main
body having crossed the Enoree, I was left behind in command of
the rearguard and being attacked in that situation [August 20]
we maintained our ground untill the Main body re-crossed to our
support; the Americans retreated [August 21] after suffering some
loss.97
We encamped for some time in the neighbourhood of Enoree,
and then marched up to Fair-forest. Some particular business having
called Coll Ferguson to Camden Captn Depeyster who succeeded
him to the command [September, 1780,] marched us up the Iron-Works and I obtained leave to see my home and family whither I went for about two hours and sent orders for those who had shamefully
abandoned us some time ago to join us at the Iron-Works in
order to do three months' duty in or on the borders of North Carolina,
and returned to the camp that night; we continued some time
at the Iron works and whilst there a party of Loyalists with whom
I was, defeated Coll Brannan98 destroyed some of his party and
scattered the rest. I was present also at a small affair at Fair-Forest, the particulars of which, as well as numerous other skirmishes having escaped my memory, scarcely a day passed without
some fighting.
Coll Ferguson having resumed the command and finding himself99 pretty strong he marched us to the North Carolina line and encamped.
A dissatisfaction prevailed at this moment amongst the
Militia founded on general Clinton's hand-bill which required
every man having but three children, and every single man to do
six months duty out of their province when required, this appeared
like compulsion, instead of acting voluntarily as they conceived
they were doing, and they were in consequence ready to give up the
cause;100 but owing to the exertions of their officers a great part of
which I attribute to myself, the tumult was happily appeased, and
same night we marched with all the horse and some foot past Gibbert's
town101 towards Col Grimes'102 who was raising a body of rebels to oppose us; whom we succeeded in dispercing(sic) taking many prisoners, and then joined the foot at Gilbert's town and encamped
there for some time; sending away the old men to their houses, and
several officers to raise men to supply their places and strengthen
us. Col Ferguson soon after got intelligence that Col McDole103
was encamped on Cain and Silver Creeks;104 on which we marched
towards the enemy, crossed the winding Creek 23 times, found the
rebel party strongly posted towards the head of it near the mountains
we attacked them instantly and after a determined resistance
defeated them and made many prisoners, the rest fled towards
Turkey-Cove105 in order to cross the mountains and get to Holstein;106 on this occasion I commanded a division, [September, 1780,]
and took the person prisoner who was keeper of the records of the
county which I sent to my father's as a place of safety. We then
fortified Coll Walker's house107 as a protection to the wounded, and proceeded in pursuit of the rebels to the Mountains108 at the head
of Cataba-River sending out detachments to scour the country and
search the Caves; A fight happened in the neighbourhood between
a detachment of ours and the Americans who were posted on a
broken-hill not accessible to Cavalry, which obliged us to dismount
and leave our horses behind, whilst employed in dislodging the
Americans another party of them got round in the rear and took
the horses mine amongst the rest; but it was returned by the person
who was my prisoner in the last affair; about a week before he
had been released as was usual at this time with prisoners. At this
period the North Carolina men joined us fast. Our spies returned
from beyond the mountains [October] with intelligence that the
rebels were embodying rapidly; other spies brought us word that
Coll Clark had taken Fort Augusta109 with its stores &c on which
we marched towards white oak and Green River110 to intercept him
on his return from Georgia; Col Ferguson detached the horse in
three divisions, one under my command with orders to proceed
along the Indian line untill I could make out Clarke's route & join
Captn Taylor111 at Bailis Earls fort;112 I proceeded as far as
Tyger-river113 and there learning that Clark was gone up the bushy
fork of Seluda-river,114 I took six of the best mounted men and got
on his track untill I overtook the main body and one of the enemy
prisoner within view of it, whom I carried to Coll Ferguson
[October 4, 1780,] who thus obtained the information required.
Our spies from Holsteen as well as some left at the Gap of
the Mountains115 brought us word that the Rebel force amounted
to 3000 men; on which we retreated along the North side of Broad-river
and sent the waggons along the South-side as far as Cherokee-ford,116,
where they joined us we marched to King's Mountain and
there encamped with a view of approaching Lord Cornwallis' Army
and receiving support; by Coll Ferguson's orders I sent expresses
to the Militia Officers to join us here; but we were attacked before
any support arrived by 1500 picked men from Gilbert's-town117
under the command of Colls Cleveland,118 Selby119 and Campbell120 all
of whom were armed with Rifles, well mounted and of course could
move with the utmost celerity; so rapid was their attack that I was
in the act of dismounting to report that all was quiet and the pickets
on the alert when we heard their firing about half a mile off; I
immediately paraded the men and posted the officers, during this
short interval I received a wound which however did not prevent
my doing duty; and on going towards my horse I found he had
been killed by the first discharge. [October 9, 1780].
Kings Mountain from its height would have enabled us to
oppose a superior force with advantage, had it not been covered
with wood which sheltered the Americans and enabled them to
fight in the favorite manner; in fact after driving in our piquets
they were able to advance in three divisions under separate leaders
to the crest of the hill in perfect safety untill they took post and
opened an irregular but destructive fire121 from behind trees and
other cover: Col Cleaveland's was first perceived and repulsed by a
charge made by Coll Ferguson: Col Selly's next and met a similar
fate being driven down the hill; last the detachment under Col
Campbell and by desire of Coll Ferguson I presented a new front
which opposed it with success; by this time the Americans who had
been repulsed had regained their former stations and sheltered
behind trees poured in an irregular destructive fire; in this manner
the engagement was mantained near an hour, the mountaniers
flying whenever there was danger of being charged by the Bayonet,122
and returning again so soon as the British detachment had
faced about to repel another of their parties. Col Ferguson was at
last recognized by his gallantry although wearing a hunting shirt
and fell pierced by seven balls at the moment he had killed the
American Coll Williams123 with his left hand; (the right being useless124) I had just rallied the troops a second time by Ferguson's
orders when Capt De Peyster125 succeeded to the command but
soon after gave up and sent out a flag of truce, but as the Americans
resumed their fire afterwards ours was also renewed under the
supposition that they would give no quarter; and a dreadful havoc
took place until the flag was sent out a second time, then the work
of destruction ceased; the Americans surrounded us with double
lines, and we grounded arms with the loss of one third our numbers.126 [October 9.]
I had been wounded by the first fire but was so much occupied
that I scarcely felt it until the action was over. We passed the night
on the spot where we surrendered amidst the dead and groans of
the dying who had not surgical aid, or water to quench their thirst;
Early next morning [October 10] we marched at a rapid pace towards
Gilbert's town between double lines of mounted Americans
the officers in the rear and obliged to carry two muskets each which
was my fate although wounded and stripped of my shoes and silver
buckles in an inclement season without covering or provisions untill
Monday night [October 12] when an ear of Indian corn was served
to each; at Gilbert's town a mock tryal was held and 24 sentenced
to death 10 of whom suffered before the approach of Tarlton's
force127 obliged them to move towards the Yadkin128 cutting and
striking us by the road in a savage manner Coll Cleveland129 then
offered to enlarge me on condition that I would teach his Regiment
for one month the exercise practised by Coll Ferguson130 which I
refused, although he swore I should suffer death for it at the
Moravian town; luckily his threat was not put to the test as I
had the good fortune to make my escape one evening when close to
that place; in the hurry to get off I took the wrong road and did not
discover my error until I found I was close to the Moravian
town:131 I then retraced my steps until close to the pickets I had
left and taking a fresh departure I crossed the Yadkin river before
morning, proceeded through the woods toward home, John Weedyman
one of my company had supplied me with a pair of shoes,
which were of great use on this occasion, but as he remained a
prisoner I never had an opportunity of making him a return.
The first night I slept in the woods, next day I was supported
by haws grapes &c as I could find them in the woods: The second
or third day in pushing through the woods to get to a ford I heard
a noise of some people (whom I knew to be Americans by white
paper in their hats) on which I lay down and was so close to them
that I could have touched one of their horses in passing; fortunately
I was not observed, and soon after crossed the Creek after
them: I then made for the Mountains in order to be guided by the
Apalachian range 132 and get over the rivers with greater facility.
After crossing Broad-river I met one Heron who had been with me
in King's Mountain and who had with some others taken flight
early in the action, putting white papers in their hats,133 by which
disgraceful stratagem they got through the American lines: I
passed a night at Heron's house and one before at another man's
on whom I could depend, from both I took some provisions all the
other nights I slept out; I do not remember the number exactly, but
must have been nearly a fortnight.134 I reached home on the 31st
October I found the Americans had left me little. My wife had a
son on the 20th whom I named William which was all the christening
he had.
As I did not know where to find any British troops I continued
about home some time [November, 1780,] and as the Americans
were in possession of the country I was obliged to conceal myself
in a cave dug in the branch of a creek under a hollow poplar with
my cousins Hugh Cook135 and Charles Brandon;136 in which we were forced for want of room137 to lie flat. Cooke's wife brought us food and news every night; I sometimes staid at my father-in-laws,
untill I heard that Coll Tarlton had defeated Sumpter at
Black-stocks fort138 on Tyger-river on which I raised a company
with great difficulty and joined a strong party at Col Williams'
house on Little-river139 where there was a strong party under
General Cunningham.140 Major Plumber141 having been wounded at King' Mountain the command of our Regiment devolved on
Jonathan Frost142 as Major who directed me to assemble my company
of Militia and join him at an appointed place on the Enoree.
When I came to that place on the day and time appointed I found
the Americans under Captn then Major Roebuck143 in possession of
it who immediately disarmed an marched us off, It was a great
blunder in Major Frost to alter the place of meeting: however he
did his best to remedy it; he pursued and overtook us about 12
miles higher up and having attacked Roebuck's party where they
were advantageously posted at a house poor Frost was killed the
rest retreated. Roebuck who was acquainted with me formerly:
paroled me to Ninety-six where I was exchanged for Captain
Clerk144 a son to Coll Clerk who had been taken after the attack on Augusta in Georgia, I was then sent to garrison the goal of Ninety-Six
[December, 1780,] which I fortified and had the command of
the Militia stationed there. Colls Allen145 and Cruger146 commanded
the fort near the goal; where I continued until Tarleton came
into Ninety-Six district to go in quest of General Morgan [January,
1781,] and sent to the garrison for guides acquainted with Morgan's
situation which was then convenient to my house on Pacholet;147
I joined Col Tarleton and marched to Fair-forest having failed to
get intelligence of Morgan's situation he sent me out [January
16,] to endeavour to do so and to make the mills grind for the Army:
when I reached Pacholet-river I swam my horse over a private ford
not likely to be guarded, leaving the man behind me to go on more
quietly & reconnoitre the samp(sic) . I found the fires burning but no
one there, on which I rode to my father's who said Morgan was
gone to the Old-fields about an hour before; my wife said the same
and that they had used or destroyed my crop & took away almost
every thing. I immediately returned to Col Tarleton and found he
had marched towards the Old fields. I overtook them before 10
oclock near the Cow-pens on Thickety Creek where we suffered a
total defeat by some dreadful bad management.148 The Americans
were posted behind a rivulet with Rifle-men as a front line and
Cavarly in the rear so as to make a third line; Col Tarleton charged
at the head of his Regiment of Cavalry called the British Legion149
which was filled up from the prisoners taken at the battle of Camden;
the Cavalry supported by a detachment of the 71st Regt under
Major McArthur150 broke the Riflemen without difficulty, but the
prisoners on seeing their own Regt opposed to them in the rear
would not proceed against it and broke: the remainder charged
but were repulsed this gave time to the front line to rally and form
in the rear of their Cavalry which immediately charged and broke
the 71st (then unsupported) making many prisoners: the rout was
almost total. I was with Tarleton in the charge who behaved
bravely but imprudently the consequence was his force disperced
in all directions the guns and many prisoners fell into the hands
of the Americans.
The men being dispersed I desired them to meet me at General
Cunningham's,151 I proceeded towards home to bring off my wife
and child on the 17 Janry [,1781,] and found there was nothing left
not even a blanket to keep off the inclement weather; or a change of
garments; then leaving a pleasant situation in a lamentable state
without a shilling in my pocket; proceeded for General Cunningham's,
sleeping encamped that night at Fair-forest;152 As we could
not preval on General Cunningham to use any exertions to embody
his brigade of Militia we went to Edisto river153 in order to settle
there having nothing but two horses and our clothes left, everthing
else being in the hands of the Americans and by them confiscated.154
I have not been at Pacholet since nor am I likely to be.
I continued at Robt McWhorter's155 on Edisto for some days
and leaving my wife and child there proceeded to Charles-town
where contrary to my expectations I met with several of the British
officers who had been taken at King's Mountain;156 and who very
readily assisted me to get pay for some cattle and provisions I had
furnished Col Ferguson with for the use of his detachment, and
not satisfied with this they introduced me to Col Balfour commandant
of Charles-town who hearing from them of my great activity
and that I had lost my all gave me an order to Mr Cruden commissioner
of sequestered estates157 to have me accomadated with my
family on some one of them; this produced an order to Coll Ballingal158 and Mr Kinsay159 at Jacksons-borough160 who ordered me a
house and provisions with the use of three negroes to attend my
family thus was I at once introduced to a new set of loyalists and
I immediately removed my wife and child and Charles Brandon161
with his family to Fergusons Riverside plantation162 near
Parker's-ferry163 on Pond-Pond-river [March] where I soon fixed myself
very comfortably having purchased in Charles-town some bedding
&c to set up house-keeping a second time.
I joined the negroes allowed me for my family with others on
the Plantation and began to make a crop of Indian com and rice.
The Rebels increased much in the neighbourhood of Pond-pond
and a general rising being expected I sent express to Col Balfour
the commandant of Charles-town to acquaint him of it who detached
100 men to bring off the Militia from Pond-Pond: by his
desire I sent to communicate confidential intelligence to Captn
McKinnon164 at Motte's house165 near Nelson's ferry166 on the
Santee River which journey of 120 miles I performed in 24 hours:
I then returned to Charles-town, [May] and at the wish of Col
Balfour raised a troop of horse and was stationed at Dorchester167
a strong British-post and moved my wife and child thither We had
not been at this place long before I ascertained that Major Snipes,168
Colls Haynes169 and
Marrion(sic)170 had returned, crossed Pond-Pond river and were embodying troops [June, 1781,] which intelligence
I communicated to Lord Rawdon171 and His Lordship immediately
ordered out a detachment of which I was one we crossed Pond-
Pond river at Parker's ferry,172 and the boats having been removed
to impede our march I swam my horse over accompanied by others
and procured feather-beds to transport those who could not swim
across the River; we then proceeded rapidly and reached Snipe's
plantation173 by day-light, which we soon cleared of him and his
party driving them out with loss: on this occasion I was wounded
in the thigh with a spear by a man concealed in a Ha-Ha174 whilst
in the act of leaping my horse over it; but I made him prisoner and
took him with the others made on this occasion to Dorchester.
About this time a detachment was sent and succeeded in taking Coll
Hynes,175 who soon after deservedly suffered for Treason; as it
was discouvered that he had communicated with the rebels whilst
a British commissary. There were daily skirmishes at this period,
the Americans constantly contracting our posts in every direction.
In the beginning of July I joined the Army under Lord Rawdon
then marching towards Ninety-Six to relieve the place;176 on
our approach the Americans who were besieging it broke up,
crossed Broad-river, and proceeded along the left bank towards
Charles-town: Lord Rawdon finding that the country must be
abandoned, detached his light troops towards Long-canes177 (a
branch of Savanna(sic) River to bring away the Loyalists and their
families; taking himself with the main body the route of Charles-town as far as
Congaree;178 where the Americans had recrossed
the river & made a fruitless effort to oppose his march by preventing
our crossing the creek which we did without difficulty and proceeded
to Orangeburgh;179 where we expected to meet reinforcements
from Charles-town and be joined by the light troops and
Loyalists, but were disappointed in both and soon after surrounded
by the Americans who pressed us so closely that we had nothing
but 1 lb of wheat in the straw served out to each man every 24
hours. The parties going out daily to forage had constant skirmishes
with the enemy and one day Major Doyle180 sent out with
what mounted men he could muster (about 20 or 30) to cover the
foraging; which he did effectually driving off the Americans with
some loss: on this occasion Lord Edward Fitzgerald181 having
broken his sword on the back of an American I supplied him with
another to continue the attack for which he felt greatly obliged.
A day or two afterwards Major Doyle182 came to me with a
message from Lord Rawdon to know if I could find any one well
acquainted with the road to Charlestown and willing to go thither
with a message of great importance; as all the expresses sent
hitherto had either been killed of taken prisoners: being perfectly
acquainted with the whole of the neighbouring country I immediately
went and offered my services to his Lordship; which were
readily accepted; I was offered any horse in the camp I might think
better than my own, but I thought myself the best mounted officer
there, and found before many minutes use for every muscle of the
good animal that carried me. I set out instantly for Charles-town
and was scarcely past the sentries when I found myself pursued
by 4 or 5 of the enemy two of whom kept it up about 20 miles
through the woods; my intention was to come into the Charles-town
road where it crosses the Cypress-swamp at Cunningham's
house 2 miles above Dorchester, but by chance I kept too much to
the right and crossed the swamp by another path a little lower
down, and soon after I saw a picket of the enemy on the Charles-town
side of the swamp; who must inevitably have taken or killed
me, had I not by good fortune missed the common path, which they
were carefully guarding. I passed through Dorchester, and remained
with my wife whilst a fresh horse was saddled, and I could
give Capt Brereton a message from Lord Rawdon for Col Coates183
at Monk's Corner184 of the 19th Regt desiring him to be on the alert as the Americans had crossed Broad and Santee Rivers in great
force; this was forwarded by express to the Coll. and I set out for
Charles-town where I delivered my letter to Col Balfour (the commandant
at 4 oclock P M twelve hours after I received it from
Lord Rawdon at Orangeburgh; a distance of 80 miles. The Coll
was walking under Dr Frazier's185 piazza; the detachment was
instantly turned out and marched immediately to relieve Lord
Moria186 from his uncomfortable situation. On reaching Dorchester
I found to my grief that the Americans had visited that
place during my short absence and taken away my horse with 300
others out of Major Wright's187 pasture. So soon as we joined
Lord Rawdon he found himself strong enough to force his way
through the enemy which he did immediately, marching towards
Charles-town, and encamped without opposition near Monk's
corner: where we had some trifling skirmishes without any event
of importance.
The Americans by degrees got possession of all the country
except the small part inside the quarter House where I was posted.
Lord Rawdon having moved his force to some other part of the
country, I then joined a corps of three companies raised for the
defence of the sequestered estates by John Cruden Esq.188 In one of
our excurtions(sic) up Cooper's River189 to procure a supply of rice, the schooner in which I was upset and 12 men were drowned the
greater part belonging to my company; being on deck I saved myself
by swimming and 6 or 7 others had the same good fortune.
The Schooner turned keel up, and not being quite filled with water
immediately, the men could exist for a little time; we heard them
crying for assistance and did all we could to afford it but unfortunately
only one man could be got out in time to save his life and
this was effected by cutting a hole in the vessels bottom. I lost my
watch, sword and several other things.
Soon after this the troops were obliged to abandon the neighbourhood
of the quarter house and confine themselves entirely to
Charles-town neck 190 [December, 1781]; and a quantity of wood
being required for fuel I was appointed to superintend the operation
in which a vast number of people must be required and having
full power to employ any persons; I chose a number of loyalists
whom I found within the lines in a destitute condition; and this
gave them immeddiate relief; preventing numbers by that means
from starving. They were continued whilst I had the charge which
was a great satisfaction to my feelings, but ill health coming with
the affliction I gave up the charge to Captn McMahon191 early in
January [1782], soon after the death of my wife who died 28th
Novr 1781 and is buried near Gillen's Gen's landing not far from
Stuart's house on James Island.
My illness continued without much hope of recovery: I was
induced to send the child to my relations, in order to return to
Europe. I took my passage in a transport called the Lady Susan
John Gumming master and sailed from Charles-town the 5th April
under convoy of the Orestes sloop of war commanded by Sir Jacob
Wheate.192 The fleet consisted of 52 sail and we had a pleasant
passage. My companions were Major Robinson193 late of the Camden
Militia Major Michal Egan,194 and Lieut James Barber195 of the Royal Militia. We made Mizen head on the Coast of Ireland the
10th of May [1782] and put into Castlehaven next day in a hard
gale of wind when we landed and proceeded to Cork by land: I got
my baggage landed, bought a horse and proceeded to Dublin accompanied
by Charles Philip Campbell196 and Soloman Smyth197 both from Charlestown; & their society not only beguiled a long and
tedious journey but was the means of forming a lasting friendship
with Mr Campbell; we took lodgings together on reaching Dublin,
the 4th of June in Peter's row. I had brought a letter of introduction
from Captn McMahon to his father198 and by his advice I drew
up a memorial to the Lord Lieut.199 stating my services and requesting some situation; but the then Lord-Lieut, being of the party
which was unfavourable to the Americans I was refused. Mr
Campbell introduced me to Philip Henry200 also a loyalist who had
obtained a good situation in the Custom-House and by him I was
advised to turn my thoughts to obtain something of that kind, as
well as to establish a claim for compensation in lieu of property
lost or confiscated; but being anxious to see my few remaining
relations in the Co Antrim, I went thither before I had matured
my plans for the future.201
My health having improved a good deal since I left Charles-town
I found myself able to proceed to Ballymena202 after a short
stay in Dublin: I found my aunt and uncle Purdy in good health,
she was my father's sister her name Anne, and perceiving that I
was much cast down in consequence of my great losses and bad
prospects she told me to take courage and that all might be well
adding that the family once had been very rich and were entitled
to an estate situated in one of the Northen(sic) Counties of England.
I paid but little attention to her story at the moment and did not
make even an entry at the time: but as well as I can remember she
stated in substance that the above estate belonged to a person called
Richie or Ritchie who raised a company on it and came over to
Ireland in the command and died leaving an infant daughter whose
name was said to be Anne, & she married my paternal great-grandfather
Robert Chesney of Grange near Toom-ferry who appears to
have neglected establishing his right probably in consequence of
the troubles then existing both in England and Ireland: but his
eldest son John (my grand uncle) went to Dublin to make searches
and found most satisfactory records respecting the claim but pursued
it no farther nor has anyone taken up the business since until
this moment when it is probable from the lapse of time that the
holders of the lands in question coult(sic) not be disturbed after being
so long in peacable(sic) possession, by the real heirs. By way of making
up for my neglect in not committing to writing what my aunt said,
I have collected in a book all the particulars which came in my way
from time to time likely to throw any light on the subject; but I
have never been able to hear what records it is likely my grand
uncle searched in Dublin: nor did he follow the advice he then
received of proceeding to England on the business.
The family must have been of Norman extraction originally;
and probably came to England with the Conqueror; the derivation
of the name 'Cheney formerly de Chesnoye from the Fr: G. Chesnoye,
a place where the oaks grow, this from Chesne an oak; which
Menag again draws from the Latin Quercius, skin: from Quernicus
oaken, made of oak'. I presume the stock was derived from Ralph
de Caineto (id est Cheney) who came into England with the
Conqueror and had large possessions given him by that King, whose
decendants(sic) were very numerous and high in rank having peerages,
Bishopricks(sic) &c; the succeeding branches extended to the north
of England and Scotland from whence my great grandfather is said
to have removed to this country during the religious troubles; at
least such is the belief of one of the branches of the family now
residing in County Tyrone.
After a short stay with my relations and friends in Co Antrim
I proceeded to Dublin to go to London and try what could be done
with the Ministry; to which step I was urged by friends Henry
and Campbell:203 on the 28th [July, 1782,] sailed from George's quay for Liverpool in the Prince of Orange packet; next day we
saw Holly-head204 and on the 30 landed in Liverpool, this was my
first visit to England, and I was gratified the day of the 31st in
viewing the town the docks and a 64 gunship lying there. In the
afternoon I set out by the stage for London and arrived at the
Bull and Mouth inn 205 on the 2nd [August] and proceeded to the
golding cross, Charing Cross206 in a hackney coach.
On the 3rd [August, 1782] I went to the War-office, and to
Mr Townsend's secretary of state office for the American department,
where I left my papers and the following memorial
To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty' Treasury.
The humble petition of Alexander Chesney, late of Charles-town in the province of South Carolina,
Humbly Sheweth,
'That your Petitioner for several years prior to the present
American war, resided on Broad-river in Ninety-six district in
South Carolina aforesaid: that at the commencement of the Rebellion
in that province your petitioner took an active part in
favour of the British government, and rendered the loyal subjects
in that country, as well as His Majesty's army essential services.
That soon after the reduction of Charles-town by Sir
Henry Clinton your petitioner was appointed Captain of a company
of Militia, and Adjutant of the different batalions of militia, under
the late Major Ferguson of the 71st Regt; in which capacity he
served until the defeat of that officer on King's Mountain, where
your petitioner was wounded and taken prisoner. That your petitioner
after he obtained his liberty again acted in his military
capacity, until the out posts were drove into the garrison of
Charlestown.
That your petitioner has lost all his lands and other
property the same being confiscated by the rebels.
That your petitioner's ill state of health brought on by
fatigue of service in defence of his King and Country, is now in
London in hopes to recover strength to return & render government
every assistance in his power.
That your petitioner relying on the certificates hereunto
annexed to corroborate his loyalty, begs to submit his case to your
Lordships consideration to grant him such relief as to your Lordships
shall seem meet
And your petitioner as in
duty bound shall ever pray
Alex Chesney
to which I was promised an answer the following morning at 11
Oclock in the afternoon I took a lodging at Mrs Crisfields No 58
Crownstreet Westminster: this circumstance was beneficial to me
as Mrs Crisfield introduced me to Mr Lewis Wolfe207 a clerk in the Treasury who kindly offered to render any assistance in his power
to further my claims; from which moment he was essentially useful
in many ways, and through me he afterwards became agent for
all the Loyalists: a place now held by his Brother in law Mr Crafer208 my particular friend.
On the 4th August called at Mr Townsend's209 office but did not receive any answer to my memorial afterwards at Lord Cornwallis'210 8 Albemarle Street and found that his Lordship is gone
to Norfolk; then to Lord Huntingdons211 St James place to enquire
for Lord Rawdon who is gone to the country for two months: also
Lord Shelburnes(sic)212 with
the same bad success, after dinner I went
to see Westminster Abbey and was highly gratified by a sight of
that venerable pile, and hearing an Anthem sung; I also viewed
Westminster-Hall and the bridge before my return to the lodgings.
Sunday 5th attended service at Westminster Abbey; I dined
with Mrs Crisfield and two ladies. The person who travelled from
Liverpool with me under the assumed title of a Russian Major, and
who said he had been taken prisoner by some of the native powers
in India, paid his lodging and took his departure having got assistance
from the Russian Ambassador.213 It appeared afterwards that
this man was but a Serjeant Major in the Russian Army so that he
rather disgraced himself by assuming a title which did not belong
to him.
Monday 6th on my way to Mr Townsend's office I saw the guard
releived(sic) in the park; I was told to memorial Mr Townsend in order
to get his assistance in forwarding my application to the Treasury.
I gave my papers to Mr Rose,214 who told me the Board are to sit
tomorrow but will not enter into the merits of claims, as there is to
be a gentleman appointed expressly for that purpose. I called at
the Archbishop of Canterbury's 215 to enquire for Lord Cornwallis
and ascertained that his Lordship will not be in town for 5 weeks.
About this period there was a general meeting of loyalists at
the Crown and Anchor Tavern,216 General Arnold217 and almost
every one who had a claim attended; after some conversation as to
the best plan to be pursued it was determined to draw up a general
petition to the Ministers to take our case into consideration for
which purpose three of the number were pitched upon viz Lieut
Governor Ball218 and Mr Simpson219 to represent those who had
lost property or rendered services to the government; and myself
to act for those who had been actively engaged in the war, besides
losing property the petition was speedily presented to Ministers,
and on it was found the act of restitution:220 also the resolutions
of the first Lord of the Treasury classing the Loyalists.221
August 7th employed in preparing a Memorial with copies of
testimonials for Lord North; after dinner went to the Treasury and
met two gentlemen (loyalists) who promise to communicate to me
any intelligence they may receive from the Treasury; next day I
called there myself but did not see Mr Rose nor was there any
answer; further than there would not be anything decided for some
time; and that I might appoint some one to act in my absence: I
ascertained where Major Ross222 Aid de Camp to Lord Cornwallis
lives also the address of Coll Tarlton.223 On the 9th Major Ross accompanied me to Sir Henry Clinton's,224 and took my papers to
consult Lord Cornwallis as to the best steps to be pursued.
11th or 12 my papers were returned from Lord Cornwallis by
Major Ross' hands with a message that his Lordship would do
everything to assist my vews(sic) ; and as my farther stay would be expensive
without any immediate utility, I empowered Mr Lewis
Wolfe225 to act in my absence and he kindly promised to write to
me whenever any thing interesting should occur respecting the
claims.
Augt 16th Left London in a coach from Lad-Lane226 having taken my place for Loughborough227 which I reached next day and
got to Cavendish,228 near Lord Huntingdons' seat at Dannington
Park.229
18th Waited on Lord Rawdon230 who gave me a strong letter of
recommendation to General Burgoyne,231 soliciting his interest to
get me appointed to some Revenue situation in Ireland.
On the 19th set out for Manchester by the stage and slept at
the Bell Inn Derby,232 next night at the former place and on the
21st at Liverpool; but could not get to sea until the 30th when the
packet sailed for Dublin with a fair but very light wind; so that we
made little way towards Dublin where we arrived late the evening
of the 3rd of Septr I took up my quarters where I had been formerly
(in Peter's Row).
On the 4th I waited on General Burgoyne with Lord Rawdon's
letter but as I received little or no encouragement from him I determined
to go to Ballymena and endeavour to engage in some business
or other until the result could be ascertained of the London
business: this day I called on Mr Henry233 at the Custom House and gave him an account of my proceedings in London; which were
interesting to him as had also lost property.
Septr 7th set out at 4 oclock in the morning by the Coach for
Newry234 where I slept; and proceeded on horse-back to Antrim235 next day, thence to my uncle Purdy's.
About the 10th [October, 1782] I received a letter from Mr
Wolfe requiring me to send a sworn account of my losses in
America accompanied by certificates from Lord Cornwallis Coll
Tarlton &c &c which I did soon after; the amount being £1998 10s
in which all the losses were included that could be substantiated
with facility before the commissioners. I received a flattering
letter from Lord Cornwallis some time in Novr [1782] inclosing one
for Col Eustace236 the Secty in Dublin to facilitate my views either by obtaining a commission in a Fencibble(sic) Regt but of this letter I
made no use for some time except consulting Mr Henry, by whose
advice I sent it some time afterwards: when it appeared the commissions were all given away. I made arrangements with Mr Miller237 to purchase and open a shop in Ballymena.
I remained about Ballymena until the middle of Dec [1782]
when Major Robinson238 brought a message for us to wait on Lord
Rawdon at Montalto.239
On the 23rd [December] Robinson and I called at Montalto,
where we did not find his Lordship but received a message to go to
Dublin and call on Counseller Doyle the Major's brother240 who
would endeavour to assist our views in the Revenue: that night we
slept at Widow Flinn's near Rathfuland,241 next at Dundalk the
third within 20 miles of Dublin; and on the 26th reached Dublin by
12 oclock, the whole of which journey we performed on foot: the
day of our arrival we called on Mr Campbell,242 took our lodgings
in Pill-lane, and amused ourselves by going to the play.
27th [December] called at Counseller Doyle's who was gone to
the country; I then waited on Coll Eustace with Lord Cornwallis'
letter who said the Fencible Regiments are full of officers.
Robinson243^ and I on the 30th called at Counsellor Doyle244 who gave us hopes of success, and said he would call on the Lord
Lieut;245 next day he told us he had seen the Lord Lieut; but had
not received an answer to his application.
On the 2nd Jany 1783 Counsellor Doyle told us that the Lord
Lieut had acceded to the request would give us places in the Revenue
and required our names; which we gladly furnished to the Secty
Mr Scrope Bernard,246 who had been a loyalist also.
Janry 3rd. [1783] called and left copies of my papers at the
Castle 247; and on the 6th Robinson and I received a letter 5 Jany 1783 from Scrope Barnard from the Castle notifying our appointments
to Tide waiters places — his at Lame and mine at Waterford
until something better should offer: trifling as this appointment
was I was truly grateful for it, and found it in my present situation
and circumstances a most timely relief from idleness and perhaps
the fear of want; not knowing that I should ever receive any
thing else from government.
On the 7th went to the Custom-House and received my commission
for which I paid the fees; and immediately set out by the
Kilkenny Coach, from whence I got a conveyance to Waterford in
a return chaise: I remained about a fortnight, and not liking the
duty or situation, I took an opportunity of getting myself boarded
on a vessel for Dublin and on arriving at the Custom House I applied
to Mr Morgan248 who got me immediately removed to Belfast
whither I soon moved by land: I was back and forwards to
Ballymena until the 1s of March; which was the day I was happily
united to Jane Wilson249 eldest daughter of John Wilson250 and Elizabeth Kirkpatrick his wife she has but one sister (Molly) and
six brothers viz James, John, Samuel, William, David and Charles:
my wife was born the first Sunday in April 1763 and consequently
in her l9th year at the time of our marriage. I continued at the
Birney-hill until the 12th of April, then removed to a house in Hercules-
lane Belfast.251 I was scarcely fixed in my residence when a
letter arrived from Mr Wolfe requiring my presence in London
about the American claims, and having through my friend Henry252
obtained the Board's leave I set out for Dublin,253 and on the 15th took my lodging in Pill lane; next day I saw my friends Henry &
Campbell254 who both advised me strongly to proceed to London:
Mr Winder255 also promised me his support and friendship;
a thing of great importance as being Secretary to the Board.
20th Sailed in the Fly packet at 10 o'clock in the morning for
Liverpool, and reached our destination the evening of the 22nd; I
slept at the Bull Inn, Dale-street, and next day at 2 oclock set off
by the Coach for London, and got there in the evening of the 24th.
On the 25th I took a lodging at Mr Wolfe's, and began to copy
my papers; next day I called at the Treasury and at Col Phillip's256:
I was employed about a week at the papers, and having finished
them, I obtained certificates of their truth from Lord Cornwallis
Colls Balfour and Phillips; and returned them to the office.
May the 6th I was examined by the commissioners for American
claims who appeared to be well satisfied with the result; next
day I was again at the Treasury to give evidence for some of my
loyal friends, and saw Lords Cornwallis & Rawdon there on the
same good errand also Captn Guest.257
On the 10thy Mr Wolfe informed us it would be necessary to attend
at the Treasury again on Monday; which accordingly happened
and we saw Messrs Wilmot & Coke the commissioners,258
afterwards called on Lord Cornwallis for a frank.
14th Called again on Lord Cornwallis with Coll Phillips and
Captn Miller259 also at Lord Rawdon's we took a walk in the park
afterwards and saw their Majesties going to St James': it gave me
great pleasure to see our beloved Monarch in whose cause I had
sacrificed my all.
Called at the Treasury and found that the Board had not yet
taken up Messrs Wilmots and Coke's report on our claims; wrote
by post to inform Mr Henry260 of the state of our affairs at the
Treasury; also to obtain leave of absence for me: I sent at this
time a small sum of money but all I could spare to Mrs Chesney at
the same time encouraging her to hope for better times; and that
from the appearance of things it would not be necessary to return
to America as some were doing on chance thinking they could not
be worse off: which was partly my intention before I came to
London.
I remained in London until about the 24th of May receiving
many acts of friendly attention from Col Phillips261 and Mr
Wolfe262: I had obtained a temporary allowance
of £50 a year and having put matters in a favourable train for the commissioners'
report, I set out for Bristol with Col Phillips263; & after passing
a day or two with his family I took a passage in a Brig for
Strangford264 on the 2nd of June we put into Dublin by contrary winds, and next day I proceeded to Belfast, where I remained until the
13th of Octr [1783] in much anxiety about my London business; and
constantly hearing from Mr Henry265 on this subject equally interesting to him.
Octr 13th proceeded to Dublin to make out a new memorial for
the Commissioners; also with a view of getting something better,
or at least a removal to the West of Ireland; the journey was performed;
partly on foot the rest in carriages of different kinds: I
failed in getting removed, and whilst employed in preparing my
papers I heard of the death of Mr Harman Coast officer at Bangor;
for which situation I immediately applied through Major Skeffington
and Mr Winder266 with little hopes of success: and rather
thought of getting placed on the list of guagers — General Luttrel267
exerted himself personally in my favour, and I was every day at
the Castle or with some friend trying to make interest.
Novr 4 my papers being ready I set out for Belfast leaving
things in an uncertain state as to the Coast Officers place: soon
after I embarked with Col Phillips and another loyalist at Donghadee268 for Liverpool which we reached about the 9th; Mr Miller269
and I took an inside and an outside place between us for London
which plan was both pleasant and oeconomical — On arriving in London
I found that General Luttrel had obtained the Coast-officers
place for me at Larne or rather Bangor,270 and that Mr Henry271
was about to set off to establish his claims before the commissioners;
on the 18th he arrived with the pleasing news of my appointment
which placed me at once near County Antrim and above
want two most agreeable circumstances. I prepared a memorial for
each of the Commissioners and also the secretary; and so soon as
I had got my claims certified by the other loyalists and had performed
the like service for those whose claims were known to me
I set out for Belfast by way of Dublin; and a few days after removed
my family to Bangor where we took a lodging at Mrs Scott's
on the 30th Decr [1783].
Continued at Bangor without any particular event all this year
[1784] improving myself in writing & Arithmetic; the claims before
the commissioners being still undecided and causing constant
correspondence with London, as well as with Col Phillips Mr Henry
&c.
No particular event until the 14th June [1785] when Eliza
Chesney272 was born at half past 6 oclock in the morning and was
called for Lady Moira as well as her two Grandmothers. In autumn
the commissioners required more proofs that my property was confiscated273; in consequence of this I obtained certificates from Lords
Cornwallis and Rawdon: I also referred the commissioners to an
act of the provincial congress of Jackson's burgh inserted in the
Charlestown papers; which act confiscated the property of every
person under Arms; and was passed soon after the reduction of
Charles-town in 1780 by the British.274
22d August 1785 My Grandfather John Wilson writes to make
known the death of his son John.275
A letter of 17 July 1785 from Robert Lusk gives news of my
grandfather Chesneys family and that my brother William276 had
been taken to them from the Hodges.277 But Robert Harper's letter
of 10 April 1785 mentions that the Law gave him back to the
Hodges. 29 August this was reversed by the Magistrates who gave
him to his grandfather.278
On Christmas-day [1785] I visited Mourne279 on my way to
Dublin to see how I should like an exchange with the Coast-officer
at Annalong280 Mr Williams281 who was obliged to leave the country; in consequence of having killed John Atkinson with a stone in return
for a blow he gave with a stick; this exchange being effected282
without trouble I proceeded to Dublin to try to get an allowance of
£14 per Annum which my predecessor had enjoyed; but did not
succeed; & returned to Bangor in order to prepare for a removal.
Fbr 14th [1786] removed my family to Mourne & was placed in
a house called the barrack situated in Ballymaiveamore 283 nearly 3
miles from Annalong; there were two families in the house John
McDowell and James M"=Crumb284 a Tide waiter; but at May I got
the whole house to myself and began to put in some crop: at this
time I was very low in cash the consequence of my repeated journeys
to and from London. The same anxiety continued about the
claims until August when I received £133.12.0 as a dividend; and
in Novr £255.18 being the remainder of my small allowance285 which appeared to have been reduced by the commissioners in consequence
of having received a Revenue employmnt(sic) .
7th March [1787] a daughter born about at 7 Oclock P M called
for the mother (Jane)286. The communications with Lady Moira287 by letter commenced this year and she expressed anxiety to give
me a lift.
Continued at Ballyvea [1788] under Mr Savage288 and going
frequently to Dublin in the Barge to look for something better.
Went to Babbriggan289 to look at Straw Hall engaged it and as the
Board would not allow me to remove in consequence of the combination
formed against me; I lost nearly a year's rent.
1788 Mr. Savage wrote a kind letter of adieu regarding the
account he had received of my drinking with low people. I determined
to avoid all that might have this bad appearance in future.
On the 16th of March Francis Rawdon Chesney290 was born at
2 Oclock called after my kind patron Lord Rawdon which I made
known by a letter on the 29 July 1789.
In May the American claims were finally settled by the Commissioners,
who most unexpectedly and unjustly took into account
the Revenue employment I obtained through my personal friends
Lords Cornwallis and Rawdon, and adjudged it to be part compensation:
this arrangement reduced my annual pension to £30.
During this year there was a combination of the Boatmen
backed by Mr Savage291 and the smugglers to get me removed and
although they perjured themselves to gain their ends I foiled them
at Rosstrevor292 in presence of a Commissioner Col Ross,293 whose friendship I gained by their attack.
This year I bought Brackany from James Purdy. Was at Dublin
after the tryal endeavouring might and main to get removed or
get something better or rather more quiet as to employment An
exchange to Balbreggan was partly arranged in Decr but afterwards
given up.
Col Ross' examination took place end of July and in September
1789 The Atkinsons Mr Savages294 relatives & the McNeillys295 were censured and affidavits were taken privately from the boatmen against me by Mr Savage.
The Board of Customs decided that in the case of Seizures
made by the Barge, the Surveyor when at sea should have 3/8: The
Mate or Deputy acting under him 1/8 and the remaining 4/8 equally
to the [?] & crew. The Surveyor when out at Sea to have
1/8 and the Deputy 3/8 — The crew as before when present.
[1790] Still wishing to get removed out of Mourne either to an
equal, or better place; and felling(sic)
the ill effects in a pecuniary way of my journies to Dublin with that view.
Tords(sic) the end of Jany 1791 I had a bad fall from my horse &
my collar bone broken.
May 14th a son born at 11 Oclock at night whom I named
Charles Cornwallis,296 as a small token of gratitude to my patron
Novr I bought Ballymacveamore297 from Mr Robert Norman which appeared likely to prove a good way of employing the American
compensation money there being at that time a fair interest
and a strong probability of more by endeavouring to improve this
Townland.
On the 4 Decr 1790 The famous Smuggling Lugger Morgan
Rattler being anchored in Glassdrummond Bay with a number of
Yawls alongside and astern with goods in each preparatory to landing
the Revenue pinnace was sent out, and a part(sic) of officers stationed
on land to prevent a landing. In order to effect this purpose
16 men were despatched in the Lugger's boat to chive off the Revenue
land party and take the pinnace also — The Revenue party now
opned(sic) a fire on the assailants who were not only deterred from their
purpose when landed but cut off from their own boat. The Lugger
now fired a Gun to cover her Men and she sent at the same time a
reinforcement of 12 men who landed about half a mile north of the
Revenue party and attacked them by firing in their rear. I moved
towards the latter party leaving some of my people to protect our
boat. During this movement, the Smugglers got their first party
and boat to sea and the Revenue party being obliged to retreat before
the 2d party of the Lugger's men the landing was effected. My
party fired some 10 or 12 rounds. The Smugglers were heard to say
fire at the man on horseback meaning myself. I stated these particulars
and suggested that a Military party should be stationed
in Mourne to prevent such outrage in future.
Towards the end of 1791 I received an account (also previously
from my Father) from I. Purdy on reaching S Carolina of the
nominal Sale of my property which in fact made a debtor. I also
found that it would be very difficult to get my son William brought
over as I had hoped to arrange.
Janry 17th [1793] Alexr McDowell preventive officer was murdered
at Turlogh-Hill, which event created a great sensation; and
a large reward was offered by Government, the officers and inhabitants
of Mourne for the conviction of the person or persons concerned
in this atrocious act: but nothing certain transpired. The
Board at my recommendation gave a pension of £6 a year to his
widow.
Smuggling was so extensive at this period, that on the 19 Feb
1793 Five vessels namely 3 Cutters 1 Lugger and 1 Wherry anchored
in Glassdrummond Bay during the day. Having made this
fact duly known the Lord Lieut caused Capt Drury to sail immediately
in quest of them with His Majestys Ship Squirrell. The
Board ordered the Ross, the Breech and Mary cruisers to proceed
to that part of the Coast and with reference to the possibility of
some of them being privateers with Arms, the Lord Lieut ordered
a Troop of Dragoons to proceed (through Newcastle) to Mourne,
and a party to proceed from Rathpebuid298 to 8 Mile Bridge to act
in conjunction with the Company at Kilkeel299: also that the Revenue
party at Rostrevor should be strengthened from Newry.
24 June [1793] removed to Prospect &c &c
1794 Febuy 3 A kind letter came from Lady Moira offering my
son Francis a Commission in Col Doyle's Regiment300 if he is old
enough to be appointed
The Brig Surprise was wrecked near Annalong
July 26 A daughter born at 3 Oclock in the morning named
after her aunts Molly and Anne.301
My friend Mr Wolfe joined partnership with his brother In law
Mr Crafer302 in the Agency to the American loyalists.
Mrs Chesney took Francis to Dublin on Oct 17 18 1794 with
reference to his future and presented him to Lady Moira who was
all kindness, even wishing her to stay in the House
Febry [1795] Letters passing between Messrs Wolfe and me
whose advice I asked about placing my son Francis at the Royal
Military Academy.
July 6 1795 Col. Skeffington303 advises an application to Lord
Moira who was about to proceed to the Continent in command of
an Army,304
During this summer we had a fever in the house which attacked
Mrs Chesney, Eliza, Francis (slightly) and Mary Anne who
thank God all recouvered(sic): this was not the only trouble, for some
malicious person having sent a general charge to the Collr of
Strangford against me and the party for neglect of duty; an investigation
took place before the Surveyor General Mr Cuthbert. He
pronounced it to be founded in malice — The Board afterwards
granted a reward of £50 to the party for their exertions the two
preceeding years which showed how well they were satisfied.
Still making enquiries about the Woolwich Academy305 during
the year [1796] the country was a good deal disturbed by designing
persons who appeared to have deep designs in view
Lord Cornwallis had declined on the 24 Feby 96 asking a direct
commission on account of the age306
And Messrs Wolfe & Crafer 3d March 1796 recommended the
Mil Academy,307 and to obtain the Master Genls nomination thro
Lord Cornwallis, age 12 to 16. £20 a year to be given in addition
to the Gov allowance
Thank God my affairs are in a most prosperous situation; health
in the family with plenty of everything.
Jany [1797] I raised a company, called the Mourne Infantry,308
in order to put down the turbulent spirit manifested all through
the Country last Autumn; by my own exertions they were embodied
on the 30th; but Messrs Henry McNeilly309 and Thomas Spence (formerly a quarter master of Dragoons) having refused commissions; I got Jack Kilpatrick and Henry McNeilly son to the former
appointed in their room. Several disturbances in the County and
several houses of those who would not join burnt one of mine
amongst the rest: Mine was the first company under arms in the
County; which probably prevented a general insurrection in
Mourne. A guard was mounted agreeably to a letter from the Castle310 E. Coote 9 Feb. 1787, The augmentation which I proposed
subsequently was declined (10 April 1797); and a later offer of a
part of the corps to serve permanently was left in abeyance Welbrace
7 July 1797. I had sent my Daughter Eliza to Miss Thompsons
Boarding School in Newry where her progress was satisfactory.
In April [1797] applied to the Master general of the ordinance
for a cadetship for Francis;311 and in June I received a notification
of that appointment but he cannot be admitted until 14 years of
age: which will be 6 years hence. I thought it might be a useful
preparatory step to put him in the yeomanry for a little time therefore
got him appointed to a Lieutenancy I had also obtained the
appointments of . . . . . . .312 in the Revenue at Annalong which was
afterwards cancelled. I had rather hopes at this period that the
Mourne Yeomanry313 might have been made part of a Fencible
Corps in which I could have had the rank of Major but this was declined.
Pelham's314 letter 29 Jany 1798.
Although not 10 years of age, and therefore far too young I
had obtained a Commission for my Son Francis, who accompanied
the Corpe(sic) to Newry although quite unfitted for such Service, Lord
Castlereagh who could not have known his age had given him a
Commission. 19 May 1798.
Accepted a commission of the peace in consequence of a wish
expressed at the Castle; I had declined this before when the Marquis
of Downshire315 asked me through Rector Warring316
Jany [1798] Some trouble about a stranded Sloop the New
Loyalty of Belfast; Messrs Matthews Beers, and Jerry Atkinson
supporting Mr H. McNeilly in his claim as principal Salvager: this
business was settled satisfactorily in April: about this time I felt
that I had rather done injustice to my family by spending money
for the Yeomanry business thereby creating envy; a less active
part would have preserved more friends with less need of them.
The Corps put on permanent duty and arrangements were
made for this purpose by Gen Nugent's317 letters The Rebellion having
broken out. Mourne being chiefly through my exertions pretty
well disarmed and quiet; the corps was ordered to do duty at
Newry. A few days after our arrival there early in June I came
back to Mourne with a part of the Newry Cavalry and surrounded
the houses of the suspected people during the night; I thus seized
and carried off the supposed leaders of the disaffected and kept
them as hostages in Newry for the safety of the Mourne people in
case of a rising in our absence. Major Porter318 of the Argyle
Fencible Regiment Commanded and his arrangements appear to
have been very judicious.
A detachment being ordered to go to Dundalk in consequence
of an express from thence mentioning that the Rebels were under
Arms in that neighbourhood I volunteered to go; and on our march:
having pointed out to Capt Campbell the commander, the roads by
which we could be attacked, as well as the general situation of the
country: as this convinced him I had some knowledge of Military
matters, he consulted me afterwards on all occasions, and appointed
me to do staff duty, issuing orders: paroles countersigns &c &c
one day we took several hundred pikes near the town, and the Rebels
having dispersed; soon after we were ordered back to Newry by the
commandant Major Porter of the Argyle fencibles319 who gave us
a welcome home dinner and had the Right Honble Isaac Corry320 to
meet us.
The Corps ordered to return to Mourne [in July] the town of
Newry having become tranquil by the rebels losing the battle of
Ballynakinch321 the day on which Mrs Chesney (then all alone at
Prospect) was confined of a daughter Matilda.322
Some of their leaders who were forming plans in the neighbourhood
of Newry taken and executed there.
A further increase of the Mourne Yeomanry was declined altho
passed. [Herbert Taylor's letter, 21 July, 1798.] I caused the Boats
throughout Mourne to be numbered and Registered.
Aug. 7th [1798]. half the Corps ordered off permanent duty.
25th The whole corps put on permanent duty again in consequence
of the French landing in Killala-Bay.323 Major Matthews324 obtained an order from the Brigade Major Gethen to command both corps,
as the right of Major in the Army; I applied to the Castle and
gained my point: Lord Castlereagh325 decided that I am the senior
Yeomanry Officer
Sept 9th I transmitted an address from the Roman Catholics of
lower Mourne to the Lord Lieut and received a favourable answer.
16th Mr Moore and I forwarded a similar one from the Dissenters
to Lord Castlereagh to be also laid before the Lord Lieut.
President [in 1799] of a Court Martial to try Major Matthews
for Mal conduct(sic) as a yeomanry officer of which charge he was acquitted
July [1800] Mrs Chesney went to see her mother in County
Antrim taking with her Eliza, Francis and Charles; they got back
safe notwithstanding the still disturbed state of the Country — At
this time I applied to Lord Cornwallis to have me superannuated:
in August saw his Lordship on the business at Dundalk
who acceded to my wish and desired a Memorial to be made out
stating the value of my employment; which was done and referred
to the commissioners [in December] stating the wound I
got in the Ballagh: but so many difficulties occurred that I was
sorry I had applied: being uncertain about the result and whether
to take a farm or not.
Feb. [1801] went to wait on the commissioners about my application;
found that their report was not favourable to my wishes
on account of short service
March 8th A Son born at 3 Oclock in the morning, called him
Alexander326 after myself
April 6th Took a deed of a farm in Ballyardle327 from James
Carr for which I paid £145.
[June] Finding I could not be superannuated on eligible terms,
I determined to give up all further idea of it for the present: which
gives me an opportunity of pursuing my usual avocations, without
further interruption
In Octr [1801] Francis paid a visit to Lady Moira at her particular
request going each morning to Moira House328 and returning
to sleep at Mr Normans
Febr [1802] James Purdy329 having refused to go the post-office
he was on my representation suspended, and a tryal took place before the Collector at Newry; which ended in his being obliged to take his turn of duty: although Mr Beers,330 Purdy and Wallace swore everthing that malace(sic) could dictate to injure me
April 7 Received a letter from Lord Chatham331 and another
on the 5 May saying he would appoint my son Francis to a cadetship
when of the proper age and possess the other qualifications requisite:
he will not be old enough until next March, in the meantime
he must apply diligently to latin grammar and the other studies.
Lady Moira expressed her willingness to receive him in Dublin
to acquire French & Latin &c or else at Belfast.
Mr Crafer 5 May 1802 agreeably to what is required in Col
Haddens332 letter recommends that Francis should apply diligently
to Latin & other studies for the Academy
13th March [1803] received a letter of the 9th to send my son
to Woolwich; and on the 24th he went off by himself by way of
Liverpool to London, where I hope he will meet every kind assistance
from Messrs Wolfe and Crafer. [April 19th] Francis being
found deficient in height and English grammar was placed by Mr
Crafer at an Academy near Walworth kept by a Revoult a Frenchman.333
In May I sent Charles to Dublin to wait upon Lady Moira with
the hope that something might turn up for him.
[June] Francis went to Woolwich again with two gentlemen
sent by Lady Mora: recommended by Major Phillips to go to Dr
Towne's Academy at Deptford334 whither he went immediately
1803 Lugage taken by Archbold
On the 2d July 1803 Mr Revoult sent to me a satisfactory letter
about Francis who is now gone to Dr Townes at Deptford. Mr R
says he found in him a great ingenuity, much natural good sense
and such a degree of docility as made me wish that he had come to
me sooner. I am sorry he staid so short a time because I was in
hopes he would have profited much.
[July 13] Francis finally admitted a cadet, warrant made out,
but he is to remain at Deptford until there shall be a vacancy at
Marlow.
[September 21st] Francis went to the Military College at Marlow335 was examined and admitted.
[December 1st] Vacation at Marlow commenced Francis came
home for a month & is to join at Woolwich 12 Jany.
The Brig Bristol from Lisbon for Liverpool having on the 16th
Decr been stranded at Annalong and the entire of her cargo 301
Bags of cotton 21 Chests of fruit having been saved by me got the
business amicably settled and every charge thereon paid, every person
concerned paid off and highly pleased. I got in all about £300
for my exertions; thank God not an accident nor any person hurt
or injured at her.
Francis set out for the Point [January 3, 1804] to go to Woolwich
Joined the Academy on the 12th Mr Crafer went down with him.
[April] Francis has got into the Medium Academy good accounts
of his progress. He is acquainted with Oldfields mother who
is kind to him
[November 9th] Francis gazetted to a 2d Lieutenancy just 18
months after he left this house; but with a heavy expence, for
travelling back and forward and being placed at the Walworth and
Deptford Academies, to which must be added his outfit. Much is
due to Mr & Mrs Crafer for their unremitting kindness to Francis
26 Nov 1804 I sent a very particular letter of advice to Francis
about his future conduct as an Officer and success in life.
Determined on sending Charles to Mr Revoults Academy to
qualify him for any situation which might offer: he set out in Jany
& went to Revoults in Feby [1805] at Walworth. Francis at Woolwich
doing duty and no situation having been obtained for Charles,
I determined on bringing him home at the end of the quarter.
[June] Wrote to Genl Lloyd336 and obtained leave for Francis
to visit us, and bring Charles—
[June 29th] Francis and Charles set out from London for Prospect.337
[September 29th] Francis left us for Woolwich to join his company
at Portsmouth, as a 1st Lieut of Major Merediths338 Compy;
he remained at Mr Crafer's a while and proceeded to Portsmouth
23rd Octr — His company is under orders for service — my son is
much respected as far as I can learn, he is a dutiful good son though
an expensive one.
[1806] Having obtained the promise of an East India cadetship
for Charles, I send him to Revoults: I hope he will be successful
as the expence will be great, and heavy on me: but I have great
hopes from him as a scholar and an oeconomist: My lands much
improved now yielding a clear profit rent of £100 per Annum. This
with good health in the family ought to silence all murmurs and discontent;
during this year somewhat embarrassed with trifling debts
and Charles' schooling; but the seizures I have luckely made will
abundantly set me free, so that I have every reason to be thankful.
[1807] Charles at the Woolwich Academy, Francis still quartered
at Portsmouth and come home by way of Bristol and Milford
Haven to see us in Decr after a bad passage. Anxious inquires
were made in Dublin and answered by Mr Norman 26 Nov 1807.
Francis set out on 26 Jany [1808] and proceeded with his company
to Guernsey on the 1st March and arrived on the 4th.
13 March a Son Born whom I afterwards named Thos
Crafer339 after my kind friend in the Treasury.
[June 16] Eliza married to Capt Hopkins340 with every prospect
of happiness.
[October, 1809] Charles sailed for Bengal being made a Lieut
fire worker in the Artillery; which appointment has been expensive
but I hope it will turn out well.
[November 16] Francis came home to see us from Guernsey.
Fixed as Surveyor with the increased Salary of £120 which I owe
to my friends Sack & J. White341 with Frank Morgan's342 exertions, tho being placed under Newry instead of Strangford from 18 Decr
[1810] Finding myself more at ease on account of the encreased
salary: Captn and Mrs Hopkins part of the year at Dublin; Jane
with them No news from poor Charles since his arrival in Madras
1st Febry last.
I had the pleasure of succeeding with regard to a Boatmans
appointment for Francis McDowell whose Father was murdered
in 1793.
The two Smuggling cutters Matchless & Jno343 (as supposed)
were met by the Resolution344 Cruiser but she did not attempt to
engage them or either of them.
April 1811 The Hardwicke345 came to action with the
Matchless345 and was eventually beaten off by her. The Matchless was
afterwards taken by the Bat Revenue tender of 4 Guns.
Francis still in Guernsey and in June appointed Aid de Camp
to Major General S Albert Gledstanes346 which I hope will continue
and prove very beneficial to him; in addition to the many
blessings we have received from Almighty God it would be desirable
to have my pension at the Treasury continued to my wife in case of
my death; on which I have written to my friend Mr Crafer—
A particular object with me shall be to get a situation for my
son Alexr either in the Army or Revenue: and as all the family
like and wish for Prospect I ought to see whether the promise made
by Mr Needham347 can be realized by Lord Kilmorey.
[1812] Writing to the Custom House and sending a Memorial
to the Lord Lieut to see if my son Alexr could be joined in the same
commission with myself; also spoke to Lord Killmorey on the subject
and received a favourable answer.
[April] Francis visited us from Guernsey; numerous applications
to Lord Moria now going to get something better for myself
also my sons; writing to Sir John Doyle348 on the same subject.
[1813] Applications for Alexr to Lord Castlereagh also occupied
with the idea of getting him Joined with me in the commission
as he is unfit for an appointment by himself. I contemplated thro
Lord Castlereagh a rise for myself to the post either of Collector
or Comptroller of the Customs.
[November] Francis resigned his staff in favour of Sir Alberts349 nephew, in a handsome manner he is now in London trying
to get employed on the Continent.
[December] A bad fever got into our house and attacked several
of the family. Francis came to see us.
[1814] The fever still in the house and of course in an uncomfortable
state a servant girl Mary Fitzpatrick died of it.
[February 13] I lost poor Matilda — The rest recouvered: occupied
in preparing a Memorial about the Matchless350 which Francis
takes with him [April] to London: Francis joined his company in
Guernsey. Still occupied with Alexr business but no success.
19 May The Treasury referred the question to the Commissioner
of Customs once more and one half of the King's share
£862.6.1½ having been awarded to Cap Lacy & crew I am trying
to get the same sum for my exertions instead of the pittance of £50
received by me from Capt Lacy.351
[September] Francis is gone on an excurtion(sic) to France and
along the ports of Holland. Francis company ordered to Jamaica352
and he to another at Woolwich.
[1815] Francis still at Woolwich in Augt he came to see us
being promoted to be a 2nd Capt at Gibralter; He as well as myself
much occupied about Alexr, making applications to Lords Killmorey
Castlereagh &c &c.
Jack Morgans letter of 20 Nov 1815 mentions the Capture of
the .... . . . . Smuggling Schooner by the .... . . . . . . . near . . . . . . . . .353
[November] Francis is gone to France to try to be stationed
there instead of Gibralter.
[March, 1816] Francis exchanged to Leith-fort354 which is
preferable to Gibralter.
[October] Francis came from Scotland expressly to assist me
in applying to Lord Castlereagh received a favourable answer
from his Lordship and the papers sent to Lord Killmorey.
[November 22] Jane married to the Revd Henry Hayden soon
after Hopkins355 retired from the service on a good pension by
which he is clear of much trouble under the Navy.
In March Francis company ordered from Leith-fort, fixed at
Island Bridge [May, 1817]. He and I much occupied about Alexr
but no answer from Lord Killmorey or Lord Castlereagh.
[October] The fever again attacked us brought by Mr Hopkins
who as well as several others severely attacked: Francis in
England trying to see Lord Castlereagh about Alexr.
[November and December] Mary Anne and Charlotte weak
and sickly after the fever.
In Feb 1818 I received by a letter from himself of 24 Oct 1817
the most unexpected intelligence that my eldest Son William356 is
still alive and residing though not in flourishing circumstances in
the State of Tenessee. Through our former neighbour the Rev
James McMechan William obtained news of me. His letter mentions
that my aged Father was still alive in 1817.
[September 16] Charles and his wife Sophia Cauty whom he
married at St Helena reached Weymouth poor Charles in bad
health.
[October] Charles and Sophy in London Francis at home
making out a Memorial for my resignation.
[November] Lord Killmorey died just as I was about to resign;
I have therefore great reason to be thankful to God for his mercy
as I do not know what his successor will do.
[January 1819] Charles & Sophy came over from Carmarthen
and have taken a lodging at Rosstrevor to which place Mary Anne
& Charlotte are gone hoping the change of air will do them good:
busy sending estimates to get the house raised in order to make
more room.
[March] All came home.
[April] Francis went to Scotland
[June] began to unroof the house Charles and Charlotte in
Roscommon Sophy at Strangford.
[July 12th] Busy at the house.
Charles Crafer came over for a few days & goes to Scotland
with Francis Charles and Sophy.
[September] Charlotte married to George W. Bell357 at
Castlerea.358 Busy with the house and applying to Lord Killmorey for
Alexr no great hopes.
[November and December] Busy about smuggling, the House
finished all tolerably well. In the latter end of this year Mr Hayden359 lost his curacy in Co Roscommon, and as he could not get
another he & family came to live with me.
In January of this year [1820] Peter West a walking Officer
of Newry and sent some time ago with a party to Kilkeel made a
complaint against me for dereliction and neglect of duty in which
charge he was strongly supported by Mr Thompson Collector of
Newry who after a partial enquiry made a strong report against
me; But on my requesting for a rehearing of the case a Surveyor
General (Major Crampton)360 was sent down to investigate. The
consequence was that Mr Thompson was obliged to acknowledge the
inaccuracy of his report and acquiece in Mr Cramptons which was
very strongly in my favour — The business ended in Board's approval
of my conduct.
Owing to the peace the smuggling of Tobacco into Ireland is
increasing to a very considerable extent; tho' from my exertions
and the number of persons I have employed it is considerably checked
in Mourne.
In consequence of my so frequently foiling the smugglers in
their attempts; I find them extremely irritated and consequently
have had many quarrels with them.
From the serious falling off in the import duties and the well
known increase of smuggling the Government seem determined to
put an effectual stop to smuggling in this country for that purpose
(in the summer) the Lords of the Treasury directed Lieut James
Dombrain R N Inspector General of the Preventive Water Guard
to survey the Irish Channel for the purpose of establishing a Preventive
force: Previous to Mr D's surveying the coast the Board of
Customs directed all their Officers to give him every assistance &
information in their power — Consequently I made a general statement
of the extent and nature of smuggling, and a proposed plan
for its abolition on the Mourne coast. In July Mr Dombrain arrived
and I handed it to him for which he was obliged and I have since
reason to know it was of essential use to him.
Some time in the Spring Mr Hayden received an appointment
as Church Missionary in New Brunswick and in the latter end of
Summer he went out from Portaferry to S John's(sic) N: B: in the
Brig Dorcas Savage Andrew Pollock Master.
In the latter end of the year [1820] I ascertained that on the
establishment of the Water Guard this establishment would be done
away with and that I would be turned out of the Revenue House I
occupy; I therefore began to make arrangements for building on
my farm in Ballyardle.
Francis at home during a great part of the Year.
During the year made considerable seizures for which I received
a good deal of money.
My Son William has been authorised to draw on Mr Crafer.
I mean to give him a child's portion of what I have, and it is obviously
better that he should receive this and turn it to account
where he is rather than spend money in coming hither where he
would find most things unsuited.
——————————
ADDITIONAL NOTES
Lord Charles Greville Montagu
Lord Charles Greville Montagu, second son of Robert, third
duke of Manchester, was appointed governor of South Carolina in
1766. While in the enjoyment of that office he acquired extensive
tracts of land in that Province, amounting to 18,138 acres, of which
a detailed list has been preserved. (A.O. 13/133.) Of this land he
sold 7,198 acres for £3,331.12.4., the purchasers' names being recorded
in the list just mentioned. The large sum of £36,830. 10s.
was claimed after his death by his brother, the fourth duke, for
compensation for the loss of these lands in South Carolina, but the
commissioners of American Claims in London rejected the claim
because of the absence of satisfactory proof of loss by confiscation
by the State of South Carolina or by other causes. (A.O. 12/109.)
In 1780, Lord Charles Greville Montagu, although no longer officially
connected with South Carolina, prepared a scheme for raising
a regiment of 500 men in that Province, for service in the Revolutionary
war. The scheme was not, however, accepted until 1782,
when he was appointed to the command, with the rank of lieutenant-
colonel. The regiment, which was called the Duke of Cumberland's
(and also the Loyal American Rangers), was destined for
service in the West Indies. A second battalion was, in December,
1782, authorized to be raised, and Lord Charles G. Montagu proceeded
from Jamaica for that purpose. (Hist. MSS. Comm. Report
on the American MSS. in the Royal Inst. Vol. II. pp. 209, 245; Vol.
IIL pp. 108, 273; Vol. IV. p. 79.) A list of the officers at the end of
the war is in the Public Record Office. (Ind. 5606.) . At the end of
the year 1783 Lord Charles G. Montagu set sail with over 300 men
of his regiment from Jamaica for Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the
men proposed to settle. Here he died, 3 February, 1784, at the age of
45, and was buried in the historic church of St. Paul's, Halifax,
where many American loyalists have worshiped and have been
buried. The inscription on his monument in the church states that
he was employed in settling in Nova Scotia a brave corps of Carolinians
whom he had commanded during the late war between Great
Britain and Spain (Acadiensis, Vol. 5, pp. 81-82) . By his will, Lord
Charles Greville Montagu bequeathed the two brigs, Montagu and
Industry, to his son and daughter, and made bequests to these four
officers of his regiment: Lieutenants Angus McDonald and Brian
Meighan (or Meighlan), Ensign Robert Barrett, and Thomas Caldwell.
A clause in the will directs that the command of the three
divisions of the Duke of Cumberland's regiment should devolve on
the above Lieutenant Brian Meighan, Ensign Robert Barrett, and
one Cunningham, who may have been Captain Andrew Cunningham
or Captain Ralph Gore Cunningham, both of whom were on the
half-pay list of the regiment.
Lord Charles Greville Montagu was on terms of friendship
with General Moultrie, to whom he offered the command of his own
regiment if he would accompany him to Jamaica, when Moultrie was
a prisoner on parole (Moultrie, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 158, 166-7; E.
McCrady, Hist, of S. Carolina in the Revolution, 1780-1783, pp. 350-354.
——————————
Colonel John Phillips
John Phillips emigrated with his wife and seven children from
Ulster to South Carolina in 1770 and settled at Jackson's creek in
Camden district.
The first manifestation of his loyalty was in July, 1775, when
he prevented by his influence at a meeting held at the meeting
house in his district all the people except two from signing the
association to support the American cause. In the same year he refused
an offer of a commission as lieutenant-colonel in the American
militia. (The Royal Comm. on Loyalist Claims, 1783-1785, ed. by H.
E. Egerton; Roxburghe Club, 1915, pp. 48-9.) From this time John
Phillips was a marked man and suffered imprisonment for his attachment
to the crown. Two sons were also imprisoned for loyalty,
one of whom died in the jail at Orangeburg.
In 1780 when Lord Cornwallis inaugurated the loyal militia in
South Carolina, Phillips was one of the first officers selected and
was given the command of the Jackson's creek militia, with the
rank of lieutenant-colonel. His two sons, just mentioned, and a
brother, Robert, joined his regiment.
Shortly after Tarleton's defeat at Cowpens on January 17, 1781,
Colonel Phillips and a party under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel
John Fanning were detached from the main force to escort to
Camden the British officers who had been wounded in that battle.
Four days later, however, this party was surrounded by a superior
force of Americans, which outnumbered the loyalists by four to
one, and in the skirmish several of the loyalists were killed or
wounded, Colonel Phillips, with his son David, and his brother, Robert,
being taken prisoners. In March of the same year Colonel
Phillips was exchanged for Colonel David Hopkins and his brother
(A.O. 13/133) was also exchanged and forthwith rejoined the loyalist
forces.
This Irish loyalist was ordered by Lord Rawdon to accompany
him to Charleston in August, 1781, when the command of his
regiment devolved temporarily upon his son, David, who had the
misfortune to be captured by Colonel Hampton and was "inhumanly
murdered" by his captors. Soon afterwards, Colonel Phillips' wife
and eight children were turned off his plantation and obliged to
seek shelter in Charleston.
Colonel John Phillips received 150 acres of land on "Crocky
creek," Catawba river, by the death of his widowed sister, Mary
Dunsketh, in 1775, and of her only son in 1777.
Robert Phillips, his brother, first bore arms on the side of the
Crown in 1775. He was banished from South Carolina and took
refuge in East Florida, where Governor Patrick Tonyn appointed
him lieutenant in the East Florida Rangers. Anxious to see his
family again, he resigned his commission in this corps and joined
the force of Brigadier-General James Patteson, proceeding from
Savannah to join Sir Henry Clinton at Charleston in March, 1780.
On his arrival in South Carolina he joined his brother's regiment,
the Jackson's creek militia, and was appointed lieutenant. The
original petition of Robert Phillips bears his autograph signature;
he died August 25, 1782, at Charleston. (T. 50/2, fo. 85; T. 50/4;
T. 50/5.)
Captain James Phillips, mentioned on page 6, was another
brother of Colonel John Phillips.
At one time in his military career Colonel Phillips was sentenced
to be hanged for sedition and loyalty, and was defended at
the trial by one Thomas Phepoe, an Irish lawyer who had emigrated
in 1771 to Charleston, but was acquitted. (A.O. 13/132.)
Colonel Phillips was given the appointment of muster-master
of the loyal militia and refugees at Charleston in 1782, when the
Americans had virtually overrun the Province of South Carolina
and the loyalists had left their homes in large numbers without
food or clothing and sought shelter at Charleston, taxing the resources
of the British to provide them with the necessaries of life.
During this anxious time, the refugee hospital, crowded with unhappy
loyalists, was in charge of Dr. Charles Fyffe, with Dr. Nathaniel
Bullein as assistant surgeon. (T. 50/2; T. 50/4.) Some effort
was made to provide the refugee children with education by a
schoolmaster, one John Bell; some of these children's names have
survived. (T. 50/5.)
The original memorial of Colonel John Phillips is endorsed by
his fellow-countryman. Lord Rawdon, that no man in South Carolina
had exerted himself more in his station for the support of government.
(A.O. 13/79; The Royal Comm. on Loyalist Claims, 1783-1785, ed. by
H. E. Egerton; Roxburghe Club, 1915, pp. 48-9.) With
this memorial are (1) a letter from Lord Cornwallis to the commissioners
of American Claims, introducing his as "my friend Col.
Phillips of South Carolina, who has as much merit as any man on
the Continent of America, & whom I beg leave very particularly to
recommend to your favor"; and (2) Colonel Nisbet Balfour's certificate
of 1 July, 1782, that "in his rank of life I have known none
more worthy of it [an allowance] or a family who have suffered
more from their fidelity to their King and country." Colonel Balfour
also gave evidence in person before the commissioners and
spoke highly of the services of Colonel Phillips in procuring intelligence
of enemy movements, describing him as "honest and humane,"
and adding that he "never knew an instance of any of his
reports which did not prove strictly true." Lords Cornwallis and
Rawdon also gave personal evidence in support of the claim of
Colonel John Phillips and expressed their appreciation of his services
in the war, concluding with the testimony that they were more
obliged to him than to any other person in his district in South
Carolina.
Colonel John Phillips died in the country of his birth in 1809,
and in his will, dated 4 May, 1807, he is described as of Ballyloughan
in the parish of Ahogill, county Antrim. In this will are mentioned
his wife, Elizabeth, otherwise Lurkan; two daughters, Rachel and
Mary Phillips; and four granddaughters, Lilly and Ann McCrearys,
Rachel Phillips and Lilly Jean Kirk. To his son, Robert, "if he
comes home" (being presumably in America) he bequeathed his
watch. His executors were Captain James Miller (see page 100),
his daughter, Rachel Phillips, and Thomas Phillips of Ballyloughan.
Jane, mother of Colonel John Phillips, was a close family connection
of the Chesneys.
The sum of £860 was granted to Colonel Phillips by the British
Government as compensation for the loss of his property in South
Carolina from his claim of £1,874. He also received a pension of
£84 from 1784 until his death. (A.O. 12/109; A.O. 463/24; T. 50/8; A.O. 12/46, fos. 171-184; A.O. 12/101, fo. 283; A.O. 13/133.)
——————————
Indians in the War
Both sides in the American Revolutionary war in the Southern
Colonies attempted to secure the support of the Indians.
The attention of the Colonial Congress was very early drawn
to the importance of securing the alliance, or at least the neutrality,
of the Indian tribes during the conflict. (E. B. O'Callaghan,
Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York, Vol.
VIII. p. 605.)
Colonel Thomas Fletchall, the loyalist, fearing an incursion by
the Indians into his district in South Carolina, recommended the
governor. Lord William Campbell, by letter of 19 July, 1775, to protect
the frontiers against them. It was perhaps to this letter that
the governor replied, ordering Colonel Fletchall to hold himself and
his militia in readiness to suppress any opposition to Government,
and if necessary to seek assistance from Alexander Cameron, deputy
superintendent of the Creek and Cherokee Indians. (Hist. MSS.
Comm. Report on the MSS. of the Earl of Dartmouth, Vol. II.
p. 355.)
The powerful influence of Cameron with the Indians was recognized
by the Council of Safety of South Carolina, who in 1775
offered him many inducements to join the Americans. (Sabine,
Loyalists of the American Revolution, Vol. I, p. 287) . It was probably
after this failure to secure Cameron's influence that William
Henry Drayton held his conference with the chief of the Cherokees
on 25 September, 1775, when he attempted to wean them from their
loyalty by promising them supplies of ammunition and other gifts,
both for trade and their personal comfort, as he naively describes it.
(Drayton, Memoirs of the Revolution, Vol. I, pp. 407-8.) Drayton
at this conference pictured the future condition of the Indians under
royal Government in the most lurid colors, accusing the king and
the English of claiming to make laws by which they would "have
a right to take all our money, all our lands, all our cattle and horses
and such things, and not only all such things, but our wives and
children, in order to make servants of them; and beside all these
things, to put us in strong houses, and to put us to death, whenever
they please." (Drayton, ibid., p. 421.) Drayton had taken
with him a man of great influence and popularity among the Cherokees,
the father of a natural son by a Cherokee squaw, in the person
of Richard Pearis, a considerable trader among them, who was
afterwards the chief witness against Drayton's denial of his intention
to persuade the Indians to fight against the loyalists.
A vain attempt was made in October, 1775, to rescue Captain
Robert Cunningham (afterwards a brigadier-general) from the
hands of his captors by a party of loyalists commanded by his
brother. Captain Patrick Cunningham (see page 104). The party
was, however, compensated in some measure for this failure by
their seizure of the ammunition destined for the Indians, mentioned
above. (Drayton, ibid., pp. 64, 66-7.) The Provincial Congress resolved,
8 November, 1775, by 51 votes to 49, to assemble a force
under the command of Colonel Richard Richardson to seize Captain
Patrick Cunningham and the other leading loyalists of that party,
Henry O'Neal, Hugh Brown, David Reese, Henry Green, Nathaniel
Howard, and Jacob Bochman. (E. McCrady, The Hist, of South Carolina
in the Revolution, 1775-1780, p. 88.)
It is stated that Richard Pearis was so disappointed in failing
to receive the military command to which he is said to have aspired
that, in a spirit of malice and vengeance, he had spread a false
report abroad among the loyalists of Drayton's intention to employ
the Indians in fighting against them. Pearis went so far as to make
a solemn affidavit accusing Drayton of endeavoring to persuade the
Indians for this purpose. (Drayton, ibid., pp. 116-7.) Drayton's
denial of such intention has been published. (Journal of the Council
of Safety, 6 December, 1775, in Collections of the South Carolina
Hist. Society., Vol. III. pp. 55-6; see also Force, American Archives,
Series IV., Vol. 4, p. 29).
A loyalist version of Drayton's transaction of the gift of ammunition
to the Cherokees is furnished by Colonel David Fanning,
at that time a sergeant in the loyal militia of South Carolina. He
asserts that it was the intention of Drayton that Pearis should
bring down the Indians to murder the loyalists, and that when captured,
Pearis confessed his guilt to the charge of attempting to engage
the Indians for that purpose. (Colonel David Fanning, "Narrative,"
ed. by A. W. Savary, in the Canadian Magazine, 1908.)
Reference is made elsewhere to the alleviation that the fear of
the loyalists of an attack by the Indians at the instigation of Drayton's
party was largely responsible for the conflict at Ninety-Six
in November, 1775. (Page 63.)
In the summer of 1776, Major Andrew Williamson organized
an expedition against the Cherokees, in the belief that they had
been encouraged to hostility by Colonel John Stuart, superintendent
of the Indians, and by his deputy, Alexander Cameron. Several
loyalists, including Alexander Cheseny, Colonels John Phillips and
Ambrose Mills, joined this expedition, whether in ignorance of this
rumor or in the expectation of an attack on the white inhabitants
in general, it is impossible to hazard an opinion. Chesney himself
offers no reason for joining Williamson, except that he had no objection
to fighting against the Indians. It must, however, be remembered
that he was at this time a conscript in the American forces.
By November, 1777, the revolutionists in Georgia had already
seduced the northern Creek Indians from their allegiance to England,
and were now, through the agency of Galphin, threatening the
Cherokees with destruction for their attachment to Great Britain.
(W. H. Siebert, "The Loyalists in West Florida and the Natchez
District," in The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 1916, Vol.
II, p. 467.)
Later attempts were made by the British to encourage the
support of the Indians. Lord Cornwallis, writing to Sir Henry Clinton
under date of 29 December, 1780, says that when the men from
the mountains had come down to attack Major Patrick Ferguson
he directed Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Brown to encourage the
Indians to attack the settlements of "Watogea, Holstein, Caentuck
and Nolachuckie, all which are now encroachments on the Indian
territories." The mountaineers, fearing an attack, were obliged to
abandon their projected march to join an American force near
King's Mountain. A report seems to have reached Lord Cornwallis
that the humanity of the Indians was in "striking contrast to the
barbarities committed by the mountaineers." (Hist. MSS. Comm.,
Report on the American MSS. in the Royal Institution, Vol. II.,
p. 225.)
Moultrie in his Memoirs mentions the efforts made to secure
the services of the warriors of the Catawba Indians on the side of
the Americans. (Vol. I. p. 81.)
The activities of the Indians in South Carolina had virtually
come to an end early in January, 1782, when Benjamin Thompson,
better known later as Count Rumford (the Massachusetts loyalist),
wrote that very little was to be expected from the Indians as
friends and that as foes they would not be by any means formidable.
(Hist. MSS. Comm., Report on the Stopford-Sackville MSS., Vol.
II. p. 251.)
Both Burke and Lord Chatham condemned the employment of
Indians in the war by the British.
——————————
Colonel Thomas Fletchall
Colonel Thomas Fletchall was probably born in South Carolina,
where he was the owner of a large plantation in the district of
Ninety-Six. He was already a justice of the peace and a coroner
when in the year 1769 he accepted the appointment of colonel of
a militia regiment of over 2,000 men, from the governor. Lord
Charles Greville Montagu.
Sabine in his Loyalists of the American Revolution states that
Colonel Fletchall was of much consideration in the Colony before the
war and that he was regarded as undecided in his political views,
though the Whig party made him a member of an important committee,
raised to carry out the views of the Continental Congress
(Moultrie, Memoirs, Vol. I.). Colonel Fletchall, however, describes
himself as a loyalist from the outbreak of the Revolutionary troubles
in South Carolina, a description which is confirmed by his letter
of 19 July, 1775, to Lord William Campbell, the governor, assuring
him of the loyalty of about 4000 men in his district. In this letter
Colonel Fletchall informs the governor of the seizure of Fort
Charlotte on the Savannah river by the "rebels," as he calls them.
Major James Mayson, Captain John Caldwell and others, and of the
subsequent capture of the leaders by the loyalists. In this same
letter he suggests that the frontiers should be protected from incursions
not only from the "rebels" but also from the Indians, thus
anticipating William Henry Drayton's alleged attempt to secure
the services of the Cherokee Indians for the Revolutionary party
(see page 64) . This letter brought forth a reply, 1 August following,
expressing the governor's appreciation of the capture of the
rebels at Fort Charlotte, authorizing Fletchall to fortify that fort
by militia and requesting him to avoid giving offence to the inhabitants
of his district and generally to preserve peace (Hist. MSS.
Comm., Report on the MSS. of the Earl of Dartmouth, Vol. II., p.
355). The seizure of Fort Charlotte by order of the Council of
Safety, on 12 July, 1775, was the first overt act in the Revolutionary
war in South Carolina. An important omission from Colonel
Fletchall's letter was that one of the officers who had participated
in this seizure was Captain Moses Kirkland, who was soon to turn
over to the loyalist side (see page 105), While alluding in this
letter to the capture of Major Mayson and others, who had proceeded
with the powder and stores from Fort Charlotte to Ninety-Six Court
House, he concealed the fact that Kirkland, who is stated
to have had an old grudge against Mayson, had now joined Colonel
Fletchall and had disclosed a scheme for capturing Mayson and
the stores. Fletchall, on the authority of an enemy (Drayton,
Memoirs, Vol. I, pp. 321-3) is said to have declined to appear publicly
as a supporter of Kirkland's scheme, but those more active
loyalists, Robert and Patrick Cunningham and Joseph Robinson,
joined by Major Terry (a deserter from the Revolutionary party
who afterwards recanted and became animated in the American
cause, ibid, p. 384), rode off with 200 mounted men to Ninety-Six.
Here they took Major Mayson prisoner on 17 July and committed
him to jail on a charge of robbing the king's fort, but after some
hours confinement admitted him to bail.
Colonel Thomas Fletchall claims, in support of his loyalty, to
have impeded with the help of Robert Cunningham and Joseph
Robinson, the raising of the levies of American horse in the back
country of South Carolina and to have influenced many waverers
against signing the association of the Revolutionary party. The
articles of this association were read, 13 July, 1775, by Major Terry
at Fletchall's plantation to the men of his regiment by his orders,
but not one would sign it, a decision of which he approved. His men
then agreed to sign an association of their own, expressing loyalty
to the king, which had been drawn up by Major Joseph Robinson,
and which was generally signed from Broad to Savannah rivers.
(Drayton, Memoirs, Vol. 1, p. 312; Hist. Mss. Comm. Report on the
MSS. of the Earl of Dartmouth, Vol. II, pp. 341, 351.)
At this psychological moment Lord William Campbell, the
governor, had he been a man of greater initiative and of a more
adventurous spirit, would have seized the opportunity to support
Colonel Fletchall and the loyalists, by his personal presence among
them. The exercise of his high position and influence would have
assured the raising of a strong armed force, which he could have
employed in what would probably have been the overthrow of the
proceedings of the Provincial Congress. (E. McCrady, The Hist, of
South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, pp. 38-39).
Colonel Thomas Fletchall came into conflict with two ardent
spirits of the Revolutionary party on 17 August, 1775, in the persons
of William Henry Drayton and Rev. William Tennent, the Congregational
minister and member of the committee of the Provincial
Congress, who in private conversation with him for nearly three
hours, humored him, laughed with him, remonstrated and entreated
him to join his country, America, against the mother country,
without shaking his loyalty in the slightest. The entreaties of
Drayton and Tennent were met by this influential loyalist with the
answer that he "would never take up arms against his King or
his countrymen and that the proceedings of the Congress at Philadelphia
were impolitic, disrespectful and irritating to the King."
(Ibid., pp. 44-46; Force, American Archives, Series IV, Vol. II, pp.
214-217.)
Drayton, having failed to win Fletchall over to his side, proceeded
to march out in the following month at the head of about
400 mounted men and 800 foot to disarm the loyalists of Ninety-Six
district, especially those in Fletchall's regiment. Colonel Fletchall
met this threat by ordering out his regiment and marching to meet
Drayton, who on the 11th. had written somewhat confidently to the
Council of Safety that Colonel Fletchall, Colonel Thomas Brown,
and Captain Robert Cunningham were still endeavoring to assemble
men, but had no force embodied, and assuring the Council of
the declining political influence of these three prominent loyalists
and of the terrified state of their adherents, adding that they had no
intention to fight in view of the expected help promised them by
the governor. (Drayton, Memoirs, Vol, 1, p. 388.) Drayton, however,
in his letter of the 17 September, in a less confident tone, estimates
Fletchall's force at over 1200, while his own barely reached
1000, which is 200 less than Fletchall's figure for Drayton's force.
In this letter Drayton alleges that while his own men were anxious
to fight, he wished to avoid bloodshed, insinuating that the loyalists
would not hold long together because of their lack of discipline and
of supplies. (Ibid., p. 389.) A different version comes from a loyalist
source, David Fanning, who maintains that the "rebels," finding
themselves not strong enough for an attack, sent an express to
Fletchall, inviting him to treat with them. (Colonel David Fanning,
"Narrative," ed. by A. W. Savary, Canadian Magazine, 1908.) This
version is supported by Fletchall's unpublished memorial, in which
he says that on advancing within six miles of Drayton's camp, determined
to support Government, Drayton offered terms of accomodation.
(A.O. 12/52, fos. 127-141.) A treaty was now made by
which hostilities between the two parties should be avoided, Fletchall
stating that each party agreed to return home and "remain
peaceable." This treaty was signed, 16 September, 1775, by Drayton
of the one part and by Fletchall, Captains John Ford, Evan McLaurin, Thomas Greer, and Benjamin Wofford of the other part.
(Drayton, Memoirs, Vol. I., pp. 399-403; Force, American Archives,
Series IV, Vol. 3, pp. 720-1.)
Captain (afterwards Brigadier-General) Robert Cunningham
declined in his letter of 6 October to Drayton, in the most vigorous
terms to be bound by this treaty, which he characterized as false
and disgraceful and as having been devised to take advantage of
men "half scared out of their senses at the sight of liberty caps and
sound of cannon" (Force, American Archives, Series IV, Vol. 3, p.
755). Cunningham's repudiation of a treaty, made in his opinion
without authority, and his determination not to disband his men,
was supported by other stalwart loyalists. (McCrady, The Hist, of
South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, pp. 51-52.)
Colonel Thomas Fletchall carried out the terms of the treaty
both in the letter and the spirit and forthwith disbanded his regiment,
while Drayton and his followers tacitly ignored it. To
Fletchall's chagrin, information reached him in November, within
a few weeks of making the treaty, that the "rebels" had been rearmed.
He instantly embodied his regiment on the 17th and ordered
an attack to be made on the fort of Ninety-Six. Meanwhile, Captain
Robert Cunningham was arrested by a party disguised as Indians,
under orders from Major Andrew Williamson upon an affidavit
of Captain John Caldwell, charging him with sedition, and was
committed to Charleston jail, 1 November. As an uncompromising
loyalist, Cunningham did not deny the use of the seditious words,
but though he did not consider himself bound by the Fletchall-
Drayton treaty, he had since behaved himself as peaceably as any
man. He had, however, retained his political opinions, though he
had not expressed them unless asked to do so. (McCrady, ibid., p.
86).
Colonel Fletchall's militia force, numbering 2400, now besieged
the fort, in accordance with orders mentioned above. The command
of the loyalists had been given to Major Joseph Robinson by
Fletchall, who was too heavy in weight for active service (Fanning,
"Narrative"), while the defenders to the number of 562 were commanded
by Majors Andrew Williamson and James Mayson. On the
second day of the siege, which lasted from the 18th. to the 21st. of
November, the loyalists, represented by Majors Joseph Robinson
and Evan McLaurin and Captain Patrick Cunningham, had a conference
with Major Mayson and Captain Bowie regarding the loyalists'
demand for the surrender of Williamson and his force. While
Williamson was considering this demand, two of his men are said to
have been seized and the attempt to rescue them brought about the
first bloodshed of the revolutionary war. On the 20th, however, the
ammunition of both sides was almost exhausted and by agreement
hostilities ceased for twenty days (Drayton, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp.
117-122; Force, American Archives, Series IV, Vol. 3, p. 1606;
Vol. 4, p. 216) , while the messengers of each party were allowed to
proceed to Charleston to inform the governor and the Council of
Safety of the terms of the treaty. Major Robinson's loyalist force
was allowed to return home. The signatories to this treaty were
Majors Andrew Williamson, James Mayson, and Joseph Robinson,
Captains Patrick Cunningham, Richard Pearls, Joseph Pickens, and
John Bowie. (A. S. Salley, Jr., Hist, of Orangeburg County, 1898,
pp. 808-312.)
Thus ended the inglorious siege and conflict of Ninety-Six, a
conflict largely brought on by the fear of the loyalists that the Indians
were about to attack them at the instigation of the Americans.
(McCrady, The Hist, of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780,
pp. 90-93.) The loyalists were without a capable leader. Robinson,
the nominal commander, appears to have been ignored and the virtual
command devolved upon Pearis, who declared his opposition to
making the treaty, though it bears his signature.
For the second time the Revolutionary party violated a solemn
treaty by the refusal of Colonel Richard Richardson and his army
to be bound by it, despite the stipulation of Majors Williamson and
Mayson that any reinforcements which might arrive should regard
the treaty as binding equally upon them. Richardson, under the
government presided over by Drayton, disregarded the treaty and
marched upon the loyalists, who on the faith of this same solemn
covenant had been disbanded. Colonel Fletchall, despite the
suspicion of his secret encouragement of further military activity by
the loyalists, was scrupuously(sic) observing the treaty, and to his
astonishment and mortification, he was taken prisoner, 12 December,
with other loyalists of the "first magnitude," including Captains
Richard Pearis, Jacob Fry, and George Shuberg, who were sent to
Charleston four days later. (McCrady, ibid., pp. 89-96; Salley,
ibid., p. 323). Drayton, in commenting on the capture of these
loyalists, avoids any reference to the violation of the treaty and
stigmatizes Fletchall's capture as dishonorable to his military
talents, concealing the fact that Fletchall had returned to his plantation
and discharged his force, in agreement with the spirit of the
treaty, while Colonel Richardson now had an army of about 3000
men. (Drayton, ibid.. Vol. II, p. 129.) Colonel Thomas Fletchall's
capture was accomplished at his own house, which was surrounded
by 400 mounted men detached from Richardson's main body. He
was sent as a prisoner to Charleston and there kept in close confinement
until 10 July, 1776, when he appears to have set forth for
his plantation which had in the meantime been plundered and
ruined. Nothing more is recorded of any further military service
by Colonel Fletchall. The corpulence for which he was conspicuous
as well as his age, may have been a deterrent factor. In July,
1780, he was visited at his old home by the well-known loyalist. Lieutenant
Anthony Allaire, who records in his Diary his interesting
examination of the Fletchall mill, a curiosity such as he had never
seen before. ("Diary," in Draper's King's Mountain and its Heroes).
The worthy colonel was not allowed to remain at home in
tranquility, for on 10 October in the same year he was obliged to
escape, with his wife, Leah, and five children, from threatened violence
and to seek sanctuary at Charleston, then in possession of the
British. Here they remained until 1 December, when at the age of
62 he left South Carolina for ever, accompanied by his wife, two
sons and two daughters, in the transport, Milford (John May, master),
for the West Indies, where he settled on the land of Ralph
Montagu in the parish of St. James in Cornwall county, Jamaica.
Here also settled two other loyalist refugees from South Carolina,
namely. Colonel Thomas Edghill and Lieutenant-Colonel James
Vernon (see pages 78-9). Mrs. Fletchall's sister, Anne Brown, was
the second wife of Colonel Ambrose Mills, of North Carolina (see
page 72).
A long list of the debtors of Colonel Thomas Fletchall in South
Carolina and a list of the grants of land made to him there are in
the Public Record Office. (A. 0. 13/128).
In July, 1787, Colonel Fletchall was proposing to make the voyage
to England to prosecute his claim on the British Government
for compensation for the loss of his property in South Carolina,
but was prevented by illness from leaving Jamaica. His claim of
£2,181 was met by a grant of £1,400 (A. O. 12/109). Colonel
Fletchall died in 1789, apparently in Jamaica, leaving a widow
Leah. Joseph Fletchall, a planter, of St. James's parish, Jamaica,
who had lived from infancy in the district of Ninety-Six in South
Carolina, was probably his son. (A.O. 12/52, fos. 127-141; A.O.
13/128; South Carolina Hist, and Gen. Mag., Vol. XVIII, pp. 44-51)
——————————
.
Colonel Ambrose Mills
Born in England in 1722, Ambrose Mills was taken in childhood
to Maryland. There he married Mourning Stone, a spinster,
and settled on James river in Virginia, afterwards removing to the
frontiers of South Carolina, where his wife was killed by Indians
in the Indian risings of 1755-61. Ambrose Mills married (II),
Anne Brown, a sister of Leah Fletchall, wife of Colonel Thomas
Fletchall (see page 71). In or about 1765 he settled on Green
river. North Carolina. The issue of his first marriage was a son,
William, born 10 November, 1746, and by his second marriage,
three sons and three daughters.
The military services of Ambrose Mills during the Revolutionary
war include actions against the Cherokee Indians in 1776, in
ignorance of the alleged alliance between the Cherokees and the
British, an ignorance which was shared with the loyalists. Colonel
John Phillips (see p. 65) and Alexander Chesney. In 1778, Ambrose
Mills and Colonel David Fanning raised a corps of 500 loyalists
for the purpose of joining the royal standard at St. Augustine
in East Florida, but this scheme was frustrated by the treachery
of a traitor in the camp betraying their plans to the enemy. Colonel
Mills and sixteen others were apprehended and taken to Salisbury
jail. On the way thither, David Fanning with characteristic
courage endeavored to rescue his brother loyalist, but his small
force was too weak to break through the American guard.
One of the first engagements of Colonel Ambrose Mills after
his liberation was the action at Baylis Earle's ford on the North
Pacolet river, North Carolina, when he surprised and attacked the
American camp of Colonel Charles McDowell on the night of 15
July, 1780. In this action the loyalists under Mills, and Major
James Dunlap's party of seventy dragoons, killed Noah Hampton,
son of Colonel Hampton, and wounded Colonel John Jones of Burke
county. North Carolina — an attack which was revenged later by
Captain Edward Hampton's exploit in overtaking Dunlap's party
and inflicting defeat upon it. Draper, in his King's Mountain and its
Heroes, is very severe in his condemnation of the killing of Noah
Hampton by Dunlap while he was asleep, an act which he rightly
regards as murder, though a precisely similar surprise, achieved
by the deception of Colonel John Jones, is regarded as almost
heroic. (Op. cit., p. 79) . Major Dunlap, who had been appointed an
officer in the Queen's Rangers in 1776, and was one of the most adventurous
spirits among the loyalists, neither giving nor expecting
quarter, was killed on or about 25 March, 1781, by his guard after
his surrender at Beattie's mill on Little river in South Carolina.
General Pickens offered a "handsome reward for the murderers"
(Draper, op. cit., pp. 163-4). The feud between Colonel John Jones
and the loyalists had become exceedingly bitter after his deception
in palming himself off as a loyalist and thereby gaining entrance
into a loyalist camp, with the object as he had averred of taking
revenge on some "rebels" who had slain loyalists in a recent skirmish.
Arriving at the camp, which was in a state of self-security
and the loyalists mostly asleep. Colonel Jones ordered an attack by
his party and killed one and wounded three. (Draper, op. cit., p.
79).
Returning to the career of Colonel Ambrose Mills, he commanded
the North Carolina loyal militia in the memorable battle
of King's Mountain and was taken prisoner. The subsequent severity
of his treatment as a prisoner and his execution has been
the subject of hostile criticism. (Draper, op. cit. p. 82). Lord
Comwallis in his protest against his execution describes him as
"always a fair and open enemy," a verdict which was endorsed by
his opponents. (Correspondence of Lord Comwallis, Vol. I, p. 67).
Early in the military life of Colonel Ambrose Mills, Lord Comwallis
had experienced some difficulty in restraining his ardor,
and in complaining of his premature activities, desired him to act
only on the defensive until ordered to act otherwise. (Ibid., op. cit.,
p. 47.)
William Mills, his son, was very popular, and was engaged
with his father in the campaign against the Cherokee Indians, and
at King's Mountain, where he was severely wounded, he acted as
major under his father. He died in North Carolina, 10 November,
1834, aged 88.
Colonel Ambrose Mills has been confused with Colonel William
Henry Mills, an Irishman who had gone out to America as a surgeon's
mate in the British army. Here he served until 1764, when
he retired from his military duties and settled in South Carolina,
marrying two years later an American lady at Georgetown in that
Province. Early in the Revolutionary war, Colonel William Henry
Mills served in the South Carolina Provincial Congress, but in
June, 1778, he was appointed colonel of the Cheraws loyal militia.
He died at Liverpool, England, 7 May, 1786, leaving a widow, Elizabeth,
and one daughter. (A. 0. 12/52, fos. 45-46, 327-340; Stedman,
American War, Vol. II, p. 223; Tarleton, Hist of the Campaigns
of 1780 and 1781, p. 127; Draper, King's Mountain and
its Heroes, p. 373; B, F. Stevens, Clinton-Cornwallis Controversy,
Vol. II, pp. 236-7).
——————————
Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Robinson
Joseph Robinson, a Virginian by birth, was settled on a plantation
on Broad river in South Carolina, where he was deputy surveyor.
In 1775 he was appointed major of militia and, 18 November of
that year, he was in command of 2400 loyalists at Ninety-Six when
he surrounded an American force under Majors Andrew Williamson
and James Mayson. This inglorious affair ended by the offer
by Robinson of a cessation of hostilities for twenty days — an offer
which was joyfully accepted by Williamson and Mayson, whose
force had nearly expended their ammunition. A party to this treaty
was Lieutenant-Colonel Evan McLaurin (see pp. 69, 102).
Colonel Robinson's men were afterwards allowed to return
home, while he himself went among the friendly Cherokee Indians.
In his absence his plantation was plundered, his house and buildings
burnt, and his family driven from home by the Americans. Among
his possessions destroyed was his valuable library, which included
60 books on law, the destruction being witnessed by Moses Whealley,
a loyalist.
In her petition of October 1, 1816, to Viscount Palmerston,
secretary of state for war, his wife, Lilley Robinson (whom he
had married in 1760 in Virginia) states that while a prisoner in the
hands of the Americans in 1776, she was promised restoration to
her husband on condition that he consented to be neutral in the war.
Her answer is not recorded, but she was released in a few days.
Lilley Robinson proceeded, not to join her husband, but to start on
a painful journey of 300 miles, accompanied by her two small children,
to her father's family in Virginia, traveling mostly by night
to escape the vigilance of American scouting parties and enduring
indescribable sufferings. ( W. 0. 42/R8).
In May, 1778, Colonel Robinson was appointed lieutenant-colonel
of the South Carolina Royalists, and in July it was decided that
this corps should consist of eight companies of 50 rank and file each.
With this regiment he was present at the battle of Stono, 12 June,
1779.
Mrs. Lilley Robinson, who had returned to South Carolina from
Virginia, accompanied her husband on the evacuation of Charleston
by the British, to East Florida, where they intended to settle,
only to find shortly after their arrival that the Colony had been
ceded to Spain and that they would be included in the 10,000 loyalists
in that Province who suffered privations in consequence of its
cession. (Hist. MSS. Comm., Report on the American MSS. in the
Royal Institution, Vol. IV, p. 348.) The harrassed Robinson family,
in common with many others from the Southern Colonies, now
sought refugee in the West Indies, but once again they were dogged
by misfortune, their ship having been wrecked off the coast of
Florida. Eventually, however, Colonel Joseph Robinson and his
family reached Jamaica, but after a year's sojourn there, they were
compelled by the unhealthiness of the climate to seek a home in a
northern clime. With this object in view, they now set sail for that
asylum of so many American loyalists, New Brunswick, where they
lived for three years until 1789, when Colonel Robinson was invited
to settle at Charlottetown in Prince Edward Island by his friend.
Colonel Edmund Fanning, lieutenant-governor of that island and
formerly commanding officer of the loyalist corps, the King's American
regiment.
Meanwhile, Colonel Robinson had been put on the list of
seconded Provincial officers and received the half-pay of a lieutenant-
colonel. He was also relieved of anxiety by the grant of £521
from his claim of £1,618. 10s. for the loss of his property in South
Carolina and by his appointment as surrogate and judge of probate
at Charlottetown. This South Carolina loyalist died in that city, 24
August, 1807, leaving a will (dated 19 July, 1807, and proved 10
November,) by which he bequeathed property to his widow, Lilley,
and his three daughters. Lilley Robinson, widow of Colonel Joseph
Robinson, died at Charlottetown, 11 July, 1823. Elizabeth, the
eldest daughter born in New Brunswick in 1788, died unmarried.
One daughter, Rebecca, married Robert Hodgson, lieutenant in the
Prince Edward Island Fencibles (reduced in 1802), member of the
Legislature and speaker until his death, 5 January, 1811, when he
left four sons and one daughter. Rebecca Hodgson died, 12 May,
1825, aged 54. Robert Hodgson, the eldest son of Robert and Rebecca
Hodgson, became judge of probate, chief justice, and lieutenant-
governor of Prince Edward Island, and died a knight at the age
of 82, 16 September, 1880. The names of the other children of Robert
and Rebecca Hodgson were: Joseph, Daniel, Christopher, and
Jane Deborah,
Matilda, third daughter of Colonel and Lilley Robinson, married
Ralph Brecken in Prince Edward Island. A daughter of Ralph and
Matilda Brecken married Donald Macdonald, president of the Legislative
Council of Prince Edward Island, and a son of this marriage
was Sir William Christopher Macdonald of Montreal, whose munificent
gifts to McGill University and Macdonald College remain as
monuments to his memory. (A. O. 13/92; A. 0. 13/138; A. O.
12/109; Ind. 5605; Hist. MSS. Comm,, Report on the American
MSS. in the Royal Institution, Vol. II, pp. 274, 276, 371; Second
Report of the Bureau of Archives, Province of Ontario, 1905, pp.
791-801; The Royal Commission on Loyalist Claims, 1783-1785,
ed. by H. E. Egerton; Roxburghe Club, 1915, pp. 272-3; notes from
Judge Æneas Macdonald of Charlottetown.)
——————————
General Andrew Williamson
Andrew Williamson, then a major in the American service,
received the thanks of the Provincial Congress of South Carolina
for his services in causing the well-known loyalist, Robert Cunningham,
to be apprehended and sent to Charleston. He with Major
James Mayson was in command of the American force at Ninety-
Six in the siege of 18-21 November, 1775 (see pp. 70, 80) . In 1776
Major Williamson was in command of the expedition against the
Cherokee Indians. (See p. 7, n. 47).
Promotion came to this officer in 1778 when he was appointed
brigadier-general of the Upper brigade of South Carolina militia,
formed in that year.
According to Sabine (Loyalists of the American Revolution),
Williamson changed sides during the war and was active on the
side of the crown after the fall of Charleston in May, 1780. There
is not, however, any foundation for the allegation of his martial activity
for the British. Believing the American cause to be lost, he
took protection from his enemies to save his large landed estates,
just as loyalists had done on the other side. He regarded himself
as a faithful American and supplied General Greene with information
of military value while he was inside the British lines.
By more than one historian he is described by the opprobrious
epithet of the "Arnold of Carolina" and the "Southern Arnold"
(Stevens, History of Georgia, Vol. II, p. 345). The actual capitulation
of Williamson occurred at Ninety-Six, and was regarded by
the British as a good omen. (Hist. MSS. Comm., Report on the Stopford-
Sackville MSS., Vol. II, p. 169; Bancroft, Hist, of the United
States, Vol. V, p. 378).
James Simpson, the attorney-general for South Carolina, advised
the protection of his considerable estates in order to secure
his influence. (Hist. MSS. Comm., Report on the American MSS.
in the Royal Inst., Vol. II, p. 150) . One of the acts of infamy alleged
against him was his advice to his officers when encamped near
Augusta to return to their homes and accept royal protection, an
act of treachery for which he is said to have been rewarded by a
colonel's commission in the British service. (C. C. Jones, Hist, of
Georgia, II, p. 448). General Williamson's name is included with
those of General Isaac Huger, Colonels Andrew Pickens, Peter
Horry, James Mayson, LeRoy Hammond, John Thomas, Sr.,
and Isaac Hayne, and Majors John Postell and John Purvis, in a
list of American officers who unresistingly gave up their arms and
took royal protection when detachments of the conquering British
troops were sent among them (Draper, King's Mountain and its
Heroes, p. 47)
.
It is evident that the Revolutionary party regarded Williamson
as a deserter or a renegade from the event of 5 July, 1781, when
Colonel Hayne and his party surrounded his house near Charleston,
seized him, and carried him away. The British thereupon sent
Major Thomas Fraser and 90 dragoons of the South Carolina Royalists
next day to rescue him. On the 8th. Fraser surprised Hayne's
camp at Horse Shoe and killed fourteen of the party and wounded
several others. Colonel Hayne was taken prisoner shortly afterwards
by Captain Archibald Campbell, of the South Carolina Royalists,
known as "Mad Archy." (E. McCrady, Hist, of South Carolina
in the Revolution, 1780-1783, pp. 319-321.)
Although the belief was general in the report of General Williamson's
acceptance of a commission in the British service, the
present writer has failed in a diligent search among the loyalist
documents to find any evidence of the grant of such a commission
or of any active military service by him on the British side.
——————————
Lieutenant-Colonel James Vernon
James Vernon emigrated from Scotland in 1760 to Pennsylvania,
where he resided for four or five years until his removal to
the district of Ninety-Six in South Carolina. Here he bought, in
conjunction with one John Nicholls, 640 acres of land on Fair
Forest creek in the present county of Craven. Part of this land
was sold afterwards by the joint owners to James Martin, and subsequently
John Nicholls disposed of the whole of his share to Aaron
Harling. The original deed for the purchase of this tract of land
is still preserved. (A.O. 13/123.)
James Vernon was granted a commission as ensign, 2 February,
1774, in the militia regiment of his neighbor. Colonel Thomas
Fletchall, the original commission being preserved with the deed
just mentioned. Called up for active service at the commencement
of the Revolutionary troubles in his own district, this prosperous
Scotch settler lost all his farm stock in confiscation after the affair
of Ninety-Six in November, 1775. (See pp. 69, 70.)
Promoted later by Major Patrick Ferguson to the rank of
captain in the South Carolina loyal militia, James Vernon received
further promotion from Lieutenant-Colonel Nisbet Balfour, 2 December,
1780, to lieutenant-colonel, the original commission for
which has survived with the deed and the ensign's commission, mentioned
above. In this rank he would seem to have taken over the
command of Colonel Daniel Plummer's regiment of loyal militia.
This loyalist officer suffered the ignominy of being taken prisoner
twice during the war.
According to a letter of introduction from Major James Dunlap
to Lieutenant-Colonel Nisbet Balfour, dated from Ninety-Six,
26 January, 1781, Vernon is described as having been driven from
home by the "rebels" and as "one of the most deserving of our Militia
Officers." The letter goes on to say that after "Ferguson's affair,"
(presumably his defeat at King's Mountain), Lieutenant-
Colonel Vernon kept his company together and was of infinite service
in protecting the neighborhood from plundering parties, as
well as doing "very material service by killing the noted Ned Hampton."
(A.O. 13/123.) Ned Hampton was probably Lieutenant-Colonel
Edward Hampton (son of Anthony Hampton) who defeated
Major James Dunlap. (See p. 73.) This American officer's name
disappears from the pay lists in October, 1780, and therefore it is
assumed that he was killed between July, 1780 — the date of the
Dunlap affair — and October.
At the end of the war, Lieutenant-Colonel James Vernon sought
refuge with other loyalists in the West Indies, and found employment
in a subordinate capacity on the estate of William Hall (a
brother and partner of Thomas Hall of Englefield Green, Egham,
in Surrey) in the parish of St. James, Jamaica, where also were his
wife and four sons and two daughters, two of whom were being
educated in 1790 by the Foundation of the parish of St. James. In
1790 he was in London, prosecuting his claim for compensation for
the loss of his property in South Carolina.
Alexander Vernon, a near kinsman of James Vernon, married
Margaret Chesney, and resided about ten miles west of Spartanburg
in South Carolina. (A.O. 12/46, fo. 147; A.O. 12/52, fos. 387-400;
A.O. 12/75, fos. 145-147; and A.O. 13/128.) (Papers of Colonel
Thomas Fletchall.)
——————————
Colonel Zacharias Gibbs
Born in Virginia in 1741, Zacharias Gibbs migrated to South
Carolina in or about 1763. Here he was the owner of large plantations
on the fork of Broad river and Saluda river in the district of
Ninety-Six, as well as large tracts of land at Camden, bought in
1779 and 1780 from two loyalists, Drury Bishop and John Brown. A
further addition was made to his property by the purchase in 1781
of 100 acres at Orangeburg from George Dykes, a loyalist. These
purchases by Zacharias Gibbs during the war are an indication of
his faith in the permanence of the subjugation of South Carolina
in 1780 by the British.
Captain Zacharias Gibbs, to give him his exact military rank
at this time, began his military services on the side of the crown
at Ninety-Six in November, 1775, the engagement which caused the
first bloodshed in South Carolina in the Revolutionary war, when
he was present with his company in the attack by the loyalists commanded
by Major Joseph Robinson, on the Americans under Major
Andrew Williamson. (See page 74.) In his evidence before the
commissioners of American Claims in London he asserted that his
company took the fort.
After many adventures and temporary occupations of his plantations
from time to time, he helped Colonel John Boyd to raise
600 men for the loyalist forces early in 1779, and marched with
these men to Savannah, which they reached 350 strong in February,
after fighting in two engagements on the way. Shortly afterwards
he was captured at the battle of Kettle creek in Georgia on
14 February, 1779, and was marched in irons with other prisoners
to Ninety-Six, a distance of nearly 400 miles. In this battle the
loyalists under Colonel Bond were defeated, and Colonel Bond killed.
Lieutenant-Colonel John Moore, of North Carolina, was second in
command, and Major Spurgen third in command. (C. C. Jones,
History of Georgia, 1883, pp. 339-342; W. B. Stevens, History of
Georgia, 1859, Vol. II. pp. 190-192.)
At Ninety-Six Captain Gibbs was put into prison for fifteen
months and sentenced to death, but was reprieved. On this occasion
twenty-two other loyalists were sentenced to share the death penalty
with him. Five only of this number were executed, including
his brother-in-law, the remainder having been reprieved on two
conditions, namely, that they sign their own death warrants and
that they make written declarations never to return to the
district of Ninety-Six. During his imprisonment, the gallows and
grave prepared for him were ever in sight. On his release on 3
April, 1780, Colonel Gibbs went to Camden, remaining there until
the capture of Charleston by the British, when he emerged again
into military activity, and was on 6 July, 1780, commissioned major
and later was promoted to the command of his regiment.
The life of Colonel Zacharias Gibbs from the outbreak of hostilities
in South Carolina until his final departure from the Province
was full of adventure, as is proved by the loyalist documents. His
military services were highly praised by Colonel John Harris Cruger,
one of the most distinguished and successful military leaders
on the loyalist side, in an original certificate which is still preserved.
Colonel Nisbet Balfour, sometime commandant at Charleston,
testified in evidence in London to his excellent qualities as a man
and as one of the truest of loyalists, though, with the traditional
prejudice of the British regular officer against the Provincial or militia
forces, qualified his praise by adding that Colonel Gibbs was
not a very good soldier.
The good-natured Lord Cornwallis gave him a certificate of
merit, as well as Colonels Balfour and Cruger, all of whose original
certificates are in the Public Record Office. (A.O. 13/79.) A
high opinion of the loyalty and meritorious conduct of Colonel
Zacharias Gibbs was entertained by the commissioners of American
Claims.
Captain Alexander Chesney was one of his neighbors, their
plantations being separated by only four miles.
The name of Colonel Zacharias Gibbs' first wife, who left at
least two children, is not recorded. His second wife was Jane
Downes, widow of Major William Downes, an Irish merchant, blacksmith,
and turner, who settled in Camden district. South Carolina,
after the peace of 1763, having served in the "Royal Irish Artillery"
in the war in America against the French. He had by his industry
and thrift acquired valuable plantations and lived in comfort. By
Lord Rawdon, himself an Irishman, William Downes was appointed
captain of militia. His military career in the Revolutionary war
was cut off prematurely by his death on 15 April, 1781, when, by
an act of treachery, his house was attacked by a party of 164 Americans.
William Downes ended his life in a gallant defence of his
home, in which he was assisted by his overseer, who was also
killed, and by his devoted wife and children in loading his fire-arms.
This lady was a widow at the time of her marriage in 1773 to this
Irish loyalist, her first husband having been one William Lindsay,
the elder, whom she had accompanied in 1763 to South Carolina,
where they settled near Georgetown. William Lindsay died in 1772,
leaving a son, Thomas, and two daughters.
For the loss of her property in South Carolina, derived from
her husband William Downes, the sum of £2,143 was claimed by
Jane Downes, and she was awarded £955, as well as a pension of
£40. She appears to have had seven children by her first and second
marriages. In September, 1785, she was living with her children at
Springfield in county Down, Ireland, and was about to join her husband,
Colonel Zacharias Gibbs, in Nova Scotia; but according to
one document she was still at that Irish place in May, 1789.
Colonel Zacharias Gibbs settled in 1784 on his grant of 1000
acres of land in Rawdon in Nova Scotia, where also were settled
fifty-five other loyalists from South Carolina. (See page 118.) In
his letter of 4 May, 1787, to Lewis Wolfe, a London agent for American
loyalists, he gives a picture of his life in Nova Scotia, adding
that he has the large and helpless family of Richard Fenton with a
wife and four children employed on his wild uncultivated land at
great expense to him. Fenton was a loyalist from South Carolina,
though he and his wife were natives of Whitby in Yorkshire.
Among the other troubles and trials of Colonel Gibbs were the
absence of his wife in Ireland and the anxiety for his two little
children by a former wife, in South Carolina. He had made two unsuccessful
attempts to obtain these children. One of the attempts
was made through the agency of a loyalist who was going on a visit
or returning to that State, but who, on his arrival there, was "maltreated
and much abused" because of his loyalty. Letters to South
Carolina were equally ineffectual in securing them.
A daughter of Colonel Gibbs by his first marriage, or of Mrs.
Jane Downes his second wife, by a former marriage, was married
to Robert Cooper or Cowper, a planter, of Georgetown, South Carolina.
Colonel Zacharias Gibbs was awarded £1,200 on his claim of
£2,384. 15s, for the loss of his property in South Carolina. (F.0.4/1;
A.O. 12/46, fos. 145-162, 240-252; A.O. 12/99, fos. 26, 225; A.O.
12/109; A. 0. 13/79; A. O. 13/129; The Royal Commission on Loyalist
Claims, 1783-1785, ed. by H. E. Egerton; Roxburghe Club, 1915.)
——————————
Major Patrick Ferguson
Patrick Ferguson was born in Scotland in 1744, and at the age
of 15 a commission as cornet was bought for him in the British
Army. He served with conspicuous success in the 2nd. Dragoons in
the wars in Flanders and Germany. From this regiment he was
transferred as captain to the 70th. Foot, with which he served in
the American war of Independence until his appointment to the
command of a body of riflemen, known as the "American Volunteers,"
composed mostly of native-born loyalists who were selected
because of their intelligence and skilful marksmanship. The command
of such a corps was especially congenial to Major Ferguson,
the best rifle shot in the British Army, and the most versatile and
brilliant leader in guerilla warfare on the British side, as well as the
inventor of the first breech-loading rifle used in the British Army.
The officers were chosen from several of the loyalist regiments, the
officers in their turn selecting their own men. The original muster
rolls have been preserved. (Jonas Howe's article in Acadiensis, Vol.
VI. pp. 237-246 and Vol. VII. pp. 30-41, 149-159.)
Major Patrick Ferguson was appointed, 22 May, 1780, inspector
of militia and major-commandant of the first battalion of loyal
militia raised in South Carolina. (Hist. MSS. Comm., Report on the
American MSS. in the Royal Inst., Vol. II., pp. 126, 129.) During
the campaign in South Carolina, Ferguson, while yet a prisoner at
Charleston, in the house at 5 Liberty Street, of a resourceful and
resolute English woman, one Elizabeth Thompson, was enabled to
view the works of the Americans outside, by a daring ruse of that
loyalist. Ferguson, disguised, was driven by Elizabeth Thompson
in her own chaise from Charleston through the American lines and
obtained information of military value. (A.O. 12/46, fos. 74-81;
The Royal Comm. on Loyalist Claims, 1783-1785, ed. by H. E. Egerton,
1915; Roxburghe Club, pp. 30-31.)
The death of the gallant officer occurred in the battle of King's
Mountain (see p. 86; Scots Magazine, Vol. 43, pp. 29-30). He is in
the Dictionary of National Biography.
——————————
Colonel Alexander Innes
Alexander Innes had been secretary to Lord William Campbell,
governor of South Carolina, before his appointment in January,
1777, as inspector-general of the Provincial forces in America.
In 1779 he was given the command of the South Carolina Royalists.
(Hist. MSS. Comm., Report on the American MSS. in the Royal
Inst., Vols. 1-4.)
Colonel Rudolphus Ritzema, a New York loyalist who had previously
been in the American service, describes Colonel Innes as
"a man, whose haughty and supercilious conduct has estranged
more minds from His Majesty and the British Govt, than perhaps
all the other blunders in the conduct of the American war put
together. This every American officer, not under a national bias, will
avouch." (Ritzema's petition to Pitt, chancellor of the Exchequer:
Chatham Papers, Bundle 220.)
The signature of Colonel Alexander Innes appears in a petition
shortly after 1791 from officers of the late British-American,
regiments on half-pay, now in England, offering upon "the present
prospect of war" with France their military services, which to their
painful mortification could only be accepted if they joined the British
Army as ensigns, whatever their rank may have been in the
American war of Independence. (F.O. 4/1.)
——————————
Captain Abraham De Peyster
Captain Abraham De Peyster was born in New York in 1753,
the son of James De Peyster and his wife, Sarah, daughter of Hon.
Joseph Reade.
Joining the British forces, with other members of this well-known
New York family, early in the Revolutionary war, he chose
as his regiment the King's American regiment, composed of volunteers
mostly from the Province of New York and formed in December,
1776, with. Edmund Fanning as colonel. Abraham de Peyster
was granted a commission as captain within two days of the formation
of the regiment, namely, on 13 December.
His brothers, Frederick and James, also joined loyalist corps,
the former as captain in the "Nassau Blues," a New York corps
which was raised 1 May, 1779, with William Axtell as colonel, and
was disbanded in December following, when most of the officers and
men joined the New York Volunteers. Frederick de Peyster became
a captain-lieutenant in his brother's regiment, the King's American
regiment.
After serving in the Northern Colonies for some time. Captain
Abraham de Peyster was moved to the South where he went through
much of the hard fighting in South Carolina in the picked loyalist
force commanded by Major Patrick Ferguson. (See pp. 82, 83.)
A brave and enterprising officer, upon him fell the invidious
duty at the age of 27 of taking over the command of the loyalist
force at the death of Major Patrick Ferguson, the most brilliant
leader in guerilla fighting on the British side, at the memorable
battle of King's Mountain — a battle which was fraught with such
dire consequences to the British in South Carolina. Captain De
Peyster's conduct in surrendering has been criticised. Tarleton,
whose judgments of his brother officers and criticisms of operations
must be received with caution, maintains that Captain De Peyster
hoisted the white flag before the blood in Ferguson's body had become
cold, but inasmuch as he was not present in the battle, his
opinion is not helpful. (Tarleton, History of the Campaigns of
1780 and 1781, p. 65.) On the other hand such competent
eye-witnesses as Captains Samuel Ryerson and John Taylor, both
of the New Jersey Volunteers, and Lieutenant Anthony Allaire, of
the Loyal American regiment, supported the decision of Captain
de Peyster to surrender, acquitting him of the charge of timidity
and declaring that his conduct was in all respects proper. (Mackenzie,
Strictures on Lieut.-Colonel Tarleton's History, 1787, pp.
58-68) . From a consideration of the evidence on both sides of the
controversy, it would seem that a defeat for the hard pressed and
much shaken loyalists, valiant as they were, was inevitable, and that
he was not guilty of excessive caution in saving his force from
further suffering. (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, p.
479.)
It is unfortunate that Alexander Chesney, a participant in the
battle, has not offered a definite opinion on the alleged premature
surrender of the loyalist commander. One important comment,
however, amounts to a virtual acquittal of the odious charge, namely,
that the Americans having resumed fire after Captain De Peyster
had sent out a flag of truce, he ordered a resumption of the
battle, in the belief — as subsequent events proved to be true — that
no quarter would be given to the loyalists, when a "dreadful havoc"
ensued until the flag was sent out a second time. (See p. 18.)
At the peace. Captain Abraham De Peyster found an asylum
with his brother officers in New Brunswick, where he became a
justice of the peace, treasurer of the Province, and colonel of militia.
Here he died, 19 February, 1798, leaving a widow and five young
children. After his death, his widow, a daughter of John Livingston
of New York, returned to New York. (Lawrence and Stockton,
Judges of New Brunswick and Their Times, p. 274; J.W. De Peyster,
Local Memorials relating to the De Peyster and Watts and affiliated
families, 1881, pp. 40-45; J. W. De Peyster, "The Affair at King's
Mountain," in The Magazine of American History, Vol. 5, pp. 401-
404; Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution.)
——————————
The Battle of King's Mountain
The memorable battle of King's Mountain was fought October
7, 1780, between the Americans under the command of Colonels
Campbell, Shelby, Cleveland, Sevier, and Williams, and the
loyalists commanded by Major Patrick Ferguson, composed of detachments
from the King's American regiment, the Queen's Rangers, the
New Jersey Volunteers, and South Carolina loyal militia,
and:was one of the most desperately fought battles in the
Southern Colonies.
It is not proposed to enter into the controversy regarding the
numbers of the forces engaged. Whatever the figures may have
been, the combatants on both sides fought with unsurpassed courage
and determination. The exploit of the Americans deserves all
the praise bestowed upon it as one of the finest examples of the
application of Washington's disregarded advice to Braddock to seek
cover behind trees, and of the splendid marksmanship of the
Americans.
The loyalists had fought with unwavering bravery until the
fall of the intrepid Ferguson somewhat early in the battle, when
their courage failed them for a moment until their rally by the new
leader. Captain Abraham De Peyster. The criticisms of this officer's
alleged premature surrender are considered under the notes
on Captain De Peyster.
King's Mountain was the only important battle in the war in
which the British force was composed entirely of loyalists, except
Major Ferguson.
Just as the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga was a momentous
event, not only in hastening the alliance of the Americans with
France, but also as a great turning point in the war, so the battle
of King's Mountain may be regarded as the turn of the tide in the
South, leading to the heartening and the re-organization of the
American forces in South Carolina for the final triumph in the
war of Independence.
It is regrettable that the memory of this signal victory should
be tarnished by the cruelties inflicted on the loyalists and by the
execution of nine loyalist officers — Colonel Ambrose Mills, Captains
James Chitwood, Wilson, Walker, Gilkey, and Grimes, and Lieutenants
Lafferty, John McFall, John Bibby, and Augustine Hobbs.
(Tarleton, Hist, of the Campaigns 1780 and 1781, p. 168; Moultrie,
Memoirs, pp. 242-6; Stedman, American War, Vol. II, pp. 245-7;
Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, pp. 332-7; Fortescue, Hist,
of the British Army, Vol. III, pp. 323-4; E. McCrady, The Hist, of S.
Carolina in the Rev., 1775-1780, p. 805; S. G. Fisher, The Struggle
for American Independence, Vol. II, pp. 349-366)
——————————
.
Brigadier-General Robert Cunningham
Robert Cunningham, born in 1741, was the son of John Cunningham,
a member of a Scotch family which settled about 1681 in
Virginia and removed early in 1769 to the district of Ninety-Six in
South Carolina. (E. McCrady, The History of South Carolina in
the Revolution, 1775-1780, p. 38.) Robert Cunningham acquired a
plantation of his own at Island ford on the Saluda river and by
energy and industry became a man of wealth and influence.
From the dawn of the Revolution Robert Cunningham displayed
the most uncompromising spirit of loyalty. (Hist. MSS.
Comm., Report on the MSS. of the Earl of Dartmouth, Vol. II, p.
355.) The treaty of neutrality made between that urbane and easy-going
loyalist. Colonel Thomas Fletchall, and William Henry Drayton,
September 16, 1776, provoked his bitter opposition and brought
forth his refusal to be bound by it, in a letter to Drayton, dated October
6 following (see p. 69 and Drayton, Memoirs of the Revolution,
Vol. I, p. 418). So dangerous a foe was not permitted to remain
at large and on November 1, while holding the rank of captain
in the loyal militia, Cunningham was committed to Charleston
jail on a charge of committing high crimes and misdemeanors
against the liberties of South Carolina, having, according to a letter
written from Savannah on the 19th., been seized by a party
disguised as Indians. He was detained a prisoner until February,
1776. (Force, American Archives, Series IV, Vol. 3, p., 1606; ibid.,
Vol. 4, p. 29; E. McCrady, The Hist, of South Carolina in the Revolution,
1775-1780, p. 86; A. S. Salley, Jr., Hist, of Orangeburg
County, 1898, pp. 304-7; Moultrie, Memoirs, Vol. I, p. 100.) His
brother. Major Patrick Cunningham, with a party of loyalists made
an unsuccessful attempt to rescue him from the hands of his captors.
(See p. 104.)
The British Government awarded him compensation to the
amount of £1,080 from his estimated loss of £1,355 for his South
Carolina property confiscated by the State. (A.O. 12/109.)
Brigadier-General Cunningham at the conclusion of the war
in his own Province set sail for the Bahamas with other
compatriots and settled at Nassau in the island of New Providence, so
aptly named as the harbor of refuge for the distressed loyalists.
In this new home Robert Cunningham settled on the tracts of valuable
land which had been granted to him for his services in the
American Revolutionary war. Here he died, 9 February, 1813. On
his tombstone in the western cemetery is inscribed:". . . . . . . . .exiled
from his native Country in the American Revolution for his attachment
to his King and the Laws of his Country." His wife, Margaret,
survived him only a few weeks, having died 26 March at the
age of 76.
Four children were left by Robert and Margaret Cunningham,
namely, John, who married, 5 March, 1795, Ann Harrold; Charles;
Margaret, who was married, 22 June 1790, to Richard Pearis, son
of Colonel Richard Pearis, a loyalist from South Carolina (see p.
104); and Elizabeth, who married, 1 May, 1792, Robert Brownlee, a
loyalist. In his will are mentioned, in addition to his wife and children,
the following family connections: John, natural son of John
Cunningham by a woman named Hannah Ridley; his sister, Margaret
Cunningham, and her son, Robert Andrew Cunningham; his
cousin, Jean, daughter of Thomas Edwards; his cousin, Robert Cunningham,
son of David Cunningham, to whom was bequeathed 300
dollars for his education; and his two cousins, Margaret Fenny and
Elizabeth Brown, daughters of Joseph Jefferson.
Patrick, David, and John Cunningham, three loyalist brothers
of Brigadier Robert Cunningham, remained in South Carolina after
the war. (A.O. 12/3, fos. 8-10; A.O. 12/48, fo. 215; A.O. 12/92;
A.O. 12/109; A.O. 13/97; A.O. 13/127; Sabine, Loyalists of the
American Revolution, Vol. I, 346, 349; A. T. Bethell, The Early
Settlers of the Bahama Islands, 1914, pp. 21-23.) William Cunningham,
known as "Bloody Bill," was a cousin of Brigadier-General
Cunningham, He was only nineteen at the beginning of the war,
and was lively and jovial, open-hearted and generous, and a remarkable
horseman. (E. McCrady, The History of South Carolina in the
Revolution, 1780-1783, pp. 467-476.)
——————————
Colonel Daniel Plummer
Daniel Plummer, a planter in the district between Fair Forest
and Tiger river in what is now Spartanburg county in South Carolina,
derives his military title from his command of one of the loyal
militia regiments, established by Lord Cornwallis in 1780. His
regiment formed part of the brigade of militia in the district of
Ninety-Six in South Carolina, commanded by Brigadier-General
Robert Cunningham, the loyalist. Among his officers was Alexander
Chesney, who was appointed adjutant and captain in the autumn of
1780. (Vide his original certificate for pay due to Chesney in T.
50/2.)
At a period in the Revolutionary war when passions were furious
on both sides. Colonel Plummer was regarded both by friend
and foe as honest and generous. As an example of his humanity, at
a moment when severe measures towards enemies were demanded
by the loyalists, he spared the life of young Jonathan Hampton, a
prisoner in his hands in September, 1780, as well as giving security
for his appearance at trial.
Colonel Plummer was present with his militia at the memorable
battle of King's Mountain, the turning point in the war in the South,
and is stated to have been killed there (E. McCrady, History of
South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, p. 798); but there is
evidence not only from Chesney (p. 20), but also from an official
document in the Public Record Office (T. 50/2) that he was alive
at Charleston on 11 April, 1782. He appears, however, to have been
badly wounded and to have been incapacitated from active service
sometime before the conclusion of the war.
A list of his officers and men who accompanied Lieutenant-Colonel
John Harris Cruger, of De Lancey's brigade, to Orangeburg
from June to December, 1780, is in T. 50/1.
Colonel Daniel Plummer would seem to have found a temporary
home at Savannah in Georgia before the end of the war. (A.O. 13/
100.) A daughter died at Charleston in December, 1781. (T. 50/5.)
It is assumed from the absence of his name from lists of
claims and pensions that this worthy loyalist died before the end
of the war.
(For other accounts of Colonel Plummer, see Draper, King's
Mountain and its Heroes, pp. 142-4, 154-5, 483.)
——————————
Lieutenant-Colonel John Harris Cruger
John Harris Cruger, of New York, was appointed September 6,
1776, lieutenant-colonel of the 1st battalion of De Lancey's brigade
of loyalists, raised by his father-in-law, Oliver De Lancey, of New
York, In 1778 he sailed with the British force under Colonel Archibald
Campbell for Georgia and was present in several actions in
South Carolina. His defence of Ninety-Six was one of the immortal
episodes of the Revolutionary war. Shut up with a small force of
about 300 loyalists of his own regiment and of the New Jersey Volunteers,
under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Isaac Allen, and
150 loyal militia of South Carolina under Lieutenant-Colonel Richard
King, a total of about 450 against General Greene's besieging army
of over 4,000 and a train of artillery, (which was flushed with the
conquest of five successive posts), Cruger held on with indomitable
courage and resource for 28 days, from May 22, 1781, until June 19,
when he was relieved by Lord Rawdon. His merits as a leader of
irregular troops and his natural abilities have not received adequate
appreciation. (Cruger's original memorial is in the Public Record
Office, A.O. 13/54.)
——————————
The British Legion
The regiment of the British Legion was raised in America by
Lord Cathcart in 1778 and was at first composed of six troops of
cavalry and six companies of infantry, Banistre Tarleton being appointed
lieutenant-colonel commandant, August 1 in the same year
at the age of 24. (Ind: 5604.) A detachment of its cavalry served
under Banistre Tarleton in his destruction of Colonel Buford's force
at the Waxhaws in June, 1780. (Hist. MSS. Comm., Report on the
American MSS. in the Royal Institution, Vol. 11, p. 143.) Lord
Rawdon, in recognition of the gallantry of the mounted infantry of
the Legion at the battle of Hanging Rock (when by a ruse of
forty of their number spreading themselves out and creating the
illusion of being a formidable force, they deceived Sumter) offered
colors to the corps and medals to the officers, an offer which was declined
by Tarleton. (Carleton Correspondence in the Public Record
Office.) Captain Kenneth McCulloch, of the British Legion, was
distinguished for his bravery in this action, where he received such
wounds as caused his death shortly afterwards. (Hist. MSS. Comm.,
Report on the MSS. of Mrs. Stopford-Sackville, Vol. II, p. 178.)
Major John Garden, of the Prince of Wales's American Volunteers,
who was in command of a loyalist force in this action at Hanging
Rock, was disgraced by resigning the command to Captain John
Rousselet, of the British Legion, in the heat of action. (Stedman,
American War, Vol. II, pp. 224-5.)
The employment of prisoners of war as combatants was a common
practice on both sides in the war. For example, some of the
prisoners captured by the British at the fall of Charleston, 12 May,
1780, and in the defeat of Gates at Camden, 16 August, 1780, were
drafted in February following into the Duke of Cumberland's regiment
(Loyal American Rangers), commanded by Lord Charles
Greville Montagu, formerly governor of South Carolina, who endeavored
to fill it with South Carolinians as officers. These men
joined the regiment in the West Indies. In a roster, preserved in
the Public Record Office, these prisoners' names, ages, heights, and
country of origin, are given. Of a total of 187, the greatest number
hailed from Virginia, namely, 54. North Carolina contributed 32,
and England and Ireland 26 each, while 7 came each from South
Carolina and Pennsylvania. Six were Scotch and three each were
French and German. Four were from Maryland and the remainder
were from other American Colonies and from the West Indies and
Bermuda. (State Papers Domestic, Military, 29.)
——————————
John Cruden
John Cruden, the younger, was the son of the Rev. William
Cruden (1725-85), and his wife, Clementina, and was born in 1754.
His father, a member of a well-known Aberdeenshire family, took
the degree of M.A. at the University of Aberdeen in 1743 and, after
acting as a minister in Scotland for thirty years, was appointed minister
in 1773 of the old Scotch Presbyterian church, in Crown
Court, Covent Garden, London, which was founded in 1718. This
Scottish minister was in frequent correspondence with his son, John,
during the American war of Independence, on the British side. He
died in London, 5 November, 1785, and was buried in the well-known
Puritan burial ground in Bunhill fields. (Dictionary of National
Biography.)
The subject of this notice became a partner in the house of
John Cruden and Company, merchants, of Wilmington and other
places in North Carolina, which consisted of his uncle, John Cruden,
and his younger brother, James, who was taken into partnership in
1770. His uncle had amassed a considerable fortune in trade in the
West Indies and afterwards settled among his Scottish compatriots
in North Carolina, as a merchant and planter.
In a letter to his father, dated 28 January, 1778, from New
York, John Cruden expresses his views on affairs in America, advocating
stronger measures in the restriction of trade among the
Americans, and condemning the laxity of Lord Howe, commander-in-chief
of the British Navy on the North American station. In another
letter he refers to his visit with a flag of truce to his uncle,
John Cruden, then a prisoner "among the rebels."
From the outbreak of the Revolution young Cruden was an active
loyalist, and during the war received a commission as lieutenant-
colonel of a regiment of volunteers. Lord Cornwallis, discerning
his merits, offered him a commission as commissioner "for
the seizure, superintendence, custody and management of captured
property" in South Carolina, the commission (still preserved) being
dated 16 September, 1780. (Hist. MSS. Comm., Report on the American
MSS. in the Royal Inst., Vol. II, p. 183.) An example of the
receipts issued by Cruden for the rents of the sequestered property
is to be found in the original receipt for the estate of Henry Laurens,
then a prisoner in the Tower of London. (With the papers of
Robert Frogg in A.O. 13/128.)
John Cruden published in London, as "President of the Assembly
of the United Loyalists," a pamphlet entitled. An Address
to the Loyal Part of the British Empire, and friends of Monarchy
throughout the Globe. (Report on the Management of the Estates
Sequestered in South Carolina, by Order of Lord Cornwallis, in
1780-1782, by John Cruden. Edited by Paul Leicester Ford, 1890.)
This Scotch-American loyalist was the writer of an interesting
letter to Lord Dartmouth, dated 28 October, 1784, from St. Mary's
river. East Florida, wherein he refers to his plan for the restoration
of America to England. "America," he says, "shall yet be
ours, but the House of Brunswick do not deserve the sovereignty
of it."
In another letter from John Cruden, dated 12 December, 1784,
from the same place, he pictures his great distress, having twice
sacrificed his fortune, and recounts his services in the cause of the
crown. He had been paymaster to the North Carolina Provincials
and had refused the offers pressingly made by the enemies of Great
Britain to join them. An address from the loyalists of East Florida
to the governor, Patrick Tonyn, testified to John Cruden's great
services and applauded the governor's choice of Cruden, who by his
influence, zeal, and spirit had prevented the Province from being
overrun by a band of desperate men. His precise duties are not,
however, stated in this address. (Treas. 1/622.)
During his duties in East Florida, Cruden had occasion to disapprove
strongly of the actions of one William Brown, commissioner
for the evacuation of St. Augustine, whom he alleges had aided and
abetted one Dobbins, master of a transport, in shipping a cargo of
mahogany, etc. to Charleston, by which means Dobbins had so enriched
himself as to be able to buy a vessel. (Treas. 1/622.)
John Cruden was a facile writer. In a letter to the lords commissioners
of the Treasury, dated 10 February, 1786, he alludes to
criticism, apparently made in England, of his former endeavors to
make Florida "a gathering spot to shake in due time the baseless
fabric of American Independence," and combats the doctrine that
England was better off without the American or any other Colonies,
claiming that perhaps he knows more of North and South America
than any man attached to Great Britain. This letter also contains
an eloquent plea for the promotion of trade between the Bahamas,
Bermuda, and Great Britain. A second letter from the same facile
pen, dated 7 May, 1786, from Nassau in the island of Providence in
the Bahamas, mentions his lottery scheme for the benefit of the
distressed American loyalists there.
John Cruden made the voyage to Nova Scotia later in the year,
with the object of presenting his claim for compensation for the
loss of his American property, to the commissioner. Colonel Dundas,
to whom he mentions in a letter written from Halifax, 30 October,
1786, his "unfortunate and ill-fated kinsman, D. Forrester of Donavon."
Returning to the Bahamas, John Cruden, the younger, died
there in the following year, on 18 September, at the age of 33, unmarried.
Here also died his uncle, John Cruden, the elder, in the
island of Exuma in 1786, leaving a widow and an infant son, also
named John.
James Cruden, the younger brother and former partner in the
business in North Carolina, made a claim on the British Government,
as sole surviving partner of John Cruden and Company, for
the sum of £9,621 and was awarded £2,400. (A.O. 12/109.) He was
in London in 1789. (A.O. 12/37, fos. 9-29; A.O. 12/73, fos. 117-120;
A.O. 13/28; A.O. 13/97; Hist. Miss. Comm., Report on the Mss. of
the Earl of Dartmouth, Vol. II. pp. 413, 447, 448, 458, 460, 469, 480,
481.)
——————————
Colonel Robert Ballingall
Robert Ballingall was a prosperous planter in St. Bartholomew's
parish, South Carolina, as is indicated by the inventory of
his personal estate — furniture, plate, jewels, and 300 volumes of
books. His wife, whose name is not recorded in the documents, bequeathed
to him for his use during his life a plantation in that
parish, and a large pew in the chapel there, as well as a pew at St.
Edmundsbury's. All this property was to pass at Robert Ballingall's
death to her daughter, who was born in 1775. (A.O. 13/125.)
Robert Ballingall was appointed by Lord Cornwallis to the
command of the Colleton county loyal militia, with the rank of
colonel, in 1780. (See p. 113.)
As chairman of a body of South Carolina loyalists, he signed
the original address (undated) to Lieutenant-General Alexander
Leslie, relying upon Leslie's willingness to adopt such measures as
would effectually prevent the execution of the laws passed by the
"usurped" Legislature of South Carolina, confiscating the estates
of the loyalists, and for the accomplishment of these measures tendering
their services at the risk of their lives and fortunes. (Hist.
MSS. Comm., Report on the American MSS.in the Royal Institution,
Vol. n, p. 436.) Colonel Ballingall as secretary of the committee of
the South Carolina loyalists signed the report, dated July 8, 1784,
regarding their losses sustained by the payment of debts due to
them in the depreciated paper currency of South Carolina instead
of in the lawful money of the State. The other signatories to this
report were: John Rose, Robert Williams, Dr. Alexander Garden,
John Hopton, William Ancrum, Robert Williams Powell, Charles
Ogilvie, and Gideon Dupont. (A.O. 12/48; A.O. 12/99; A.O.
12/101.)
Colonel Robert Ballingall was awarded £2,070 as compensation
by the British Government for the loss of his property in South
Carolina, from his claim £3,974. (A.O. 12/109.) In the year 1788
he was living at Montrose in Scotland.
——————————
Colonel Isaac Hayne
Isaac Hayne was senior captain of the Round company in
the Colleton county regiment when it surrendered to the British
at the capitulation of Charleston in May, 1780.
His execution at Charleston, August 4, 1781, excited great resentment
among the Americans. One of many charges made in
justification of his execution was that Hayne, although he had renewed
his oath of allegiance to the king, had been found in arms
against the British and therefore deserved death. To General
Greene's threat of reprisals for his death, Colonel Nisbet Balfour
replied that at the moment when three loyalist officers suffered
death (Lieutenant Fulkes, publicly executed at Motte's house; Colonel
James Grierson, murdered after his surrender at Augusta;
and Major James Dunlap, put to death by his guard;) he had in
his hands the lives of several American officers whom he had spared.
(Hist. MSS. Comm., Report of the American MSS. in the Royal
Institution, Vol. II, p. 327.)
Colonel Isaac Hayne's execution was the subject of a motion
for information by the duke of Richmond in the House of Lords on
4 February, 1782, a motion which was negatived. Lord Rawdon,
considering that a serious imputation had been made on his humanity,
demanded and ultimately received a public apology from
the duke. (Parl. Hist., Vol. XXII., pp. 966-970, n.)
(See Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution; Thomas
Jones, Hist, of New York, Vol. II, pp. 213-220, 473; E. McCrady,
Hist, of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1780-1783, pp. 382-398;
S. G. Fisher, The Struggle for American Independence, 1908, Vol.
II. pp. 333, 432; Roderick Mackenzie, Strictures on Lieut.-Col.
Tarleton's History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the
Southern Provinces of North America, 1787, p. 140; Moultrie's
Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 241-2; Scots Magazine, Vol. 43, pp. 702-5).
——————————
Major John Robinson
John Robinson, an active loyalist, was a carpenter and journeyman
who emigrated from Ireland in 1771 and settled on a plantation
in the Waxhaws in South Carolina. In casting lots for serving
in the American militia early in the Revolutionary war, the
lot fell upon John Robinson and he served for two months. In his
memorial he claims to have joined the loyalist corps in June, 1780,
under Colonel Rugeley, presumably Colonel Rowland Rugeley of
Clermont, or Rugeley's Mills, in Kershaw county. It is not clear
whether Robinson was present on 1 December, 1780, when Colonel
William Washington with some light cavalry reconnoitered this
home of Colonel Rugeley, which was occupied by about 100 loyalists.
Observing that the log barn by which the place was protected could
only be successfully attacked by artillery. Colonel Washington
ingeniously deceived Colonel Rugeley by having the trunk of a tree
formed in the shape of a field piece, and placing it in a menacing
position in front of the loyalists, whose surrender was thereupon
formally demanded. Colonel Rugeley, fearing that his defences
would be powerless against the dummy field piece, surrendered with
his whole party without firing a shot, to the mortification of the
loyalists and to the indignation of Lord Comwallis, who had apparently
contemplated promoting him to the rank of brigadier-general.
(B. E. Stevens, Clinton-Cornwallis Controversy, Vol. I,
pp. 205, 239, 251, 308; S. G. Fisher, The Struggle for American
Independence, 1908, Vol. II, p. 373.)
He served at several actions, including the battle of Camden,
where he was a captain, and was afterwards promoted major of
the First regiment of Camden militia, commanded by Colonel Robert
English. In April, 1781, he was wounded in a skirmish at Beaver
creek, about twenty miles from Camden. A loyalist brother of
Major John Robinson was killed in action. According to his memorial,
he was one of the organizers of a race meeting held for the
purpose of collecting together the loyalists of the district of Great
Lynch creek with the object of taking the American magazine at
Camden, but this ruse to disarm suspicion failed and the party, to
the number of about seventy, was dispersed and he was taken
prisoner.
The loyalist, Colonel William Fortune, says that Major Robinson
was "the most beloved by his men of any captain except Mr.
McCulloch" (probably James McCulloch).
The pay list of his company of Camden militia is in the Public
Record Office in London.
Major John Robinson claimed £751 for the loss of his real
property in South Carolina and was awarded £240.
He returned to his native Ulster at the end of the war and received
the appointment of tide waiter at Larne.
(Public Record Office: A.O. 12/46, fos. 262-269; A.O. 12/99,
fo. 228; A.O. 12/109. The Royal Commission on Loyalist Claims,
1783-1785; Roxburghe Club, 1915, pp. 55-56.)
——————————
Major Michael Egan
Michael Egan was one of many Irish emigrants from the Province
of Ulster to South Carolina, where he had settled in 1771
within nine miles of Camden in partnership with one Inglis in
a plantation, having saved £500 by industry and frugality between
that date and 1775.
Early in the Revolutionary war, Michael Egan bore arms for
the Americans against the loyalist, Brigadier-General Robert Cunningham,
and soon afterwards sold his share in the plantation for
£500 and settled as a storekeeper at Charleston. At the capitulation
of that city to the British in 1780 Egan joined the loyalists and
was subsequently given a commission as major in the First Camden
militia under Colonel Robert English.
At the end of the war Major Michael Egan returned with
his wife to Ireland.
The commissioners of American Claims expressed their dissatisfaction
with his conduct in bearing arms for the Americans,
but in view of the strong certificates to his merits from Lord
Cornwallis, Lord Rawdon, and General Alexander Leslie, he was
allowed a bounty of £30 a year and granted compensation for £110,
from his estimated loss of £272 for property in South Carolina.
Major Michael Egan probably died in 1831, the date of the
cessation of his pension. (T. 50/8; T. 50/28; A.O. 12/99, fo. 341; A.O. 12/109.)
——————————
James Barber
James Barber emigrated from Ireland to America in 1776, at
the age of 16, first to Pennsylvania, where he worked as a laborer.
Rather than take the oath of allegiance to the Americans he betook
himself to South Carolina, where he appears to have become the
owner of a small plantation. After the capitulation of Charleston
in May, 1780, this young Irishman joined a corps of loyal militia
under Colonel Rowland Rugeley, with whom he was taken prisoner
when this officer surrendered without firing a shot, and thus lost his
chance of promotion to the rank of brigadier-general (see p. 96).
James Barber served in more than one action in South Carolina and
rose in rank from private to quartermaster. He returned to his
native land and received as compensation for the loss of his little
property the sum of £42. (T. 50/1; A.O. 12/46, fos. 82-85; A.O.
12/109.)
——————————
Philip Henry
This loyalist was born in London in 1749 and emigrated at
the age of 19 to South Carolina. For many months he was in the
employ of one Michie, a Charleston merchant. After the death of
Michie, whose partner he would have become, he started business
on his own account as a factor and quickly achieved prosperity, his
income varying from £400 to £800 a year. He was the owner of
large tracts of land in South Carolina and was the agent for the
estates of one Bruton; Dr. James Clitherall, surgeon to the South
Carolina Royalists, a loyalist regiment; Dr. John Farquharson, a
loyalist; and others.
Philip Henry in the early days of the Revolutionary war, confident
of success of British arms, embarked on extensive speculations
in land.
As a loyalist who declined to take the oath of allegiance to the
Americans, (passed by act of 28 March, 1778,) he was banished
from South Carolina and was obliged to embark with other loyalists
on board the Providence (Captain Richard Stevens) , bound for Rotterdam.
Among the fellow exiles of Philip Henry on board were his
friends and part owners of this vessel, Robert Rowand, Daniel Manson,
and James Weir. The warrant, authorizing the master to take
Philip Henry on board, was signed by Rawlins Lowndes and dated
22 June, 1778. The Providence was captured off the American coast
by the British frigate Rose (Captain James Reed) and taken to
New York, where she was libelled in the Vice-Admiralty Court and
the crew pressed into the British navy. Both the vessel and the
cargo were, however, ordered to be returned to the owners by the
decision of the judge, Robert Bayard.
Philip Henry advertised in the South Carolina and American
General Gazette for June 25, 1778, requesting all his debtors to discharge
their debts and all his creditors to call for payment before
the date fixed by the General Assembly for his banishment. His
furniture and silver, which are further proof of his prosperity, had
been advertised in the same paper for sale on 3 June.
Accompanying this loyalist on his voyage to Europe on board
the Sally from New York were his wife, S. M. Henry, and Miss
Thomey. Soon after landing in England he was appointed to a post
in the Irish board of Customs. In a letter written from Dublin, 18
February, 1786, Philip Henry complains bitterly of his reverse of
fortune by the war and gives a long account of the capture of the
Providence.
Philip Henry before his death had become a clerk of the Stationary
at Dublin, as well as an officer in the Customs.
He was awarded £2,723. 16s. as compensation for the loss of his
property in South Carolina, from his claim of £16,351 and a pension
of £100 a year. (A.O. 12/46; fos. 122-143; A.O. 12/99, fo. 2;
A.O. 12/109; A.0.13/79; A.O. 13/129; The Royal Comm. on Loyalist
Claims, 1783-1785, ed. by H. E. Egerton; Roxburghe Club, 1915, p. 44.)
——————————
James Simpson
James Simpson was the son of William Simpson, chief justice
of Georgia, who died in 1768, and was admitted clerk of the Council
in South Carolina in 1764 and five years later received the appointment
of judge of the Admirality. In 1774 James Simpson was appointed
attorney-general for South Carolina. During the Revolutionary
war he took an active but judicious part on the British side
and was regarded by political opponents with respect, being described
by one of these as a "humane and just man." (Alexander
Garden, Anecdotes of the American Revolution, 1828, p. 112.)
As a member of the committee of the South Carolina loyalists
for investigating the value of their property, he made a report
to the commissioners of American Claims in which he says: ". . .
many well disposed people [loyalists] were obliged to go down the
stream who anxiously desired to be rescued from a situation from
which they could not extricate themselves . . . ," in consequence
of the lack of energetic measures taken by the governor. Lord
William Campbell, and of the "sudden and violent introduction of
the system adopted by the Americans" (A.O. 12/107, fos. 5-13, 39-
40). His observations on the condition of South Carolina in July,
1780, when he wrote as follows to Sir Henry Clinton, are of interest:
"... Nothing but the evidence of my senses would have
convinced me that one half of the distress I am a witness to could
have been produced in so short a time in so rich and flourishing a
country as Carolina was when I left it. Numbers of families, who,
four years ago, abounded in every convenience and luxury of life,
are without food to live on, clothes to cover them, or the means
to purchase either. It hath appeared to me the more extraordinary,
because until 12 months ago it had not been exposed to any other
devastation of war except the captures made at sea ..." (Hist.
MSS. Comm., Report on the American MSS. in the Royal Inst. Vol.
II, 149-150.)
James Simpson was admitted a member of the Honorable Society
of the Middle Temple, 14 November, 1777, while occupying the
dignity of attorney-general of South Carolina — an historic inn
which includes on its roll of membership five signatories to the
Declaration of American Independence: Edward Rutledge, Thomas
Lynch, Thomas Heyward, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas McKean,
as well as Peyton Randolph, president of the Continental Congress.
His eldest son, William, was admitted to the same Inn, 13 May,
1775.
Such was James Simpson's prosperity in South Carolina that
of his claim of £20,608 for the loss of his property there he was
awarded by the British Government the sum of £8,077. In addition
he received £3,518 for the loss of his professional income per annum,
and was also granted a pension of £860 a year. (A.O. 12/109.)
Barbara Simpson, wife of James Simpson, died March 2, 1795,
and was buried in Westminster Abbey, near Poet's Comer. Her
husband died November 30, 1815, aged 78, and was buried in the
Temple Church.
Mentioned in his wills and codicil, dated June 9, 1809, and
April 26, 1815, and proved December 22, 1815, are his three daughters,
Elizabeth Loftus, Margaret Roadington (who predeceased
him), and Anne, wife of Henry Trail, his executor, and his son,
George Augustus, who died between June 9, 1809, and December
22, 1815, leaving two children, Henry George and Dorothea.
——————————
Captain James Miller
James Miller was an Irish emigrant who settled in February,
1775, at Jackson's creek in Camden district. South Carolina, where
he bought 200 acres of land from one James Phillips for £2 an acre.
In his petition he states that in the spring of 1775, a Mr. Tanner,
(probably the Rev. William Tennent) and one Richardson brought
to his district an association against Great Britain for signature. Incited
by this minister in a sermon to sign this association, half the
congregation signed it, but James Miller and other loyalists refused.
In this same petition. Miller maintains that the Revolutionary party
in the spring of 1776 issued a proclamation, promising that all
loyalists who returned at once to their plantations would not be
molested. This promise was not fulfilled, however, the planters
having been seized. After suffering imprisonment for over nineteen
weeks, James Miller appears to have joined a loyalist force
under Captain James Phillips, which had been engaged in the siege
of Ninety-Six in November, 1775, and was a member of the party
of loyalists piloted up to Palocet by Alexander Chesney (see page
6). His steadfast loyalty was rewarded in August, 1780, by his
appointment as captain in the Jackson's creek loyal militia, commanded
by his friend and neighbor. Colonel John Phillips, who
had known him from infancy. With this corps, or a detachment
of it, Captain Miller served under Lieutenant-Colonel George Turnbull,
of the New York Volunteers, some time during the war. In 1778
he was induced to buy 150 acres of land on Great Beaver creek from
George Ray for £300, because the settlers in his own district had
become "so disaffected to the King that he could not live peacably
among them." Captain James Miller was not, however, destined
to live on his new plantation, which was bought or sequestered by
Captain Hugh Millen, an American officer. He left South Carolina
before the end of the war and received an appointment as Customs
officer in Ireland, and a pension of £30 a year. The sum of £370
was awarded to him as compensation by the British Government
for the loss of his property in South Carolina. His wife died at
Charleston in August, 1782. (T. 50/5; A.O. 12/109; A.O. 12/46, fos.
202-210; A.O. 13/79; A.O. 13/133; The Royal Comm. on Loyalists
Claims, 1783-1785, ed. by H. E. Egerton; Roxburghe Club, 1915, pp.
51-2.)
Captain James Miller was an executor of Colonel John Phillips
(see page 62)
——————————
.
Lieutenant-Colonel Evan McLaurin
Evan McLaurin, a Scotsman, had settled in the Dutch fork, at
a place called Spring Hill, 15 miles from the Saluda river on the
road from thence to Kennedy's ford on the Enoree river, by the
Long lane, commonly called the Charleston road, on the west side of
Broad river and 3 miles distant from that river. It was at this
spot that Drayton held a public meeting early in the Revolution,
with the object of persuading the inhabitants of the district to sign
the association of support for the American cause. Ten had already
signed, when McLaurin appeared on the scene and by his influence
prevented the addition of another signature. Drayton, chagrined
at the Scotsman's opposition, forthwith recommended the Council
of Safety at Charleston to stop all goods destined for McLaurin's
store at Dutch fork, a method of coercion by which it was hoped to
undermine McLaurin's influence among his neighbors. (Drayton
Memoirs, Vol. I, pp. 363-4, 369-370).
Lieutenant Colonel Evan McLaurin was one of the signatories
to the treaty of neutrality of September 16, 1775, as well as to the
later treaty in November following. (See Colonel Thomas Fletchall,
Additional Notes, p. 69).
In December, 1779, his name appears as lieutenant-colonel in
the muster roll of the South Carolina Royalists, a rank which he
shared with Joseph Robinson.
Lieutenant-Colonel McLaurin died at Charleston in June, 17S2,
leaving a widow, Isabella, and two children. (A.O. 12/109; T. 50/8;
T. 50/27.)
——————————
Colonel Richard Pearis
Richard Pearis was born in Ireland and settled in Frederick
county, Virginia, before 1750. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary
war he was a successful planter and Indian trader on the Enoree
river in South Carolina.
An orator of rude, savage eloquence and power, he commended
himself to Governor Dinwiddie by his loyalty and efficiency. He
became lieutenant in the Virginia Provincial regiment in 1755 and
was commissioned captain in 1756 to command a company of Cherokees
and Catawbas in an expedition against the Shawnee towns
west of the Ohio, under Major Andrew Lewis. Pearis served under
Generals Forbes, Stanwix, Monckton, and Bouquet. He was the
first to enter Fort Duquesne. His military ability was apparent in
his services on the borders of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia,
with headquarters at Fort Pitt.
Having married a Cherokee wife. Captain Pearis acquired
great influence among the Indians, and was consequently ordered
south. In 1768 he was settled at the Big Canebrake, on the Reedy
river. South Carolina.
Every effort was made by the Whigs in 1775 to induce this
powerful man and the Indians to join them, or at least to secure
their neutrality. However, Pearis took part in the siege of Ninety-
Six on the British side (see page 71) and many other actions.
In July, 1776, he was one of a party of 260 loyal militia and
Indians which unsuccessfully attacked 450 "rebels" in a wooden
fort. (Colonel David Fanning's "Narrative," edited by A. W. Savary,
Canadian Magazine, 1908.)
According to his own narrative, his services to the crown in
the same year include the dispersal of 700 "rebels" in the district
of Ninety-Six (A.O. 13/93) . By the turn of fortune he was
captured and consigned to Charleston jail, where he was a prisoner
in irons for nine months. On his release, Pearis wended his way
on foot, traversing 700 miles, to West Florida, through the settlements
of the Indians, who supplied him with food. Arriving at
Pensacola, he was on 13 December, 1777, commissioned captain in
the West Florida loyalist refugees, by Colonel John Stuart, superintendent
of Indians in the Southern Colonies, who ordered him to
capture Manshac on the Mississippi river, a task which he accomplished.
This corps was also engaged in the suppression of the rum
trade at Mobile Bay with the northern Creek Indians. (W. H. Siebert,
"The Loyalists in West Florida and the Natchez District," in
the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. II, 1916, p. 467.)
Pearis was present at the capture of Sunbury in Georgia.
The romantic tale of his exploits includes the raising of 5000
to 6000 loyalists and the disarming of all rebels from the Savannah
river to Broad river, near the borders of North Carolina, as well
as destroying their forts and capturing men, arms and ammunition.
To his mortification, this series of successes was no sooner accomplished
than Colonels Innes and Balfour ordered the arms and ammunition
to be returned to the "rebels" and their leaders released.
Incensed by this treatment, he returned to Georgia and settled his
family near Augusta.
While Pearis was a prisoner at Charleston, his wife, two
daughters, and a son were surprised at home by Colonel John
Thomas and 400 followers, who subjected them to abuse and punishment,
as well as carrying away their portable property and burning
the rest. Not content. Colonel Thomas forced the family to
march on foot 25 miles a day, without food and without protection
for their heads from the sun. They were also confined for three
days without food, and were afterwards sent off in an open wagon
a distance of 100 miles, to shift for themselves among "a parcel of
rebels," without money or provisions. For three years Captain
Pearis was separated from his family, who were in daily fear of
massacre by their enemies.
A son of Captain Pearis was an ensign in the West Florida
Rangers.
For the loss of his real estate in South Carolina, Colonel Richard
Pearis claimed £15,576. 18s. and was awarded £5,624. An account
of his property has been published. (S. C. Hist, and Gen.
Mag., Vol. XVIII, pp. 97-9; Sec. Rep. Bur. of Archives, Ontario,
1904, pp. 190-4.) The name appears also as Paris, whence Paris
Mountain, near Greenville in South Carolina.
After the war he settled in Abaco in the Bahamas, where he
had a grant of 140 acres of land, and where Margaret Pearis, presumably
his wife, received a grant of 40 acres. Colonel Pearis received
a military allowance of £70 a year from 1783 to 1804, when
he probably died. It was perhaps his son, Richard, who married
Margaret, daughter of General Robert Cunningham, the South Carolina
loyalist, in Abaco, 22 June, 1790 (see page 88) . (Public Record
Office: A.O. 12/109; A. T. Bethell, Early Settlers of the Bahama
Islands, 1914, pp. 21-22; Public Record Office: Ind. 5606.)
——————————
Major Patrick Cunningham
This officer, a brother of Brigadier-General Robert Cunningham,
was an active loyalist from the outset of the Revolutionary
war. As a participant in the siege of Ninety-Six he was one of the
signatories to the treaty of neutrality of 22 November, 1775 (see
p. 70). Major Patrick Cunningham and his party of loyalists attempted
to rescue his brother, Robert, from his captors while being
taken to Charleston as a prisoner, but failed in the attempt (see
p. 87). He was, however, compensated for this failure by his
capture of the ammunition sent as a gift by the Americans for the
Cherokee Indians (see p. 64). A member of this party was
William Gist, who took up arms "to protect some loyalists who had
taken a magazine of powder which was sent by the rebels to the
Indians." (The Royal Commission on Loyalist Claims, 1783-1785,
ed. by H. E. Egerton; Roxburghe Club, 1915, p. 56; Moultrie,
Memoirs, Vol. I. pp. 96-100.)
Patrick Cunningham was appointed in 1780 to the command
of a corps of loyal militia, consisting of 24 officers and 155 men,
forming a part of the brigade of militia in the district of Ninety-
Six, commanded by his brother, Robert.
Great was the joy of the Americans at the capture of so dangerous
a loyalist as Patrick Cunningham, who was condemned to
a term of imprisonment in Charleston jail. Shortly after his release
he offered his services to Major Andrew Williamson for his
expedition against the Cherokee Indians in July, 1776, an expedition
which was accompanied by Alexander Chesney and other loyalists,
though the Cherokees at this time were supposed to be allies
of the British. Williamson, however, refused the offer of
Cunningham's services, as he did that of Richard Pearis on the same occasion
(Drayton, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 343-4). (See pp. 65.)
Major Patrick Cunningham in or about 1785 returned to South
Carolina and was elected a member of the Legislature, dying in
1794 (Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution, Vol. I, p. 348)
——————————
.
Captain Moses Kirkland
Moses Kirkland was a prosperous planter in the fertile district
of Ninety-Six in South Carolina. In 1774 he was chosen a
member of the Provincial Congress, and was regarded as a warm
supporter of the American cause (see p. 67). According to his
memorial, however, he maintains that he spoke strongly in the
House of Assembly at Charleston in January, 1775, against the proceedings
of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, but that his
side was defeated by vote, and after protesting he returned home.
In June following, he was appointed by the Assembly to command
a company of rangers, and his commission was sent to him in
a letter which he refused to accept. (A.O. 12/52, fos. 209-233.)
Kirkland's next step was to assemble the inhabitants of his
district and by his influence, combined with the assistance of Colonels
Thomas Fletchall and Thomas Brown, he opposed Congress
so effectually that he had raised over 5,000 signatures to a resolution
to support the king's Government. In consultation with some
of his leading neighbors it was now decided that, in view of the
improbability of immediate military support from the governor and
from the want of arms and ammunition, he should leave the Province
and join the British army at Boston. In this scheme Kirkland
was supported by his friends and he forthwith left his home in disguise,
accompanied by his only son, a boy of twelve summers, and
eventually reached the house of Governor Lord William Campbell,
at Charleston, thence going on board H. M. S. Tamar. From
Charleston he proceeded to St. Augustine in East Florida, armed
with letters of recommendation from Lord William Campbell to
Governor Tonyn and others, and after a brief stay departed for
Boston, where he arrived in September, 1775. Kirkland's sojourn
at Boston was of brief duration, for he is next seen in Virginia,
serving under the governor. Lord Dunmore. Returning again to
Boston, his ship was captured, 10 December, near that port by the
American schooner, Lee, commanded by Captain Manly who was
probably the American officer of that name who was in command
of the American privateer, Hancock, described by Sir George Collier
as the second officer of rank in the American navy, "a man of
talent and intrepidity" and more capable of doing mischief than
General Lee," whom it was "a piece of good fortune" to have captured
in June, 1777, with the Hancock. (Hist. MSS. Comm., Report
on the Mss. of Mrs. Stopford-Sackville, Vol. II, pp. 69-70.)
Kirkland was sent to Washington's headquarters at Cambridge,
where he was detained for 22 days, and then removed to Philadelphia.
Here he was a prisoner until June, 1776, when he escaped, and
by traveling in disguise succeeded in getting to Lord Dunmore's
vessels in Chesapeake Bay at the end of July. Kirkland afterwards
joined General Sir William Howe on Staten Island, and was
present at the capture of Long Island, New York, White Plains, and
Fort Washington. At the end of March, 1777, Howe requested
Kirkland to carry despatches to East and West Florida, and he accomplished
his mission without mishap, arriving, 1 May, at St.
Augustine. Proceeding overland, he reached Pensacola, a journey
of twenty days, and delivered the despatches to Governor Chester
and to General John Stuart, superintendent of the Indians, who appointed
him deputy superintendent of Indians, by command of
General Howe, 22 May, 1777. He remained in West Florida until
January, 1778, when he went among the Indian tribes, distributing
presents and endeavoring to persuade them to be loyal and to act
in concert with the British. Returning to St. Augustine on 1 March,
Kirkland prepared a plan for an expedition composed of loyalist
refugees and Indians, against Georgia, which he submitted for the
approval of the governor and the general, presumably Prevost.
The consent of the commander-in-chief was, however, necessary
before the scheme could be put into force, and with this object in
view, the indefatigable Kirkland set sail for Philadelphia, which
he reached in May, only to find that Howe had resigned and was
about to return to England. He succeeded, however, in submitting
his plan to Howe and Sir Henry Clinton, both of whom approved of
it. Kirkland remained at Philadelphia until the evacuation of the
city by the British in June, when he accompanied Clinton to New
York. Here he was on duty until requested in October by Clinton
to accompany Colonel Archibald Campbell's expedition to Georgia,
and there to render every assistance in his power. His first taste
of war here was at the capture of Savannah by the British. At
the action of Brier creek, 60 miles from Savannah, Kirkland
commanded part of the Georgia militia and a party of loyalist refugees.
Later he accompanied Prevost on the expedition to Charleston.
Kirkland appears to have returned to Georgia, for on 9 October,
1779, he was captured with about 100 other loyalists under Captain
French at Ogeechie, 15 miles from Savannah, and he and his son,
were bound in irons and put on board a galley. Happily, this vessel
was captured by the British, and he re-joined the British forces at
Savannah.
Lord Cornwallis, it will be remembered, appointed Robert
Cunningham to command a brigade of loyal militia in the district
of Ninety-Six in 1780. One of the regiments was allotted to Moses
Kirkland, the date of his commission being 6 July. He continued
on active service in his own district until he joined Colonel John
Harris Cruger on the expedition for the relief of the gallant Colonel
Thomas Brown and his force at Augusta in the middle of September.
Major Kirkland's memorial adds but few details of his
subsequent career, beyond mentioning that he was put in command
of the garrison at Augusta after the relief of Brown, and that he
would seem later to have settled near Savannah.
After the evacuation of South Carolina by the British, Moses
Kirkland sought refuge in Jamaica, where he settled in St. George's
parish and married Catherine Bruce. His life was ended by drowning
while on a voyage from the West Indies to England in December,
1787. Richard Bruce Kirkland, his only son, was born in 1786
and became a planter in Jamaica. (A.O. 12/52, fos. 209-233.)
Drayton gives a different version of the reasons for Kirkland's
departure from South Carolina, alleging that after his (Drayton's)
manifesto of 30 August, 1775, warning all persons who should without
lawful authority assemble in arms with, or by the instigation of
Kirkland, that they would be regarded as public enemies, to be suppressed
by the sword, and that Kirkland was confounded and his
exertions paralyzed. Offering to surrender on a promise of pardon,
Drayton demanded his surrender at discretion, but Kirkland fled in
disguise, with two trusty friends. (Drayton, Memoirs, Vol. I, p.
382.)
Kirkland conceals one important event in his career, namely,
that he was concerned with Major James Mayson and Captain
John Caldwell in the seizure of Fort Charlotte and its stores of
ammunition, which was the first overt act in the Revolutionary war
in South Carolina. It was after the re-capture of the fort by the
loyalists that Kirkland turned over to the other side (see p. 67).
Major Moses Kirkland's prosperous position as a planter may be
gauged from the extent of his award of £4,000 from his claim of
£12,160 for the loss of his property in South Carolina (A.0. 12/109).
This property was sold by the State of South Carolina and realized
£1,972. 2s. (A.O. 13/36; A.O. 12/92, S. C. Hist, and Gen. Mag., Vol.
XVIII, pp. 69-71.)
——————————
Lieutenant-Colonel John Fanning
John Fanning was a South Carolinian by birth and lived on his
own property in Camden district. In addition to this property he
was the owner of 250 acres of land on Broad river, received by deed
of gift from his eldest brother after his father's death, and of other
property in South Carolina. (Second Report of the Bureau of Archives;
Province of Ontario, 1904, pp. 717-719.) John Fanning
first joined the loyalist militia of South Carolina in March, 1779,
receiving a commission as captain, and later as lieutenant-colonel.
All his brothers were also loyalists.
In an engagement at Parker's ferry he commanded a troop
of horse under Major Thomas Fraser, of the South Carolina
Royalists.
Alexander Chesney was appointed a lieutenant in John Fanning's
Independent company of Scouts, 20 April, 1781.
At the end of the war, Lieutenant-Colonel John Fanning would
seem to have settled in Nova Scotia. For his property confiscated
at Camden he was awarded £440 as compensation by the British
Government, from his claim of £1,103. (A.O. 12/109.)
This loyalist officer must not be confused with Colonel David
Fanning (author of the well-known "Narrative," or with Colonel
Edmund Fanning, of the King's American regiment, who was appointed
lieutenant-governor of Prince Edward Island as a recompense
for his services in the Revolutionary war. (A.O. 12/49; A.O.
12/68; A.O. 12/92; A.O. 13/138.)
——————————
Captain John Saunders
John Saunders was born, 1 June, 1753, in Princess Anne county,
Virginia, and was the only son of Jonathan and Elizabeth
Saunders, grandson of Captain John Saunders of that county and
great-grandson of the Rev. Jonathan Saunders, of Lynnhaven parish
in the same county, the date of his birth being recorded in a
family Bible which in 1834 was in the possession of his brother-in-law,
Colonel Jacob Ellegood in New Brunswick, Canada.
According to Sabine (Loyalists of the American Revolution),
this young Virginian was descended from an English royalist family
which had emigrated to Virginia and there acquired large estates.
An ardent anti-Whig in his youth, his was the only voice
raised in opposition to the sending of delegates to attend a Whig
convention at Williamsburg, at a meeting organized in his own
county in July, 1774. John Saunders abandoned his academical
studies and accepted, against the entreaties of his friends and
neighbors, a commission as captain in the Queen's Own Loyal Virginian
regiment, from the governor, Lord Dunmore, 16 November,
1775. This regiment, the only loyalist corps raised in Virginia,
was commanded by his brother-in-law. Colonel Jacob Ellegood, of
Rosehall on Lynnhaven river, who had been in charge of the estate
of John Saunders during the last six years of his minority. (A.O.
13/33.)
The studied contempt of this youthful loyalist for the Revolutionary
party in his county aroused much ill-feeling, with the result
that he and two other loyalists, Benjamin Dingley Gray and
Captain Mitchell Phillips, were not only regarded as inimical to
the liberties of America, but their neighbors were recommended to
cease commercial intercourse with them, an act which virtually
endeavored to stop their supplies of all kinds, including food.
(Force, American Archives, Series IV, Vol. 2, pp. 76-77.)
The Queen's Own Loyal Virginian regiment was incorporated,
some time after its defeat at Great Bridge, with the First American
regiment, better known as the Queen's Rangers. In the
dragoons of this loyalist corps, John Saunders received a commission
as captain on 25 November, 1776. From that time until the
end of the year 1780, Captain Saunders served in every action of
that regiment, and was severely wounded at the battle of the
Brandywine, where his brother-in-law. Major John McKay of
the same regiment, was also wounded. Colonel John Graves Simcoe,
commanding officer of the Queen's Rangers, treated
Captain Saunders as his confidential friend and described him as an
officer of "great address and determination" and as one who had
performed gallant and active services in the war (Simcoe, Military
Journal). An original certificate of Simcoe states that from a sense
of the merit and eminent services of Captain John Saunders, he did
his utmost to procure him the rank of major (A.O. 13/133) . These
compliments of Colonel Simcoe were reciprocated by Captain
Saunders in later years by the bestowal of the name of Simcoe on
his only son, John Simcoe Saunders.
Captain Saunders accompanied General Leslie on the expedition
to Virginia in October, 1780, when he commanded the cavalry
detachment of his regiment. From Virginia he was removed with
the Queen's American Rangers to South Carolina, where he was on
duty until April, 1782, when he sailed for New York and there took
command of the remnant of his regiment saved from the surrender
at Yorktown. (A.O. 13/79.) This regiment was placed on the
British establishment, 25 December, 1782, and at the peace Captain
John Saunders was granted half-pay.
The Saunders estate on Lynnhaven river, near Kempe's landing
place (Kempsville) in Princess Anne county, was confiscated
and sold by order of the court of that county in March, 1780. The
considerable sum of £4,850 was granted to Captain John Saunders
as compensation for the loss of this estate, by the British Government
after the war. This sum was only £238 below the estimated
value put upon it by him or his advisers. Captain Saunders, having
studied law in his youth in Virginia, returned at the end of the
war to the land of his English ancestors and entered the Middle
Temple, being called to the bar in 1787. Three years later he
married Ariana Margaretta Jekyll Chalmers, daughter of Colonel
James Chalmers, of the Maryland Loyalists, also an American refugee
in England, and his wife, Arianna Margaretta, daughter of
John Jekyll, the younger, sometime collector of the Customs at
Boston, Massachusetts, and his wife, Margaret Shippen, of Philadelphia,
the marriage having taken place at St. Luke's Church,
Chelsea, February 16, 1790. (W.O. 42/S4.) Immediately after
his marriage Captain Saunders proceeded to New Brunswick,
where he had earlier in the same year been appointed fourth puisne
judge in the Province, through the influence of Colonel John Graves
Simcoe. In 1822 he was raised to the dignity of chief justice, as
well as that of president of the Legislative Council of New Brunswick.
Colonel Jacob Ellegood and Major John McKay, brothers-in-law
of Captain John Saunders, settled in York county, New
Brunswick, on half-pay.
Ever ready to defend his adopted country against threats of
invasion, by the French in 1798 and by the Americans in 1808, he
took an active part in the latter year in calling out the militia as a
defensive measure, and from his long and arduous experience in
the American war of Independence he was chosen commanding
officer of one of the two battalions. The fear of invasion having
passed away, the battalions were disbanded in three months by
Judge Edward Winslow, who did not share in the feelings of alarm
of his predecessor, Gabriel G. Ludlow, president and commander-in-chief
of the Province.
John Simcoe Saunders, the only son of Captain Saunders, was
sent to England for his education and matriculated at Worcester
College, Oxford, in 1810, taking the degree of B.A. in 1815. Following
in his father's footsteps, he was called to the bar, by Lincoln's
Inn, having previously read in the chambers of a well known
lawyer, Joseph Chitty. John Simcoe Saunders became an eminent
lawyer in New Brunswick, and during his life held the offices of
advocate-general, surveyor-general, and lieutenant-governor of the
Province, as well as president of the Legislative Council. As author
of The Law of Pleading and Evidence in Civil Actions, his name is
remembered in legal circles.
The arms of Captain John Saunders and his son are illustrated
in an article on book plates by D. R. Jack in Acadiensis, Vol. II,
pp. 189-197.
Chief Justice Saunders died, 24 May, 1834, at Fredericton, New
Brunswick, where also his wife died in 1845, at the age of 77. (F.O.
4/1; Lawrence and Stockton, The Judges of New Brunswick and
Their Times, pp. 100-1, 111, 116, 141, 274-5, 352, 423-4, 440, 509;
notes from Mr. Charles Mcintosh; Ind. 5604.)
——————————
Major Thomas Fraser
This officer's name appears more than once in the course of the
preparation of the above Additional Notes. He was appointed
major of the South Carolina Royalists, 10 August, 1780, at the age
of 25; and was present in many of the sanguinary actions in South
Carolina, having served throughout the war in the Provincial
forces.
At about the time that the British were preparing for their
final evacuation of South Carolina, Major Fraser was married on
7 November, 1782, to Anne Loughton Smith at Charleston by Rev.
Edward Jenkins, chaplain to the South Carolina Royalists. His
wife was the daughter of Thomas Loughton Smith, a prominent
Charleston merchant and a member of the Commons House of
Assembly, and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of George Inglis,
merchant, of Charleston. Thomas Loughton Smith died, 16 April,
1773, and his widow married in 1775 Dr. James Clitherall, surgeon
to the South Carolina Royalists.
Major Thomas Fraser died, 31 May, 1820, at Philadelphia and
was buried there in Christ Church burying ground. His wife died,
6 August, 1835, at the house of her son-in-law. Prince Lucien Murat,
at Bordentown, New Jersey. (W.O. 42/F13; Ind. 5604-5-6.)
——————————
Lieutenant-Governor William Bull
William Bull, a South Carolinian by birth and one of the most
beloved of men, served his native Province in public offices for
thirty-five years, acting as governor at various intervals for nine
years.
Attempts were made in his behalf by influential friends at
Charleston to secure his valuable estate from confiscation by the
State. To this end his estate was conveyed temporarily to his
nephew Stephen Bull, who, as will be shown later, retained possession
of it by fraudulent means, in spite of the determination of the
commissioners, appointed to sell confiscated estates, to contest the
validity of the conveyance. Stephen Bull, by his undoubted political
and social influence at Charleston, prevented a suit against
him for the recovery of the property by the State by representing
his devoted attachment to the American cause, and by alleging
great depredations committed by the British troops on his own
property.
Lieutenant-Governor Bull was prevented by the confiscation
law of South Carolina from bringing a suit against Stephen Bull
for the recovery of his property, but the Legislative Council went
so far as to offer him the rights of citizenship upon the express
condition that he would return to South Carolina and take the
oaths of allegiance and fidelity to the State. His nephew, fearing
that his uncle might agree to these conditions, and thus jeopardize
his possession of his uncle's property, had exerted his influence with
the Legislative Council to prevent the offer of these terms, but
without success. The deep conscientiousness of William Bull and
his high-minded character, however, were insuperable barriers to
his renunciation of his oaths of loyalty to the British, deeply as
he loved South Carolina.
The 134 prime slaves of Lieutenant-Governor Bull had been
distributed among American soldiers as bribes to induce them to
re-inlist in the American forces.
His first four attorneys in South Carolina — Manigault, Russell,
Stephen Bull (his nephew), and Robert Williams — conveyed the
estate of William Bull to Pringle, speaker of the House of Assembly,
who conveyed it to Stephen Bull. These attorneys had agreed
that the conveyance should be in trust and that Stephen Bull's bond
was to be taken with it. Such was the treachery of Stephen Bull
that he did not throw off the mask until an offer of 4,000 guineas
was made to Lieutenant-Governor Bull for a piece of land, when
Stephen Bull refused the conveyance.
William Bull died in 1791 in London, an exile from his native
land, and was buried at St. Andrew's Church, Holborn. (Public
Record Office: A.O. 12/52, fos. 85-118.)
——————————
The Loyal Militia of South Carolina
Lord Cornwallis in a despatch to Sir Henry Clinton, dated 30
June, 1780, says that (1) as the different districts submitted he
formed the inhabitants into militia and appointed the officers according
to the old divisions of the Province; (2) that he had invested
these field officers with civil as well as military power; (3)
that he had divided the militia into two classes, the first to consist
of men above the age of 40 and of certain property, family, or
service, to keep order in their respective districts and to do patrol
duty, but never to be called out for active service, except in case of
an insurrection or an actual invasion of the Province. The second
class to be composed of the younger men, who would assist in the
home duties and would be liable to serve in either of the Carolinas
or Georgia for six months of every year. This class, however,
would be called upon in such proportions as to cause the least distress
possible to the country; and (4) that temporary commissions
had been given these militia regiments. (Hist. MSS. Comm., Report
on the MSS. of Mrs. Stopford-Sackville, Vol. IL, p. 169.)
Robert Cunningham, a well-known and active loyalist (see
page 87) was appointed brigadier-general of the brigade of militia
of the district of Ninety-Six, the most populous and powerful district
in the Province. From June to December, 1780, this brigade
consisted of six regiments commanded by the following officers:
Colonel Daniel Clary, with 6 officers and 45 men.
Major Daniel Plummer, with 4 officers and 62 men.
Major Patrick Cunningham, with 24 officers and 155 men.
Colonel John Cotton, with 26 officers and 141 men.
Colonel Richard King, with 12 officers and 11 men. Colonel
King died, 10 July, 1786.
Major Zacharias Gibbs, with 13 officers and 50 men.
The loyal militia in South Carolina from November, 1781, to
July, 1782, included:
Jackson's creek regiment, commanded by Colonel John Phillips
(see p. 101), and divided into two companies under Captains John
Huey and James Sharp, one of the officers being Lieutenant William
Sharp.
Stevenson's creek regiment under the command of Colonel
John Cotton.
First Camden regiment, commanded by Colonel Robert English.
Second Camden regiment, commanded by Colonel William
Ballentine.
These two Camden regiments would seem to have been formed
into ten companies, commanded by Captains Adam Thompson,
Joshua English, Hugh Smith, Michael Egan, Joseph Holt, John
Robinson, Jasper Rogers, James McCulloch, George Platt, and
Abraham Cook.
The Orangeburg militia at this date consisted of eight companies
under the command of Colonel John Fisher, with the following
captains:
Christian House, Henry Giesondanner, Joseph Noble, Samuel
Rowe, Thomas Pledger, Daniel Kelly, L. Stromer, and Elias Buckingham.
Captain L. Stromer afterwards deserted to the Americans.
Under Colonel Fisher's command was also Captain John
Sally's company from the Fork of Edisto and Orangeburg.
Two companies of militia from the Dutch fork of Ninety-six,
under Colonel Daniel Clary, were commanded by Captains George
Stroup and James Wright, while Captain George Long was in command
of a company in Colonel Richard King's regiment.
Lieutenant-Colonel William Young commanded the Little river
militia at this period.
Among other loyal militia regiments included in the lists for
the year 1782 are the following:
Colleton county, commanded by Colonel Robert Ballingall.
Ninety-Six, commanded by Colonel Thomas Pearson.
Dragoons, commanded by Major William Young.
Mounted militia, commanded by Major William Cunningham.
Cheraws, commanded by Colonel Robert Gray.
Georgetown, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel James Gordon.
1st Regiment Camden, commanded by Colonel James Carey.
Santee, commanded by Colonel Samuel Tynes.
Rocky Mount, commanded by Colonel William Vernon Turner, a surgeon
at Camden, who at the evacuation of South Carolina by
the British went to Jamaica, West Indies, with his wife and six
children. (A.O. 13/96.)
Colonel Hezekiah Williams was in command of a regiment of
loyal militia in South Carolina in 1782.
The following officers' names have been taken from various
lists:
Lieutenant James Johnstone in Colonel Robert English's Camden
militia.
Captains Alexander Harvey, Andrew Cunningham, and John
Barton, and Lieutenant Benjamin Smith Legge in the Colleton county
militia.
Lieutenant James Clatworthy in the Camden militia.
James Alexander, of St. George's parish, Berkeley county, was
selected, 27 May, 1780, as captain of the Indian Field company of
foot in that parish, with James Shepperd as lieutenant and Silas
Canadais as ensign. It was Captain Alexander who with several
other loyalists deemed it their duty to capture Captain John Felder,
a magistrate of Orangeburg district, because of his cruel oppression
of the loyalists. The party in due course assembled at Captain
Felder's house and demanded his surrender. Anticipating no
quarter. Captain Felder and his companion, John Fry, defended
themselves to the bitter end, and killed the first loyalist who knocked
at the door. Such was Captain Felder's determination that the
loyalists, finding it impossible to force him out of his house by any
other means, set fire to it, and in attempting to escape, both Captain
Felder and John Fry were shot dead. (A.O. 13/125.)
Colonel William Mills is noticed on page 74.
The pay of the loyal militia in 1780 was as follows:
|
Colonel, 10s. a day.
Lieut.-Colonel, 7s. 6d. a day.
Major, 7s. 6d. a day.
Captain, 4s. 8d. a day.
Lieutenant, 2s. 4d. a day.
Cornet and Ensign, 2s. 4d. a day.
Adjutant, 3s. a day.
Quartermaster, 3s. a day.
Sergeant, Is. a day.
Corporal, 6d. a day.
Private, 6d. a day.
|
Many muster rolls of officers and men of the South Carolina
loyal militia, with memorials of widows of officers and men who lost
their lives in the war, and other details, are preserved in the Public
Record Office. (T. 50/1, T. 50/2, T. 50/3, T. 50/4.)
A list of loyalists in South Carolina who held royal commissions
during the Revolutionary war is published as an appendix
to The Journal and Letters of Samuel Curwen, 4th. edition, 1864,
pp. 494-5.
Lieutenant William Elliott, of Captain Elisha Robinson's company
of lower Ninety-Six regiment of militia, fought at King's
Mountain and was probably killed there. Here also fought Lieutenant
Thomas Cunningham, of Major Patrick Cunningham's company,
and was wounded and taken prisoner. The memorial of
Sergeant James White of Cotton's Ninety Six militia is in T. 50/2.
——————————
Loyalists' Warrant
Attached to the papers of Charles Ogilvie, Sr., is the original
warrant, dated August 13, 1782, authorizing him and Gideon
Dupont, Jr., to proceed to New York on behalf of the loyalists
of South Carolina for the purpose of making representations to the
commander-in-chief of the British army of the true state of that
Province and the distress of mind of the inhabitants at the prospect
of its evacuation by the British troops there. (A.0. 13/133.) These
two men were urged to make every endeavor to secure such guarantees
as would make an evacuation as little injurious as possible
to the loyalists, and, in the event of an evacuation, to obtain leave
for the loyalists to indemnify themselves from the sequestered
estates within the British lines in South Carolina.
The warrant is signed by the following committee of loyalists:
Robert William Powell, chairman
John Champneys
Colonel John Phillips
William Greenwood
John Hamilton
Alexander Baron
Colonel Robert Ballingall
Colonel William Fortune
|
James Gordon
Colonel Gabriel Capers
Robert Johnston
Thomas Inglis
Colonel Zacharias Gibbs
Colonel David Fanning
Colonel Thomas Edghill
|
Charles Ogilvie was an Englishman or Scotsman who journeyed
backwards and forwards between America and London on
business.
Gideon Dupont, Jr., was probably the son of Gideon Dupont
who was a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress for
the parish of St. Peter's, Purrysburg, in January, 1775.
——————————
South Carolina Loyalists in Nova Scotia and Elsewhere
Reference has been made elsewhere (p. 75) to the large numbers
of loyalists banished from the Southern Colonies who sought
refuge first in Florida and afterwards in the West Indies. A memorial
dated 9 February, 1785, from seventy-two loyalist officers
from North Carolina was presented to Lord Sydney, stating that
they had forfeited their estates and regretting that their most
gracious sovereign had been compelled by the rigors of necessity
to cede to his late refractory subjects all that happy, temperate, and
Southern climate in America, to which the memorialists and their
numerous adherents had been accustomed. Many had gone to Nova
Scotia, but were unable in their present state of finances to clear
the ground and raise the necessaries of life in a climate to Southern
constitutions inhospitable and severe. The memorial suggests the
Bahamas as the only place in the British dominions suitable for
these loyalists and strongly recommends Colonel John Hamilton,
late of the Royal North Carolina regiment, as governor of the
islands, when that dignified office should become vacant. John
Hamilton, a Scotsman and member of the large firm of Archibald
Hamilton and Company, merchants and importers in North Carolina
and Virginia, was one of the most interesting figures on the
loyalist side in the Revolutionary war. An active partisan, he had
raised 1200 men during the war and had seen much fighting in the
South. At the battle of Camden he fought with great spirit until
put out of action by wounds. Dr. David Oliphant, surgeon in the
American forces, was a debtor to the house of Hamilton and Company
for the amount of about £15,000, for which he was imprisoned
at Charleston until released by Lieutenant-Colonel Nisbet Balfour
in the belief that he would be of service in arranging the exchange
of prisoners of war. (A.O. 13/95.) In 1794 John Hamilton was
British consul-general at Norfolk, Virginia, having been selected
for that appointment because of his popularity, and while in
discharge of his duties there, his loyalty again manifested itself by his
offer of active service in war against the French.
It is estimated that about 500 souls had sailed from South Carolina
for Nova Scotia at the evacuation of Charleston by the British.
Of this number 300 were at Halifax in that Province in February,
1783, when an appeal was made to the British Government
for further allowances of provisions, clothing, and farming utensils,
which in their extreme poverty they were unable to procure. (Hist.
MSS. Comm., Report on the American MSS. in the Royal Inst. Vol.
Ill, p. 361.)
In 1784 grants of land were made at Rawdon, Halifax county,
Nova Scotia, to the following fifty-six South Carolina loyalists;
Colonel Zacharias Gibbs, Captain John Bond, and Captain William
Meek, who received 1000 acres each; Captain George Bond, James
Nichols, Adam Fralick, John Saunderson, William Bowman, John
McGuire, Henry Martindale, Reuben Lively, William Wallace, John
Murphy, Henry Green, John McCullum, William Bryson, Samuel
Covell, Samuel Meek, John Meek, Richard Attwood, James Fitzsimmonds,
William Wier, Eli Hoyt, John Lewis, John Withrow, William
Cunningham, Colonel Thomas Pearson, Shubal Dimock, Benjamin
Wier, and Robert Alexander, who were severally granted
500 acres; John Bryson, Samuel McAllister, Richard McMullen,
Thomas Thornton, Samuel Procter, Joseph or Jacob Ellis, Jacob
Withrow, David Withrow, William Bryson, Jr., Jeremiah Crossian
or McCrossian, Henry Martindale, Jr., George Snell, Peter
Ryland, Robert Costley, John Landerkin, Daniel Snell, David Snell,
John Bond, Joseph Simpson, Eli Thornton, Abraham Thornton,
Moses Bruce, Philip Murphy, Roger Wilson, Thomas Williams, and
Robert Scott, each of whom received 250 acres in this tract of
23,000 acres of land.
——————————
Important Claims and Awards of Some South Carolina Loyalists
A list of the more important claims of South Carolina loyalists,
and the amounts awarded as compensation by the British Government
follows:
|
Colonel Elias Ball, Sr.
Major James Ballmer
Thomas Boone
(claims for the Colleton family)
Robert Brailsford's children
James Brisbane
Lieutenant-Governor William Bull
James Burns
John Champneys
Hugh and Daniel Campbell
Thomas Fenwick
William Greenwood
Captain Richard Graves
and his wife
Philip Henry
Zephaniah Kingsley
Moses Kirkland
Lord Charles Greville Montagu,
formerly governor of the Province
Captain John Orde
Gideon Dupont
R. W. Powell and John Hopton
Colonel Richard Pearis
John Rose
James Simpson
Robert Williams
Alexander Wright
|
£23,573
£16,000
£41,207.4s.
£15,568
£20,049
£40,086
£12,350
£20,212
£11,350
£14,627
£49,604
£16,852
£16,351
£16,691.12s.
£12,160
£36,830
£10,705.10s.
£14,131
£22,644
£15,576.18s.
£40,084.10s.
£20,608
£22,692
£12,916
|
£12,700
£ 400
£22,533.8s.
£ 500
£ 2,274
£ 6,400
£ 5,000
£ 5,204
£ 5,000
£ 2,723.16s.
£ 785
£ 4,000
£ l,208.14s.
£ 2,387.4s.
£ 1,518
£ 5,624
£16,526.16s.
£ 8,077
£ 1,705
£ 8,121
|
The three claims of Lord Charles Greville Montagu, Captain
Richard Graves and his wife, and of William Greenwood were disallowed
because those claimants failed to produce documentary or
other satisfactory proof of the definite loss of their property by
confiscation or other means.
According to the report (A.O. 13/85) of the committee of
South Carolina loyalists, dated May 24, 1783, the estimated values
of the property lost by the loyalists of that Province were as
follows:
Real estate
Slaves
Debts
Losses by depreciation
Contingent losses
Removable property
Total
|
£ 569,631
£ 206,324
£ 389,968
£ 155,688
£ 82,240
£ 22,699
—————
£1,426,550
|
sterling
|
Official salaries and incomes from professions, per annum,
were estimated at £28,280, and the total amount of the award was
£17,400.
The committee, having found that in many cases the values
were over-estimated, deducted the sum of £165,314 from the
aggregate amount.
The value of land was based in most cases on the personal
knowledge of members of the committee, but where such knowledge
did not exist, it was valued at six shillings sterling per acre.
Slaves were valued at an average of £60 sterling each, which
was the price realized for them at public auction before the war.
The report of the committee of the South Carolina loyalists
bears the autograph signatures of Thomas Irving, James Simpson,
Henry Peronneau, William Ancrum, Robert Williams, John Hopton,
and James Johnston. (A.0. 13/85.)
The amount awarded by the British Government on the claims
for compensation was £257,000. In addition, pensions exceeding
£6,600 per annum were granted to the South Carolina loyalists.
(A.O. 12/109.)
Compensation for debts (£389,968) was refused on the ground
that by the fourth, fifth, and sixth articles of the peace treaty, no
impediments were to be put in the way of the recovery of debts by
the colonists. But the States by ignoring these articles (J. B.
McMaster, Hist, of the People of the U. S., Vol. I, p. 107; Cambridge
Modern History, Vol. VII, 1903, p. 307.) and the Congress by its
helplessness to enforce the stipulations of its treaties, brought
America at once into conflict with Great Britain. Many loyalists,
who had returned to their former homes in America in expectation
of receiving payment of at least a part of their just debts, and in
many cases with the intention of remaining there, were not only
refused payment but were subjected to such abuse and ill treatment
as to compel them to quit the country forthwith.
Evidence of the refusal of debtors in South Carolina to pay
their just debts to loyalists is obtained from, among other sources,
a letter written from Charleston, 4 April, 1785, to Colonel John
Hamilton. In this letter the writer states that several loyalists who
had come there in consequence of the peace were ordered to depart
the country in 60 days, while others had only 30 days to remain.
The writer, in picturing the lawlessness of the State, mentions the
case of a loyalist who was hanged, after his acquittal by the circuit
judge. (A.O. 13/85.)
A senator of South Carolina refused payment of a note, dated
1773, due to Paul Hamilton, a loyalist planter there. (From a letter
from Alexander Chisholm, dated 14 February, 1787, from Charleston:
A.O. 13/129.)
——————————
.
APPENDIXES
FROM ORIGINAL AND UNPUBLISHED
MATERIAL IN THE PUBLIC RECORD
OFFICE, LONDON, ENGLAND
APPENDIX I
Minutes of the Examination of Alexander Chesney by the
Commissioners of American Claims, in London.
361
6th. May 1783.
Resided on broad River in the district of Ninety six — lived
with his Father but had Plantations of his own — he married a Wife
& had 200 Acres with her — he had 700 Acres besides — he went there
from Ireland in 1772 — He values the whole 900 Acres (70 of which
are cultivated) above 1000 at £1516 Sterling — the Value is certified
by Colo. Philips362 & likewise by Lord Comwallis & Colo. Balfour — his Personal Estate amounted to £480. — he first joined the Kings Troops after Charles Town was taken in 1780 — Has a Wife & one
Child in Belfast363 — he came home in April 1782 — he married in America — he has no Property of his own in Ireland but he is supported
by his Friends who advance him Money when he wants it — He has some little Support Lord Rawdon gave him a Supernumary Tidewaiters Place which is worth about £20 a year — he does not
wish to continue in it — he came over from Ireland in Order to attend
here which will be an Expence to him of £20.
Certificate very sufficient & no further Attendance require
Decision. £50 p Ann from 5th. January 1783.
This Person had very singular Merit in South Carolina — his
property was worth £2000. Sterling & we think it would be proper
to pay him after the Rate of £50. p Ann. from the 5 January 1783.
——————————
APPENDIX II
.
Alexander Chesney's Memorial
Docket: No 193
Alexander Chesney
his Memorial
received 21st November 1783
To the Honourable the Commissioners appointed by Act of
Parliament for enquiring into the Losses and services of the American
Loyalists.
The Memorial of Capt Alexander Chesney
Late of the Province of South Carolina
Sheweth
That your memorialist for several years prior to the Late unhappy
Rebellion in america resided on Pacolet River in Ninety six
district in the Province of South Carolina aforesaid
That at the commencement of the Rebellion in that Province,
your memorialist took an active part in favour of the British Government
and rendered the Loyal subjects in that country as well
as his Majesties army essential services as appear by the certifycates(sic)
hereunto annexed.
That soon after the reduction of Charles Town by Sir Henry
Clinton your memorialist was appointed a Captain of a company of
militia, and Adjutant of the different batalions of militia under the
late Major Ferguson of the 71st Regiment in which capacity he
acted untill the defeat of that officer on Kings Mountain where your
memorialist was wounded and taken prisoner.
That your memorialist after he obtained his Liberty, again
acted in his military capacities untill the out posts were drove into
the garison(sic) of Charles Town
That your memorialist has Lost all his Lands and other property,
in consequence of his Loyalty, and attachment to the British
Government; the same being long since seized and confiscated by
the rebels.
Your memorialist therefore prays that his case may be taken
into your consideration, in order that your memorialist may be enabled
under [your] Report, to receive such aid or relief, as his
Losses and services may be found to deserve.
And your memorialist as in duty bound will ever pray
London 20th Novr 1783
Alexr Chesney.
at 31 Brownlow Street
Long acre, London.
Witnesses names
|
Places of Residence of the witnesses
|
Colonel John Phillips
|
No. 31 Brownlow Street
Long acre, London
|
Col. Zacharias Gibbs
|
No. 32 Charles Street
Westminster.
|
Captn James Miller
|
No. 18 Drury Lane
London.
|
——————————
APPENDIX III
An Estimate of Alexander Chesney's Property
An estimate of the Lands, and other property, of Captn Alexander
Chesney, Late of Pacolet River, in the Province of South
Carolina, Lost by his Loyalty and attachment to Great Britain.
DESCRIPTION OF THE LANDS
|
Sterling
value
pr. acre
|
|
80 Acres situate on the north bank of Pacolet
River, being part of a tract of 300 acres
granted by Gov. Tryon Late Govr of North
Carolina, and purchased by me from Peter
Howard, as will appear by conveyances
now in my possession, on said tract was
about 40 acres cleared and well fenced in
convenient fields, with good houses and
other improvements, and a valuable fishery
together with a commodious seat for a saw
and flower(sic) mill, greatest part of the irons
and other materials for said works I had
provided before I was obliged to abandon
said Lands, the improvements were made
by me,
|
40s
|
160
|
150 acres adjoining the above tract, being part
of a tract of 400 acres, Granted by Lord
Charles Grenville Montague, 364 Late Gov r of
South Carolina, to Robert Chesney my
father, from whom I received the same
under deed of gift A. D. 1778 which conveyance
was Lost or destroyed at the time
the Rebel Gen l. Morgan 365 took possession
of my plantation before Col Tarletons Defeat
at the Cowpens which happened on
the 17 th Jany 1781.
|
25s
|
187.10
|
200 acres situate on Williams creek the waters
of Pacolet River granted by the Govr of
North Carolina to James Cook, from him
conveyed to William Hodge, from whom
I received it by a contract of marriage
with his daughter, in the year 1780. On
said tract was good houses and 30 acres
or upward cleared Land, under good fences
which improvements was rented out at the
time I was oblidged to leave that place, for
one third of its produce, the conveyance
of this was also Lost or destroyed by
Morgans army when they encamped at my
plantation
|
40s
|
400
|
200 Acres situate on the waters of Williams
Creek and joining one square of the aforesaid
tract, surveyed for, and granted to
me. the grant of this is in the public
office in Charlestown, there is a valuable
vein of copper ore runs through this tract
|
30s
|
300
|
100 Acres situate on Bush River, 366 granted to
me on a bounty warrant during the Government
of Lord Charles Granvile Montague
the grant of this is also in the Public
office in Cha s Town
|
|
|
Amount of my Lands
|
£
|
1122.10
|
OTHER PROPERTY
|
|
|
One Negro woman named Moll, taken away
by the Rebel Captn Vardrey Magbee 367
|
60
|
|
Three horses taken away by Do same time
|
40
|
|
One Waggon and team with gears &c &c
|
100
|
|
Six Cows taken by Morgans army 40s each
|
12
|
|
Three hogsheads of Tobaco or thereabouts,
with about five hundred bushels of Indian
corn, in store, a quantity of oats and other
crop taken by the aforesaid Morgans army
|
120
|
|
The Schooner Dolphin which I left in
America when I came to Europe for the
recovery of my health, which same
schooner cost me Seventy Guineas but just
She is by the most authentic accounts since
taken by the Rebels.
|
70
|
|
Cash and Goods on board said Schooner
|
40
|
442.0
|
|
£
|
1564.10
|
Alex:r Chesney
London 20th Novr. 1783.368
————————————
I certify that Mr Alexander Chesney was employed by me in
the Barrack department as Inspector of Wood Cutters from the
18th November 1790 to the 31st December following and that during
that time he behaved himself with the greatest Fidelity & Industry
in the discharge of the Trust reposed in him & was afterwards
employed by my Successor in Office whom he was obliged to leave
from his ill state of Health
Given under my hand at Charles Town South Carolina
the 30th day of March 1782—
London Aug: 11
I certify that Alexander Chesney was of use to the Kings
Troops under my command acting between the Broad River & the
Mountains So Carolina — in the beginning of the year 81
Ban: Tarleton
370
L
t Col: Com
t B. L.
I Certify that the Bearer Mr Alxr. Chesney commanded a Company
of the Royal Militia in South Carolina; with which He acquitted
himself as a faithful, zealous, and active officer, & by his attachment
to the cause of Great Britain He lost a very good property.
J Doyle Major 105
th Reg
t371
——————————
APPENDIX IV
Evidence on Alexander Chesney's Memorial.
372
Alexander Chesney the Claim' Sworn.
Says he went from Ireland to America in 1772 — the latter end
of the Year — Settled on the Pacolet River in the district of Ninety-six
in South Carolina in 1773.
Says at the time the Rebellion broke out he lived with his
Father — Says in the Summer of 1775 — he was pressed to enter
into the Associatn against Great Britain which he refused to do
—
He then went to join the Loyalists who were collected under Captain
Phillips — brother to Col. Phillips and guided them up to Pacolet to
his Fathers This was in the Winter the latter End of 1775 — or
beginning of 1776
The Body staid about a fortnight when they divided — He was
soon afterwards made a prisoner for having lent his Assistance
to these Loyalists — He was taken off from his Father's by a party
of Rebels under Col: Steen he remained Prisoner 50 days373 when
he was bailed out — He soon after went home — In the summer follg
in June he was again taken into Custody on the same Account and
carried part of the way to Charles Town. He had the option of
going to Goal or joining the party of Rebels and take Arms with
them. He consented to the latter as his Father's Family wod
otherwise have been certainly ruined. He continued with the Rebels in
Charles Town till the 16th of August following. In the course of
a few days after he got to Charles Town he made an attempt in
company of two others Chs and Chr Brandon to join Sir Henry Clinton
who was then upon Long Island. Being discovered upon the
River they were obliged to desist from their purpose and return.
He was obliged to continue serving occasionally with the Rebels till
June 1777 — at wch time the Regt was discharged & he returned
home. In the summer of 1778 the State Oath became Genl and
Claimant with a party consisting altogether of 30 resolved to go to
Florida to avoid taking the Oath they accordingly joined Genl
Williamson374 who was marching into Florida intending to quit him
upon the first favorable Opportunity and sent off one of their party
to find the way for them but this Man (whose name was David
Bayley) never returned. And therefore finding themselves unable
to accomplish it They returned home at the end of the expedition
& Claimant remained at home till after Charles Town was taken.
He says the Oath was never tendered to him during the time he
remained at home — and he took no part375 till after Charles Town
was taken.
When that Event took place the Loyalists embodyed themselves
on Sugar Creek in Ninety six District and Claimant among the rest.
The number was about 200 — They dispersed again and afterwards
in June 1780 embodied at Bullocks Creek upon hearing that a
Body of Rebels was coming against them. Claimant was chosen by
this Body to command them and an Action took place wherein the
Rebels were beaten, and they soon afterwards joined Col: Balfour
at Fair Forrest.
He was afterwards put under the command of Major Ferguson
who was Inspector Genl of the Militia and continued serving under
him till his defeat at Kings Mountain on the 7th of Oct. 1780. He
was durg this time entrusted by Major Ferguson with private Instructions
to a Capt. Moore who commanded a Post in Thicketty.
He delivered the Instrs according to his orders.
He was afterwards employed to procure Intelligence of the
numbers and motions of a large party of the Rebels then encamped
on Cherokee Ford on Broad River. He got undiscovered into their
Camp, and discovered that 500 Men were detached to Nicholas's
Fort. He gave information of this to Major Ferguson in consequence
of wch(sic) he intercepted and defeated the party at the Iron
Works above the Fort He undertook this Service in consequence
of a paper shewn him by Col. Bibbes wherein a reward of 50 Gu'as
was offered to any Body who should perform this Service — Claimant
tho he undertook it, yet refused the reward, and says he did it
merely from a wish to serve the Kings Troops. If he had been
taken on this Service he should have been hanged as a Spy — Major
Ferguson talked to him about payment after his return but he persisted
in his refusal to take any thing. He was afterwards appointed
adjutant of the different of Militia. He reced(sic) pay for his Service.
He was frequently employed by Major Ferguson many hazardous
Services for procuring Intelligence, and he had the command of
various parties committed to his charge against the Enemy in wch
he was always fortunate enough to conduct himself to the Major's
satisfaction. When Major Ferguson was defeated at Kings Mountain,
Claimant was with him and was taken prisoner and carried
to Moravian Town in North Carolina, where he was offered to be
restored to all his Rights & properties if he wod serve with the
Rebels only for one Month, & threatened him with death in case of
refusal. He did refuse, and was marched almost naked with other
prisoners in Moravian Town on the Gadkin River, in a course of
150 Miles. He made his escape from hence & returned home, where
in the beging of Decr 1780 he raised a Company of Militia and joined
Col. Tarleton.
Produces a Commn of Capt. in Col: Plummers Regt of foot
under the Hand of Col. Balfour dated 1st Decr 1780.
Says he continued with Col. Tarleton sometime & when the Col
Tarleton marched against Genl Morgan Claimant was with him in
the Action, of the 17th Janry 1781 — at the Cow-pens on Thicketty
wherein Col: Tarleton was defeated — Claimant then retreated towards
Charles Town, and in his way endeavoured to persuade Genl
Cunningham to embody the Militia but not succeeding in his appl'on
he went to Charles Town. He continued on different Military services
till the Evac'n of Charles Town.
Produces certificates of Loyalty and Credibility under the
Hands of Lord Cornwallis, Lord Rawdon, Col. Balfour, Colonel
Tarleton, Major Doyle, Col. Cruden376 & others.
Produces t'ndre(sic) dated 24 July 1777 — being a Lease for a Year
of 80 Acres of Land on the North Side of the Pacolet River being
part of a Tract of 300 — Says he has the Release at home in Ireland.
Says he purchased this Tract in the beginning of 1776 and
paid part of the Con's'on then, but did not pay the rest till the date
of the Conveyance — He gave 60l Sterl. in Money and Goods for
these 80 Acres. When he bought them about 3 Acres were cleared.
It was part of a large Plantation whereof 100 Acres were under
Cultivation. Says he erected a good dwelling house Stable and Corn
House — He cleared as much as to make up 40 Acres. They were on
four Fields well fenced. Part of the Goods he paid for this Land
were Horses, Salt &c. He paid £150 Currency in Money — Says
when he bought this Land he imagined the British Cause would
prevail, and that it was safer to invest his property in Land than
any thing else.
He gave as much for it as he sho'd have given for it, two years
before — Lands were rising in value every day — at the same time he
thinks he got a good bargain of it, and he co'd have got more for it
a short time afterwards as he was offered more within a month
than he had given for it.
Says that £60 Sterling wod not have defrayed the expence of
the Improvement, besides the Iron Work and Timber for the Mill.
The Iron work was worth £8 Ster. Says he values it upon his Oath
at 40/ Sterling an Acre.
Says his Father Robert Chesney conveyed to him by Deed of
Gift 150 Acres adjoining to the above in 1778. It was granted to
his Father in 1773 — He has not the Deed in his poss'ion. It was
taken away with other Papers from his House by the Rebels Says
there was little or no Cultivation upon it. He considered this and
the 80 Acres as one Tract, and was not at any expence on this part'lar
part: No Cultivatn had been made by him or his Father. Thinks
it was worth 25s per Acre to him, as it lay contiguous to his other
property but wod not have been so to any body who had not posse'd
the Tract of 80 Acres.
Says the 200 Acres sit. on Williams Creek he rec'd as a portion
with his Wife from her Father William Hodge in the year
1780 But he paid Hodge £25 Sterling on this occasion. It was conveyed
to Claimant in fee
Says there were good Houses, and upwards of 30 Acres of
cleared Land upon this Tract, when it was conveyed to him and he
rented it out for one third of its produce.
Says his Father in Law always took part with the Rebels,377 but
bels he is not in poss'ion of it at present. Claimant never rec'd but
one Years rent for it, and does not think he got above £6 Sterling
for his Share of the produce.
Says he was promised £100 as a portion with his wife & he
looked upon this Land as a compensation for the £100
Says he thinks it would really have sold at that time that he
left it for 35s an Acre in Cash.
Says in the year 1773 — he bought a Warrant for 200 Acres
adjoining to this Land and applied for the Grant. He paid the Fees
and understood the Grant was passed but he never had it. There
was no improvement upon this Land, and he never derived any advantage
from it. He gave £6 for the Warrant, and the Fees were
about £4 more Sterling, and a small sum for Taxes.
Says he values this Land and thinks it wo'd have sold for 30/
an Acre
Says he bought a Warrant for 100 Acres on Bush River he
never had the Grant He was at no other expence but £6 currency
for the Survey. He values it at 15s an Acre, but can't speak positively
to the value.
Says he was poss'ed of a Negro Woman who was taken away
from his House by a Rebel Capt.378 in the year 1780. She was a
valuable Slave both within and without Doors — And thinks she was
worth more than £60.
The same Man at the same time took away three Horses one
was a fine riding Horse wch he thinks was worth 20l — the other
two work Horses wch he values at £10 each.
Says just before the taking of Charles Town a Waggon & Team
of 4 Horses were taken from him. The Waggon was 3 year old, and
he values it at £30. The four Horses were worth 70l.379
Says his Wife told him Morgans Army had killed 6 head of his
Cattle — he values them at Forty Shillings a Head.
At the same time (as he was told) were taken away 3 H'h'ds of
Tobacco w'ch were each 1000 lb weight. He values it at 20s an Cwt
w'ch it had cost him, and had paid for it.
Says at the same time were taken 500 Bushels of Indian Corn
to the best of his belief — he had the Account from his Wife, he
values ye Corn at 10s Currency per Bushel — Oats and Rye worth
£5 Sterling.
Says he meant to include in this Article of his Memorl his
Plantation tools and Household Furniture wch he values at £10 Ster.
Says he bought a Schooner in the year 1781 for wch he paid 70
G'as. He sent her with Cash and Goods on board to the Value of
£40 to St. Johns in Florida and to bring back a Cargo — He has since
been informed She was taken by the Rebels.
Col. John Phillips — Sworn
Says he has known Claimant since he was a year old. He first
came to America in 1772 — or 1773 — They lived near Witness at
first, and then went to settle on Pacolet.
Says the first Action of Claimant's Loyalty was after the Battle
of Ninetysix,380 when Claimant took sevl Loyalists from Jackson's
Creek to his Fathers at Pacolet & saved them from being taken
prisoners. This was in the latter end of 1775. He was then a slip
of a Boy about 18 — among these Loyalists were two Brothers of
Witness381 — Thinks his motives were his attachment to Britain.
Says that he firmly bels Claimant in his mind a determined
Loyalist from the beginning tho' he was obliged to carry Arms for
the Rebels. Says that during the time he (Witness) was prisoner
in Genl Williamsons Army Claimat took every opportunity in his
power to converse with Wit. and communicated to him his intentions
to make his Escape from that Army — Says he has known
many Loyalists forced against their Wills to serve as Soldiers in
the Rebel Army
From the time of the Reduction of Charles Town he was always
most zealous and active Partizan in favor of Govt. Major Ferguson
has told Wit. that he never knew such a little Boy as Claimant.
He was particularly Serviceable both to Col. Tarleton and Major
Ferguson and ran risques w'ch nothing would have tempted Wit. to
have done. He does not know nor believe that he ever rec'ed any
reward for these except a trifle from Col. Balfour in Charles Town.
Says he does not know enough of his Lands to speak to their
Value. He heard of his having purchased Lands on Pacolet River,
and that his Father had given him some more. He had likewise
been upon Land w'ch he was told had been given Claimant by his
Father in Law.
Knew besides he had bounty Warrant, but knows nothing
of the part'lars.
Knew Claimant had a Waggon wch he heard & bels was taken
from him by the Rebels.
Says he knew Claimant had a Schooner wch he purchasd (he
bels) for £70 Ster. in 1781. Wit. lent him £60 of the Ms to pay for
her. Says he bels She was taken by the Rebels, for the Master returned
to Charles Town and informed him she had been taken
Witness suspected the Master of her had behaved treacherously as
he appeared in Charles Town in a more genteel manner afterwds tho
he pretended the Schooner had been taken. Knows Claimant had
£40 on board — part in Cash and part in Good.
He has heard and believes he had a Negro and is satisfied that
he lost her.
Col. Zachs Gibbes382 Sworn.
Says he has known Claimant many Years. He was a Friend
to Govt he and all his Fathers Family from the commencement of
the Troubles. Knows he concealed the Loyalists at his Father's
— among others Col. Phillip's Brothers. When Wit. returned home
after being exiled he went to the House of Claimant's Father to
conceal himself knowing no body whom he cod so securely trust, as
he knew he had concealed some Loyalists. Wit: lay concealed there
but two days, & found Claimant a sensible Youth and attached to
Govt.
Says that Claimant had been before forced into the Rebel Service —
that he was then a Youth and held it was contrary to his Inclinatn.
Says that they had not a more active Officer or Man in Major
Fergusons Army during that Campaign. Says that Major Ferguson
sent to Wit. and desired he would point out to him a faithful
Man who wod go into the Enemy's Camp then at Cherokee Ford &
count the number of their Men and bring Intelligence of their
Movements. Wit. pointed out claimant, who went and brought the
desired Intelligce He did not get a Farthing reward for this Service.
Wit. afterwards wrote to Col. Balfour383 who gave him 5 G'as
— Says he does not think he would have gone without the reward as
it was a very dangerous Service.
Says that Claimt did propose to Wit. in 1776 for the Loyalists
in general to sign a Paper testifying their abhorence of the Rebellion
& their resolution to support the British Government.
Reads the paper produced by Claimant & bels it was to the
effect expressed in that paper.384
Says he bels that Claimant entred into an Agreement with other
Loyalists to escape to Florida from Genl Williamson's Army.
Knows many instances of the Active Services of Claimant both
in Action and by procuring Intelligence & had great Trust reposed
in him.
He was taken in the Battle of Kings Mountain where he behaved
bravely. He knows no Man of whom he can speak more
highly.
Knows Claimant poss'ed 80 Acres on Pacolet River — w'ch he
values at 30/ an Acre at least.
Knows he purchased and paid for it, and that he was offered
30/ an Acre for it. As to the offer he knows it only by hearing.
Says he heard he was poss'ed of a Tract of Land w'ch had been
part of his Father's w'ch he bels was 150 Acres. He values it at 20/
an Acre.
Says he knows he had Lands on Wms Creek w'ch had been Wm
Hodges. Does not know part'ly the number of Acres. He values it
at 20/ an Acre.
Says he knew the Land adjoining but not the Title to them w'ch
he values at 15/ an Acre.
Does not know the Land on Bush River.
Knew Claimant had a Negro which he values at £60.
Knew he had a Waggon and Team, he supposes it might be
worth £70.
Knows he purchased a good deal of Tobacco — but does not know
the part'lars of it.
Capt. James Miller Sworn
Knows Claimant — confirms his account of conducting the Loyalists
to his Father's in 1776 — w'ch he did from Motives of Loyalty
— He sd so at the time. He was always looked upon as a Man in
whom they might perfectly rely.
Cannot speak positively as to his property but heard he had a
Tract of Land from Hodge his Father in Law.385
——————————
APPENDIX V
A. Alexander Chesney's Orders for Wood Cutting
Capt Alexander Chesney is employed to Superintend the Refugees
cutting wood for the Barrack Department. No wood Cutt by
any person will be paid for unless the Cutter produces a receipt
sign'd by Capt Chesney — he will also take care that the wood is
cutt as near as possible to the best Landing & that the Cords are
full measure so that when they come to Charlestown they may hold
out measure in Case of any disputes arrizing between him & the
Proprietors of the Lands on the Neck he will apply to Mr. Hodge
who will take the proper measures for settling them
By Order of the Barrack Master
A Montell
386
——————————
B. Copy of Alexander Chesney's Commission as Captain
South Carolina
By Lieutenant Colonel Nesbit Balfour Commandant
at Charles Town &c &c &c
To Alexander Chesney
By virtue of the Power & authority in me vested, I do hereby
constitute & appoint you to be Capt. in Col Plummer's Regiment of
Foot387 — You are to take into your Care & Charge, and duly to Exercise as well the Officers as Soldiers thereof in Arms, & to use your
best Endeavors to keep them in good Order Discipline; & I do hereby
command them to obey you as their Captain respectively. And
you are to observe and follow such orders & Directions from time
to Time as you shall receive from the General or Commander in
Chief of His Majesty's Forces in North America, now & for the
Time being, your Colonel or any other your Superior officer, according
to the Rules & Discipline of war, in Pursuance of the Trust
hereby resposed [sic] in you.
Given under my Hand & Seal at
the 1st Day of December 1780, and in the 20th year
of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord George the 3d
by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France & Ireland,
King, Defender of the Faith &c.
(Signed) N Balfour
——————————
C. Alexander Chesney's Commission as Lieutenant of Independent Scouts
To Mr Alexr. Chesney
Reposing especial trust & confidence in your Loyalty and Abilities,
I do hereby empower you to act as Lieutenant of Independent
Scouts in Capt John Fanning's388 Company — And all persons whatever are hereby required and directed to obey you as Lieutenant
of that Company.
|
(L. S.)
|
Given under my hand at Charles Town
20th April 1781
N Balfour
Commandant
|
We do hereby certify, that the above is a true copy compared
with the original this 7th day of Octor. 1782
J. Mackintosh
Lew: Wolfe
389
——————————
D. Testimonial to Alexander Chesney's Services in Connection with Sequestered Estates
I hereby Certify that Mr Alexander Chesney was Employed by
me as an overseer of the Sequestered Estate of Thos Ferguson Esqr.
and withal Capacity he behaved himself to my Sattisfaction — He
was also Employed by me as a Lieutenant in a Corps embodied for
the Defence of the Sequestered Estates, and during the time he was
so Employed. In justice to him I can not but acknowledge that he
gave proof of Zeal & Spirit as well as activity & Enterprise, which
I hope will recommend him to the Notice of all those attachd(sic) to His
Majestys Government
|
Chas Town 8th Febry 1782
|
J. Cruden390
Commr. Loyts. Estates
|
——————————
E. Other Testimonials to the Services of Alexander Chesney
Cherlestown(sic) , April 1st 1782
Captain Alexr Chesney having an inclination to return to England
on account of his Health—
I know him to be a very determin'd Loyalist, & that he has
render'd many Services to His Majesty's Government ever since
the present Rebellion — That he always has done his Duty as an
Officer, & has ever faithfully accomplished every matter that has
been entrusted to him
Given under my Hand at Charlestown this 1st April 1782
N Balfour.
Culford Augst: 14th 1782
I believe the contents of the Memorial of Mr. Alexr. Chesney to
be perfectly just and recommend him as a proper object of the consideration
of Government
Cornwallis
To The Lords Commissioners
of His Majesty's Treasury
The Bearer Mr. Alexander Chesney, having requested me
to give him some testimonial of his good conduct in America, I have
much pleasure in certifying, that in the Command of a Company
of Royal Militia he behaved with exemplary zeal & fidelity. Given
under my hand this 18th. of August 1782.
Rawdon
Mansfield Street, Nov. 20th 1783
I know Mr. Alexander Chesney to have been a deserving Man,
and an active and zealous Loyalist, and I have every reason to believe
that his estimate of his Losses is perfectly just.390
Cornwallis
——————————
F. Letter to the Commissioners from Colonel John Phillips.
391
Ballymena 12th. Decr. 1785
Capt: Chesney showed me your letter of the 28: Novbr: and
Requests me to write to the Commisrs Respecting his property —
I know that I was informed that after Capt, Chesney's wife and
family was Drove of from his house & Lands that the Rebell Coll.
Branon392 took poseson(sic) of said house and Lands and put a rebell(sic)
family in possion of it and I am perfectly Convinced it is Conficated(sic)
and I am shure it is irecoverably Lost to him from the many services
both publick and secret he rendered Govermt.
indeed all who bore Commisons(sic) in the British army were included
in the Confication act and as he was one of the most active
one I am convinced he has as littells Chance to Injoy any part of
his property in Caralenia(sic) as any Loyalist. I know also that Capt
James Miller Lands393 is sold and a rebell Capt Hugh Millen394 is living
on them and their is two Loyalists heare can and will take their
oath that they were on the spot in 1784 and saw Millen in possion(sic)
of the same
——————————
G. Major Doyle's Certificate to Alexander Chesney.
395
Montalto — Ballynahinch Decr. 14th. 1785
I Certify that Captain Alexander Chesney late of the Carolina
Militia was a very active zealous officer in support of his Majesty
Goverment during the late War: & by that means is (I am convinced)
totally & for ever, deprived of his property in America,
although He may not have been mentioned in a Confiscation List;
which however must affect him as having held a Commission in
the British Service.
J: Doyle Major
late 105th Regt
——————————
H. Colonel Zacharias Gibbs' Certificate.
396
On an application made to me by Captain Alexander Chesney
late of Ninety-six in his Majesty's Province, now the State of So
Carolina In Justice to his Charector, and Merit I think it my Duty
to Certify that at the Commencement of the unhappy war, he took
an Early part for and in Behalf of his Majesty's Government: and
Rendered many essential Services to Government. More especially
at the Return of the Royal Government in the year 1780, he joined
the Royal army and from his Zeal and activity was Appointed Adjt.
of a Royal Regt of Militia, and Captain of a Company — And to my
knowledge remained Singularly active Dureing the British Troops
Remaining in that Country which was near two years — And I
must further say I know no man of Captain Chesney's Rank that
Rendered more Services Dureing(sic) that time, and to my knowledge,
and By my Direction he Rendered many both Publick and Secret
Services, such as Rideing(sic) with Hazardous Expresses &c and in Particular
to Major Patrick Ferguson, of the 71st. Regt. Lord Rawdon,
and Col. Balfour; and was taken at the memorable Battle at King's
Mountain the 8th Octr. 1780, when Major Ferguson was killed, and
was taken some Hundred Miles Prisoner into North Carolina, in
Close Confinement, and Treated with the Utmost Severity. At
length made his Escape back and Raised another Company of Militia,
and Cooperated with the British Troops — In Consequence of
which I believe and know from Circumstances that his property
both Real and personal are Irrecoverably lost, as the americans
Immediately Seized on his Property, having Drove his wife and
Child off and Into the British lines; and I think his Chance Equally
as Dangerous to return as mine or any other Loyalist.
Given under my hand at Springfield, County Down. Ireland
this 15th day of Decr. 1785
|
Zachs. Gibbs
late a Coll. Royal Militia
South Carolina Ninety-Six District-
|
——————————
I. Letter to the Commissioners from Alexander Chesney.
397
Bangor Decr. 16th. 1785
It gave me infinite pain, to find by Mr Forsters Letter, that
there remained a doubt with you, of the confiscation, and irrecoverable
loss of my Property in America. I was in hopes that it had
already been made appear to your satisfaction, by the very respectable
Witnesses examined on my case, that as early as Jany, 81. the
Rebel Col. Brandon,398 seized all my Lands, and other Property under
the Confiscation Act, and drove off my family into the British
Lines, not allowing my Wife so much as a Blanket to protect her
Child of 3 Months old, from the inclemency of the weather. And
that he (Brandon) immediately apply'd all my Personal Property
to his own, and the use of Genl. Morgans399 army their(sic) encamped
on the spot.
I also flattered myself with the hopes that, from my uncommon
exertions in the field as an officer, and from the many very
essential secret services I rendered Govt. during the late War, and
from the certifycates(sic) in my favour, from Lord Cornwallis; Lord
Rawdon; Col. Balfour, Col Tarleton and other Officers, under whom
I srved(sic) in America; to be classed with the most meritorious, and
deserving men. And to have received some compensation with
them, to enable me to support my family. And as I have ever
placed an unlimited confidence on the faith of Govermt. and sacrificed
my all for its support, I hope you will see that my Property
is confiscated, & for ever gone from me, and include me in your
next Report. And be ashured(sic) Gentlemen, that I am one of the last
men, that would be admited back to Carolina. Shou'd I be abandoned
by Govt, and left in poverty, and despair, a prey to the Rebelion(sic) ,
yet in that case I cou'd not even think for a moment, of
soliciting any favours from the late Rebellious States.
If it will give you any further satisfaction, I will make Oath
before Lord Moira,400 or a Justice of Peace, that, all the Lands, and
other Property, for which I gave you in Claims, are to the best of
my information, and belief, confiscated. And that I have not the
most distant expectation of ever receiving any part of it except
from Govt, And that I never intend to return to any part of the
United States unless they are again under a British Govt
I have called on Col Phillips, and Col Gibbs and got them to
certify what they know of the matter, and would be glad you wou'd
enquire the oppinion of my Lord Cornwallis, Lord Rawdon, Col.
Balfour, Col Tarleton, or Major Saunders401 of the Queen's Rangers,
and from any of those Gentlemen, you will learn that from my
services, it is impossible I shou'd ever enjoy or recover any part of
my confiscated Property. And as my situation is singularly distressing,
having been oblig'd to borrow Money to defray the expences
of three different Journeys to London, on this business already.
I hope your honrs will see the merit of my conduct, and the
distresses of my situation, and grant me, and my family some relief
as soon as in your Power.
——————————
J. Letter to the Commissioners from Lewis Wolfe.
402
College Street
22nd. Dec 1785
The enclosed letter & Certificates I received by the Post this
Day from Mr. Chesney, who resides at Bangor in Ireland, in answer
to your Letter to him for further Proofs in support of his
Claim; with a desire from him to lay them before the Commissioners
for their Information; & to request the favor of being informed
whether they are satisfactory or not; as Mr. Chesney lives at a great
Distance, the expence of coming to Town would be attended by
much Inconvenience to him.
——————————
K. Letter to the Commissioners from Lord Cornwallis.
403
Culford Dec: 26th 1785
Having received a letter from Mr. Alexr. Chesney, informing
me that the Commissioners were of opinion that he had not produced
satisfactory evidence of the confiscation and sale or irrecoverable
loss of his property; I think it my duty, in justice to that
very deserving Man, to assure the Commissioners, that I am perfectly
convinced, from the active and very material services which
Mr Chesney rendered to the British Troops, and from the violence
with which He and his family were persecuted, that his return to
Carolina is impossible, and that the loss of his property is irrecoverable.
——————————
APPENDIX VI
Resolution of the Loyalists on Pacolet River,
South Carolina. [1775]
404
We the principle inhabitants of the neighbourhood of pacolet
River, beholding with the utmost abhorrence and detestation, the
dareing(sic) proceedings of those infatuated people, who call themselvs
committee men, or Liberty boys, feloniously breaking open the
houses of his Majesties subjects, and thence carrying away Arms,
Ammunition, and other warlike stores; as well as putting their
persons in confinement, which proceedings must terminate in the
ruin and misery, of the poor deluded people themselvs.
In order therefore to shew our attachment to our King and
country, we promise goverment and each other, that we will embody
ourselves at the shortest notice, to support the rights of the crown,
as soon as called by any Legal Authority from thence—
——————————
APPENDIX VII.
Party Divisions in South Carolina Families
Family divisions in the war were many in South Carolina.
Such well-known families as Bull, Moultrie, Lowndes, Pinckney,
Drayton, Garden, Manigault, Heyward, Huger, and Horry were
represented on both sides of the conflict, as were many less conspicuous
families in South Carolina.
Draper mentions the brothers Goforth fighting as enemies at
the battle of King's Mountain, where also fought the four brothers
Logan — William and Joseph on the Whig side and John and Thomas
on the loyal side. (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes,
pp. 314-5.)
——————————
APPENDIX VIII.
Justification of the Taking of the Oath to the State by the
Committee of the South Carolina Loyalists in London.
406
At
A Meeting of the General Committee of the South Carolina Loyalists
John Rose
Charles Ogilvie
James Simpson
|
Present
Thomas Irving—Chairman
John Hopton
|
Robert Williams
Gideon Dupont
Robt Wm Powell
|
The Committee having agreed to the following Report, Mr.
Powell and Mr. Dupont are requested to wait on the Honourable
William Bull and Thomas Boone406 Esquires; their Agents, and to
beg the favor of them to deliver the same as soon as possible to
the Honourable the Commissioners appointed by Act of
Parliament for enquiring into the Losses and Services of the American
Loyalists.
The Committee of South Carolina Loyalists being informed
that the taking of the Oath to the State is construed to their prejudice,
on the investigation of their Claims for Compensation of
their Losses and Services under the late Act of Parliament, think
it their indispensable duty to offer the following Observations to
the consideration of the Honourable Board of Commissioners, in
justification of their Conduct, through the intervention of their
Agents.
It is a clear proposition that the King's Subjects born in any
part of his Dominions owe him a Natural Allegiance, which cannot
be cancelled by any change of time, place, or circumstance, without
the concurrence of the Legislature. This Allegiance is founded
on principles of Universal Law, which the Wisdom of the Nation
has incorporated into its Jurisprudence: And although the Subject
takes an Oath of Allegiance to any foreign Power, that allegiance
is only local and temporary. And his Majesty hath an indubitable
right to require such Subjects to return to his Natural
Allegiance, under severe penalties.
Natural Allegiance always pre-supposes Protection, which are
reciprocal duties; but the Governor and other Officers of the Crown
in South Carolina, having been early forced to relinquish the Exercise
of their respective Offices, and afterwards sent off the Province,
the loyal Inhabitants were totally destitute of Protection, and
exposed to every insult and indignity. In this situation many of
them would have come away with their Families and what little
property they could have collected, by the Sale of their Estates for
a depreciated paper-Currency, there being no Gold or Silver then
in circulation; but the prohibitory Act passed here, put a stop to
all Commercial intercourse between the two Countries, and declared
such property subject to Capture; so that the loyal Inhabitants
being obliged to take a circuitous voyage, expected they and
their Families would be utterly ruined in that event, and reduced
to a state of poverty and wretchedness, in partts of the world where
they had neither Money, Credit, nor Connexions. Human Nature
revolts at the idea of those scenes of misery and distress to which
they would have been liable: and if the Officers of the Crown ran
that hazard, in case of disappointment, they had a prospect of
availing themselves of the patronage and influence of those, by
whose Interest they had obtained their Offices: and the restitution
of their captured property was owing to a liberal construction of
the Act of Parliament in their favor, contrary to the express words,
which could not be preseen. But others of unquestionable Loyalty
in private Stations, who destitute of that prospect, were induced
to remain in the Country to take care of their helpless Families,
and be ready on every occasion to promote the King's Service, when
he could give them protection, endured the severest persecution,
some by painful Imprisonments, others by being dragged in chains
to work on the Fortifications, and several of them were condemned
and executed for their Attachment to the British Government.
Hence it is obvious that the loyal Inhabitants were compelled
to take the Oath to the State, by the highest legal necessity, a fear
of injury to their lives or Persons; to which the people of the Kingdom
in its Civil Wars have submitted by taking an Oath of Allegiance
to Usurpers, until the rightful Heir to the Crown asserted
his Title, rather than leave their Country, Families and Fortunes.
Besides it is declared to be Law, that in time of War or Rebellion,
"a man may be justified in doing many treasonable Acts by compulsion
of the Enemy, or Rebels," which would admit of no excuse in
time of Peace"; And "that if a person be under circumstances of
actual Force and constraint, through a well-grounded apprehension
of injury to his life or person, this fear or compulsion will excuse
his even joining with either Rebels or Enemies in the Kingdom,
provided he leaves them whenever he hath a safe opportunity":
And Obedience to the Government de facto, is so strongly inculcated
by the Laws, that Attempts against an Esurper(sic) , unless in defence
or aid of the rightful King, have been Capitally punished,
after the true Prince regains the Sovereignty; because of the
breach of that temporary Allegiance, which was due to the Usurper
as King de facto, to whom even the power of pardoning Offences
belongs, and not to the King de jure.
But even supposing the conduct of the loyal Inhabitants of
Carolina, in taking the Oath to the State, under such circumstances
was criminal, of which they are not conscious, the Right of the King
to require them to return to their Natural Allegiance, in this instance
as well as that where a Subject takes an Oath of Allegiance
to a foreign Power, is equally clear, with his right of pardoning
both by the Constitution. And his Majesty having in pursuance of
an Act of Parliament, issued a Commission for that purpose under
the great Seal, to certain Persons, who by their several Proclamations,
bearing date the third day of March, the twenty-second day
of May, and first day of June in the year of our Lord 1780, not only
required all his Subjects in his American Colonies, under the severest
Penalties, to return to their Natural Allegiance, but in the
most solemn manner, explicitly promised pardon, forgiveness, and
Oblivion for all past Offences, and effectual Countenance, protection
and support to such as should do so and persevere in their Loyalty.
With a few Exceptions, it is humbly conceived, that all those
not included in the exceptions, who, relying on the public Faith of
those Proclamations, did return to their Natural Allegiance, and
with integrity discharge their duty to their King and Country,
(wherein they were afterwards encouraged to persist, from time
to time, by other Proclamations of the Commanders of his Forces,
and his gracious assurances to maintain his and their Constitutional
Rights, signified by the Secretary of State to the Lieutenant-Governor,
and communicated by the King's Order to the loyal Inhabitants;)
by all Laws, divine and human, are unquestionably entitled
to the benefit of those Proclamations, and the Act of Parliament
"appointing Commissioners to enquire into the Losses and Services
of all such persons who have suffered in their Rights, properties
and professions, during the late unhappy dissentions in America,
in consequence of their Loyalty to his Majesty and Attachment to
the British Government;" in which act those Proclamations are
expressly recited: especially as the Commanders of the King's
Forces advised the loyal Inhabitants of the Colonies from time to
time, to submit to the Government de facto, until he could give them
such effectual countenance, protection and support.
Some of the Persons who were compelled to take the Oath to
the State, for want of protection from their Government, and when
that protection was tendered to them, cheerfully returned to their
Natural Allegiance, pursuant to those Proclamations, died Martyrs
to their Loyalty in the Field of Battle: Some have manifested it
by their wounds and loss of Limbs; and others have demonstrated
it by the faithful discharge of the most important Trusts reposed
in them, as well as by the most essential Services; for which they
have been subjected to Banishment and Confiscation of Estate, and
even submitted to the Sacrifice of almost every thing that is dear
to Mankind: So that they have nothing they can call their own
but their Families and their Sufferings. The Act of Attainder
against them is likewise an unequivocal proof of their zealous Attachment
to the British Government, which can be corroborated by
the most ample testimonials of many of the King's Officers Civil and
Military; and by their Memorial to Sir Guy Carleton, previous to
the Evacuation: wherein, urged by a sense of loyalty to their King
and love of their Country, they expressed their earnest desire of
defending their Religious, political and private Rights, with all the
Ardor which a violation of them could inspire: And therefore they
trust that their taking of the Oath to the State, and temporary
submission to the Government by the Usurpers, being legally justifiable
by the cruel necessity to which they were reduced without
any misbehaviour on their parts, cannot militate to their prejudice
on the investigation of their Claims for compensation of their losses
and Services under the late Act of Parliament: and that in any
construction of their conduct the Public Faith, Justice and honour
of the Nation, which have invariably been held sacred with her
Enemies, will not be violated with those who, actuated by principles
of the purest loyalty and encouraged by the above proclamations
and Royal Assurances, have given such indubitable proofs of
their Zealous Attachment to their Sovereign and the British Government,
whereof they are the Natural born Subjects, which always
was, and ever will be their greatest Felicity.
(Signed) Thomas Irving
London, Feb: 21st: 1785.
——————————
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Collections of Source Material
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II, III, IV.
..........................., Report on the MSS. of the Earl of Dartmouth, Vol. II.
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State Records of North Carolina, Vol. XIV; Journal of the House of Commons in. Vol. XXVII.
The Royal Commission on the Losses and Services of American Loyalists, 1783-1785. Roxburghe
Club, 1915. H. E. Egerton, ed.
Third Report of the Bureau of Archives for the Province of Ontario, 1905, A. Fraser, ed.
Treasury Papers. (Public Record Office, London.)
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Acadiensis, Vols. I, VI, Vll.
Appleton, Cyclopedia of American Biography.
A. T. Bethell, The Early Settlers of the Bahama Islands. 1914.
R. W. Bowers, Sketches of Southwark, Old and New. 1905.
Col. Charles Cornwallis Chesney, Essays in Military Biography. 1874.
Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society, Vol. III.
John Cruden, An Address to the Loyal Part of the British Empire and Friends of Monarchy
throughout the Globe. (Report on the Management of the Estates sequestered in South
Carolina, by Order of Lord Cornwallis in 1780-1782.) 1890. Pamphlet. Paul Leicester Ford,
ed.
J. Watts DePeyster, Local Memorials relating to the DePeyster and Watts and affiliated families.
1881.
..........................., "The Affair at King's Mountain," Magazine of American History,
Vol. V.
Dictionary of National Biography.
Lyman Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes.
William Henry Drayton, Memoirs of the Am. Rev. as relating to South Carolina, 1821, Vol. II.
H. Jones Ford, The Scotch-Irish in America. 1915.
C. C. Jones, History of Georgia. 1883.
Gen. Henry Lee, Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States, Vol. I.
S. Lane-Poole, ed.. The Life of the late General F. R. Chesney. 1893.
Lawrence and Stockton, The Judges of New Brunswick and their Times.
E. McCrady, The History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780.
..........................., The History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1780-1783.
Lieutenant Roderick Mackenzie, Strictures on Lieut. Col. Tarleton's History.
William Moultrie, Memoirs, 1802, Vol. II.
E. R. O'Callaghan, Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York, Vol. VIII.
Lorenzo Sabine, The Loyalists of the American Revolution, 2 vols.
A. S. Salley, Jr., History of Orangeburg County, 1898.
W. H. Siebert, "The Loyalists in West Florida and the Natchez District," Mississippi Valley
Historical Review, 1916. Vol. II.
W. B. Stevens, History of Georgia, Vol. II. 1859.
Colonel Banistre Tarleton, History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Provinces
of North America, 1787.
Thornbury, Old and New London, Vols. II and III.
W. T. Vincent, The Records of the Woolwich District, Vol. I.
Wheatley and Cunningham, London Past and Present, Vol. I.
——————————
Letters, Diaries, Journals, and Newspapers
Carleton's Correspondence. (Public Record Office, London.)
Chatham Papers, Bundle 220. (Public Record Office, London.)
Clinton-Cornwallis Controversy, 2 vols., B. F. Stevens, ed.
Colonel David Fanning's Narrative, A. W. Savary, ed., in Canadian Magazine, 1908.
Correspondence of Charles, first Marquess Cornwallis, 1859, Vol. I. C. Ross, ed.
Journal and Letters of Samuel Curwen, 4th ed., 1864.
Journal of Rev. John Wesley.
Military Journal of Colonel John Graves Simcoe.
Lieutenant Anthony Allaire's Diary in Draper's King's Mountain and its Heroes.
Papers of Colonel Thomas Fletchall. (Public Record Office, London, A.O. 12 and 18,)
Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, April 1, 1786.
Royal Gazette of South Carolina, Vol. II, No. 108.
South Carolina and American General Gazette, June 26, 1778.
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Histories of the American Revolution
S. G. Fisher, The Struggle for American Independence, 1908, Vol II.
Gordon, American Revolution, 1788.
C. Stedman, The History of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the American War, 2
vols., Dublin, 1794.
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Miscellaneous
Col. Charles Cornwallis Chesney, Essays in Military Biography, 1874.
Alexander Garden, Anecdotes of the American Revolution, 1828.
Alton and Holland, The King's Customs, 1910, Vol II.
Fortescue, History of the British Army, Vol. III.
Notes and Queries, 8th Series, Vol. III.
Scots Magazine, Vol. 43.
South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 18.
J. Eardley Wilmot, Historical View of the Commission for inquiring into the losses, services,
and the claims of the American Loyalists at the close of the War in 1783; with an,
account of the compensation granted to them by Parliament in 1785 and 1788. 1815.
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1. The date of birth is given as Sept. 16 in The Life of the late General F. R. Chesney, ed. by S. Lane-Poole, 1893.
2. On his tombstone in the Mourne Presbyterian churchyard, Kilkeel, county Down, Alexander Chesney is stated to have died Jan. 12, 1845, at the age of 88 years.
3. A contribution on the supposed origin of the name Chesney is in Notes and Queries, 8th Series, Vol. Ill, pp. 58, 135, 214, 296, 336, 490.
4. Query: Was this the Matthew Gillespie who served in the American Revolutionary militia as a private in 1781 and 1782, and who resided in that part of South Carolina now
embraced in Newberry county?
5. The State of Pennsylvania.
6. The river Paeolet is in Spartanburg county and forms part of the boundary between Cherokee and Union counties in South Carolina, and flows into Broad river at the junction of
those two counties with York county.
7. The Nesbitt family was prominent in the early history of Spartanburg county South Carolina One member of the family. Wilson Nesbitt, owned and operated an iron plant there. A loyalist named William Nesbitt, of South Carolina, was banished and his estate confiscated. (See Sabine, The Loyalists of the Am. Rev., II. 119). This loyalist was one of the 100 signatories to the petition that Alexander Constable of Boston. Massachusetts, might be given command of a loyalist regiment to be raised at Charleston. South Carolina. He appears to have returned to South Carolina after the war.
8. Waxhaws was in the present county of Lancaster, near the boundary between North and South Carolina, and extended into Union county. North Carolina.
9. The city of Limerick capitulated to William III in 1691.
10. Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
11. William Chesney served in the Revolutionary militia, though a mere boy.
12. The governor was Lord George Greville Montagu. (See Additional Notes, p. 59).
13. Town creek divides Down island on the Cooper river from Charleston.
14. Turkey creek rises in York county, South Carolina, and flows into Chester county.
15. John Winn, founder of the town of Winnsboro in Fairfield county. South Carolina, was a colonel of South Carolina militia during the middle period of the Revolutionary war.
16. Jackson's creek was in the north of South Carolina.
17. Colonel John Phillips (See Additional Notes, p. 60).
18. Sandy river is in Chester county. South Carolina.
19. One Charles Brandon served in the Revolutionary militia which was commanded during
the last years of the war by Colonel Charles Brandon.
20. The Chesney plantation was apparently in the north of Union county, at its junction with Spartanburg and Cherokee counties. The name is commemorated by the place called
Chesnee in the north of Spartanburg county.
21. Grindal shoals, so-called from the family of Grindal, who lived on the north side and owned the shoal, which was a noted fishery. It was on the north side of Pacolet river, at Grindal ford, that Morgan camped just before the battle of Cowpens. The place is well
described by John Kennedy in his novel. Horse Shoe Robinson.
22. These iron works were probably those on the southern side of Lawson's fork of
Pacolet river, afterwards called Bivingsville and known later as Glendale, which was half a mile higher up on the same bank. The works were destroyed by the loyalists and never rebuilt. (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, pp. 85, 90, 91).
23. The district of Ninety-Six, so named because it was 96 miles from Keewie, the chief village of the Cherokee Indians. According to Lord Comwallis, he had formed in this district,
the most populous in the province of South Carolina, seven battalions of militia. (C. Ross,
Correspondence of Charles, first Marquess Comwallis, 1859. Vol. I, p. 489.) The present town
of Ninety-Six is in Greenwood county.
24. The Chesney plantation was somewhat under 200 miles in a straight line northwest of Charleston.
25. This was probably the occasion when the Rev. William Tennent, the Congregational
minister and member of the Provincial Congress, held a meeting and slaughtered a beast at a feast, about five miles east of the town of Spartanburg.
26. See Additional Notes, p. 63.
27. For an account of the siege of Ninety-Six, see Colonel Thomas Fletchall in Additional Notes, p. 69.
28. Lord William Campbell was appointed governor of South Carolina, June 8, 1773, and
had married, April 17, 1763, a lady of that Province in the person of Sarah, daughter of Ralph Izard of Burton, St. George's parish. He did not, however, commence his duties until 1775. As a former officer of the Royal Navy, he served as a volunteer on board H. M. S. Bristol in the attack on Charleston, June 28, 1776. He died, September 5, 1778, from the effects of a wound received in a naval engagement.
29. For Colonel Thomas Fletchall, see Additional Notes, p. 66.
30. Captain John Mayfield and other officers of Colonel Thomas Fletchell's loyal militia were brought as prisoners early in December, 1775, to the camp of Colonel Richard Richardson near Lieut.-Colonel Evan McLaurin's store in Dutch Fork. Among these officers were Benjamin Wofford, William Hunt, Daniel Stagner, and Jacob Stack. (Drayton, Memoirs of the American Revolution as relating to South Carolina, 1821, Vol. II, pp. 125-126.)
31. Colonel Richard Richardson, the elder, of the South Carolina militia, who was promoted to brigadier-general in 1778 and died in September, 1780. His son. Colonel Richard Richardson, the younger, was subsequently a colonel of the South Carolina militia in Camden district.
32. Congaree is about 16 miles southeast of Columbia. Congaree river forms part of the boundary between Richland and Calhoun counties, South Carolina.
33. Captain James Phillips, a brother of Colonel John Phillips.
34. Captain James Miller was of this party (see Additional Notes, p. 100).
35. See p. 4.
36. Colonel Ambrose Mills (see Additional Notes, p. 72.)
37. St. Augustine.
38. Patrick Tonyn, the able governor of East Florida. He is remembered for his efforts to make that Province an asylum for the loyalist refugees from Georgia and the Carolinas and for
his championship of the military abilities of the well-known loyalist, Lieut.-Colonel Thomas Brown, the brave defender of Augusta, Georgia, in May and June, 1781, against the unjust attacks and criticisms of Brigadier-General Augustine Prevost. Many of the letters and documents concerned with the controversy between Tonyn and Prevost are summarized in the Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission on the American MSS. in the Royal Institution.
39. The formation of the South Carolina Royalists, which is the correct title of this
regiment, dates from July 20, 1778. Alexander Innes, formerly secretary to Lord William Campbell, the governor, was appointed colonel and Joseph Robinson lieut.-colonel. It was to consist of eight companies of 50 rank and file, with one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel and other officers, whose names were submitted by Robinson. A list of these names is in the Royal Institution. (Hist. MSS. Comm., Report on the American MSS. in the Royal Institution, Vol. I, p. 274.)
40. Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Robinson (see Additional Notes, p. 74.)
41. Alexander Chesney was made a prisoner early in 1776 by "a party of rebels under Col. Steen," who was probably James Stein, an American officer who served with distinction in various actions under Sumter. (The Royal Commission on the Losses and Services of American Loyalists, 1783-1785, ed. by H. E. Egerton; Roxburghe Club, 1915, p. 49).
42. Reedy river is just west of Greenville in Greenville county. South Carolina.
43. Alexander Chesney rose to the rank of lieutenant in the "rebel army." (See p. 8, n. 56).
44. A few extracts from this Journal, with various interpolations and free renderings, and with several errors in the names of persons, have been published in Essays in Military Biography, by Colonel Charles Cornwallis Chesney, 1874, pp. 135-153.
45. The others were Charles and Chr. Brandon (see p. 131.)
46. In evidence before the commissioners in London, Chesney said that the little party, having been discovered on the river, were obliged to return.
47. A map of the marches of General Andrew Williamson's force against the Cherokee
Indians is in Drayton's Memoirs, Vol. 11, p. 343. The Cherokees had 52 towns in Wesley's time
(Journal of Rev. John Wesley).
48. General Andrew Williamson (see Additional Notes, p. 76).
49. Colonel Thomas Sumter, American partisan leader, (see Appleton, Cyclopedia of American Biography).
50. Nelson's ferry on the Santee river was owned by one Reason Nelson, a loyalist and
native of South Carolina, who died in August, 1781, leaving a widow, Ann, three sons, William, Ambrose, and Joshua, and two married daughters, Sarah, wife of John Martin Struden, and Frances. The two elder sons died before 15 December, 1787; Joshua joined the New York Volunteers as a boy on 25 April, 1781, afterwards transferred as a driver to the Royal Artillery, and at the end of the war embarked with the 105th. regiment for Ireland. (A.O. 12/51, fos. 409-414; A.O. 12/102, fo. 110; A.O. 13/133.)
51. Purysburg, Georgia, a place visited by the Rev. John Wesley.
52. Fort Barrington, on the Altamaha river in Georgia, was erected in the colonial period as a defence against the Indians. Early in March, 1778, it was the scene of the exploit of
Lieut-Colonel Thomas Brown of the King's Florida Rangers, when a detachment of that loyalist corps
with a few Indians stormed the fort and took 23 Americans prisoners. Captain Andrew Johnston
claimed the honor of being the first officer to enter it. (Hist. MSS. Comm., Report on the American MSS. in the Royal Inst., Vol. I, pp. 209, 221.) Captain Johnson afterwards lost his life at Augusta, in the siege of May and June, 1781, by Lieut.-Colonel Henry Lee. His father, Dr. Andrew Johnston, of Georgia, was taken prisoner in this siege.
53. An annular eclipse of the sun on January 9, 1777, was visible in South Carolina, as was the total eclipse on June 24, 1778.
54. Ogeechee river in Georgia.
55. Sunbury in Georgia.
56. Captain Zachariah Bullock was not, as might be assumed from Chesney's statement, a loyalist, but an officer in the American militia of the district of Ninety-Six. (See p. 9, footnote 62.)
57. Baylis Earle's ford on the North Pacolet river in North Carolina, so-called from Baylis Earle, father-in-law of Captain Edward Hampton, a noted partisan leader on the American side. An action was fought at this spot on July 15, 1780. (See Addition'al Notes — Colonel Ambrose Mills — p. 72).
58. The Cherokee Indians signed a treaty of peace. May 20, 1778, at Duet's Corner, a place now known as Due West, in the north of Abbeville county. South Carolina.
59. This may be Captain Alexander McWhorter, deputy-commissary of Issues in the American militia of South Carolina. Several men of this name were in the American service.
60. Colonel John Phillips, the loyalist. (See Additional Notes, p. 60.)
61. Augusta, Georgia, where a fort was built in 1787: (Journal of Rev. John Wesley).
62. This business would seem to have been the raising of a new division for the American service by Alexander Chesney:
"State of So Carolina }
Ninety Six District }
Whereas Alexander Chesney Lieutenant in Capt. Zachariah Bullocks company came before me and made Oath that on the 2d day of June last being Order'd home from the Camps at Stono, in Order to raise, a new Division having his Waggon and Team then in the Service; and on the 3d of June he came by
the Quarter House See his Team, which he was obliged to leave under the direction of his
Brother, which Team being lost before his return with the Division, and have made diligent
search has never found but one of the s[d.] Team which consisted of four Horses, and the remaining
three he has never yet heard off(sic); and he likewise says that about the middle of the Day his Brother informs him he went and see the Horses and that they were all there together, and in two or three hours after they were missing and could not be found, and that his brother is of
opinion they were stole; and he also say that the Horse he got, he found with M. Wetherford, who told him that he took the Horse from a Man who said he found him in an old field near the quarter House.
Sworn before me this 6th. September 1779 Wm Wofford: J. P." (From the Revolutionary Account Audited, Alexander Chesney, Office of the Historical Commission of South Carolina.)
It may be said of William Wofford that he was lieut. colonel of militia in 1779 and that
he also served in the House of Representatives.
The wagon and team mentioned in the above affidavit were appraised, August 4, 1779,
by Robert McWhorter, William Hodge, who was Alexander Chesney's father-in-law, and Meshak
Inman. A claim was filed by Alexander Chesney after the war, but there is no record of its
payment. The Quarter House here mentioned was several miles out of Charleston, to the
northward.
63. General Benjamin Lincoln's abortive attack on the British at Stono, June 20, 1779. (E. McCrady, The History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, pp. 382-391.)
64. William Hodge, father-in-law of Alexander Chesney, and his son, William Hodge, served in Colonel Thomas Brandon's regiment of South Carolina militia after the fall of Charleston.
This regiment was stationed in the county of Spartanburg. William Hodge, the elder, and
Alexander Chesney were joint debtors on a bond of £235. 15s., dated 25 December, 1780, to one
Edward Williams, a schoolmaster, of Ninety-Six district. The original bond with signatures
is with the papers of Colonel James Vernon, the loyalist, to whom all the assets of Williams
were bequeathed. (Public Record Office: A. O. 13/123).
65. The name of the month is not mentioned in Chesney's Journal.
66. Charleston capitulated to the British, May 12, 1780.
67. Sugar creek in Ninety-Six district. The number of loyalists was 200. (See p. 131).
68. Probably Fair Forest creek in Spartanburg and Union counties. South Carolina, in a
district so named by the first settlers, who exclaimed "What a fair forest is this !" (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, p. 76). Fair Forest has been made famous by the pen of William Gilmour Simms, the Carolina novelist.
69. Colonel Nisbet Balfour, of the 23rd Foot (Royal Welsh Fusiliers) was commandant
at Charleston, and was succeeded in July, 1782, by Lieut.-Colonel Isaac Allen, of the New Jersey Volunteers. His military secretary at this period was Captain Geroge Benson, of the 44th Foot, who married in 1781 a daughter of Dr. Alexander Garden, of Charleston, an eminent surgeon and botanist and a loyalist. Colonel Balfour is in the Dictionary of National Biography.
70. A certificate of allegiance to the British, dated June 27, 1780, and signed by Colonel
Nisbet Balfour, is with the papers of John Hopton, loyalist, of Charleston, in the Public Record Office in London. (A.O. 13/129.)
71. Captain Isaac Grey's name cannot be found in the various published or unpublished
lists of loyalist officers.
72. Bullocks creek is in York county. South Carolina.
73. This house has not been identified.
74. Major Patrick Ferguson. (See Additional Notes, p. 82.)
75. Thicketty creek is a western tributary of Broad river, with which it unites a few
miles above the junction with Pacolet river.
76. Captain Patrick Moore was of Irish descent and was born in Virginia. Early in life he settled on Thicketty creek, South Carolina. His force consisted of a sergeant of the American
Volunteers and 93 loyalists and was surprised, 30 July, 1780, by a body of American militia, 600 strong, under Colonels Isaac Shelby, Elijah Clarke, and Andrew Hampton, and Major Charles Robertson. To the peremptory demand for the surrender of the fort, Moore replied that he would defend it to the last extremity. But when he saw the formidable force in front of him, he relented and surrendered without firing a shot. In surrendering. Captain Moore was charged by the officer second in command with cowardice and treachery. Colonel Charles McDowell was not present in person on this occasion, as Chesney states, Shelby's force having been detached
from the main force of McDowell at Cherokee Ford, about 20 miles distant. Patrick Moore is believed to have been captured by a party of Americans in 1781 near Ninety-Six and murdered, as his remains were afterwards recognised by his great height, 6 feet 7 inches. He left a widow, a son and three daughters. His brother, a noted loyalist partisan, was Colonel John Moore. (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, pp. 87-89; Anthony Allaire's "Diary," printed in Draper's volume; E. McCrady, Hist, of South Carolina in the Rev., 1775-1780, pp. 634-635.)
77. Anderson's fort, or Thicketty fort as it was more generally called, was originally built as a defence against the Cherokee Indians and was a quarter of a mile north of Groucher Creek
and two and one-half miles above the mouth of this small water course, which empties into Thicketty creek.
78. Captain Lewis Bobo was an officer in the militia on the Revolutionary side. His residence was in the present county of Spartanburg. Tiger river runs from Spartanburg county and joins Broad river in the south-east of Union county, South Carolina.
79. Colonel Charles McDowell, the son of Joseph McDowell, an emigrant from Ulster in 1780. His brother. Major Joseph McDowell, led the militia from Burke and Rutherford counties.
North Carolina, at the battle of King's Mountain, where another brother, William, also fought. Major Joseph McDowell was in command of a force of mountainmen at the battle of Cowpens, 17 January, 1781, and in 1788 was a member of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention; in 1792 he was elected a member of Congress. (H. Jones Ford, The Scotch-Irish in America, 1915, pp. 509-510.)
80. Colonel Zacharias Gibbs, the loyalist. (See Additional Notes, p. 79.)
81. Cherokee ford is on Broad river in Cherokee county, near the junction of the present counties of Union, York, and Spartanburg.
82. This fort is described as Nicholas's fort later (p. 131). Nicholas fort was on the Tiger river, seven miles west of the present town of Spartanburg in South Carolina.
83. The old or Wofford's Iron Works situated on Lawson's fork of Pacolet river. At these iron works a severe action was fought, August 8, 1780, between a force under Colonel Elijah
Clarke and Isaac Shelby and Major James Dunlap's detachment of loyalists, when Major Ferguson came up to the rescue of the loyalists and saved them from defeat. This action, which is also known as the second battle of Cedar Springs, was claimed as a victory by both sides. Colonel McDowell was not present in person. (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, pp. 89-102; E. McCrady, The History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, pp. 636-640.)
84. Captain Esaw Smith was in 1779 a member of Captain David Hopkin's company of the 3rd. South Carolina regiment of the Continental Line. In 1780 and 1781 he served in the militia of the State.
85. Culbered, probably the plantation of Josiah Culbertson, a well known American partisan. According to Allaire's "Diary," it was at this plantation that Major Patrick Ferguson was
encamped, August 10, 1780.
86. This engagement apparently at the old or Wofford's Iron Works is not recorded In any of the published histories of the war.
87. An action was fought at Fishdam ford on Broad river, below the present town of Carlisle, near the junction of Fairfield, Union, and Chester counties, November 9, 1780, the Americans being victorious.
88. Captain Esaw Smith. (See footnote 84 above).
89. Lieutenant-Colonel George Turnbull (c. 1734-1810), a Scotsman, who had been lieutenant in 1756 and captain in 1765 in the Royal Americans regiment (now the 60th. or King's Royal Rifles) and had settled in New York. Early in 1777 he was appointed to the Loyal American regiment and was transferred, 7 October in the same year as lieut.-commandant of the New York Volunteers. This corps distinguished itself at Fort Montgomery, 16 October, 1777, under the command of Major Alexander Grant, who was killed; in the gallant defence of Savannah in September, 1779; at the capture of Charleston in May, 1780; at Rocky Mount, when Sumpter was defeated; in the battle of Camden, 16 August, 1780; at Hobkirk's Hill, 25
April, 1781, when Rawdon defeated Greene; and at Eutaw Springs, 8 September, 1781. Turnbull was not, however, present at the two last engagements, having been granted leave to proceed to New York, on account of ill health. He married a daughter of Cornelius Clopper of New York and died at Bloomingdale, New Jersey, in October, 1810. (Carleton's Correspondence in the Public Record Office, Folio 41; B. F. Stevens, Clinton-Cornwallis Controversy, Index.)
90. Colonel John Phillips. (See Additional Notes, p. 60.)
91. Colonel Thomas Sumter (1734-1832) is in Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography.
92. Colonel John Winn. (See p. 3, footnote 15.) Lieutenant Anthony Allaire was
encamped at his plantation from August 17 to 19, 1780, while Colonel Winn was a prisoner on James Island.
93. Captain, afterwards General, Alexander Ross (1742-1827), the intimate friend and aide-de-camp of Lord Cornwallis. It was Major Ross who, with Colonel Thomas Dundas, conveyed
to Washington the determination of Lord Cornwallis to capitulate.
94. The defeat of Horatio Gates, former officer of the British Army, at Camden, 18 August, 1780, was received with great enthusiasm. McCrady quoting Bancroft, says that the American
casualties are not known accurately. Anthony Allaire, the loyalist, estimated the number of killed at 1200 and the prisoners at 1000. Tarleton's figures are 70 officers and 2000 men as the total American casualties. Gates put the killed, wounded, and missing at only 700 and the total loss of the British at 500. Lord Cornwallis gave the American loss as between 800 and 900 killed and 1000 prisoners. (Tarleton, History, pp. 104-9, 131-5; Allaire's "Diary"; E. McCrady, The Hist, of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, pp. 666-680; S. G. Fisher, The Struggle for American Independence, 1908, Vol. II, 296-9, with a list of authorities; Lord Cornwallis's report in the Stofford-Sackville MSS., Hist. MSS. Comm., Report., Vol. II, 1910, pp. 178-182.)
95. Colonel Alexander Innes. (See Additional Notes p. 83.)
96. The battle of Musgrove's Mills, the residence of the loyalist, Edward Musgrove, on the Enoree river, on 19 August, 1780, when the Americans were victorious. The Americans, to the
number of 500, were commanded by Colonels James Williams, Shelby, and Clarke, while the loyalists consisted of a company of New Jersey Volunteers, a detachment of De Lancey's brigade and about 100 men of the South Carolina Royalists, under Major Thomas Eraser. (Mackenzie, Strictures on Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton's History, 1787, pp. 24-6; Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, p. 110; E. McCrady, The Hist, of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, pp. 690-4.)
97. Alexander Chesney was unaware of Tarleton's surprise and defeat of Sumter at Fishing creek on August 18, 1780, when Sumter, asleep under a wagon, barely escaped with his life and in the confusion rode off without saddle, hat, or coat, reaching Major Davie's camp at Charlotte two days later, unattended by officer, soldier or servant. (E. McCrady, The History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, pp. 680-684.)
98. Colonel Thomas Brandon (1741-1802), an American of Irish descent, of Union county. South Carolina, who shared in the action at Musgrove's Mills and was present at the battles of
King's Mountain, Blackstocks Hill, and Cowpens. (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, p. 469.) He was a relentless foe of the loyalists.
99. Major Patrick Ferguson, described as colonel by Alexander Chesney in this Journal, marched on September 12 with 40 American volunteers and 100 militia to the head of Cane
creek in Burke county. North Carolina, to surprise a party of 300 of the enemy. McDowell in command of this party, having received intelligence of the presence of Ferguson's force, deemed it prudent to remove, but was intercepted and routed. (Allaire, "Diary.")
100. Sir Henry Clinton's handbill stipulated service in the local militia by the married men with families and not elsewhere. Young men without children were expected to serve six months out of the year, but were not required to march beyond North Carolina on one side or Georgia on the other. (E. McCrady, History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, p. 550.)
101. Gilbert Town is near the present town of Rutherfordton in North Carolina.
102. Colonel Grimes, in command of some American troops in the district of Catawba
river in September, 1780. (State Records of North Carolina, Vol. XIV, p. 778.) One Richard Grimes was appointed a commissioner, 7 July, 1781, to provide horses, by purchase or impressment, for General Greene's cavalry. (Journal of the House of Commons in the State Records of North Carolina, Vol. XXVII, p. 939.)
103. Colonel Charles McDowell.
104. Cane and Silver creeks are in Burke county. North Carolina. Cane creek is so
amazingly crooked that Captain Abraham de Peyster and Lieut. Anthony Allaire, with their loyalist force, were obliged to cross it nineteen times in a march of four miles (Allaire, "Diary"). An indecisive action was fought on these creeks, 12 September, 1780, between Ferguson and McDowell (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, pp. 147-9, 199). According to a loyalist version of this action 80 prisoners were taken, one man killed. Captain White wounded, and all the American ammunition captured, the British loss being one man killed and two wounded. (Allaire, "Diary.")
105. Turkey Cove is on the Catawba river, about six miles above the town of Marion,
North Carolina.
106. The Holstein river district, at that time a portion of North Carolina, but now in east Tennessee.
107. Colonel Jacob Walker, whose house and plantation were in the fork of Cane creek
and Second Broad river in Rutherford county. North Carolina. Lieut. Anthony Allaire was present on this occasion, on 13 September, at Colonel Walker's house, where he met Captain Ryerson, of the New Jersey Volunteers, and Lieut. Duncan Fletcher, of the Loyal American regiment. Allaire also alludes in his "Diary" on the 14th. to the large number of "deluded inhabitants" who were coming in to proclaim their loyalty. Two miles distant from the Walker plantation is Little Britain Church, where several loyalist soldiers are buried.
108. The Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.
109. Colonel Elijah Clarke had laid siege to Augusta from 14 to 16 September, but was foiled of success by the timely arrival of Colonel John Harris Cruger, of De Lancey's brigade, famous for his defence of the fort of Ninety-Six against Greene in May and June, 1781. Ferguson tarried long in North Carolina in the hope of intercepting Clarke, and left Gilbert Town for this purpose, 27 September, 1780. (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, pp. 199-200.)
110. White Oak is a creek tributary of Green river in Polk and Rutherford counties. North Carolina.
111. Captain John Taylor, of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, son of Thomas Taylor, was born
15 May, 1742, and was appointed lieutenant, 2 July, 1776, and captain, 26 August, 1780, in the New Jersey Volunteers. In July, 1776, he accompanied the British forces south and was in command of a small corps of cavalry until the battle of King's Mountain, where he distinguished himself. Captain Taylor married, 6 August, 1786, Eleanor Taylor, of Middletown, New Jersey, the marriage taking place there. He died, 13 November, 1822, leaving a widow, an unmarried daughter, and a son, Morris Taylor. (Public Record Office: W.O. 42/T3; A.O. 12/14, fos. 73-81; A. O. 12/101, fo. 258; A. O. 12/85; A. O. 12/109; A. O. 13/109; A. O. 13/109; A. O.
13/112; Ind. 5606.)
112. Baylis Earle's ford (see page 8, n. 57).
113. Tiger river (see page 11, n. 78).
114. Saluda river in South Carolina.
115. Gap of the mountains, probably in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
116. Cherokee ford (see page 11, n. 81).
117. Gilbert Town (see page 15, note 101).
118. Colonel Benjamin Cleveland. (See page 19, n. 129).
119. Colonel Isaac Shelby, a noted border leader and one of the commanders at the battle of King's Mountain, where he was conspicuous for valor. (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, pp. 411-416.)
120. General William Campbell (1745-81), of Scotch-Irish origin, who was ruthless in his methods with the loyalists, several of whom he condemned to death, e. g., Captain Nathan Read, who elected to suffer death rather than submit to the demand that he should join the American forces. Draper gives other instances of his violence to the loyalists. At the battle of King's Mountain he was in supreme command, Shelby having magnanimously given way in his favor. Shelby and Sevier believed him to have shrunk from danger in this memorable victory of the Americans, but Washington, Gates, and Greene expressed their high sense of his merits. (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, pp. 378-402.)
121. The expression, "an irregular but destructive fire," was apparently borrowed from Stedman's American War, Vol. II, p. 246.
122. The expression, "The mountaineers flying whenever they were in danger of being
charged with the bayonet," is apparently borrowed from Stedman's American War, Vol. II, p. 246.
123. Colonel James Williams, (see page 20, n. 139).
124. Major Patrick Ferguson's right arm had been shattered at the battle of the Brandywine.
125. Captain Abraham De Peyster. (See Additional Notes, p. 84.)
126. The battle of King's Mountain. (See Additional Notes, p. 86.)
127. Colonel Banistre Tarleton, who commanded the British Legion in South Carolina and was the author of a history of the campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Colonies, wherein
his military merits are much exaggerated. This history brought forth a book as a rejoinder, entitled. Strictures on Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton's History, published in 1787 by Lieutenant Roderick Mackenzie. In this book the author accuses Tarleton of neglecting to mention the bravery of many South Carolina loyalists, "men, whose integrity was incorruptible, undismayed in the hour of danger, who sacrificed their private interest to public good and who . . . fought and bled with manly spirit . . . and evinced a probity of mind under every reverse of fortune, which must endear them to posterity" (p. 29).
128. The Yadkin river rises in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.
129. Colonel Benjamin Cleveland commanded the troops from the Upper Yadkin valley
at the battle of King's Mountain. In the annals of the war in South Carolina no officer on the American side treated his political enemies with greater severity. The loyalists were regarded by him as so much game, or dangerous pests, worthy only of extermination. At rare moments he was capable of generous instincts. He it was who caused the execution of Zachariah Wells, on the plea that he was a dangerous Tory, as well as bringing about the executions of the loyalists after King's Mountain. (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, pp. 425-454; S. G. Fisher, The Struggle for American Independence, 1908, pp. 416-419.) Colonel Cleveland's brutal treatment of Dr. Uzal Johnson, of Newark, New Jersey, who rendered services to the wounded
on both sides in this battle, was severely criticized. (Allaire, "Diary"; J. Watts de Peyster, "The
Affair at King's Mountain" in Magazine of American History, Vol. 5, pp. 402-423.)
130. The younger men were thoroughly drilled in military tactics by Major Ferguson.
(Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, p. 73.)
131. Alexander Chesney says elsewhere that he was marched about 150 miles to Moravina Town. (The Royal Commission on Loyalists Claims, 1783-1785, ed. by H. E. Egerton; Roxburghe
Club, 1915, p. 50). This town was probably the present Winston-Salem in North Carolina, a distance of about 100 miles in a direct line from King's Mountain.
132. The Appalachian Mountains, the general name for the great mountain system in the east of North America, called the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.
133. General Francis Marion distinguished his men from the Tories by placing white cockades on them, 12 August, 1780. (E. McCrady, The Hist, of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, p. 652. ) A similar method of identification may have been employed at King's Mountain.
134. The distance traversed by Alexander Chesney to his home on the Pacelot river would be about 120 miles in a straight line.
135. Hugh Cook (see p. 4).
136. Charles Brandon (see p. 14, n. 98.)
137. Room in the Journal, obviously room.
138. The American and British accounts of the action at Blackstocks Hill on 20 November, 1780, differ. Tarleton in his book (Hist, of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781, pp. 178, 204.) claims it as a victory, while MacKenzie (Strictures on Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton's History) disagrees
with this view, as does another British authority, Stedman (American War, Vol. II, pp. 228-236). Compare Gordon, American Revolution, 1788 edition. Vol. Ill, p. 471; Lee, Memoirs, Vol. I, pp. 213-220; Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, pp. 376-377; B. F. Stevens, Clinton-Cornwallis Controversy, Vol. I, pp. 303, 307, 315; E. McCrady, The History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, pp. 827-830; and S. G. Fisher, The Struggle for American Independence, 1908, Vol. II, p. 370).
139. Colonel James Williams was mortally wounded at King's Mountain.
140. Brigadier-General Robert Cunningham (see Additional Notes, p. 87).
141. Major Daniel Plummer (see Additional Notes, p. 88).
142. Major Jonathan Frost was killed at the head of a party of loyal militia in an action against the Americans in December, 1780. He left a widow, Mary. (Public Record Office: T 50/2).
143. Benjamin Roebuck rose from the rank of lieutenant to that of lieutenant-colonel in the American service during the Revolutionary war. He served in the actions at Hanging Rock, Musgrove's Mills, and at King's Mountain, where he commanded a company. He distinguished himself at the battle of Cowpens. (Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes, p. 470.).
144. Captain John Clarke, son of Colonel Elijah Clarke.
145. Lieut.-Colonel Isaac Allen, (1741-1806) lawyer, of Trenton, New Jersey, who commanded a battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers and served in the campaign in the South with singular good conduct, gallantry and reputation. In the siege of Ninety-Six he was in command of a body of about 200 New Jersey Volunteers, and in 1782 he was lieutenant-colonel commandant at Charleston. At the peace he removed to New Brunswick in Canada, with his wife Sarah, daughter of Thomas Campbell of Philadelphia, and was appointed a member of the Council and a puisne judge of the Supreme Court. His only son, John, was prominent in the
history of that Province, as was also his grandson. Sir John Campbell Allen, chief justice. (Second Report of the Bureau of Archives for the Province of Ontario, 1904, Vol. I, pp. 248-251; Lawrence and Stockton, The Judges of New Brunswick and Their Times, pp. 3, 59, 77, 141, 507; Public Record Office: Ind. 5604-5605-5606; Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution, Vol. I, p. 159.)
146. Lieut.-Colonel John Harris Cruger (see Additional Notes, p. 89).
147. General Daniel Morgan had camped at Grindal ford, on Pacolet river, just before the battle of Cowpens. (See page 128, footnote 2.)
148. The battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781, when the British under Tarleton were
defeated.
149. British Legion. (See Additional Notes, p. 90).
150. Major Archibald McArthur had been transferred from the 54th. Foot as major of the 71st. Foot, 16 November, 1777. He was promoted to lieut.-colonel of the 3rd battalion of the 60th. Foot, 24 April, 1781.
151. Brigadier-General Robert Cunningham (see Additional Notes, p. 87).
152. Fair Forest (see p. 10, n. 68).
153. Edisto river. ? North or South fork of Edisto river, or Edisto river.
154. The name of Alexander Chesney is not found in any published lists of confiscated property.
155. Robert McWhorter was one of the appraisers of Alexander Chesney's wagon and
horses. (See p. 9, n. 62.)
156. All the officers and men at King's Mountain, except Major Patrick Ferguson, were loyalists.
157. John Cruden (see Additional Notes, p. 91).
158. Colonel Robert Ballingall (see Additional Notes, p. 94).
159. The name of Kinsey cannot be traced.
160. Jacksonsborough, now Jaeksonsboro, is in Colleton county.
161. Charles Brandon (see p. 14, n. 98).
162. This plantation in St. Paul's parish, in Charleston district, was that of Thomas Ferguson, a wealthy planter, who was a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress and
of the Council of Safety.
163. Parker's ferry is on the Ponpon river, a tributary of the Edisto river, and is in the south-east of Colleton county, a few miles north of Jaeksonsboro.
164. Captain John McKinnon, deputy quartermaster-general at Charleston at this time,
and who was one of the directors of the lottery raised for the benefit of the poor loyalist refugees at Charleston in February, 1782. (Royal Gazette of South Carolina, Vol. II, No. 108.)
165. Motte's house was the summer residence in Calhoun county of a well known planter, Jacob Motte, who was a strong adherent of the American cause. At this place was Fort Motte, well known in the history of the Revolutionary war. Lee in his Memoirs gives a charming picture of Rebecca Motte, the widow of Jacob.
166. Nelson's ferry (see p. 7, n. 50).
167. Dorchester is in the county of that name in South Carolina.
168. William Clay Snipes was captain of the Horse Shoe company of the Colleton county regiment of South Carolina in 1775 and was afterwards promoted major of that regiment.
169. Colonel Isaac Hayne (see Additional Notes, p. 94).
170. General Francis Marion.
171. Lord Rawdon was born in 1754 and was a peer in the Irish peerage. In 1783 he was created an English peer under the style of Baron Rawdon of Rawdon, and in 1793 succeeded his father as 2nd earl of Moira (see Diet, of Nat. Biog.)
172. Parker's ferry (see p. 23, n. 163).
173. William Clay Snipes (see note 168 above).
174. Ha ha is a sunk fence (Oxford English Dictionary).
175. Colonel Isaac Hayne. (see Additional Notes, p. 94).
176. Lord Rawdon went to the relief of Colonel Cruger's force in Ninety-Six in June, not in July, (see pp. 16, n. 109; 90).
177. Long Cane creek is in Abbeville county. South Carolina, where it joins Little river, a tributary of the Savannah river.
178. The Congaree river in South Carolina.
179. Orangeburg, in the county of that name, in South Carolina.
180. John Doyle (1856-1834) served throughout the American war of Independence. In
1778 he was attached as captain to the Volunteers of Ireland, raised in America in that year and later as major of that corps, which afterwards became the 105th. Foot, reduced in 1784. He appears to have been in command of South Carolina militia early in 1782. In 1805 he was created a baronet, and died a general.
181. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, soldier, politician, and conspirator (1763-1798), was at this time, at the age of 18, lieutenant in the Volunteers of Ireland, to which he had been appointed in 1778. As commanding officer of the 54th. Foot, in 1791 he signed the discharge of the celebrated politician, William Cobbett, who had served in the army from 1784 to 1791, and who went to Philadelphia in 1792 and was fined for his attack on American institutions. In 1796 he joined the United Irishmen and was discovered as a participator in organizing the Irish rebellion. On this occasion he was an enemy of Alexander Chesney, who fought on the opposite side in this rebellion. (See Dictionary of National Biography.)
182. This officer was probably Captain William Brereton, who was in command of a detachment of the 17th. Foot (Grenadier company) at Charleston. In his order book, preserved in the officers' mess of the 1st. battalion of this regiment, he mentions under date of 20 January, 1782, that a sergeant and four privates of the British Legion had been found guilty of quitting their posts in search of plunder and of plundering the house of an American and ill-treating his family. Such conduct met with no mercy at Captain Brereton's hands; he sentenced the sergeant and one private to death, and the other privates were punished with the lash. (E. A. H. Webb, The Leicestershire Regiment, 1912, p. 82.)
183. James Coates was appointed brevet lieutenant-colonel of the 19th. Foot, 26 October, 1775, and was promoted colonel of that regiment, 16 May, 1782. He reached the rank of general,
19 April, 1802.
184. Moncks Corner is the county seat of Berkeley county. South Carolina.
185. Dr. Frazier was probably Dr. James Fraser of Beaufort in South Carolina, where he had settled in 1765 as a medical practitioner. In 1773-74 he was a captain-lieutenant in the Granville county militia, but in 1775 his resignation was demanded because of his suspected Toryism. By his marriage to Mary Ash he formed an alliance with a prominent family in South Carolina. Dr. Fraser's loyalty took a practical form early in February, 1779, when he joined the British forces on board H. M. S. Vigilant (Captain R. Christian) on duty off the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. In March, 1780, he was appointed commissary of captures at Charleston and held other military appointments during the war. Dr. Fraser's estate was confiscated and sold, and in the list of "unjust charges" against it was that of Governor John
Rutledge. At the end of the war he went over to England, and in 1788 he was living with his large family at East Greenwich. (Public Record Office: A. O. 12/51, fos. 174-182; A. O. 12/72, fo. 381; A.O. 12/109; A.O. 13/83; A.O. 13/96; A.O. 13/128; Hist. MSS. Comm., Report on the American MSS. in the Royal Institution, Vol. H, p. 100.) See page for his certificate to Alexander Chesney.
186. Lord Rawdon did not succeed his father as 2nd. earl of Moira until 20 June, 1793.
187. This officer was perhaps Major James Wright (who was born in America in 1748)
of the Georgia Loyalists and the King's Florida Rangers until the latter was absorbed in the King's Carolina Rangers. He died in 1816. (Ind. 5605-5606).
188. John Cruden (see Additional Notes, p. 91).
189. Cooper river empties itself at Charleston.
190. When the year 1781 began, the British were in possession of almost the entire State of South Carolina. At the end of the year, British rule was practically confined to Charleston and
its immediate vicinity.
191. Captain McMahon was Captain John McMahon (son of John McMahon, comptroller
of the Customs at Limerick), who was an officer in the Volunteers of Ireland and barrackmaster at Charleston in 1781. He became an intimate friend of George IV. when prince of Wales and was keeper of the prince's privy purse. In 1817 he was created a baronet.
192. Sir Jacob Wheate, 5th. baronet, commander in the Royal Navy, who married in December, 1782, Maria, daughter of David Shaw of New York. After his death in 1788, his widow married Admiral the Hon. Sir Alexander F. I. Cochrane. (G. E. C., Complete Baronetage.)
193. Major John Robinson (see Additional Notes, p. 95).
194. Major Michael Egan (see Additional Notes, p. 96).
195. James Barber (see Additional Notes, p. 97).
196. The name of Charles Philip Campbell cannot be found in any list of loyalist claims for compensation.
197. Solomon Smyth was a prosperous upholsterer at Charleston and the owner of a plantation of 300 acres fifty miles from that city. Banished from South Carolina because of his loyalty, he went first to Bermuda, thence to the West Indies, and to Georgia. According to certificates of Lord Cornwallis and Sir Henry Clinton, Smyth served with the British Army and "rendered essential services" during the war. From 1783 he was granted a pension of £50 a year until his death early in 1824 in England or Ireland. His son, born about 1766, was an apothecary and appears to have gone to the West Indies. (Public Record Office: A. O. 12/99, fo. 176; T. 50/8: T. 50/27.)
198. Captain McMahon's father, (see p. 27, or 191).
199. The lord lieutenant of Ireland was the 3rd. duke of Portland, who was appointed, 14 April, 1782, and was succeeded by Earl Temple in September following. The duke was
prime minister in 1783 and again in 1803.
200. Philip Henry (see Additional Notes, p. 97).
201. For notes on the life of Alexander Chesney in Ireland, see The Life of the late General F. R. Chesney, ed by S. Lane-Poole, 1893, pp. 20-54.
202. Ballymena, a town in county Antrim. It was the scene of an obstinate battle between the yeomanry and the United Irishmen of the district, in the rebellion of 1798.
203. Philip Henry and Charles Philip Campbell (see p. 28).
204. Holyhead, North Wales.
205. The Bull and Mouth inn, situated in St. Martin's Le Grand, was a celebrated London office for coaches to all parts of England and to Scotland. An illustration of this picturesque
inn, as it stood about 1520, is in Thornbury's Old and New London, Vol. II, p. 217. See also
Wheatley and Cunningham, London Past and Present, 1891, Vol. I, p. 300.
206. The Golden Cross inn. Charing Cross, was a famous inn and coach office, and is illustrated in Thornbury's Old and New London, Vol. Ill, p. 127. See also Wheatley and Cunningham,
London Past and Present, Vol. I, p. 300.
207. Lewis Wolfe acted as agent in London for the American loyalists who had returned to the north-east of Ireland.
208. One Thomas Crafer was paymaster of pensions and allowances to the American loyalists and their children who were living in 1833-36.
209. Thomas Townsend (afterwards 1st. Viscount Sydney) was secretary for war in 1782.
210. Lord Cornwallis was ever ready to help the loyalists who had sought refuge in the British Isles, especially those who had fought under him in America, by giving them certificates
certifying to their loyalty. In many cases he appeared in person to urge claims before the commissioners for American Claims in London.
211. Hans Francis, 10th. earl of Huntingdon, whose sister, Elizabeth, was the mother of Lord Rawdon.
212. William, 2nd. earl of Shelburne, secretary of state for Foreign Affairs; prime
minister, 1782-83; and 1st marquis of Landsdowne.
213. The Russian ambassador in London at this time was Monsieur Jean Simoline.
214. George Rose, secretary to the Treasury.
215. Frederick Cornwallis (1713-83), archbishop of Canterbury, uncle of Lord Cornwallis.
216. The Association of American Loyalists in London in 1779 first met at Spring Gardens coffee house, and afterwards at the Crown and Anchor tavern in the Strand, a historic tavern
which is described by Wheatley and Cunningham in London Past and Present Vol. I, p. 480.
217. General Benedict Arnold.
218. Lieutenant-Governor William Bull (see Additional Notes, p. 112).
219. James Simpson (see Additional Notes, p. 99).
220. The acts of Parliament of 1783 and 1785, awarding compensation to the American
loyalists.
221. The loyalists were divided into several classes for the purpose of the above acts. In the first were those who had rendered exceptional services to Great Britain. The second was
composed of those who had borne arms against the Revolution. Loyalists who were zealous and uniform were in the third. In the fourth were loyalists resident in Great Britain. The fifth embraced those who took the oath of allegiance to the Americans but afterwards joined the British, while the sixth class consisted of loyalists who bore arms for the Americans, but later joined the British forces.
222. Major Alexander Ross (see p. 13, n. 93).
223. Colonel Banistre Tarleton (see p. 18, n. 127).
224. Sir Henry Clinton. (He is in the Dictionary of National Biography.)
225. Lewis Wolfe (see p. 31, n. 207).
226. Lad lane is now Gresham street. In this lane was the old tavern. The Swan with
two Necks, the headquarters of coaches to Chester and Holyhead and to Liverpool, through Coventry and Lichfield. An advertisement of the coaches from this tavern is in the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser for 1 April, 1786.
227. Loughborough in Leicestershire.
228. The parish of Cavendish, in Leicestershire.
229. Donington park, in the parish of Cavandish, was once the home of the celebrated Selina, countess of Huntingdon, foundress of the religious sect known by her name. It was enlarged in 1795 by Francis Rawdon, 2nd. earl of Moirn and 1st marquis of Hastings.
230. Lord Rawdon became 2nd. earl of Moira in succession to his father in 1793.
231. Genera] John Burgoyne, of Saratoga fame, was commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland from June, 1782, to December, 1783.
232. The Bell inn, Derby, was a noted coaching house and opens on Sadler Gate. In the early 19th. century it was a conspicuous meeting place of the Whig party. Washington Irving describes a wet day there in his story of the stout man in Bracebridge Hall.
233. Philip Henry (see Additional Notes, p. 97).
234. Newry, a seaport in county Down.
235. Antrim, in the county of that name.
236. Colonel Charles Eustace became a member of the Irish Parliament and a major-general on the staff in Ireland in 1798; he died in 1803.
237. Captain James Miller (see Additional Notes, p. 100).
238. Major John Robinson (see Additional Notes, p. 95).
239. Montalo was afterwards sold by the 2nd. earl of Moira to David Ker.
240. William Doyle, K. C, master in Chancery, father of Lieut.-General Charles W.
Doyle, K. C. B., and of Captain Sir Bentinck C. Doyle, R. N., and brother of Major John Doyle (afterwards General Sir John Doyle, baronet). (See p. 25, n. 180.)
241. Rathfriland in county Down.
242. Charles Philip Campbell (see p. 28, n. 196).
243. Major John Robinson (see Additional Notes, p. 95).
244. Major John Doyle (see p. 25, n. 180).
245. The lord lieutenant of Ireland was Earl Temple.
246. Scrope Bernard, son of Sir Francis Bernard, baronet, (governor of Massachusetts, 1760-69) was born, 1 October, 1758, at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, while his father was governor
of New Jersey. He was educated at Harrow and at Christ Church, Oxford; private secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland in 1782 and 1787; member of Parliament; and under secretary of state for the Home Department. He became fourth baronet and assumed the additional name of Morland.
247. Dublin Castle.
248. Probably Francis L. Morgan, who was promoted first clerk in the secretary's office of the Irish board of Customs.
249. Jane Chesney died June 13. 1822, and was buried with her husband in the Mourne
Presbyterian churchyard at Kilkeel, county Down.
250. John Wilson was the son of John Wilson, a Scotsman, and his wife Jennet Brown,
who was a conspicuous beauty of the time. John Wilson, the elder, was a strict Covenanter refugee from Scotland and settled at Birney Hill in the parish of Skerry or Braid, near Ballymena, and took part in the defence of Carrickfergus in 1690 and was present at the landing there of William III. His sister, Margaret Wilson, at the age of 18, suffered death in the Solway at the hands of her persecutors, rather than subscribe to the hated prelacy. (The Life of General F. R. Chesney, ed. by S. Lane-Poole, pp. 20-23.)
251. Hercules Lane is believed to have been named after Sir Hercules Langford. (Benn,
Hist, of Belfast, 1877, p. 258)
.
252. Philip Henry (see Additional Notes, p. 97).
253. The experiences in Dublin at this time of an American-born officer in the 26th. Foot, Lieut. George Inman, of Boston, Massachusetts, are quoted in his journal, in the possession of the Cambridge (Massachusetts) Historical Society, under date of 10 April, 1783. Joining his regiment, then stationed in Ireland, he complains of having had "a great deal of trouble and greatly imposed upon by the Custom House people." He was very glad to quit Ireland and his regiment, which had been exceedingly expensive, and where he had been "meeting with the greatest imposition from every person whom I had anything to do with."
254. Charles Philip Campbell (see 28, n. 196; 30, 35).
255. Thomas Winder, secretary to the Irish board of Customs.
256. Colonel John Phillips (see Additional Notes, p. 60).
257. Edward Guest, cornet in the 1st. Regiment of Horse, 21 May, 1774, and lieutenant, 4 October, 1777.
258. John Eardley Wilmot and Daniel Parker Coke, commissioners of American Claims. (See Hist. View of the Commission for inquiring into the losses, services, and the claims of the Am.
Loyalists at the close of the War . . . in 1783: with an account of the compensation granted to
them by Parliament in 1785 and 1788, by J. Eardley-Wilmot, 1815; Second Report of the Bureau
of Archives for the Province of Ontario, ed. by A. Fraser, 1904, pp. 13-25, 1314-76; The Royal
Commission on Loyalists' Claims, 1783-1785, ed. by H. E. Egerton; The Roxburghe Club, 1916,
pp. xxx-xxxv.)
259. Captain James Miller (see Additional Notes, p. 100).
260. Philip Henry (see Additional Notes, p. 97).
261. Colonel John Phillips (see Additional Notes, p. 60).
262. Lewis Wolfe (see p. 31, n. 207).
263. Colonel John Phillips (see above).
264. Strangford, a seaport in county Down.
265. Philip Henry (see Additional Notes, p. 97).
266. Thomas Winder (see p. 37, n. 255).
267. General Henry Lawes Luttrell (1743-1821), soldier and politician, an opponent of John Wilkes, and afterwards 2nd. earl of Carhampton. (Dict. of Nat. Biog.)
268. Donaghadee, county Down.
269. Captain James Miller (see Additional Notes, p. 100).
270. Reference is made to this appointment by a later addition to the Journal in these words: "W. J. Skeffington's letter of 4 Novr 1783 and Mr Henry's of 10 Novr 1783 to Mrs Chesney at Belfast"
Written across page 40 of the Journal in later handwriting is this note: "Zach Gibbs one of the Loyalists writes on the 30 August 1784 that he is setting out for Nova Scotia to occupy a Grant of Land there."
271. Philip Henry (see p. 38, n. 265).
272. Eliza Chesney, eldest daughter of Alexander and Jane Chesney, married Captain John Hopkins and died in April 1822.
273. The commissioners of American Claims in London required reliable evidence of confiscation of loyalists' property.
274. An incomplete list of loyalists whose property was confiscated by the State of South Carolina is printed in the Statutes at Large of South Carolina, Vol. 6 (Cooper's edition).
Appendix, pp. 629-633. Another list was printed by Miss Mabel L. Webber in South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 14, p. 40.
275. This paragraph in the Chesney Journal occurs on page 41.
276. See page 2, n. 11.
277. Robert Hodge, father-in-law of Alexander Chesney.
278. This paragraph occurs in the Chesney Journal on page 41.
279. Mourne, county Down.
280. Annalonc, county Down, a fishing village and the headquarters at that time of a
desperate band of smugglers.
281. James Williams.
282. Alexander Chesney's exchange with James Williams is recorded in the Minute Book
of the Irish board of Customs to take place as from 26 December, 1786.
283. Ballyveamore, Ballymacveaghmore or Ballyvea, where stood the old "Barracks,"
pulled down a few years ago, which was the birthplace of Alexander Chesney's son. General Francis Rawdon Chesney.
284. or McCrum.
285. The total amount of Alexander Chesney's claim for the loss of his property in South Carolina was £1.564.10s., and the award was £394. (Public Record Office: A. O. 12/109.)
Included in this claim are the wagon and four horses, impressed into the American service (see page 129). The following additional entry is made in the Chesney Journal on page 41:
"The property not as yet confiscated though retained for that purpose" [? 1785].
286. Jane, who married the Rev. Henry Harden, M. A., of Trinity College, Dublin, who
went out as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to Foreign Parts, at Grand Lake in 1820, and in 1822 was transferred to Rawdon, Nova Scotia.
287. Lady Moira, wife of Francis Rawdon, 2nd. earl of Moira.
288. Francis Savage was surveyor at Newcastle, county Down. In a letter to the Irish
board of Customs, 20 February, 1789, he refers to the growth of refractoriness among the people of Mourne and to the frequency of their attacks upon the Revenue officers when seizures of smuggled goods were made. The board decided in consequence to send a detachment of military to Newcastle to assist the officers in the execution of their duty.
289. Balbriggan, a seaport in county Dublin.
290. Francis Rawdon Chesney, (1789-1872), afterwards general, the explorer of the
Euphrates and founder of the overland route to India. (See Diet, of Nat. Biog. and The Life of the late General F. R. Chesney, ed. by S. Lane-Poole, 1893.)
291. Francis Savage (see above).
292. Rostrevor, on Carlingford Lough.
293. Robert Ross, a high officer in the Irish board of Customs.
294. Francis Savage (see p. 41, note 288).
295. Probably Henry McNully, coast officer, Mourne.
296. Captain Charles Cornwallis Chesney, of the Bengal artillery, who died in 1830.
297. Ballymacveamore (see p. 40, n. 283).
298. Rathfriland.
299. Kilkeel, county Down, where the Chesney family worshiped in the Mourne Presbyterian Meeting House, and where Captain Alexander Chesney and his wife and nine of his
children are buried.
300. Colonel John Doyle (see page 25, n. 180).
301. His daughter, Marianne, who married John Shannon Moore, and died October 31,
1868, aged 66.
302. Thomas Crafer, paymaster of pensions to the American loyalists, 1815-1827.
303. Major the Hon. W. J. Skeffington was the second son of Clotworthy, first earl of Massereene, and was appointed constable of Dublin Castle, 19 November, 1784. He died in 1811.
304. Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 2nd. earl of Moira, was appointed, 15 July, 1795, to command the force ordered by Pitt to proceed to Quiberon and to act as auxiliary to the army of the count of Artois.
305. Royal Military Academy, Woolwich (see W. T. Vincent, The Records of the Woolwich District. Vol. I).
306. A commission for Alexander Chesney's eldest son, Francis Rawdon.
307. The Royal Military College at Great Marlow, Bucks, a preparatory college for Woolwich.
308. Although Alexander Chesney was commissioned, 31 October, 1796, to enrol and command the Mourne infantry, the force was not actually embodied until the end of January following.
As the first company under arms in county Down, it was mustered at a moment when the Association of United Irishmen, formed in 1791, were drilling secretly and actively in the counties of Down, Antrim, Derry, and Donegal. The people of Ulster, proud in the recollection that theirs was the first Province to raise the standard of rebellion, issued an address in 1797, exhorting their fellow-countrymen to revolt. (The Life of the late General F. R. Chesney, ed. by S. Lane-Poole, 1885, pp. 39-40.)
309. Probably Henry McNully, coast officer at Mourne.
310. Dublin Castle.
311. Alexander Chesney's eldest son, Francis Rawdon Chesney.
312. The word is not clear in the text.
313. Yeomanry were first established in Ireland in 1796. The rebellious inhabitants of Belfast, mostly Presbyterians, opposed their establishment as vehemently as the Roman Catholics in Dublin. (Sir Richard Musgrave, Memoirs of the different Rebellions in Ireland, 1801, pp. 228, 290.)
Captain Alexander Chesney was in November, 1821, commanding officer of the Mourne Yeomanry — a corps which had volunteered to serve out of its own district during the war with the French in 1815. Chesney, in November, 1821, applied for leave of absence from his official Customs duties to serve with the Mourne Yeomanry out of his district, if required.
314. Thomas Pelham was appointed a principal secretary of state in Ireland, 24 June,
1796, and was created earl of Chichester in 1801.
315. Arthur, 2nd. marquis of Downshire.
316. Rev. Lucus Waring, rector of Kilkeel.
317. Field-Marshal Sir George Nugent, baronet, who served during the American Revolutionary war, was in command of the north-eastern district of Ireland. He married, 16 November, 1797, Maria, daughter of Brigadier-General Cortlandt Skinner, who raised the well-known loyalist regiment, the New Jersey Volunteers, in the American Revolutionary war.
318. Captain John Porter was promoted major, 1 October, 1797, in place of Lieut.-Colonel John Campbell (resigned) of the 2nd. battalion of the Argyll (or Clavering) Fencible regiment,
commanded by Colonel Henry M. Clavering. (W. O. 13/3803.)
319. Major John Porter (see p. 46, n. 318).
320. Isaac Corry (1755-1813), Irish politician; represented Newry in the Irish Parliament, 1776-1800; chief Government speaker in favor of the union, 1799-1800; fought a duel with
Henry Grattan in 1800. (Dict, of Nat. Biog.)
321. The battle of Ballynahinch, where the rebels were defeated. (W. H. Maxwell, Hist. of the Irish Rebellion in 1798, p. 204.)
322. Matilda Chesney died in 1814.
323. The French landed on the shore of Killala Bay, four miles from Killala, 22 August. 1798.
324. Joseph Matthews, captain in the 8th. (or King's Royal Irish) regiment of Light
Dragoons from 1793 to 1796.
325. Viscount Castlereagh, the statesman, was keeper of the Irish privy seal in 1797-8, and chief secretary for Ireland, 1799-1801.
326. Alexander Chesney, the younger, died in 1832, unmarried.
327. General Francis Rawdon Chesney built a house at Ballyardle for his mother, Jane
Chesney, and called it "Pacholet," in memory of his father's home in South Carolina. Here Captain Alexander Chesney died, 12 January, 1845. The house is still standing (1917).
328. Moira House, Dublin, was visited by Rev. John Wesley, who describes it in his Journal: it is now the "mendicity institution" (see Memorable Dublin Houses.)
329. James Purdy, Customs boatman at Annalong, in succession to John Boyd, who had
been maltreated in an attempt by an armed mob to rescue a seizure of tobacco from three of the Customs' boatmen.
330. An enquiry was held by Francis Carleton, collector at Newry, into the allegations of William Beers, surveyor at Annalong, and James Purdy, Customs boatman at the same place,
that Alexander Chesney had been guilty of corrupt connections with smugglers. The board of Customs, as a result of Carleton's report, dated 24 March, 1802, informed Chesney that the circumstances of the spirits being sent to his house at an unseasonable hour was open to suspicion, and cautioned him as to his future conduct respecting smugglers. James Purdy's suspension was cancelled. (Minute Book of the Irish board of Customs, No. 278, p. 126; in the Public Record Office in London.)
For an account of the laxity in the Irish Customs early in the nineteenth century, see
Atton and Holland, The King's Customs, 1910, Vol. II. pp. 11-14.
331. John Pitt, earl of Chatham, was master-general of the Ordnance at this time.
332. Colonel James Haddon, Royal artillery, afterwards major-general.
333. John Revoult, M.A., master of Walworth Academy. His portrait was painted by Sir
William Beechey, R. A., and was presented to him "by the gentlemen who had been educated under him as a token of their high respect and affectionate regard towards him — 1798." This portrait cannot now be traced. A mezzotint of it was done by James Ward in 1798. He is shown holding up a book, entitled Introduction to the Arts and Sciences, 1798. (R. W. Bowers, Sketches of Southwark Old and New, 1905, p. 488.)
334. Alexander Mark Kerr Hamilton, son of Colonel Archibald Hamilton, the loyalist, of Flushing, Long Island, New York, and his American wife, Alice Colden, was at Rev. Dr. Towne's Academy at Deptford in 1785, at the age of 18. He subsequently became a major-general in the British Army.
335. A proposal was made by the supreme board of the Royal Military College at Marlow in 1806 that the college should be removed from Marlow to Winchester. The proposal was, however, negatived. (W. O. 40/37.)
336. Lieut.-General Vaughan Lloyd, Royal artillery.
337. "Prospect," the residence of Alexander Chesney, was six miles from Kilkeel, and has since been used as the Annalong Coastguard Station.
338. Major David Meredith, Royal artillery.
339. Thomas Crafer Chesney was accidentally drowned in 1825.
340. Captain John Hopkins.
341. Probably John White, who was principal surveyor of Customs at Ringsend in 1813.
342. Francis L. Morgan, who succeeded Madden as first clerk in the secretary's office of the Irish board of Customs.
343. Juno.
344. The Resolution was stationed at Strangford in 1813.
345. Alexander Chesney in his letter of 28 August, 1813, to the board of Customs claims that he was the first person to give information to Captain Thomas Lacy, commanding the Hardwick
cruiser at Rostrevor, of the arrival on the coast of the Matchless smuggling cutter. The board
accordingly recommended Captain Lacy to pay him 50 guineas as the informer's share of the money paid to Captain Lacy and his crew. (Minute Book of the Irish board of Customs, Vol. 334, p. 133; Vol. 335, p. 14).
346. Major-General Albert Gledstanes was promoted lieut.-general in 1814 and knighted in the same year. Francis Rawdon Chesney married in 1822 his (Gledstanes') niece, a daughter
of John Forster.
347. Francis Jack Needham, only brother of Robert, 11th. viscount Kilmorey.
348. General Sir John Doyle, baronet (see p. 25, n. 180).
349. Lieut.-General Sir Albert Gledstanes (see p. 52, n. 346),
350. The Matchless, smuggling cutter (see p. 52, n. 345).
351. Captain Thomas Lacy (see p. 52, n. 345).
352. Jamaica, West Indies.
353. The words omitted are illegible.
354. Leith, Scotland.
355. Captain John Hopkins (see p. 39, n. 274).
356. William, only son of Alexander Chesney and his first wife, Margaret Hodge (see p. 20). Alexander Chesney in his will of 1843 recommended his son, William in America, to the humanity of the British Government, as he was left without parents or support in infancy by the Revolutionary war, and hoped that the Government, to whom he (Alexander Chesney) had rendered many services during that war, would be pleased to continue his pension of £30 as a loyalist to his said son, William.
357. Charlotte, fourth daughter of Alexander Chesney and his second wife, married George Washington Bell, a surgeon, and died at "Pacholet," 27 April, 1857, aged 62.
358. Castlerea, county Roscommon.
359. Rev. Henry Hayden (see p. 54).
360. John Crampton, surveyor-general of the Customs in Ireland. His report of his exhaustive investigation into Chesney's alleged negligence not only exonerates Chesney from all blame, but adds that it was with infinite satisfaction that during a service of 35 years in the Revenue, perhaps unparalled(sic) in activity, no sensible grounds of belief in the rumors concerning Alexander Chesney could be found. This report, dated 18 March, 1820, was supported by the board of Irish Customs, which completely cleared him of every imputation of neglect of duty. (Minute Book of the Irish board of Customs, Vol. 427, pp. 34-35. in the Public Record Office, London)
361. These minutes are in A.O. 12/99, fo. 219.
362. Colonel John Phillips (see p. 60).
363. Alexander Chesney was married for the second time, March 1, 1783. The child here mentioned was his son, William, by his first wife. He was in South Carolina at that time, not at Belfast. It was Alexander Chesney's wife who was at Belfast.
364. See Additional Notes, p. 59.
365. General Daniel Morgan.
366. Bush river is in Newberry county. South Carolina.
367. Vadry McBee was a captain in Colonel Benjamin Roebuck's regiment of South Carolina militia. The name is pronounced in South Carolina to this day as if spelled Magbee.
368. A.O. 13/126. A copy of the above claim is in A.O. 12/146, pp. 186-189.
369. Dr. James Fraser (see p. 26, n. 185).
370. Banistre Tarleton, lieutenant-colonel commandment of the British Legion, (see p. 90).
371. Major John Doyle (see p. 25, n. 180).
372. Compare with his evidence published in The Royal Commission on American Loyalists Claims: Roxburghe Club, 1915, pp. 49-50.
373. He was kept in prison for about ten days. Ibid., p. 49.
374. See p. 7, n. 48.
375. That is, no active military part on the loyalist side.
376. John Cruden had a lieutenant-colonel's commission. (See Additional Notes, p. 92.)
377. See p. 9, n. 64.
378. See p. 129, n. 4.
379. The wagon and horses were impressed into the American service while Alexander Chesney himself was in that service. See p. 9, n. 62.)
380. The siege of the fort of Ninety-Six, held by Major Andrew Williamson and Major James Mayson, by the loyalists under Majors Joseph Robinson and Evan McLauren, from November 18 to 21, 1775. (See pp. 69, 70.)
381. See Colonel John Phillips, p. 60.
382. Colonel Zacharias Gibbs (see pp. 79-82).
383. See p. 132.
384. The Resolution of the loyalists is printed on p. 144.
385. The above evidence on Alexander Chesney's Memorial is in A.O. 12/46, fos. 190-200.
386. Two loyalists of this name, probably father and son, sailed from Charleston and settled in the Bahamas. (A.O. 13/70).
387. Colonel Daniel Plummer (see p. 88).
388. Lieutenant-Colonel John Fanning (see p. 108).
389. Lewis Wolfe (see p. 31, n. 207). The above documents are in A.O. 13/126.
390. A.O. 13/126.
391. Ibid.
392. Colonel Thomas Brandon.
393. Captain James Miller (see p. 100).
394. Hugh Milling, of that part of South Carolina now embraced in Fairfield county, enlisted in Captain Charles Cotesworth Pinckney's company of the 1st South Carolina regiment, June 16, 1775, and was immediately appointed a sergeant. He was subsequently promoted captain in the 6th Regiment, South Carolina line, and in February, 1780, was transferred to the 3rd Regiment, South Carolina line, with which he served until the fall of Charleston in May following, when he was taken prisoner. In 1781 he was exchanged. Captain Hugh Milling died in July, 1837.
395. A.O. 13/126.
396. Ibid.
397. A.O. 13/126.
398. Colonel Thomas Brandon.
399. General Daniel Morgan.
400. Lord Moira, the father of Lord Rawdon.
401. Captain John Saunders (see Additional Notes, pp. 108-111).
402. A.O. 13/126.
403. Ibid.
404. A.O. 13/126.
405. A.O. 13/85.
406. These gentlemen were former governors of South Carolina.