Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Nathaniel Lock, 64th Regiment, runs off with a hautboy

The 64th Regiment arrived in Boston in January of 1769 when open warfare with the colonists was still years away. In addition to the usual complement of officers and soldiers, the regiment had a band of music. Not to be confused with the regiment's drummers and fifers, the band consisted of several (probably about ten) instruments of various types and provided entertainment at concerts and social functions. Members of the band were often carried on the muster rolls as soldiers, but not all of them did duty in the ranks. Almost immediately after disembarking in Boston, a member of the regiment's band went missing. A newspaper ad was placed for the errant performer:

Whereas Nathaniel Lock, musician in the 64th regiment has absconded from the regiment, and taken with him a hautboy, watch, and other articles which do not belong to him. This is to caution all people from concealing him, as they will be prosecuted for harboring a thief.
Any person who will bring said Lock to the regiment, now quartered in Boston, shall have five guineas reward. He is a middle sized person, about five feet seven inches high, swarthy complexion, dark hair, round shouldered, plays on the bassoon, hautboy and flute. He had better surrender himself. He has with him a woman low in stature, marked with the small-pox, and has the Irish brogue.
[Boston Chronicle, 9 February 1769]

Lock’s instrument, the hautboy, was popular in military bands. This instrument is unfamiliar to most modern readers, but it’s basic form can be discerned by using the French spelling of the name, hautbois, and the French pronuciation, ho-BWA. This is the derivation of the English word oboe.

Unlike many wayward soldiers, Lock soon returned to the regiment albeit in unknown circumstances. A month after the ad for him was placed, another notice appeared in the same paper:

The Reward of Five Guineas for apprehending Nathaniel Lock, a Deserter from the 64th Regiment is hereby withdrawn.
[Boston Chronicle, 13 March 1769]

Whatever the reason for his absence, Lock stayed put after this. He appears on the regiment's muster rolls consistently from 1773 onward. He probably played in the concert that was advertised a year before war broke out:

Messi'rs. Morgan and Stieglitz, Request Permission to inform the Ladies and Gentlemen of Boston, that, having received assurance of the Patronage and Assistance of the Musical Gentlemen, they purpose having at Concert Hall, on Wednesday the 20th of April, a GRAND CONCERT of Vocal and Instrumental MUSIC assisted by the Band of the 64th Regiment.

ACT 1st.

Overture   Stamitz 1st.
Concert   German Flute,
Song    'My Dear Mistress,' &c
Harpsic. Concerto by Mr. Selby
Simphony   Artaxerexes,

ACT 2d.

Overture   Stamitz 4th.
Hunting Song.
Solo, German Flute.
Song, Oh! My Delia, &c.
Solo Violin.

   To conclude with a grand Military Simphony accompanied by Kettle Drums, &c. compos'd by Mr. Morgan.
   TICKETS at Half a Dollar each, to be had at the British Coffee House, at Miss Cumming's in Cornhill, at Messi'rs Cox and Berry in King Street, and of Messi'rs Stieglitz and Morgan.
   N.B.   Copies of the Songs to be delivered out (gratis) with the Tickets. 
  To begin at 7 o' Clock precisely.
[Boston Gazette, 11 April 1774]

The 64th Regiment remained in America for the entirety of the American Revolution, one of only a few that were in the colonies before the war and did not depart until after hostilities ended. Nathaniel Lock was carried on the rolls the whole time, initially as a drummer or a private soldier, and from 1778 as a serjeant. Why he was put in a post of such responsibility is debatable: probably he was the leader of the band by this time and was maintained as a serjeant in order to pay him at an appropriate rate; but it is possible that he did the normal duties of a non-commissioned officer.
At the end of the war Lock returned to Great Britain and was discharged. On a list prepared in August 1783 of men, women and children of the regiment who would sail home, Lock is listed as having one child but no woman with him. Whether the woman mentioned in the 1769 ad was his wife or not, she clearly didn't stay with the army as long as he did.

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