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The Reward of Five Guineas for apprehending Nathaniel Lock, a Deserter from the 64th Regiment is hereby withdrawn.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.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Richard Gootch, 9th Regiment, enlists three times

Richard Gootch does not appear on the muster rolls of the regiment into which he enlisted, the 9th Regiment of Foot. This would make the English teenager difficult to find were it not for some good fortune and for his bold (but not at all unusual) career path.

The 9th Regiment arrived in North America in May 1776, spearheading the force that relieved Quebec city of an American siege. They then participated in the campaign that rapidly pushed American forces all the way back to Lake Champlain, retaking every post that had been lost the previous year. The onset of winter, however, forced the 9th and other regiments into quarters before the vital Fort Ticonderoga could be seized. It was around the same time that the campaign was winding down that a large number of fresh troops arrived at Quebec to augment the British regiments, increasing their overall size as well as making up for losses. Richard Gootch (or Gooch, Goatch, Gutch) was probably among these troops, a mix of recruits and drafts (transfers from other regiments).

Winter prevented the new soldiers from moving south to join their regiments. They had the relative luxury of wintering in Quebec while their comrades on campaign were spread out among various posts along the Richelieu River. In February the 9th Regiments ten companies prepared the last set of muster rolls that they would create in America, which do not include the reinforcements waiting at Quebec.

The summer of 1777 meant a new campaign, and the 9th Regiment moved with a strong army under General John Burgoyne on the push to Albany that, it was hoped, would end the war. Gootch joined the regiment on this campaign, and instead of reaching Albany became a prisoner of war at Saratoga. The captives were marched to barracks outside of Boston where they spent the next year, then to Rutland farther inland, and finally to camps in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Many hundreds of the prisoners absconded during this long captivity, among them Richard Gootch. It is not known when and where he eluded his captors, but evidence suggests that it was in New England, for it is there that he shows up again.

Some time in 1780 or early 1781, Gootch enlisted in the Rhode Island regiment of the Continental Line. We've found no information about how he spent his time between Saratoga and his enlistment. He decided to become a soldier again, probably for the same reason that many British escapees enlisted into American service. In early 1781 he and other recruits were sent to join their regiment at posts along the Hudson River above New York City. On 4 April he deserted and made his way into British lines. There he gave a brief deposition to British intelligence officers:

Richard Goatch, an Englishman of the 9th British Regiment late of one of the Rhode Island rebel Regiments deserted from Bedford the night before last. There is a detachment there of a Captain & thirty four privates. The Regiment he belonged to, is now near West point & consists of about four hundred men. He has been in prison upwards of a year & oblig’d to inlist to get out. There are not above five hundred men at West point the greatest part of the troops lately stationed there were sent to Virginia. About 150 continentals on the lines in the neighbourhood of Byram &c.

In the mean time, officers of the Rhode Island regiment were looking for him. Assuming he would return to the area where he enlisted, they took out an advertisement in the Providence Gazette that first ran on 18 May 1781; it included Gootch among a large number of Rhode Island deserters and described him thus:

Richard Gooch, (inlisted for South Kingstown) born in England, 19 Years of Age, 5 Feet 8 1/2 Inches high, of a fresh Complexion, has dark Hair, and light Eyes.

Although he had deserted from captivity (and perhaps ended up in jail somehow, but returning escapees sometimes concocted stories that put them in a better light when they returned to British service), and deserted from American service, Gootch was not done being a soldier. He enlisted in a new Loyalist regiment called the American Legion commanded by the infamous Benedict Arnold, who had himself deserted from American service and was now a Brigadier General for the British.

Gootch probably joined the Legion too late to be involved in its activities in Virginia in 1781, but most likely was on the expedition to Groton and New London that September. This action saw the dramatic storming of Fort Griswold, but the American Legion was not involved in that fighting. Gootch spent the rest of the war with his regiment at posts around New York City, but it is not known what became of him when his regiment was disbanded in late 1783.