I sometimes get inquiries from descendants of men
who deserted from the British army. Usually the family story involves
their ancestor being pressed or conscripted into service, and then
deserting in America because he had no desire to fight the Yankees.
While it is often possible to find the man on regimental muster rolls,
determine the exact day that he deserted, and get some insight about
when he enlisted, some facets of the family lore can usually be
discounted. With the exception of a brief period in 1778, 1779 and 1780,
it was not legal for the British army to conscript or press men; even
during the period that it was legal, few such men were sent to America.
Almost every British soldier who served in the American Revolution had
joined the army voluntarily, something that gets lost for obvious
reasons when these men settled in the new nation and told their stories
to later generations.
Reasons
for desertion are not so easy to categorize. It is true that the war
was not universally popular in Great Britain. Soldiers who deserted,
though, were far more likely to be motivated by an overall distaste for
military service (or, more specifically, wartime service) than for any
specific concerns about who they were fighting. Some deserters prove
this to us by their exploits subsequent to deserting from British ranks.
A
fine example is that of Thomas Pickworth (or Peckworth). He joined the
23rd Regiment of Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, in April of 1777. The
circumstances of his enlistment are not known; the Englishman probably
arrived in America with a body of recruits for the regiment, having
enlisted in Great Britain during the previous year, but there's a chance
that he was already in America when he enlisted - the muster rolls do
not make it clear.
He
was not a typical recruit in that he was in his early thirties when he
joined the regiment. This was rare but not unknown; most men enlisted in
their early twenties, but regiments could take on any man who they
deemed physically capable. It's possible that he had prior military
service. He was by trade a shoemaker, a fairly common profession among
soldiers.
The
23rd Regiment went with General Sir William Howe's army on the campaign
to Philadelphia in the autumn of 1777. Perhaps it was the hard
campaigning and fighting that turned Pickworth away from the army. Or
perhaps he had a roving disposition and was inclined to disciplinary
trouble. Muster rolls prepared in February 1778 show that he was "sick,"
a catchall term that covered every malady from battle wounds to
injuries incurred from lashings as well as the usually diseases.
Regardless of his malady in February, by the beginning of May he was
well enough to abscond from the British army; he deserted on 1 May. Many
men deserted at this time when the army was preparing to leave
Philadelphia. We can only guess which ones had formed local attachments
and which ones simply saw the opportunity afforded by the army marching
away.
Opportunity
seems to have been on Pickworth's mind. Just days after deserting, he
enlisted again - this time in the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment in the
Continental Army. Such an act could be interpreted as sympathetic to the
American cause, but it clearly was not. Within days of enlisting -
which itself was within days of having deserted from the British -
Pickworth absconded yet again. In early June the commander of his
company placed an advertisement for him:
Twenty Dollars Reward.
Deserted
from Captain Jacob Mauser’s company, of the sixth Pennsylvania
regiment, on Monday the 11th instant, (May) a recruit named Thomas
Pickworth, says he was born in England, about five feet eight inches
high, dark complexion, middling thick, about thirty-five years of age,
says he is a shoemaker by trade and lived in Philadelphia: It is thought
he made towards Virginia with some people moving that way, and perhaps
may change his name: Had on when he went away, a brown coat, long blue
breeches, and a little hat. Whoever takes up said deserter and secures
him in any gaol so that he may be had again, shall have the above
reward, paid by the subscriber in Maxatawny Township, Berks County.
Jacob Mauser, Capt. 6th P. R.
[Pennsylvania Packet, 3 June 1778]
He
doesn't seem to have rejoined the 6th Pennsylvania. He doesn't even
seem to have changed his name, or gone to Virginia. Instead, he enlisted
yet again, this time into a company of Marines in Pennsylvania, some
time in August or early September 1779. By the end of September, though,
he had deserted yet again:
Deserted from Captain Robert Mullan's Company of Marines, in Philadelphia, the
following men, viz. Thomas Peckworth, about 37 years of age, 5 feet 9
inches high, dark complexion; had on when he went off a light coloured
cloth coat, his other clothing not remembered, a shoemaker by trade.
[Pennsylvania Gazette, 6 October 1779]
This ad, dated Philadelphia, Sept. 29 1779, also listed a number of other men who'd deserted from the Marines.
Why
would a man repeatedly enlist and desert? Without explicit testimony
from Pickworth himself, we can only guess. It was common for recruiters
to offer a cash enlistment bounty, and Pickworth may have deemed it
worth the risk to take the money and run even though desertion was a
capital offense. If he did tell his descendants about his service in the
American Revolution, he probably left out some details, changed some
others, and hoped no one in his family took a liking to reading old
newspapers.
