Mrs. Fowles, 7th Regiment of Foot, draws provisions

 Mrs. Fowles and her daughter Ann drew rations in August of 1782 along with other soldiers and wives of the 7th Regiment of Foot. This is no surprise. Wives and children of British soldiers in America were fed by the army; most British regiments included - among those who they provisioned - wives of about one in six soldiers. Documents that include the names of these women are rare; the August 1782 provisions list for the 7th Regiment is the only one for that regiment known to survive that names each man and woman. Even so, it does not give the names of the wives, listing them only as "Mrs. Fowles," "Mrs. Bright," "Mrs. Carney," etc. We've deduced that "Ann Fowles," also on the list, is Mrs. Fowles daughter, as a number of children are listed with their first and last names.

What makes Mrs. Fowles important, in terms of our understanding of how wives were treated by the army, is that her husband, Sergeant William Fowles, died on 25 April 1781. The only man on the regiment's muster rolls with that surname, he was already in the 7th Regiment when it arrived in America in 1772, landing at Quebec. A private soldier at that time, he was appointed corporal in February 1780, and sergeant exactly a year later. No details of his specific service have been found at this time; presumably he was among the men of the 7th Regiment captured in 1775 and repatriated two years later, and he was with the regiment at the siege of Charlestown, South Carolina, in 1780. Whether he died of illness in garrison or on campaign, or of wounds in one of the 7th's several battles in the Carolinas, he left his wife a widow only two months after being appointed sergeant.

It is also not known when William Fowles married. Mrs. Fowles may have accompanied the regiment from Great Britain in 1773, or met her husband in America. And her fate after August 1782 is also unknown; the provision return is the only record we have of her.

There is folklore that widows of British soldiers were required to remarry within days of their husband's death, or they would be struck off the provision rolls and turned out of the regiment no matter where it was. This has already been shown to be untrue from records of widows remarrying months or years after their husbands died. By drawing provisions seventeen months after her husband died, Mrs. Fowles provides one more example that soldiers' widows remained part of the regimental community until they could establish themselves in new circumstances.

Learn more about British soldiers in the American Revolution!

William Marchant, 7th Regiment, enlists three times

When fighting broke out in Massachusetts in 1775, British soldier William Marchant was in the colonies but far from the war zone. With other soldiers of the 7th Regiment of Foot, called the Royal Fusiliers, he was in the garrison at St. Johns, a post along the Richelieu River between Quebec and Lake Champlain. These men may have expected the conflict to remain confined to the Boston area, but American ambitions dashed any such expectations.

Marchant was no stranger to war. Hailing from the Bath suburb of Walcot in Somersetshire, he had joined the army during the Seven Years War. While serving in the 103rd Regiment of Foot, a newly-raised regiment, he participated in the British attack on the French island of Belle Isle off the Brittany Peninsula in 1761. He was wounded in the neck during that action. His regiment was disbanded at the end of the war in 1763, and he was discharged. With no trade to fall back on, however, the twenty-five-year-old enlisted a second time, this time in the 7th Regiment.

By November 1775 the Royal Fusiliers had been serving in the Quebec area for over two years. That month, an American force besieged St. John; the garrison, heavily outnumbered, was forced to surrender. The prisoners were marched off to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. With no idea of how long this imprisonment might last, Marchant and a few others chose a different path: they enlisted in the American army. Marchant may have been disheartened with his prospects as a prisoner, but his third enlistment, this time into the enemy army, may have been a clever ruse, for serving in the American army meant that they would be sent closer to British forces than the hinterlands of Pennsylvania.

In the autumn of 1776, American forces lost one fight after another around New York City. Large numbers of American soldiers deserted or were taken prisoner. William Marchant’s own circumstances aren’t known at this writing, but on October 17 he joined the British army again. He enlisted in the 63rd Regiment of Foot and spent several months in their ranks. In 1777, prisoners from his old regiment were exchanged and the 7th Regiment was reconstituted from those men, recruits from Great Britain, and drafts from other regiments. Marchant was a Royal Fusilier once again.

The 7th Regiment served in several subsequent campaigns. Portions were captured at the battle of Cowpens and the surrender at Yorktown in 1781, but Marchant was not among them. He served out the war, and continued with his regiment when they returned to Great Britain in 1783. He did not take his discharge until five years later, when he was fifty years old, after twenty-seven years as a soldier. On 24 June 1788 he was discharged at Edinburgh Castle. He scratched a X on his discharge in lieu of a signature, and was given twenty-eight days pay with which to make the journey to London to stand before the army's pension board He was recommended for a pension, “having been wounded in the Neck at Belleisle, suffered much by long confinement when prisoner of war in America, & being much afflicted with the Rheumatism, is unfit for further service.” No mention was made of his brief stint as an American soldier.

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Three Brave Army Wives

Learning about British soldiers of the American Revolution is challenging: Muster rolls give us their names, but personal information is harder to come by. It is even more difficult to learn about their wives. From documents like provision receipts and embarkation returns, we know the numbers of women who accompanied British regiments; some ten to twenty percent of British soldiers were not only married but had their wives with them in America (other wives stayed behind in Great Britain; we have no way of knowing how many). There are no lists of names of these women. From time to time we encounter stories about them, and some of those stories reveal bravery, perseverance and devotion. Here are three:

http://allthingsliberty.com/2014/10/three-brave-british-army-wives/

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John Budge, 7th Regiment of Foot, regrets his decision

Few British soldiers left any record of why they chose to join the army. Almost all were volunteers, for it was not legal to force men into the army except for a brief period during the American War and even then only under certain conditions. In addition, the law required that every enlistee testify before a magistrate that he'd joined the army volutarily, within four days of enlisting. While there were certainly instances of this system being circumvented, they were few; just how few is evidenced by the fact that almost no men on trial for desertion brought their legal enlistment into question. If corrupt recruiting practices were widespread, we'd expect to see men charged with desertion using this as a defense in their trials - if their enlistment contract wasn't legal, then they couldn't be charged with desertion - but such a defense was extremely rare.

This doesn't mean that recruits were always happy about their decision to enlist. A man named John Budge joined the 7th Regiment of Foot in late 1777 or early January 1778, and soon found himself bound to join his regiment in America. Shortly before embarking with other recruits, the Nottingham native and batchelor prepared a will directing that a yearly income he'd been left by an uncle be managed by his brother until his return, or divided among various extended family members if he didn't return. His state of mind is reflected in the opening phrase of his will, which reads, "As it is my misfortune to enlist in the army and going abroad directly..." He doesn't say why he enlisted, but clearly he regretted it.

John Budge joined the 7th Regiment, known as the Royal Fusiliers, in New York. The regiment had been captured piecemeal early in the war as it manned posts between Lake Chaplain and Quebec that quickly fell to an American onslaught. The captives were released in late 1776, though, and the regiment had been returned to fighting trim by the addition of drafts and recruits. Budge probably became acclimated to warfare during the regiment's service in the New York City area during the second half of 1778 and throughout 1779 which included raids on the Connecticut coast.

The beginning of 1780 saw a shift in British strategy, and the 7th Regiment participated in the successful siege of Charleston, South Carolina. The 7th Regiment went on to fight at the disastrous battle of Cowpens in 1781, and also had elements at Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown later that year. The regiment had a tough war.

But for John Budge the fights at Cowpens and Yorktown didn't matter. He'd been wise to make out a will, for he died in Charleston on 24 July 1780; whether from wounds or illness is not known.

A new book, coming in March 2015!

James Annett, 7th Regiment of Foot, gets fired

Sometimes soldiers with short careers have something to teach us, like James Annett of the 7th Regiment of Foot, the Royal Fusiliers. He arrived in America in October 1781, among the last British army recruits to make the journey all the way from Great Britain to New York (recruits sent the following year were detained in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to reinforce that garrison). When Annett and other recruits arrived in New York, they found that their regiment was scattered about North America. Many were prisoners of war, having been captured in the south at Cowpens, Yorktown, or other smaller engagements. Some were in the garrison at Charleston, South Carolina; they soon would be sent on to Savannah, Georgia. But there were elements of the regiment in New York City, including Captain-Lieutenant Thomas Bibby, who took Annett as a servant.

Bibby had been an officer in the 24th Regiment of Foot on the campaign commanded by General Burgoyne in 1777. Captured and subsequently exchanged, he took a commission in the 7th Regiment in January 1781. The regiment was in South Carolina at the time, but Bibby was appointed Deputy Adjutant General in New York, a staff position that offered him safety and comfort, particularly compared to what his fellow Fusiliers were experiencing. He was promoted to Captain, and courted a local woman, Margaret McEvers; they married her in 1782.

After the close of hostilities, the 7th Regiment coalesced again in New York, composed of the men who'd evacuated Savannah, the repatriated prisoners of war, some recruits and transfers from other regiments, and whatever other individuals found themselves in the New York garrison after their diverse wartime experiences. James Annett, in the mean time, had spent two years in America serving Captain Bibby, drawing his soldier's pay plus a salary for his services.

British regiments in America were reduced in size and reorganized in preparation for departure. James Annett took his discharge in August 1783. Although he'd arrived in America in late 1781, he'd probably enlisted well before that, enough to have put in the three years of service required to be eligible for discharge at the end of hostilities (a wartime provision enacted in December 1775; British soldiers who enlisted in peace time had no fixed term of service). Although entitled to passage back to Great Britain, he chose to remain in New York. He had a job there: he was the servant to Thomas Bibby, who also chose to remain. Bibby retired from his post in the 7th Regiment but remained on half-pay, akin to being in the reserves today. He settled in New York with his wife, retaining his former soldier-servant in his employ.

The arrangement had worked for a while, but some time in 1784 things turned sour. On 9 September, this notice appeared in the New York Journal:

Notice,

I have discharged James Annitts, formerly a British soldier, (an hired servant) for insolence, impertinence and dishonesty.
T. Bibby, Cap. Royal Fusileers.

We lose sight of Annett after this. Perhaps he found work as a servant in another household, but the bad endorsement from his former master may have forced him to established himself in a new career in his new county.

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John Stewart, 7th Regiment, is overpersuaded

Knowing that between ten and twenty percent of British soldiers were accompanied by their wives on service, it stands to reason that many children were born in garrison towns, encampments and on the march. Unfortunately there are no known comprehensive records of such births, only a few anecdotal accounts and indications survive. Some of those children became soldiers themselves; although there are also no comprehensive records of soldiers' birth places, among those that we do have are a few men who were "born in the army."

One such man was John Stewart, a soldier in the 7th Regiment of Foot. Born to a soldier and his wife, he was enlisted as a drummer at an early age (not all drummers were young "drummer boys", but some were), and also learned to play the fife. When old enough, probably in his late teens, we went into the ranks as a private soldier. He did his duty well; one of his officers commented that "he would sometimes drink but he was in general looked upon as a smart clean Soldier." Smart enough that, by the time the regiment came to America in the early 1770s, he had been appointed corporal in the regiment's light infantry company.

In 1775 war broke out and John Stewart's career took a bad turn. The 7th Regiment garrisoned posts between the northern end of Lake Champlain and Quebec. An American expedition quickly seized all of these posts, ultimately laying siege to Quebec itself. Most of the 7th and 26th Regiments were captured piecemeal, including corporal John Stewart who was taken when the fort at St. John's fell early in November 1775.

Stewart and hundreds of other prisoners were sent to various locations in Pennsylvania and Connecticut; Stewart was sent to Lancaster, Pennsylvania with many others from his regiment. Stewart endured about nine months as a prisoner, but in July 1776 he gave in to overtures from his captors, accepted an enlistment bounty, and joined an American regiment. An officer of the 7th Regiment went to American authorities and demanded him back, but in spite of assurances Stewart was not seen again.

At least, not by his immediate comrades. Stewart's new regiment marched from Lancaster to Philadelphia; upon arrival there they marched into the city with some fanfare, Stewart wearing a new blue rifle jacket and playing the fife. An officer of the 7th Regiment and his soldier servant happened to be in Philadelphia at the time; the servant saw this rebel corps marching by and recognized their fifer as a former fellow soldier. Stewart also recognized the servant and, in a remarkably bad career move, stopped playing his fife and bowed to the man as he passed. The servant spotted Stewart again the next day in company with other American soldiers.

Stewart's regiment moved on into New Jersey, taking station at Fort Lee on the Hudson River opposite Manhattan. They retreated hastily from that place in the face of a rapid British advance. In early December the Americans in New Jersey were in full retreat. John Stewart separated himself from his regiment and turned himself in to British soldiers in Newark; he was taken prisoner and sent to British headquarters in New York.

In February 1777 Stewart was put on trial for desertion and bearing arms in the rebel service, perhaps the most serious crime a soldier could commit. soldiers of the 7th Regiment, having been exchanged from captivity and now serving in New York, testified to his service in that corps, his desertion from captivity, and his appearance as a fifer in Philadelphia. In his defense, Stewart claimed that he had run out of money and clothing, and was "overpersuaded" to enlist by offers of money. He pointed out that he had deliberately sought out the British lines in New Jersey and identified himself when taken in. He called an officer as a character witness who testified to his long and generally good service.

All of this was not enough to pursuade the court. The fact that he had deserted was unquestionable. The charge of bearing arms was somewhat doubtful because Stewart had only been seen playing the fife, but doing so at the head of a corps of armed men was sufficient to bear out the charge. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. At this writing it has not been determined whether the sentence was carried out or if he was pardoned.

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Unimpressed by the Press Acts: the Number of Pressed Men sent to America in 1779

A recent post on another blog discussed the British government's 1778 decision to allow men to be impressed into the British army. Prior to this, the army had been an all-volunteer force. The unidentified blogger accurately recounts some of the basic aspects of the press acts, but, like many other authors, runs afoul of assumptions and generalities that overstate both the reach of the press acts and their impact on the army.

It is true that, in 1778, a law was passed allowing justices of the peace and tax commissioners to force enlistment of “able-bodied idle and disorderly Persons” who did not “exercise and industriously follow some lawful Trade or Employment” or have some other way to sustain themselves. But the law applied only to the London area and clearly stated that pressed men must be fit for military service.  In 1779 a revised law was passed with broader scope but still with strict limitations. Details are given in Chapter 6 of my book British Soldiers, American War. The incorrect assumption is that, because it was now legal to impress men, that's how most recruiting was done for the remainder of the war. In reality, the press acts were unpopular with the army as well as with the population, and ultimately provided only a small portion of the recruits raised in 1778, 1779 and 1780, the only years that the laws were in effect. Of the small number of men raised by impressment, only a few were sent to America.

My book presents quantitative information illustrating the overall limited impact of the press acts, but since writing it a piece of information has come to light that very clearly quantifies the number of pressed men sent to America. Historian Paul Pace discovered a document in the Sir Henry Clinton Papers at the William L. Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, listing recruits sent to America in 1779. By this stage of the war, recruits were sent to America once a year in large convoys to protect the transport ships from marauding privateers and foreign navies.

The "Embarkation Return of the Additional Companies Embarked from Chatham Barracks to compleat the Regiments in North America 26th March 1779" enumerates the men sent to each of fifteen regiments serving in the New York area. It also denotes the numbers of those who were "impressed men". 1329 recruits were embarked (distributed on eleven transports); among them were only 70 impressed men. These impressed men were allotted to only six of the fifteen regiments; specifically:

7th Regiment: 92 recruits, including 9 impressed men
23rd Regiment: 49 recruits, including 13 impressed men
37th Regiment: 89 recruits, including 15 impressed men
42nd Regiment: 45 recruits, including 6 impressed men
44th Regiment: 147 recruits, including 16 impressed men
63rd Regiment: 133 recruits, including 11 impressed men

Other regiments received similar numbers of recruits, but no impressed men at all. The established strength of regiments in America was, at this time, 700 private soldiers. Clearly, impressed men formed only a minuscule portion of the soldiers in America that year. Unfortunately no return has yet been found identifying the impressed men by name and therefore allowing us to trace their careers.

As discussed here before, there was another issue with the 1779 recruits: disease broke out among them, perhaps scurvy brought on from an unusually long time on board the transports. Many of the recruits died within their first year in America; for example, a third of those sent to the 22nd Regiment were dead within 12 months of disembarkation. The presence of impressed men and the outbreak of disease among the recruits was probably just a coincidence, but the two have nonetheless been linked in some literature, further adding to the stigma of impressment and its impact on the British army in America.

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James Bradley, 7th Regiment of Foot

We have seen, on these pages, many long military careers. There were others that were agonizingly short, and in some cases we have just enough information to make them tantalizing mysteries. One such case was James Bradley.

Bradley arrived in America in 1777 along with a number of other recruits for the 7th Regiment of Foot. The first muster roll on which his name appears, dated April 1778, annotates him as being "sick" at that time. The term was a generic one for men who were in hospital at the time the roll was prepared; whether Bradley was wounded in battle or suffering from illness is not known. He may have been one of the many hapless recruits who fell ill during the Atlantic voyage. The survival rate of hospitalized men was actually fairly good during the course of the entire war, for most illnesses were not life-threatening even though incapacitating and treatment cosisted largely of bedrest, reasonably good hygiene and a healthful diet, all under the care of well-paid army nurses supervised by trained physicians.

James Bradley, however, did not recover. By April 1779 he was not only still sick but took the foreboding step of preparing a will:

In the name of God, Amen. I, James Bradley, Soldier in his Majesty’s Seventh Regiment of Foot, native of Broomsgrove, Worcestershire, Great Britain, being of sound mind and memory. After all my just debts be paid I leave to Mr. James Bennett, of the City of New York, jeweller, all my real and personal estate, whatsoever, in Great Britain or elsewhere; desiring the said James Bennett to pay to Mr. Samuel Harrison £20 for favors received. Likewise I make the said James Bennett, my executor.

    April 17, 1779. Witnesses, Thomas Dixon, William Milbourne, and Ann Smith (spinster)

Bradley must have been advised that survival was unlikely, but it was another 13 months before he succumbed to whatever malady ailed him. He died on 27 May 1780, and his will was proved in July 1781.

Only a few soldiers' wills have been found. On most, the witnesses are fellow soldiers, but there were no men named Dixon or Milbourne in the 7th Regiment. Bradley's relationship to these men, and to the unmarried Ann Smith (who could've been the daughter of a soldier in the regiment) is unknown. We are also left to wonder how much of an estate a soldier might have had, but clearly it was expected to the substantial sum of £20 left to Samuel Harrison - whose identity and relationship to Bradley are also unknown.

The one relationship that can be discerned is the one between Bradley and James Bennett. Bennett had been an established artisan in New York, advertising in local newspapers since 1768. It is unlikely that the soldier Bradley was a casual customer, but it happens that Bennett died in 1783 and left a will of his own. That document reveals that Bennett, like Bradley, was a native of Broomsgrove, Worcestershire; although we don't know precisely how the two men knew each other, they probably shared social contacts.

James Bennett's will reveals one additional connection to Thomas Bradley's: by 1783, Bennett was married to Ann Smith who had witnessed Bradley's will; Bennett left almost his entire estate to her, and named her executrix. 

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Moses Bright, 62nd and 7th Regiments of Foot

On 31 January 1770, a man named Moses Bright from Newbury, county Berkshire, enlisted in the 62nd Regiment of Foot. At 34 he was older than most recruits but not of an unusual age for a soldier in general; most enlistees in this era were in their early twenties. This late start did not distinguish Bright from having a long and interesting military career.

Bright joined his regiment in Ireland in March. He spent the next five years in that country, marching from place to place and learning the ways of army life. By the time the regiment embarked for Canada in early 1776 he was fairly experienced, albeit strictly at peace time soldiering.

His service in America tested his mettle and proved his endurance and loyalty as a soldier. He was wounded on the famous campaign under General Burgoyne in 1777, and taken prisoner under the treaty of Saratoga. Like many of those prisoners, he managed to escape and join the British army in New York City. When he was trasferred into the 7th (Royal Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot in December 1778, he was one of 33 men from Burgoyne's army to do so including 15 from the 62nd Regiment.

With the 7th Regiment Bright and his comrades from the northern army went campaigning again. In July 1779 they participated in raids on the Connecticut seaport towns of New Haven, Fairfield and Norwalk. Moses Bright was again wounded, but again recovered and returned to active service. When the 7th Regiment was sent to serve in the southern colonies in 1780, he was in its ranks. An experienced veteran now, he was appointed corporal on 24 July 1780.

The southern campaign went poorly for the Royal Fusiliers. They were part of the force under Banastre Tarleton that was soundly defeated at the Battle of Cowpens on 17 January 1781. Many men of the regiment were captured including Moses Bright. The seasoned soldier escaped a second time, making his way to Savannah, Georgia where he rejoined elements of his regiment there and was appointed serjeant. 

When the war was winding down and the southern colonies were evacuated and prisoners of war repatriated, men of the 7th Regiment of Foot coalesced again in New York. The end of the war brought a reduction in forces, and although the 7th Regiment was sent back to Great Britain many of its men were discharged in America, some to settle there and others to take land grants in Canada. Moses Bright became a supernumerary serjeant when the establishment of his regiment was reduced to include fewer non-commissioned officers. He had the option of remaining in the ranks as a serjeant en seconde, that is, serving as a private soldier while waiting for another serjeant's post to become available. He chose instead to obtain his discharge by finding another man to serve in his place, probably one of the many other discharged British soldiers looking for opportunities in the manpower-reduced British army.

Details on his subsequent life have not been found. He was discharged on a date typical of men who took land grants in Canada. In 1797, however, he petitioned the commissioners of Chelsea Hospitial for an out-pension and provided a testimonial from the current commanding officer of his former regiment. He appears to have served in one of the many invalid companies raised to garrison British coastal installations, receiving a discharge from one in 1802 and from another in 1804 at 68 years of age.

A veteran of campaigns in three theaters of war, twice wounded in battle, twice taken prisoner and twice escaped, everything that we know about Moses Bright's 8 years of service in the American War comes from a few sentences written in his pension petition. It is a shame that we don't have more details about the many experiences that he had. 

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Army Wives: The Remarriage Myth Dispelled

A favorite topic of mine is wives of British soldiers. Information on these women who formed an integral part of the British army in America is sparse. While the names of soldiers can be readily obtained from muster rolls and other sources provide details of their ages, backgrounds and other attributes, just learning which men were married and the names of their wives is challenging. I've been able to pull together significant information about their role in the army, but learning about the individuals remains difficult.

With this paucity of information, it is especially annoying when people propagate information that has no basis in actual research. One such 'nugget' is the notion that wives who became widows were required to remarry within days or they would be cast out of the army and left completely on their own where ever they happened to be. I've heard this repeated many times, but never seen it backed up by information from general orders, military texts, personal accounts, or any other first-hand information. Although it is true that women had to be married to soldiers in order to become part of the 'regimental community', it is contradictory to the spirit of community to suppose that widows would be cast out. Over time, direct information made the remarriage assertion less and less plausible - for example, orders directing that widows who wished to return to Great Britain would be provided passage on board transport ships - but the absence of supporting information does not directly prove that remarriage was a requirement or necessity.

It is pleasing, then, to have finally obtained specific information about several army wives whose husbands died and who then married other soldiers. Regimental muster rolls provide us with the dates that the men died. A collection of marriage licenses issued in New York City gives the date that the widows obtained license to remarry (presumably close to the date of the actual marriage). Just enough of these marriage licenses are specific about the regiments to which the men and women belonged to make it possible to associate the names of some of the women to men in the same regiments who had died. They are in Volume 46 of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (1915), available on Google Books.

The first example we found, about a year ago, was Hester Foster of the 22nd Regiment of Foot. Her husband William died as a serjeant on 14 October 1780 in New York after a career of at least 14 years in the army. On 18 December 1780 she obtained a license to marry a 31-year-old serjeant in the regiment, Henry Vennel. A decade later he became a rare man who obtained an officer's commission after rising through the ranks from a private soldier.

This example of a woman who remarried just two months after losing her husband was weak proof that women were not required to remarry immediately. Although two months is much longer than the 24 to 72 hours generally purported as the required time limit (depending upon who told the story) it is nonetheless a fast turnaround. More information was required to get a better sense of typical practice. That information has finally come together.

Noted author Brendan Morrissey recently worked extensively with the muster rolls of the 23rd Regiment of Foot. These rolls record the death of Thomas Pearcy on 31 May 1776 when the army was in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Over two years later a marriage license was obtained by Elenor Percy, widow in the 23rd Regiment, to marry a soldier named William Rider. Variations in spelling of surnames is quite common in muster rolls and related documents, and no other soldier in the 23rd had a name close enough to reasonably have been the husband of Elenor Percy. Sadly, her new husband died in June of 1780 and we have no additional information about her.

My own recent trip to the National Archives afforded the opportunity to piece together three more examples:

Daniel Rogers, a grenadier in the 38th Regiment, died on 19 August 1775 of wounds received at the battle of Bunker Hill. Catherine Rogers, widow of the same regiment, obtained a license to marry Thomas Mason of the 38th on 2 May 1777. Mason was still in the regiment in 1783, but a gap in the muster rolls makes his ultimate fate unknown.

Richard Twine of the 54th Regiment died on 21 August 1776. His wife Ann obtained a license exactly one year later to marry a soldier in the 45th Regiment, James Wiggins. He was drafted into the 5th Regiment of Foot in 1778 when the 45th was sent back to Great Britain and the 5th to the West Indies. A gap in the rolls of the 5th from late 1778 to the beginning of 1781 leaves his fate (and hers) unknown.

Thomas Proffit of the 7th (Royal Fusiliers) Regiment died on 17 April 1777. His wife Ann obtained a license on 6 February 1779 to marry serjeant John Lomix (or Lomax) of the same regiment. He died on 28 July 1782, leaving Ann once again a widow.

Among the marriage licenses are several others that can be traced in this way when we have an opportunity to work with the muster rolls of more regiments. For now, we have these four examples of women who were widowed and then remarried a year or more later, where the marriage license information explicitly refers to them as widows belonging to their regiments. A fifth woman married within only two months. We have yet to find an example of a woman remarrying within days of losing her husband. This doesn't mean it didn't happen, but it certainly proves that it was not a requirement.

Besides putting to rest the remarriage myth, the marriage licenses open up a new mystery. Among the women named as affiliated with British regiments are four who are not called widows but 'spinsters.' My first supposition was that these women were daughters of soldiers in the regiment, but we have not been able to correlate their names with any men on the muster rolls. It may be necessary to track down the original marriage license information to fully understand this nomenclature and determine who these women actually were.

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Escapee: Richard Baker, 7th Regiment of Foot

Throughout the war, British soldiers became prisoners of war, and throughout the war these prisoners escaped. There was no policy of escape as a method to cause disruption to the enemy and contribute to the war effort as there was in later centuries. Instead, soldiers seem to have been motivated by a sense of duty to the service and sovereign, contempt to conditions of captivity, and the simple taste for activity over idleness. Muster rolls give a general idea of the numbers of men who made their way back into British service, and some brief depositions from a few of these men survive (which will be showcased here in the future).

Detailed accounts of escapes are rare. The most verbose and best known is that of Roger Lamb, who escaped from the Burgoyne’s captive army in 1778 and again from Cornwallis’s in 1781. Jonathan Stayer, a researcher at the Pennsylvania State Archives, recently found another detailed account and thoughtfully sent it to us: a deposition given by an escaped British prisoner, detailing his travels as a fugitive and providing information about the local inhabitants who helped him.

Richard Baker was a soldier from the 7th Regiment of Foot, the Royal Fusiliers, who was captured at the battle of Cowpens in 1781. Abetted by sympathetic guards, he escaped along with a soldier from Tarleton’s Legion. After being helped through the countryside by a network of loyalist residents, a miscue led to his capture in Maryland. He was taken to York, Pennsylvania where many British prisoners were held and where he gave his deposition, below. We have no indication of whether he returned to British service either by escape or repatriation. Because his deposition reveals the names of people who were helping escapees, we wonder if he may have chose to stay in America.

Deposition of Richard Baker

York County to wit.

Before me the Subscriber one of the Justices of the Peace [word or symbol illegible] of the said County of York personally came Richard Baker a Soldier of the Seventh British Regiment who on his Oath taken according to Law doth voluntarily and deliberately say and declare, that he (the said Richard meaning) was taken Prisoner with a certain John Thompson of Tarleton’s Legion (who was formerly of Hagers Town in Maryland but joined the British Army in Philadelphia) at the Battle of the Penns in South Carolina; that he with said Thompson left their Guard (many of whom were Tories & recommended them to go to the Moravian Towns where they would be well used or entertained as the People there were loyal subjects & Friends to the King) at the Yadkin. That they in the Day Time generally marched through the woods & were directed from one Tory House to another through North Carolina & Virginia till they (the said Richard & John meaning) came to Hagers Town aforesaid, where they were kindly entertained by a Mennonist who lives within about half a Mile of that Place. Near Chambers Town in Pennsylvania they were also kindly entertained by a Person who knew they were British and making their Escape to New York. They then came on to Lisburn where they left the main road and turned of to the Left towards the Susquehanna in the Red Lands at a Dutch House Thompson went in for Provisions, they remained in the woods there for four Days where several of the Inhabitants came to visit them. On the Night of the twenty eighth of March instant he left the Red Lands with said Thompson and came to Cadovus Creek about one Mile and an Half below York Town and some short Time before Day crossed the same Creek at that Place. They then came up by the Mill late Rankins and proceeded on the road which leads to a Fulling Mill about half a Mile where they met a Person in the Woods who told them that he had Notice from the Red Lands of their coming & was there to meet them, that he lived at York & had three or four hundred Dollars in Continental which was subscribed by the Friends of the British Government & which he gave to Thompson & this Deponent. That the Person who met them was about five feet nine or ten Inches high, well set & wore a Quaker Broad brimmed Hat, was a Dutch Man by his Language. He said he wished that the British Army would come here and that many would join it. He directed them the road to Henry Stouffers, & Thompson having some knowledge of the way proceeded by a Fulling Mill & they the said Richard & John arrived at Henry Stouffers Mill early on the Morning of the twenty ninth instant. They (the said Richard and John meaning) knocked up said Henry Stouffer. They (the said Richard and John meaning) told him who they were. He (the said Stouffer meaning) let them in, gave them Brandy & gave them a Bed to lye in. After resting some Time they (the said Richard & John) got up. He have them their Breakfast & desired them to stay all Day there as it would not be safe for them to go till Night, during which time he entertained them. He gave the said Richard the drab Coloured Coat and Jacket which he now wears in Exchange for a green Jacket. Said Stouffer also gave him a Pair of Shoes. About eight OClock on the night of the 29th inst. said Henry Stouffer got a Man and a Horse to convey the said Richard and John towards the Head of the Bay, so that they might get on Board some of the British Ships. About Seven Miles down the Baltimore Road, he this Deponent and his Companion Thompson parted, he then went to the House of Ludowick Pupp through mistake, and told him Stouffer had sent him there, that he was a Friend & that he was to shew him the way to one John Maultby’s who lives in Maryland and about five Miles from Kean’s Tavern towards the Bay & who had a Brother who would get him on Board one of the British Ships. That he received no Countenance from said Pupp, but was next Morning taken up by Mr. Daniel Peterman & said Ludowick Pupp, & that he was brought by them to this Town.

Sworn & subscribed before me at York the 30th Day of March 1781

[signed] Richard Baker

[signed] Archd McClean

[RG-33, Records of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Court of Oyer and Terminer, Court Papers, York County, 1780-1781. Pennsylvania State Archives]

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