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Benjamin Baynton: An Observer of Mankind. Part One of Two
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Once an officer in the Pennsylvania Loyalist Regiment, Benjamin Baynton was wounded twice in battles in both West Florida and Alabama, became a prisoner of war after Spanish troops killed half his comrades, and eventually found refuge in Great Britain. Had he not written a memoir of a man he considered to be a loyalist hero, Baynton’s own story would no doubt have been lost to posterity. His name would have been just one among the thousands of Loyalists who sought compensation from the crown and then vanished from the records of history.
The earliest reference to Baynton is found in an account written by his friend, John Young. Sir William Howe, the British commander-in-chief, described Young as “a gentleman of property and character in the Colony of Pennsylvania, puts himself under your protection. His loyalty to his Sovereign induced him to fly from persecution.”
Young later wrote, “Having long abhorred the new form of government erecting in America, on the ruins of the constitution of my country, and disdaining to submit to it, on the 24th of January, 1776, I set off in company with my friend, Mr. Baynton, from Philadelphia, the place of our birth, for New York.”
Young was arrested by a Committee of Safety and sent back to Philadelphia. Loyalty to the British crown was no doubt a crucial element in the friendship between Young and Baynton, for by 1777 both were lieutenants in the Pennsylvania Loyalists, a provincial regiment created after British forces occupied Philadelphia.
Baynton was later described as having been “among the first” to join the British forces. He came from a successful business family in Philadelphia, but was the only son to maintain his loyalty to Great Britain, his “brothers and other family throwing in their lot with the new government.”
By 1778, the British military felt that it had the best chance of quashing its American rebels by first subduing the Patriots of the southern colonies – and defending those colonies that remained loyal. Baynton’s regiment, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William Allen, initially served in Jamaica. In December 1779, the Pennsylvania Loyalists then joined the Maryland Loyalists under Lieutenant Colonel James Chalmers in Pensacola, West Florida. They were part of a British contingent sent to defend the colony against Spanish forces.
Fifteen years earlier, at the end of the Seven Years War, Spain ceded West Florida and East Florida to Great Britain. Pensacola became the capital of West Florida and the site of Fort George, the Royal Navy Redoubt. Both East and West Florida declined to send delegates to the First Continental Congress in 1774, given their overwhelming loyalty to the crown. During the course of the American Revolution, Pensacola and Mobile, Alabama (just 95 km to the west) became cities of refuge for Loyalists fleeing the rebellious southern colonies.
In January of 1781, Benjamin Baynton was a member of a detachment that left Pensacola via the Bay of Mobile to capture a fortified town defended by the Spanish. Within the offensive force were members of German, British, and loyalist regiments, including a Maryland Loyalist named William Augustus Bowles and a number of Indigenous warriors.
The attack did not go well. Baynton recalled, “But more than half of this gallant detachment were either killed or wounded. Out of ten officers, three were killed, and three were badly wounded … There remained left in the sort but two officers, with scarce twenty men, who must inevitably have fallen, had they not been forced to fly their vainly imagined victory.”
In the midst of all of this mayhem, Baynton remembered the courage of Bowles — just a teenager at the time—who fired upon the Spanish as the surviving British soldiers retreated.
Baynton was among the wounded who returned to Pensacola. He wrote a letter outlining his injuries. “It is now four weeks since I received my wound; and have the pleasure to inform you; that in less than half that time, I shall be out of the Surgeons report. My wound was a most miraculously fortunate one, the ball passing between the leading artery and the bone, and as the sons of Physick suppose, grazed both.
In either case; my situation would have been truly deplorable, either perhaps the loss of my arm, or the want of use of it, or as the Surgeons on the spot informed me, I should have in all probability, bled to death before he could have given me assistance.
I had almost forgot to mention my receiving a prick of a bayonet in my right elbow just as I was falling; but as it was very slight, and is now quite healed up, I shall say no more about it; but hope in a fortnight or less, to be able to make as good use of my left as my right arm, as the only inconvenience I now feel is, a stiffness in two of my fingers.”
Disease and war reduced the number of soldiers in the Pennsylvania and Maryland Loyalist Regiments. Within a month of the failed attack on Mobile Village’s redoubt, the combined regiments only had 310 men. A month later, the situation for Baynton and his comrades worsened. From March 12 to May 9, Spanish forces that had been based in Havana, Cuba lay siege to Fort George, the British redoubt at Pensacola.
The British forces bravely fought back, but on the night of May 8th, a Spanish shell landed on the fort’s ammunition magazine. The resulting explosion destroyed much of the fort’s defenses and killed half of the troops within Fort George. Baynton later wrote about “the melancholy spectacle of near a hundred men blown into the air, almost within his reach. Five seconds sooner, and he must have been numbered with the dead.”
In the wake of the explosion, the Spanish were able to get closer to the fort, increasing the death toll by firing at close range. On May 9th, the British surrendered both the fort and West Florida to the Spanish. Baynton and his surviving comrades — now prisoners of war—were taken to Havana.
In June, members of the Pennsylvania Loyalists were put aboard the St. Joseph and St. Jaochim, a ship under a white flag bound for British headquarters in New York City. En route, two Patriot privateers captured the ship and ordered it to sail for Philadelphia as their prize. For some, such as Baynton, arrival in Philadelphia would be a death sentence as Loyalists were often executed as being traitors to the revolution.
However, before Baynton’s ship reached the mouth of the Delaware River, a loyalist privateer – along with a second vessel– captured the St. Joseph and St. Jaochim. It was then set free to continue sailing for New York, arriving there on July 23, 1781. By this time, the Pennsylvania Loyalists had only 61 men: 9 officers, 4 staff officers, 3 sergeants, 2 corporals, and 43 privates – less than a standard infantry company.
Baynton and his fellow soldiers were posted to Newtown, Long Island where they were to remain “prisoners on parole” for 365 days. Forbidden to take up arms against the rebels, many of the officers of the regiment spent the year in socializing. Baynton, though, is remembered as suffering from either a depression or post-traumatic stress syndrome. He stayed in his quarters and would not socialize with his fellow officers.
On July 24, 1782, the members of the Pennsylvania Loyalists finally returned to active service after a formal exchange of prisoners.
What became of Benjamin Baynton, “the observer of mankind”, will be told in next week’s Loyalist Trails.
 To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

The 1781 American Raid on Annapolis Royal
By Brian McConnell UE March 2025
Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia is the most fought over place in Canada. There have been over 13 conflicts there in its history involving the French, British, Mi’kmaq, Acadian, Mohawk, and Americans. The last one occurred in 1781 when two ships commanded by American privateers raided the settlement.
For most of the years during the American Revolution the 84th Regiment of Foot, also known as the Royal Highland Emigrants, had soldiers stationed at Annapolis Royal. However, during the time they were not there the raid occurred by two ships with American privateers. As early as 1758 Nova Scotia had enacted a law requiring creation of militia units to be raised across the province on a county basis. It provided that “all male persons, planters and inhabitants and their servants between ages of 16 and 60 residing in and belonging to the province shall bear arms and duly attend all musters and military exercises of their respective Companies…”. Each person must provide a musket, gun, or fuzil. During September of 1781 there was no British military presence stationed in Annapolis Royal and the militia was not on alert. Read more…

Comment About Harriet Tubman
Thanks for the article on Harriet Tubman in last week’s Loyaliust Trails.
Back in the 1970s I was hot on her trail. I did a lot of research to find proof of her residence here in St. Catharines as no one believed she rented a house to bring her escapees to and find work for herself and them.
I spend time in the basement of city hall going through assessment books &c. I found her! The assessment or the census also named the people sharing the house.
I had been a fan since I received a book on Heroines when I was about 10 years old. There was a painting of this black woman in a bandana creeping through trees/bushes? I was fascinated. I did a speech on Harriet for my class when I was about 12 years old.
All the information I collected was given to Arden Phair, the wonderful curator of the St. Catharines Museum.
Elizabeth Robbins Riley, St. Catharines

The Significance of Newfoundland Fishing Rights in the 1783 Treaty of Paris
by Marvin L. Simner 20 March 2025 Journal of the American Revolution
Following the ratification of the Franco-American Alliance on February 6, 1778, France informed Great Britain that it had joined forces with America in its war with England. As an integral part of this arrangement, France and the United States had agreed that neither would form a treaty with Britain without the approval of the other. On the assumption that victory might be close at hand, France had also requested that Congress enlist the aid of Conrad Alexandre Gerard, the first Minister Plenipotentiary of France, to help delineate the terms of any subsequent peace arrangements.
The following year the Congressional delegates, along with Gerard, met in Philadelphia to review a number of potential treaty terms. As a starting point for discussion on February 23, 1779, six items were suggested as “absolutely necessary for the safety and independence of the United States” together with six other items said to be negotiable. Beginning on March 1 and ending five and a half months later (August 14), the committee as-a-whole met twenty-two times.
Of the twelve items under consideration, only three that eventually became part of the 1783 Treaty of Paris “provoked sharp controversy.” These were the proposed boundary lines (Article Two), the Newfoundland fishing rights (Article Three) and the Mississippi River navigation rights (Article Eight). Of these, the Newfoundland fishing rights generated the most debate. Whereas the Committee discussed the right to navigate the Mississippi on only three occasions and the proposed boundary lines on five occasions , it debated the fishing rights on seventeen occasions. Needless to say, this emphasis on the importance of the Newfoundland fishing rights is striking, since before the war this was not an issue of concern. Read more…


Elijah Clark and the Revolutionary American Frontier
by Robert Scott Davis 18 March 2025 Journal of the meican Revolutionary
Although a genuine folk hero, little has been published about Elijah Clark (often spelled Clarke) beyond well-intended historical fiction. Like his contemporaries Daniel Boone and George Rogers Clark, he should be remembered as an important frontier leader.
Clark’s first biographer, Absalom Harris Chappell, wrote in 1874 that he would never have been known if he had lived on the coast. As an adult, he began as an almost property-less illiterate “cracker,” no different from many Southern frontiersmen. Born in 1742, likely in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, Clark was the son of ambitious backcountry settler John Clark (1689-1764), whose genealogy remains murky. Unlike many patriot leaders, Elijah’s father was a part of his life in a household of numerous siblings. Clark loved hunting and living free as a youth. His daughter described him as handsome, over six feet tall, blue-eyed, and with sandy or chestnut hair.
Clark was one of the first white settlers of Grindal Shoals and Pacolet River in northwest South Carolina, likely on land that belonged to his father. Around 1765, he married Hannah Arrington or Harrington (1745-1827). Ten years later, the Clarks and their then-four children moved to the Ceded Lands of Georgia, today’s Wilkes and surrounding counties. They had no enslaved people and borrowed money from Thomas Waters to make an initial payment on a modest 150-acre tract on what became Clarke’s Creek. The Ceded Lands were intended for families of modest means seeking new lands due to the colonial population explosion and who could provide militiamen to defend the province. The lawless and propertyless were discouraged, as were large, enslaved workforces that would have to be watched and could not legally serve in the Georgia militia. Read more…

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: POW: in Winter Quarters – A Soldier’s Life January 1782
From a Hessian Diary of the American Revolution.
This excerpt from the diary of Johan Conrad Dohla (170 pages).

Major Moves during Johan’s deployment:

  • March 1777: Depart Germany
  • 3 June 1777: Arrive New York, then Amboy NJ
  • November 1777: To Philadelphia
  • June 1778: to Long Island
  • July 1778: To Newport RI
  • October 1779: to New York
  • May 1781: to Chesapeake Bay (Yorktown)
  • October 1781: to Williamsburg

1782: Continuation of the Noteworthy Occurences in Our North American Campaign, and Especially the Captivity in the Sixth Year. Or the Year of our Lord 1782. Page 120

In the Month of January 1782

1 January. The first of January, or the New Year, began with a warm and pleasant electrical storm. Today Private [Georg] B€hner, of Eyb’s Company, died here.
5 January. A new detachment of Virginia militia, under the command of Colonels Hamson and New-Swanger and Brigade Major Woods, arrived and assumed the guard over all the prisoners at this place.
8 January. The commander of the new guard command held a roll call, that is, a muster of the prisoners. All the regiments and companies were counted. Today Fifer [Johann] Sammelmann, of Quesnoy’s Company, joined the American Light Horse at Newtown, ten miles from here. They pay a bounty of six guineas, in paper money, when a man enlists for three years. A great many from our two regiments have already enlisted under this plan.
10 January. The wife of the sutler Kiefhaber I died.
14 January. Private [Andreas] Benkert, of Major Beust’s Company, died. We received news also that the two men who had been left behind in the hospital at Fredericksburg, [Johann] Buchta and [Johann Sebastian] Gerber of Quesnoy’s Company, had died.
15 January. News came from the West Indies that at Clarenton and Saint Andreae, on the English island of Jamaica, a great conflagration broke out that laid seven hundred houses and two well-filled magazines in ashes. The loss is estimated at ‹300,000 sterling.
The island of Jamaica was discovered by Columbus. The English have occupied it since 1698. The King allows the government to be conducted by a governor. It has a healthy situation and atmosphere,193 whose heat is much tempered by the rain and wind. It is fifty German miles in length from east to west, and twenty or more wide. Saint Iago de la Vega is the capital city of the island and the seat of government. This island has a population of more than 60,000 whites and 110,000 Negroes, and still is only one-third settled. The soil is excellent and productive throughout the entire year. It produces corn so abundantly that from one bushel of seed, two hundred are harvested. There is also a great amount of good sugar, cocoa, cotton, and indigo, tobacco, ginger, also salt, saltpeter, cochineal, lemons, pomegranates, crab apples, wine, Indian figs, pinewood, amber, pearls, scarlet berries, cedarwood, mulberry wood, and oranges.
There are also silkworms. Turtles are in abundance and often so large that fifty people can eat their fill from a single one. The English are said to gain ‹100,000 sterling yearly from the cocoa alone, from which chocolate is made.
25 January. We received orders from Congress to march again from here.
26 January. All of the captive troops here were escorted to Frederick, in Maryland, forty miles from Winchester. From there they went to Lancaster,194 in Pennsylvania, to remain in custody.
(to be continued)

Advertised on 19 March 1775: ‘Gilbert Forbes, Gun Maker, At the sign of the Sportsman.’

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

19 March 1775

“Gilbert Forbes, Gun Maker, At the sign of the Sportsman.”

Gilbert Forbes, “Gun Maker, At the sign of the Sportsman in the Broad Way,” took to the pages of the New-York Journal to advertise “all sorts of guns” that he made “in the neatest and best manner “and sold “on the lowest terms” as spring approached in 1775. He made some of the standard appeals deployed by artisans – quality and price – yet those were not the focal point of his advertisement. A woodcut dominated his notice, accounting for more than half the space he purchased in the newspaper.
Commissioning the woodcut may very well have been worth the investment. It almost certainly attracted the attention of readers, not only because it appeared on the first page of the March 16 edition. The image depicted a scene of a well-dressed gentleman firing a gun, a bird plummeting out of the sky, and a hunting dog waiting below. A puff of smoke wafted out of the barrel of the gun, capturing the moment just after the gentleman pulled the trigger. Such a scene differed dramatically from other images that appeared in newspaper advertisements during the era of the American Revolution. When advertisers commissioned woodcuts, they usually requested static images that corresponded to some aspect of their business… Read more…

Book Review: An American Triumph: America’s Founding Era Through the Lives of Ben Franklin, George Washington, and John Adams
Author: by Tom Hand (Americana Corner Press, 2023)
Review by Kelsey DeFord 17 Mar 2025 Journal of the American Revolution
Tom Hand’s An American Triumph examines the lives of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and John Adams. Hand, a West Point graduate, created the website “Americana Corner” in 2020 to “share stories and documents of America’s founding period.” This coffee table style book contains over one hundred and thirty images and maps, arranged in different time periods, from before, during, and after the American Revolution. Included are “why it matters” sections and annotations. The anecdotal book uses personal experiences of founding fathers to recognize their contributions to the United States and to inspire a reader’s love of country. Hand also serves on the American Battlefield Trust’s Board of Trustees. Proceeds of this book go towards the “Preserving America” grant program which funds preservation efforts related to pre-1876 buildings and other projects. Read more…
Trailblazing [Canadian] Astrophysicist Opened Doors
Astrophysicist Allie Vibert Douglas popularized astronomy and encouraged women in science.
by Dianne Dodd 26 Feb 2025 at Canada’s History
In the Cavendish Laboratory at England’s prestigious University of Cambridge, a young woman toiled over an experiment in nuclear physics. The year was 1921. Allie Vibert Douglas, a native Montrealer with a master’s degree in physics from McGill University, had won a war memorial scholarship from the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire to study at Cambridge under the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ernest Rutherford.
Vibert Douglas had chosen to come to Cambridge even though she had no hope of earning a Ph.D. there: The venerable university refused to grant degrees to women until 1948. She was enthralled with the prospect of working under Rutherford, after having heard the charismatic New Zealander speak at a public lecture in 1914. But, working in his lab, she found the famous physicist to be very different from her first impression of him. He banished her to an isolated corner of the laboratory and assigned her a project that dealt with heat emission from a rapidly disintegrating radioactive product. As she struggled with hostile lab mates, failed experiments, and inadequate equipment, Rutherford showed little inclination to help.
Raised by strict Methodists and never one to complain, Vibert Douglas soldiered on. Then, as though to pour salt in her wounds, Rutherford assigned the same project to a new investigator — a Russian named Pyotr Kapitza. Read more…

On tap: celebrating the tradition of maple syrup in Canada
Each spring, as the freeze-thaw cycle takes hold of parts of the country, the sap in red and sugar maple trees starts to flow, marking the start of the sugar bush season
By Michela Rosano 21 March 2025 Canadian Geographic
Out in the crisp, late February air, Michel Gagnon tends to his maple trees, getting them ready for the coming syrup harvest. When the sap starts to flow in early March, Gagnon will have only about two months to collect his buckets — a gruelling job, he says, but one he has no plans of quitting.
The sugar bush is a Canadian institution rooted in First Nations’ tradition where people gather each spring to celebrate maple syrup. And nowhere in Canada is the sumptuous sap as culturally prominent as Quebec, where the industry produces about 70 per cent of the world’s supply — worth approximately $615 million annually. Read more…


The Canadian Takeover: Why Trump’s Annexation Goal Could Backfire Spectacularly
Trump’s annexation plan would backfire by giving Canada’s provinces 52 Senate seats—enough to control U.S. politics.
By Steve Forbes 18 March 2025, Forbes
Warning! Canada could take over the United States. This isn’t hyperbole—it’s political mathematics.
President Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of annexing Canada. Before rushing headlong into continental consolidation, he and other annexation enthusiasts should reconsider. The consequences would be profound and potentially devastating for America’s constitutional balance. Read more…
Noted by Kevin Wisener UE, Abegweit Branch

Events Upcoming

American Revolution Institute – Lecture—The Realities of Infantry in Combat During the American Revolution, 8 Apr 2025 @ 6:30

Historian Alex Burns, Ph.D., assistant professor of history at Franciscan University of Steubenville, places the common enlisted man during the American Revolution at center stage by discussing their experiences during the war. Drawing from his archival research on the American, British and Prussian armies, Dr. Burns shows how the infantryman throughout the eighteenth century played an important role by asserting tactical reforms from below and places the tactical experiences of the Continental Army in a European context. More and registration…


Editor’s Note: Technology limitations and challenges while on a river cruise on the Danube (yesterday in Budapest, Hungary and headed east,) proved to be bigger than I had hoped. Hence a number of gaps compared to usual issues. …doug

 

 

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