Brown, Thomas (27 May 1750–03 August 1825), revolutionary war soldier and superintendent of the Southern Indian Department, was born in Whitby, England, the son of Jonas Brown, a shipowner and alum manufacturer, and Margaret Jackson. Captain Cook, the celebrated explorer, was a near neighbor during Thomas Brown’s youth. After several voyages to America on his father’s ships, Brown decided to seek his fortune on Georgia’s newly ceded lands above Augusta in 1773. With the financial support of his father, Brown recruited seventy-four indentured servants in Yorkshire and in the Orkney Islands and sailed for Georgia in August 1774. A second contingent of the same number followed a year later....
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Brown, Thomas (1750-1825), revolutionary war soldier and superintendent of the Southern Indian Department
Edward J. Cashin
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Coffin, John (1756-1838), Loyalist and British general
Samuel Willard Crompton
Coffin, John (1756–12 June 1838), Loyalist and British general, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Nathaniel Coffin, the last receiver general and cashier of His Majesty’s Customs at Boston, and Elizabeth Barnes. Coffin attended the Boston Latin School and went to sea at an early age. He rose to command of a ship by the age of eighteen, and in 1775 he was engaged to bring a regiment of British troops from England to Boston, which at that time had just broken out in armed rebellion against King George III. Coffin appears to have had no conflict in his loyalties; he brought the troops on his ship to Boston and soon engaged in the war on the side of the king....
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Coffin, Sir Isaac (1759-1839), Loyalist and British admiral
Samuel Willard Crompton
Coffin, Sir Isaac (16 May 1759–23 July 1839), Loyalist and British admiral, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Nathaniel Coffin, the last receiver general and cashier of His Majesty’s Customs at Boston, and Elizabeth Barnes. Born into a family of wealth and social prominence, Isaac Coffin attended the Boston Latin School and then entered the British Royal Navy in May 1773. Assigned to the brig ...
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Loring, Joshua (1716-1781), British naval officer and Loyalist
David E. Maas
Loring, Joshua (03 August 1716–05 October 1781), British naval officer and Loyalist, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Joshua Loring, a tanner, and Hannah Jackson. Fatherless by the age of five, Joshua moved to Roxbury, where he was apprenticed to a tanner named James Mears. However, the continuing warfare between England and France attracted him, and when of age he went to sea and served on a privateer. In 1740 he married Mary Curtis; they had seven children. During the War of Austrian Succession (1740–1748), he became captain of his own privateer with 120 seamen under his command. In 1744, near Louisburg, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, his ship was captured by two French men-of-war after a four-hour chase. He spent several months in a prison in Louisburg, then was released. When the French and Indian War began, Loring was commissioned a lieutenant in the British navy and by December 1757 was commissioned a captain in command of a twenty-gun vessel named the ...
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Morris, Roger (1727-1794), British soldier and Loyalist
Harry M. Ward
Morris, Roger (28 January 1727–13 September 1794), British soldier and Loyalist, was born in Yorkshire, England, the son of Roger Morris and Mary Jackson, daughter of Sir Peter Jackson. On 13 September 1745 Morris was commissioned a captain in the Forty-eighth Regiment of Foot. In that regiment he accompanied General ...
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Richardson, Ebenezer (1718–?), Loyalist, customs official, and informer
William Pencak
Richardson, Ebenezer (1718–?), Loyalist, customs official, and informer, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts. Almost nothing is known of his parentage or early life, but he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, by the beginning of the 1750s. He earned the dubious distinction of breaking out of jail in both Boston (1751) and Cambridge, Massachusetts (1753), in the latter case his offense being the procurement of stolen tools for his brother. Around 1754 he also became involved in a scandal in which he accused the Reverend Edward Johnson of Woburn of fathering a bastard child by his wife’s sister. It was later suggested that the child was Richardson’s own....
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Skene, Philip (1725-1810), British officer and Loyalist
Philip Ranlet
Skene, Philip (09 January 1725–09 June 1810), British officer and Loyalist, was born in London, England, the son of James Skene, a Jacobite, and Mary Anne (maiden name unknown). Raised by an uncle who was a military man, Philip Skene was exposed early in life to the British army. During 1741 he became an ensign and fought in Europe in that decade. He participated in the suppression of the Jacobite invasion of Scotland and was severely wounded at the battle of Culloden (16 Apr. 1746). Afterward, he took part in more European battles and rose to lieutenant in 1750. During January of that year he wed Katharine Heyden. Their marriage would produce three children....
