James Chalmers (loyalist)

Last updated

James Chalmers was a Loyalist officer and pamphleteer in the American Revolution.

Contents

Born in Elgin, Moray, Scotland, Chalmers was an ambitious military strategist after the War of Independence, who immigrated to America in 1760 "with several black slaves and 10,000 British pounds in his pocket,"[ citation needed ] settling in Kent County and becoming "one of the Eastern Shore's most prominent landowners." [1]

American Revolution

In 1776 he authored a pamphlet entitled Plain Truth, a rebuke of Thomas Paine's Common Sense , going under the pen name "Candidus." [2] [3]

After conditions grew intolerable in his home in Chestertown, Maryland, with a mob chasing him after publishing Plain Truth, Chalmers accompanied the British Army under General Sir William Howe up the Chesapeake Bay as it made its way to Philadelphia in August 1777. [4] [5]

After the Battle of Brandywine in September, Philadelphia fell to the British in early October. On 14 October, Chalmers was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the First Battalion of Maryland Loyalists, a unit created by William Howe, and he quickly commissioned Philip Barton Key as a captain of the same regiment. [6] [7] In correspondence with British commanders, he often advocated occupation of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but was ignored. [8]

His regiment originally recruited around Philadelphia and later expanded its range to include Maryland's Eastern Shore. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] Apart from Chalmers, a planter in Kent County, Maryland, there were a number of other commissioned officers. They included Patrick Kennedy (Captain), Grafton Dulany (Captain), Walter Dulany (Captain), Caleb Jones (Captain), Isaac Costin (Captain), and James Frisby (Captain). Other officers included William Augustus Bowles as an ensign and John McDonald as a major. Eventually the captains would be divided between the Chesapeake Bay's Western and Eastern Shores.

From November 1777 until spring of the following year, the soldiers trained, then marching to Long Island where they stayed until late 1778. [14] [15] [16] During this period, when the regiment was combined with a loyalist regiment from Pennsylvania, soldiers had no uniforms. They dressed in "tatters and rags instead of uniforms" as General John Campbell described in the summer of 1779. [17] [18]

The regiment often faced problems with numbers because of death from disease and desertion. In February 1781, there were only "300 rank-and-file members" in the regiment, while by May the number only number 160 men! [19] [20] By 1782, Chalmers, did not have a full roster with a regiment that was "very deficient in numbers" even as it was one of the only pro-Crown regiments that was "regularly organized, officered, and paid." [21] [22] [23] [24] [25]

Soon enough, the regiment saw their first action. They fought in West Florida until in the siege of Pensacola, a Spanish victory where the entire regiment was captured by Spanish forces. [26] [27] [28] [29] After that point, those of the regiment who did not die from smallpox were summarily sent back to New York. Luckily for Chalmers, he was in then British-occupied New York City and so he was not captured.

Final years

After the war, no longer welcome in the United States, Chalmers fled into exile. [30] [31] He settled in England and wrote another pamphlet attacking Paine's economic policies as well as a pamphlet regarding war in Santo Domingo.

Later, he rejoined the military, served as inspector general in the West Indies. [32] [33] In the years that would follow, he returned to London, living out "the rest of his life, continuing to write pamphlets against the works of Paine." [34]

He died at his home, 12 Paradise Row, in Chelsea, London, on 4 October 1806. He was buried in the chapel near the altar of Stow Maries Church, near Chelmsford, six days later. The inscription on the stone reads: "Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of Col. James Chalmers late of Chelsea, County of Middlesex, who departed this life 3 Oct. 1806, aged 72 years."

One of his daughters, Arianna Chalmers, would later marry Captain John Saunders, and Chalmers would be described as a "wealthy and distinguished Loyalist who raised the Maryland Loyalists during the American Revolution." [35]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Revolutionary War</span> 1775–1783 American war of independence

The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a military conflict that was part of the broader American Revolution, where American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army.

<i>Common Sense</i> 1776 pamphlet by Thomas Paine

Common Sense is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for egalitarian government. It was published anonymously on January 10, 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution and became an immediate sensation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tench Tilghman</span> Continental army officer (1744–1786)

Tench Tilghman was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He served as an aide-de-camp to General George Washington, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loyalist (American Revolution)</span> Colonists loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution

Loyalists were colonists in the Thirteen Colonies who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War, often referred to as Tories, Royalists or King's Men at the time. They were opposed by the Patriots, who supported the revolution, and called them "persons inimical to the liberties of America."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Continental Marines</span> Naval infantry for the American side in the American Revolutionary War

The Continental Marines were the amphibious infantry of the American Colonies during the American Revolutionary War. The Corps was formed by the Continental Congress on November 10, 1775 and was disbanded in 1783. Their mission was multi-purpose, but their most important duty was to serve as onboard security forces, protecting the captain of a ship and his officers. During naval engagements, in addition to manning the cannons along with the crew of the ship, Marine sharpshooters were stationed in the fighting tops of a ship's masts specifically to shoot the opponent's officers, naval gunners, and helmsmen.

The 2d Virginia Regiment was authorized by the Virginia Convention, July 17, 1775, as a force of regular troops for the Commonwealth's defense. It consisted of seven companies, 476 privates and the usual regimental officers. William Woodford, of Caroline County, named colonel, along with Lieutenant Colonel Charles Scott and Major Alexander Spotswood were the regiment's initial field officers. Virginia had been divided into 16 military districts which took their names from the predominant county in the grouping; for instance, Prince William District included Fairfax and Loudoun Counties as well. Col. Gregory Smith 1777-78 Col Brent 1779

<span class="mw-page-title-main">84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants)</span> Military unit

The 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants) was a British regiment in the American Revolutionary War that was raised to defend present day Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada from the constant land and sea attacks by American Revolutionaries. The 84th Regiment was also involved in offensive action in the Thirteen Colonies; including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and what is now Maine, as well as raids upon Lake Champlain and the Mohawk Valley. The regiment consisted of 2,000 men in twenty companies. The 84th Regiment was raised from Scottish soldiers who had served in the Seven Years' War and stayed in North America. As a result, the 84th Regiment had one of the oldest and most experienced officer corps of any regiment in North America. The Scottish Highland regiments were a key element of the British Army in the American Revolution. The 84th Regiment was clothed, armed and accoutred the same as the Black Watch, with Lieutenant Colonel Allan Maclean commanding the first battalion and Major General John Small of Strathardle commanding the second. The two Battalions operated independently of each other and saw little action together.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maryland Loyalists Battalion</span> Military unit

The Maryland Loyalists Battalion, also known as the First Battalion of Maryland Loyalists, was a Loyalist infantry unit which served on the side of the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. Raised in 1777 by Loyalist officer James Chalmers, the unit, consisting of one battalion, was organizationally part of the British Provincial Corps and saw action at the 1778 Battle of Monmouth and the 1781 Siege of Pensacola. It was disbanded in 1783 in the wake of the Patriot victory in the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Staten Island</span> Part of the American Revolutionary War

The Battle of Staten Island was a failed raid by Continental Army troops under Major General John Sullivan against British forces on Staten Island on August 22, 1777, during the American Revolutionary War. After British Lieutenant General William Howe sailed with most of his army from New York City in July, Sullivan recognized that the British position on Staten Island was vulnerable, and planned an attack. He carried it out in spite of commanding general George Washington's request that Sullivan reinforce the main army with his troops as soon as possible to support Washington's planned Colonial assault on British-held Philadelphia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Dulany the Elder</span> American politician (1685–1753)

Daniel Dulany the Elder (1685–1753) was a prominent lawyer and land-developer in colonial Maryland, who held a number of colonial offices. In 1722 Dulany wrote a pamphlet entitled The Right of the Inhabitants of Maryland, to the Benefit of the English Laws, asserting the rights of Marylanders over the Proprietary Government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Dulany the Younger</span> American politician and lawyer

Daniel Dulany the Younger was a Maryland Loyalist politician, Mayor of Annapolis, and an influential American lawyer in the period immediately before the American Revolution. His pamphlet Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies, which laid out the grievances associated with the taxation without representation argument, it has been described as "the ablest effort of this kind produced in America".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Associators</span> Military unit

Associators were members of 17th- and 18th-century volunteer military associations in the British American thirteen colonies and British Colony of Canada. These were more commonly known as Maryland Protestant, Pennsylvania, and American Patriot and British Loyalist colonial militias. But unlike militias, the associator military volunteers were exempt from regular mandatory military service. Other names used to describe associators were "Associations", "Associated", "Refugees", "Volunteers", and "Partisans".

Montfort Browne was a British Army officer and Tory, and a major landowner and developer of British West Florida in the 1760s and 1770s. He commanded the Prince of Wales' American Regiment, a Loyalist regiment, in the American Revolutionary War. He served as lieutenant governor of West Florida from 1766 to 1769, acting as governor from 1767, and then as governor of the Bahamas from 1774 to 1780.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maryland in the American Revolution</span>

Then Province of Maryland had been a British / English colony since 1632, when Sir George Calvert, first Baron of Baltimore and Lord Baltimore (1579-1632), received a charter and grant from King Charles I of England and first created a haven for English Roman Catholics in the New World, with his son, Cecilius Calvert (1605-1675), the second Lord Baltimore equipping and sending over the first colonists to the Chesapeake Bay region in March 1634. The first signs of rebellion against the mother country occurred in 1765, when the tax collector Zachariah Hood was injured while landing at the second provincial capital of Annapolis docks, arguably the first violent resistance to British taxation in the colonies. After a decade of bitter argument and internal discord, Maryland declared itself a sovereign state in 1776. The province was one of the Thirteen Colonies of British America to declare independence from Great Britain and joined the others in signing a collective Declaration of Independence that summer in the Second Continental Congress in nearby Philadelphia. Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton signed on Maryland's behalf.

The following bibliography includes notable books concerning the American Revolutionary War. These books are listed in the bibliographies of books by prominent historians as shown in the footnotes.

Plain Truth is a pamphlet authored by the loyalist James Chalmers in 1776, as a rebuke of Thomas Paine's Common Sense.

James Willing (1750–1801) was a representative of the American Continental Congress who led a 1778 military expedition during the American Revolutionary War. Known as the Willing Expedition, the effort involved raiding British forts, plantations, and other properties of loyalists in the colonial British West Florida settlement of Natchez. Later that year, he sought protection from the British by hiding out in New Orleans, but was taken prisoner by them on his attempt to return to Philadelphia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Bell (publisher)</span> American printer and publisher

Robert Bell (1732–1784) was a Scottish immigrant to the British colonies in America and became one of many early American printers and publishers active during the years leading up to and through the American Revolution. Bell became widely noted for printing Thomas Paine's celebrated work, Common Sense, a highly influential work during the revolution that openly criticized the British Parliament and their management and taxation of the British-American colonies. Bell and Paine later had a falling out over profits and publication issues. As a dedicated patriot, Bell printed many pamphlets and books before and during the revolution, many of which "glowingly" expressed his patriotic views. He also reprinted a number of popular English works, presenting them to the colonies for the first time. He ran an auction house which sold rare books in Lancaster, and in later life he toured the colonies selling off his massive book collection. After Bell's death, his printing press and other items were sold at a Philadelphia auction house to another prominent printer at an unusually high price.

References

  1. ↑ David W. Guth, Bridging the Chesapeake: A 'Fool Idea' That Unified Maryland (Bloomington, IN: Archaway Publishing, 2017), pp 47.
  2. ↑ "Plain Truth by James Chalmers (Candidus)" (PDF). UMBC Center for History Education. University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  3. ↑ Online Books by James Chalmers, The Online Books Page, University of Pennsylvania Library, 2017.
  4. ↑ R. Mann, Wartime Dissent in America: A History and Anthology, pp 15
  5. ↑ John Saillant, "Common Sense," Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, 2017.
  6. ↑ Sina Dubovoy, The Lost World of Francis Scott Key (Bloomington, IN: WestBow Press, 53).
  7. ↑ Lorenzo Sabine, The American Loyalists: Or, Biographical Sketches of Adherents to the British Crown in the War of the Revolution; Alphabetically Arranged; with a Preliminary Historical Essay (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1847), 410.
  8. ↑ David W. Guth, Bridging the Chesapeake: A 'Fool Idea' That Unified Maryland (Blomington, IN: Archway Publishing, 2017), 64.
  9. ↑ Murtie Jane Clark, Loyalists in the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1981), 16-17.
  10. ↑ Mary K. Meyer and Virginia B. Bachman, "Genealogica Marylandia: The First Battalion of Maryland Loyalists," Maryland Historical Magazine Vol. 68, No. 2, summer 1973, 199, 209.
  11. ↑ M. Christopher New, Maryland Loyalists in the American Revolution (Centreville, Maryland: Tidewater Publishers, 1996), 45-46, 49, 58, 151.
  12. ↑ Timothy James Wilson, ""Old Offenders:" Loyalists in the Lower Delmarva Peninsula, 1775-1800" (PhD diss., University of Toronto, 1998), 116, 179-180. Sometimes the unit is referred to as "Colo Chalmer's Corps" or the Maryland Loyalists Battalion.
  13. ↑ Richard Arthur Overfield, "Loyalists of Maryland During the American Revolution" (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1968), 214-215, 234, 237-238, 243.
  14. ↑ New, 50-51, 57, 65, 82-83, 89.
  15. ↑ Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution (New York: Random House, 2016, paperback), 113-114, 155, 165, 182, 204, 215.
  16. ↑ Wilson, 182-183.
  17. ↑ René Chartrand, American Loyalist Troops 1775–84 (US: Osprey Publishing, 2008), 8, 14, 16.
  18. ↑ Siebert, "The Loyalists in West Florida and the Natchez District," 474.
  19. ↑ Todd W. Braisted, "A Spy Wins a Purple Heart: The Amazing Tale of Daniel Bissell and the Military Order of Merit, Journal of the American Revolution , 2 June 2015.
  20. ↑ Siebert, "The Loyalists in West Florida and the Natchez District," 476.
  21. ↑ Sabine, The American Loyalists, 60-61, 204.
  22. ↑ William Odber Raymond, The United Empire Loyalists, 36.
  23. ↑ Report on American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Vol. III (Hereford: Anthony Brothers Limited, 1907), 87, 107, 280.
  24. ↑ Siebert, "The Loyalists in West Florida and the Natchez District," 481.
  25. ↑ Robert S. Allen, Loyalist Literature: An Annotated Bibliographic Guide to the Writings on the Loyalists of the American Revolution (Toronto: Dundurn Press Limited, 1982), 44.
  26. ↑ Cliff Sloan and David McKean, The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court (New York: PublicAffairs, 2010), 57.
  27. ↑ New, 94-95.
  28. ↑ Wilson, 183.
  29. ↑ Albert W. Haarmann, "The Siege of Pensacola: An Order of Battle," The Florida Historical Quarterly 44, no. 3 (1966): 193-199.
  30. ↑ Guth, Bridging the Chesapeake, 65.
  31. ↑ Sabine, The American Loyalists, 118.
  32. ↑ Guth, Bridging the Chesapeake, 65.
  33. ↑ Sabine, The American Loyalists, 118.
  34. ↑ Famous Loyalists, Oak Hill Publishing Company, accessed December 2017.
  35. ↑ Papers : 1775-1910, University of New Brunswick, accessed December 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.