Loyal American Regiment
Commissioned Officers

(from a 1782 list)

Col. Beverley Robinson Capt/Lt. Duncan Fletcher En. John Cunningham
Lt. Col. Bev. Robinson Jr. Lt. Anthony Allaire En. Gilbert Fowler
Maj, Thomas Barclay Lt. John Ward En. Archibald Morrison
Capt. Christopher Hatch Lt. Thomas Henderson En. Caleb Fowler Jr.
Capt. Lemuel Wilmot Lt. Oliver Barbarie En. Thomas Martin
Capt. Morris Robinson Lt. Charles Colbourn En. Thomas Robinson
Capt. William Fowler Lt. William L. Huggeford En. [Aug.] De Diemar
Capt. Simon Kollock Lt. Benjamin Ward En. Jacob Cortlandt
Capt. Caleb Fowler Lt. John Robinson En. [Lauchlin] McDonald
Capt. William Baillie Lt. Robert Robinson Chap. John Beardsley

Notes

Background information on LAR officers has been taken from Lorenzo Sabine's Loyalists in the American Revolution and other sources as noted . . .

Robinson, Beverley Jr.:

During the war, he married Nancy Barclay, the sister of fellow LAR officer, Thomas Barclay.

Barclay, Thomas:

Born in New York City on October 12, 1753, Barclay received a captain's commission in the Loyal American Regiment on April 10, 1777 and was quickly promoted to major on October 7, 1777 (the day after the attack on Fort Montgomery). In 1780, he assumed the post of major in the Provincial Light Infantry.
Thomas Barclay's signature
Signature of Thomas Barclay from an LAR muster roll

Hatch, Christopher:

Of Boston. When the Royal Army evacuated that town in March 1776, cannon, shot and shells were left on his wharf. Accepting a commission in the LAR, he was wounded on January 10, 1781 at Flour de Hundred in Virginia and commended for his gallantry.

Kollock, Simon:

Of Delaware. In 1777, Henry Fisher wrote the Navy Board of Pennsylvania that he had been on shore from the [HMS] Roebuck with a large sum of counterfeit thirty dollar bills; that he had enlisted nearly one hundred men and had gone to New York in a schooner "to join the rascally crew." He settled in Nova Scotia.

Fowler, Caleb (Captain):

Of West Chester County, New York. He was one of the loyalist protestors at White Plains in April of 1775 who denounced Whig Congresses and Committees, and who pledged themselves "at the hazard of their lives and properties, to support the King and Constitution." Commissioned a lieutenant in the LAR on April 5, 1777 and was later promoted to captain. He went to Canada and died near Fredericton.
Caleb Fowler's signature
Signature of Caleb Fowler from an LAR muster roll

Ward, John:

After the war, he went with the rest of the regiment to Fredericton, New Brunswick. He became a successful merchant and pioneer of steamboat travel between Saint John and Fredericton.
-- The Loyal Americans, Canadian War Museum, page 83.

Ward, Benjamin:

Wounded in the attack on Fort Montgomery in 1777.

Beardsley, John:

Chaplain of the Loyal American Regiment. Born at Ripton (near Stratford) Connecticut on April 23, 1732. He entered Yale College, intending to take Holy Orders, and was ordained in England by the Bishop of London in 1761. Upon returning to America, he moved to Poughkeepsie. At the outbreak of the rebellion, he was arrested as a Tory and his property was confiscated. Col. Beverley Robinson was his parishoner and when the LAR was raised, he appointed Beardsley as the chaplain of the corps. He went to Nova Scotia at the close of the war and is believed to be the first clergyman to officiate to the Loyalists. Rev. Beardsley died at Kingston NB, Aug. 23, 1809.
-- from The Winslow Papers, page 509)

Origin of the LAR officers

American-born officers: 24 (72.7%)

European-born officers: 9 (27.3%)

-- from The New York Loyalists by Philip Ranlet. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986, page 115)
Note: Whether two officers from the LAR were born in America or England isn't known and don't figure into the above percentages.

 

 

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