Re: I need the help of an expert on British pay policy and records
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In reply to:
Re: I need the help of an expert on British pay policy and records
Judy Longley 6/28/09
The family stayed in SC and David Rees estate was probated in 1786 with bond of 5,000 pounds.1781 NOTE:There were at least 65 Battles or Actions in South Carolina starting with Cowpens on 16 January 1781 in which Captain David Rees may have participated.It is unclear about his status in 1781 as his widow was paid six months pay for 14 Jun-13 Dec 1780 on 1 March 1782 which would indicate no further service after 13 December 1780.Pay record, explanation by Davenport and the Petition to Lord Germain strongly suggest that David Rees was among those captives murdered by Whigs after Kings Mountain.It is likely that he died between 7 October 1780 and 13 December 1780 probably in North Carolina.
Lambert notes, “The pay records reveal only so much.As noted elsewhere, the militia pay records in T50/1 were created in and near Charlestown in 1781 and 1782 after the British had evacuated the interior of South Carolina; unless relatives established the fact of death of a militiaman in the backcountry in order to claim the pay due him, the pay lists do not record those who died at Kings Mountain or on other battlefields;....”(Lambert1987,p. 147)
1779 Captn David Rees and other officers signed Certification of South Carolina Royalist on half pay which lacks day/month dates but events and place name suggest date period back to 1778(The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies)
1780 April,Captain David Reese on list of South Carolina Royalists, Second Battalion on Half-Pay at Savannah, in 1780; paid to 24 April 1780 and sent into back-country when troops lay before Charlestown.(Clark1981,p. 47)
1782 1 March, “Pay Abstract Nr 89, Colonel Daniel Clary's Regiment, Dutch Fork Militia, Ninety Six Brigade, six-months pay, 14 Jun-13 Dec 1780: Nr 1; Rank Captain; Name Reece, David; remarks rate of pay L25.0.0Receipt: Charlestown, SC, 1 March 1782.“Received of Colonel Gray, Deputy Pay Master, by order of the Commandant, 25 pounds Sterling, in full of the above for which I have signed two receipts of this tenor and date, for my deceased husband.Elizabeth Reece” (PRO T50, Vol 6)(Clark1981, p. 232)
19 April, Petition to Lord Germain signed by 11 South Carolina Loyalist Officers listing the names of about 300 Loyalists murdered by Whigs during the Revolution.David Rees, Colonel of the Militia was listed.Three of the January 1776 Backcountry petitioners were murdered.Also murdered were Lt. Joseph Alexander and Lt. Col. John Mayfield who was killed in 1782 by Captain John Hood and others disguised as British.O'Kelley states that today this would be considered a successful special operations mission but that the enemy might consider it murder.(This list was confined to the 96th District, the Southern part of Camden, and the upper parts of Orangeburg, with five in Charlestown.)Lambert reports that over half of the men listed did not appear on British Pay Rolls.Lambert1987,p. 212)
I am trying to find out why he was on payroll for Dutch Fork Militia rather than South Carolina Royalists which continued to exist but I can't find that they were at King's Mountain.Thanks, Marsha