Hatch Dent, Jr. (1751-1799)
MSA SC 3520-16745

Biography:

Born May 20, 1751. Son of Hatch Dent (c. 1707-1781), and mother Anne, last name unknown. Brother of John (1729-1778), Mary (b. 1732), Catherine (b. 1734), Anne (b. 1737), Lydia (b. 1739), Esther (b. 1742), Rhoda (b. 1744), and Hezekiah (1747-1792). Married Judith Poston (1758-1814) on December 17, 1778. Father of Lucinda (b. 1780), Priscilla Anne (1781-1781), Mary (b. 1782), Priscilla Ann, William Hatch (1787-1818), Catherine Amelia Judith (b. 1796), Juliana Chapman (b. 1799). Died December 30, 1799 in Charles County, MD.

Hatch Dent Jr. was born on May 20, 1751, in Charles County, Maryland, the youngest of Hatch and Anne Dent’s nine children.[1] Little is known about Dent’s life prior to the American Revolution, but it is likely that he had a good upbringing due to the prominence of the Dent family in Charles County. The birth dates of Hatch and Anne Dent’s children were all documented in church records, an indication of a religious and socially prominent family.

At the age of twenty-four, Dent was made a Third Lieutenant in the Ninth Company (Light Infantry) of the First Maryland Regiment.[2] After a few months of service Dent received a promotion to the rank of Second Lieutenant on July 9, 1776.[3] Dent held this rank when the regiment left Maryland in July to reinforce the Continental Army under General George Washington in New York. The First Maryland Regiment arrived in New York in mid-August and soon engaged in what would become the largest battle of the American Revolution, the Battle of Brooklyn.

Fought on August 27, 1776, the Battle of Brooklyn was the first large-scale engagement between the two armies, and the first taste of combat for the men of the First Maryland Regiment. Due in large part to the inexperience of the Continental Army’s soldiers and commanders, the battle resulted in both a tactical and strategic defeat for the Americans. The British Army under the command of General William Howe secretly outflanked the Americans, routing them from the field and forcing them back to their defensive fortifications on Brooklyn Heights.[4]

Despite their inexperience, the men of the First Maryland Regiment performed remarkably well and distinguished themselves with their fighting ability and tenacity. Near the end of the engagement, and cut off from possible retreat due to Howe’s flanking maneuver, the Marylanders’ were forced to make a desperate charge against the numerically superior British force. This assault resulted in devastating casualties to the regiment but delayed the British advance, and enabled the rest of the Americans to retreat to Brooklyn Heights and later withdraw to Manhattan. The First Maryland Regiment’s sacrifice prevented the capture of the entire Army and earned the regiment the name “Maryland 400."

As a junior officer, Dent would have fought among the enlisted men in the thick of the action, leading and encouraging them throughout the battle. The Ninth Company sustained heavy casualties during the engagement, with 65 percent of its 78 men either killed or captured. Second Lieutenant Dent was among those captured, having been taken prisoner at some point during the fighting.[5]

The specifics details and conditions of Dent’s capture are unknown. While officers typically received better treatment than their enlisted compatriots, the length of Dent’s captivity was atypical for an officer during that period. Dent, along with three other lieutenants captured at the battle, remained a prisoner for almost two years before being exchanged on April 20, 1778.[6] Why the British kept these lieutenants as prisoners longer than other officers captured at the battle remains a mystery, but it prompted Brigadier General William Smallwood to make a personal plea for their release to General Washington in a letter on April 8, 1778:

As a General Exchange of Prisoners is like to take place, allow me to solicite you in behalf of Lieuts. Dent, Wright, Muse, & Praul Officers of my old Regt taken on long Island the 27th of August 1776, who have remain’d ever since in Captivity, tho’ Numbers of like rank taken long after that period have been exchang’d, they were good Officers & Merritted a better fate & therefore hope your Excellency will order them to be included in the first exchange.[7] 

During his captivity Dent was promoted to First Lieutenant on December 10, 1776, and to Captain in the Second Regiment on April 17, 1777.[8] Details on the remainder of Dent’s military career are scant. A muster roll for the month of July 1778 indicates that Dent had been absent with leave since May 22, 1778, shortly after his exchange.[9] Interestingly, according to the pension of James Hunt who enlisted in Dent’s company in May 1778, Dent was captured again while on scouting patrol near Elizabeth Town, New Jersey.[10] However, no other record of this event or of Dent’s subsequent captivity or exchange exists. What is clear is that by May 30, 1779, Dent had resigned from the Army as indicated in a list of officers of the Maryland Line of the same date.[11]

Around the time of his resignation Dent returned to Charles County and married Judith Poston on December 17, 1778.[12] Together they had seven children: Lucinda, Priscilla Anne (died in infancy), Mary, Priscilla Ann, William Hatch, Catherine Amelia Judith, and Juliana Chapman.

Following the death of the Reverend Isaac Campbell in 1784, Trinity Church in Charles County was in need of a new rector and at a minimum someone to read services and sermons to the parishioners. On August 3, 1784 the vestry of Trinity Church nominated Hatch Dent Jr. for the task.[13] Dent accepted the responsibility but on the condition that he first be examined and licensed by a Committee of the Clergy from the Reverend Convention of the Episcopal Church of Maryland.[14] The vestry responded by writing a letter to the committee portraying Dent as being “every way qualified” for the position.[15] The church’s high opinion of Dent was also apparent when they subsequently chose him to represent the parish at the convention, and the vestry documented their “full confidence in the knowledge, integrity, and attachment of Hatch Dent.”[16] On December 7, 1784 Dent became the reader of the church upon receiving licensure from the Committee of the Clergy.[17] In September 1785 Dent informed the vestry of his intention to seek ordination, to which they unanimously agreed to provide a recommendation on his behalf.[18] On October 16, 1785, Bishop Samuel Seabury ordained Dent at Trinity Church in New Haven, Connecticut.[19] On May 1, 1786, Reverend Dent presented his credentials to the vestry and became the second rector of Trinity Church.[20]

In addition to his religious responsibilities, Dent was also involved in education. Shortly after resigning from the Army, Dent ran a classical school from the vestry house of Trinity Church. William Wirt, who later became Attorney General under President James Monroe, studied under the tutelage of Dent for almost three years. Dent’s school was recalled in a biography about William Wirt:

Mr. Dent was a most excellent man, very good-tempered, who either found no occasion, or, with the exception of a single application of the ferrule, no inclination, to punish his young pupil, who in two years advanced as far as Cesar's Commentaries, though perhaps without being properly grounded in his author. Here, as at Georgetown, there was quite a crowd of boys, and several young men fully grown.[21]

In August 1787 Dent was made a trustee of the Charlotte Hall School in St. Mary’s County, which was still a decade from being constructed.[22] In the meantime, Dent educated students in his own home. In November 1792 he posted an advertisement in the Maryland Gazette announcing his intention to teach Latin and Greek at his house, and to focus on “moral improvement of the youth intrusted to our care.”[23]

Sometime after April 1794 Dent traveled with a settlement of Episcopal Marylanders and relatives to Rowan County, North Carolina.[24] Dent’s purpose for moving is unknown, but is likely that he was involved in helping organize the church in North Carolina. The Reverend Robert Johnston Miller wrote to Reverend Charles Pettigrew regarding Dent on May 6, 1795:

I have reason to hope that your pious wishes and charitable suppositions will be verified in the Rev. Mr. Dent, although I have not had an opportunity of personal acquaintance with him as yet; but those who have, assure me that he is generally esteemed as a man of piety and learning, which to us, in our present situation, is, I hope, no small acquisition.[25]

Dent stayed in North Carolina for only a couple of years, returning to Maryland in January 1797. Upon his return to Maryland, Reverend Dent continued his involvement with the church and the Charlotte Hall School, to which he had been appointed principal of in July 1796.[26] In January 1797, Reverend Dent appeared before the trustees of the Charlotte Hall School and accepted the positions of principal and the professor of languages.[27] In April 1797 the vestries of Trinity Parish and All Faith’s Parish in St. Mary’s County asked Reverend Dent to conduct alternating services in both parishes, to which he agreed.[28]

In December 1798 Dent informed the trustees of Charlotte Hall of the “probability that his health will not long suffer him to discharge all the duties assigned him,” and recommended the hiring of an assistant to help him with his duties as professor and principal.[29] Despite his failing health Dent remained principal and professor at Charlotte Hall School until October 21, 1799, when he submitted his letter of resignation. In his letter Dent cited his “utter incapacitation” from ill health as the reason for his resignation.[30] Dent was critical of himself, writing that he was “unfortunate and unsuccessful” as principal of the school despite “having laboured faithfully for its good.”[31] Despite his perceived shortcomings, Dent thanked the trustees for giving him his responsibilities and also expressed hope for the school’s future. The trustee’s responded with their own letter accepting Dent’s resignation and expressing regret at his poor health. The trustees also articulated “the liveliest sense of your merit as Principal of the Academy, and are fully satisfied that every exertion in your power has been made for the promotion of the designs of the Institution.”[32]  

Hatch Dent, Jr. died on December 30, 1799, survived by his wife and six children.[33] At the time of his death Dent was in possession of lands in both Maryland and North Carolina.[34] He also owned thirteen slaves at the time of his death, which combined with his other assets, valued $2,719.46.[35]

Hatch Dent, Jr. dedicated his life to the service of others. He served nobly as an officer of the First Maryland Regiment during the American Revolution and experienced combat at the Battle of Brooklyn. He was equally dedicated in his civilian life, committing himself to the betterment of his community by serving as the minister and rector of Trinity Parish, and as an educator and the first principal of the Charlotte Hall School. Today, the Dent Memorial Chapel at the Charlotte Hall Military Academy (formerly Charlotte Hall School) still stands as a dedication to the memory of Reverend Hatch Dent, Jr.[36] A tablet at the chapel appropriately memorializes Dent as an “honored officer in the Army of the Revolution of 1776 and an Eminent Teacher and Minister of the Church.”[37]

Sean Baker, 2015

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