Thomas McKeel
MSA SC 3520-16790
Biography:
Thomas McKeel enlisted as a sergeant in the Sixth Company of the First Maryland Regiment, led by Captain Peter Adams, on January 30, 1776. Born around the year 1749, he was about twenty-seven years old at the time of his enlistment. After his short career in the army, he went on to serve his country as a cooper, providing supplies to military contractors. Once the war ended, he spent two decades successfully investing in real estate in Easton, Maryland, until his business declined and his health began to fail. [1]
The Sixth Company was recruited primarily from the Eastern Shore, including McKeel who enlisted in Caroline County, but traveled to Annapolis in the spring of 1776 to complete six months of training. The company then moved north, making it to Philadelphia by mid-July 1776 and to New York by August 14. It was positioned with the rest of the First Maryland Regiment about one mile outside of New York, with orders to prepare for battle.
The Marylanders met the British at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island) on August 27, 1776, where the Continental Army, led by General George Washington, fought to defend New York. The American troops were severely outnumbered and surrounded when they were ordered to retreat. Half the regiment was able to escape the battle, however the other half, including most of the Sixth Company, was trapped by the swampy Gowanus Creek. They turned back to face the British, holding their position long enough for the rest of the Marylanders to return to safety. This heroic stand earned them the honorable name of the “Maryland 400.” [2]
McKeel was taken prisoner, along with at least ten other men from the Sixth Company. Only sixteen men and officers from the company were not killed or captured. While in captivity, he "remained a prisoner on board of a Prison Ship until the British troops got possession of New York" in November 1776, and "he was then taken ashore and imprisoned in New York with the Maryland officers and prisoners, until he was parolled." Most of the Marylanders were released in the winter of 1776-1777, including McKeel, who was sent back to Maryland on parole. [3]
While on his way home to Maryland, McKeel was offered a commission to become an ensign. Because of their experience, many veterans of the 1776 Maryland Line were promoted, but the step McKeel was offered from sergeant to ensign was a particularly impressive one. However, “he never received his commission as he did not feel himself at liberty to take it, he being a prisoner of war on parol.” Shortly after, he returned to Caroline County where he set up a cooper’s shop, making barrels, and selling items like flour and pork to military contractors. In mid-1778, a general prisoner exchange took place, and McKeel was finally freed from parole. He continued his job as a cooper until the end of the war, advised by Colonel William Richardson of the Fifth Maryland Regiment that he “would be more useful to his country in that way than in the army.” [4]
After the war, McKeel continued his job as a cooper, and also began investing in land. In 1788, he bought a tract of land in the newly-established Easton, in Talbot County, and moved to the town shortly after. Over the next twenty years, he ran a successful real estate business, buying lots in town, building homes on them, and then renting or re-selling the land. It seems that he sold his last piece of land in 1808, which also included several animals and household items, indicating business may have declined and he likely needed money. [5]
In 1818, at the age of sixty-nine, Thomas McKeel applied for a Federal veteran’s pension. He was out of employment, as he had “been affected by a hernia or rupture which had rendered him unable to pursue his trade.” At the time, he lived with his wife Eglantine, who was nineteen years his junior and “very sickly...unhealthy and often unable to do any work.” Also living with him was a “mulatto girl about twelve or thirteen...living with him for her victual and clothes.” It is unclear if he and Eglantine had any children. He requested to be paid for serving as an ensign, but was denied, since he never accepted that commission. He applied again, this time as a private, and was awarded $8 per month. It is unclear why he reapplied as a private instead of a sergeant, the rank he actually held, which would have entitled him to more money. [6]
McKeel’s last pension payment was just two years later, in the end of 1820. It is unclear if he died at that time, or like many others was made to reapply for his pension and simply chose not to. Unfortunately, there is no clear record of Thomas McKeel after this last payment, and nothing else is known of his life. [7]
-Natalie Miller, Maryland Society Sons of the American Revolution Research Fellow, 2018
Notes:
[2] Mark Andrew Tacyn, "To the End: The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution," (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 48-73; "Extract of a letter from New-York," 1 September 1776, American Archives, series 5, vol. 2, p. 107.
[3] Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com; Pay Roll of Prisoners Taken on Long Island, 14 February 1777, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 19, no. 2 [MSA S997-19-2, 01/07/03/015]; Henry C. Peden, Abstracts of the Orphans Court Proceedings 1778-1800, Harford County, Maryland (Westminster, Maryland: Family Line Publications, 1990), 23, 31, 38; Pension of Thomas McKeel, National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, S 34977, from Fold3.com.
[4] Pension of Thomas McKeel.
[5] Pension of Thomas McKeel; Talbot County Commissioners of the Tax, Assessment Record, 1798 [MSA C1831-2, 01/44/01/026]; Deed, Thomas McKeel to Nicholas Hammond, 1788, Talbot County Court, Land Records, Liber BS 24, p. 542 [MSA CE90-26]; Deed, John Hopkins to Thomas McKeel, 1790, Liber JL 30, p. 254 [MSA CE90-33]; Deed, Thomas McKeel to Peter Denny, 1794, Liber BS 25, p. 351 [MSA CE90-27]; Deed, Joseph Gale to Thomas McKeel, 1803, Liber JL 30, p. 256 [MSA CE90-33]; Deed, Thomas McKeel to William Aringdale, 1808, Liber JL 32, p. 504 [MSA CE90-35].
[6] Pension of Thomas McKeel.
[7] Final Payment Voucher for Thomas McKeel, National Archives and Records Administration, Final Payment Vouchers Index for Military Pensions, NARA 2733385, from Fold3.com.
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