John Bruce
MSA SC 3520-16929

Biography:

Grandson of John Bruce. Son of Charles and Jean Bruce. Siblings: Robert (died 1819), James (died 1783), Walter, William (1752-1825), Judith, Elizabeth, and Jane Ludwell. Married Jane Yates, 1777. Married Henrietta (maiden name unknown) by 1786; six children: Charles, Ariana, James, Walter (died by 1788), Jane Ludwell (died 1817), and Elizabeth. Died by early 1812.[1]  

John Bruce of Charles County served as a corporal in the Fifth Company at the time of the Battle of Brooklyn.[2]  

John Bruce was one of three brothers who enlisted in the early stages of the Revolutionary War. Robert entered the Maryland Rifle Regiment in 1775, while William and John joined the First Maryland Regiment in early 1776.[3] On July 9, John and William Bruce, along with the rest of the First Maryland, began their long march north to New York. When the First Maryland arrived, the encampment at Brooklyn was in utter disarray. Lack of accurate intelligence led to a disorganized distribution of American troops from Brooklyn to Manhattan .[4] This disarray proved almost fatal for the Continental Army at the Battle of Brooklyn on August 27, 1776.  

The first major engagement of the Revolutionary War began at three o’clock in the morning with a frontal attack by Hessian mercenaries. This attack created a diversion enabling the main body of the British Army to rout the Continental Army by way of an unprotected pass. The British flank attack was totally unexpected by American troops who found themselves, in the words of one Marylander, “surrounded by Healanders [Highlanders] on one side, [and] Hessians on the other.”[5] The stoic resolve of the First Maryland Regiment and Delaware Continentals staved off the complete destruction of the American Army at the hands of the British by providing cover for the retreating Continental troops. 

After surviving a British ambush, Bruce and the remainder of the First Maryland temporarily pushed back the British forces allowing the First, Second, Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth Companies to escape through the Gowanus swamp.[6] The remaining Third, Fourth, Sixth, Ninth -including his brother William- and Seventh Independent Companies skirted the edge of the swamp and took heavy casualties after making a last stand at the Old Stone House. John’s brother William survived the final assault and went on to serve for the duration of the war.   

Bruce left the army at the conclusion of his one-year enlistment at the end of 1776 or beginning of 1777, and returned to Charles County where he married Jane Yates in 1777.[7] Bruce later served for a time on the Maryland galley Independence, under the command of Captain Bennett Matthews. During its active service, the Independence, along with the Conqueror, was charged with protecting Baltimore from British naval attacks.[8] In the summer of 1777, Baltimore residents felt certain that they would be attacked when the British fleet was spotted on August 21. The British however, were not interested in attacking Baltimore and were heading for Head of Elk, with their sights set on Pennsylvania.[9]  

By 1786, Bruce married his second wife Henrietta and had accumulated a total of more than 700 acres of land in Charles County.[10] It is likely that Bruce himself lived in a manor house on a two acre piece of property in William and Mary Parish in Charles County, and rented out the rest of his extensive properties, living off the rent he collected.[11] At his home in William and Mary Parish, Bruce owned twenty-one slaves, many more than the majority of his neighbors.[12] Bruce’s prominence as a large land owner in the community likely played a role in his 1793 appointment as Inspector of Tobacco at the Cedar Point Warehouse in Charles County.[13] Towards the end of his life, Bruce sold off some of his smaller properties, but retained the vast majority of his lands.[14] 

When he died in 1812, John Bruce was a very wealthy land owner, with vast tracts of accumulated property throughout Charles County.[15]  

-Taira Sullivan, 2014

Notes:

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