Francis Fairbrother
MSA SC 3520-17204
Biography:
A native of Annapolis, Francis Fairbrother enlisted as a private in the First Maryland Regiment's Seventh Company, commanded by Captain John Day Scott, in January 1776. He was the son of Ann and Francis Fairbrother. His father was a strong supporter of American independance, and was a merchant and local official, holding positions as justice of the peace, tax assessor, county coroner, and court justice. Francis and Ann had one other child, a daughter named Elfreda. [1]
The Seventh Company was raised in Annapolis, and was stationed there during the first part of 1776, along with five of the regiment's other companies; three additional companies were in Baltimore. Commanded by Colonel William Smallwood, the regiment was the first unit of full-time, professional soldiers raised in Maryland for service in the Continental Army. In July, the regiment received orders to march to New York to defend the city from an impending British attack. The Marylanders arrived in New York a month later and joined the rest of the Continental Army, commanded by General George Washington. One of the company’s sergeants, William Sands, described the scene in mid-August: “Our Maryland Battalion is encamped on a hill about one mile out of New York, where we lay in a very secure place…We are ordered to hold ourselves in readiness. We expect an attack hourly.” [2]
That attack finally came two weeks later, on August 27, 1776, at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island), the first full-scale engagement of the war. The battle was a rout: the British were able to sneak around the American lines, and the outflanked Americans fled in disarray. As the Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, they were forced to stop at the swampy Gowanus Creek. Half the regiment, including the Seventh Company, was able to cross the creek and escape the battle. However, the rest were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, this group of soldiers, today called the "Maryland 400," mounted a series of daring charges. They held the British at bay for some time before being overrun, at the cost of many lives. The Marylanders took enormous casualties, with some companies losing nearly 80 percent of their men, but their actions delayed the British long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape. In all, the First Maryland lost 256 men, killed or taken prisoner. [3]
Fairbrother survived the battle, as did most of the men in his company, although William Sands was among those killed. In October, the Marylanders fought at the Battle of White Plains, where they again took the brunt of the fighting. They were ordered to leave their defensive position on the top of a hill and charge at the British. “Smallwood’s [regiment] suffered most, on this occasion, sustaining, with great patience and coolness, a long and heavy fire–and finally retreated with great sullenness, being obliged to give way to a superior force,” wrote one observer. The Seventh Company lost its captain and one of its lieutenants, Thomas Goldsmith, both killed. By November, the Americans had been pushed out of New York, and put on the run through New Jersey. Not until late that winter did they secure revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton. [4]
In December 1776, Fairbrother’s enlistment came to an end, and he signed on again, this time for a three-year term. During his second stint in the army, Fairbrother probably took part in the disastrous raid on Staten Island (August 1777), and the major battles of the Philadelphia Campaign, Brandywine (September 1777) and Germantown (October 1777). The Marylanders also fought at the Battle of Monmouth (June 1778). Although his term of service ran through the end of 1779, Fairbrother reenlisted that February, agreeing to serve for the rest of the war. [5]
While 1779 was a relatively uneventful year for the Maryland Line, in the spring of 1780, they marched south to help counter new British threats in the Carolinas. Fairbrother spent time in Annapolis before the journey south, getting resupplied, and also getting married. He and Mary Newbury were wed on May 3, 1780. Mary died not long afterward, although her date of death is unknown. [6]
That August, the Marylanders took catastrophic casualties at the Battle of Camden, losing some 600 men--about one-third of their troops. The next year, however, the Americans rebuilt, and earned a series of victories at Cowpens (January 1781), Guilford Court House (March 1781), Ninety-Six (May-June 1781), and Eutaw Springs (September 1781), pushing the British north out of the Carolinas towards Yorktown, where they surrendered in October. In the course of these battles, the Maryland soldiers gained a reputation as brave and dependable, and were a cornerstone of the army. Fairbrother and the First Maryland Regiment spent 1782 back in South Carolina, where British forces lingered for most of the year. Finally, after eight years of service, Fairbrother was discharged in November, 1783. [7]
Fairbrother returned to Annapolis, initially living with Daniel Hollidayoke, with whom he had served in the army, and Daniel's wife, Ann. Fairbrother's father died in 1789. While his father had been a prominent citizen in Annapolis, and owned 120 acres of land in Anne Arundel County, as well as a lot in the city of Annapolis, and several slaves, Fairbrother seems to have received little from his father's estate. Ann died a few years later, on March 20, 1793. [8]
In August 1793, Fairbrother married Patience Reeves at St. Ann's Church in Annapolis; they had no children together. Francis petitioned the Maryland General Assembly for financial support, claiming that he was disabled, the result of an injury he suffered during the war. He was granted a pension of $40 per year, which he received until his death in August 1810. Some years later, his widow Patience sought relief for herself as a Revolutionary War veteran's widow. Maryland gave her a pension of $40 per year in 1832, and the Federal government awarded her $80 per year in 1840. Patience died in November 1842. [9]
Owen Lourie, 2017
Notes:
1. Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 16; Mark B. Letzer and Jean B. Russo, eds, The Diary of William Faris: The Daily Life of an Annapolis Silversmith (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), 178-179. For his father's activities, see for example Alexander J. Lourie, "'Have Honestly and Fairly Laboured for Money': William and Washington Tuck and Annapolis Cabinetmaking, 1795-1838" (M.A. thesis, University of Maryland College Park, 2004), 27; Journal and Correspondence of the State Council, 1778-1779, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 21, p. 121; Journal and Correspondence of the State Council, 1779-1780, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 43, p. 339; Journal and Correspondence of the State Council, 1781-1784, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 48, p. 506.
3. Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com; Mark Andrew Tacyn "'To the End:' The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution" (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 48-73. For more on the experience of the Marylanders at the Battle of Brooklyn, see "In Their Own Words," on the Maryland State Archives research blog, Finding the Maryland 400.
5. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pps. 108, 358, 432, 497, 534; Compiled Service Record of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, National Archives, NARA M881, from Fold3.com; Account of money paid sundry soldiers by Gen. Smallwood, paid to Francis Fairbrother, late 1776/early 1777, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 6, no. 7-3a, MdHR 19970-6-7/3a [MSA S997-6-25, 1/7/3/11]; Account of money paid sundry soldiers by Gen. Smallwood, paid to Francis Fairbrother, late 1776/early 1777, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 6, no. 7-6, MdHR 19970-6-7/6 [MSA S997-6-28, 1/7/3/11]; Receipt, money received by Francis Fairbrother, 29 December 1779, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 3, no. 10-1 MdHR19970-3-10/1 [MSA S997-3-161, 1/7/3/9]; Muster Roll, First Company, Maryland Battalion [formerly First Maryland Regiment], 1 November 1780, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 15, no. 31, MdHR 19970-15-31 [MSA S997-15-38, 1/7/3/13].
6. Marriage of Francis Fairbrother and Mary Newbury, 3 May 1780, Anne Arundel County Court, Marriage Licenses, 1777-1813, p. 44 [MSA C113-1, 1/1/11/27]; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 43, pps. 117, 120.
7. Tacyn, 216-225.
8. Pension of Francis Fairbrother. National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, W 8804, from Fold3.com; Inventory of Francis Fairbrother, 1790, Anne Arundel County Register of Wills, Inventories, Liber JG 1, p. 531 [MSA C88-4, 1/3/12/29]; Final distribution of Francis Fairbrother's estate, Anne Arundel County Register of Wills, Distributions, Liber JG 1, p. 18 [MSA C63-1, 1/4/6/15]; General Assembly, House of Delegates, Assessment Record, 1783, Magothy Hundred, p. 2 [MSA S1161-1-8, 1/4/5/44]; Annapolis Hundred, p. 2 [MSA S1161-1-1, 1/4/5/44]; Letzer and Russo, 178-179.
9. Fairbrother pension; Maryland General Assembly, Session Laws of 1806, Joint Resolutions, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 608, p. 57; Maryland General Assembly, Session Laws of 1831, Joint Resolution 72, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 213, p. 490; Treasurer of the Western Shore, Pension Roll, Military, 1811-1843, pps. 46, 55, MdHR 4534-4 [MSA S613-1, 2/63/10/33].
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