Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

John Sears
MSA SC 3520-17303

Biography:

In early 1776, John Sears enlisted as a corporal in Edward Veazey's Seventh Independent Company. Corporals were non-commissioned officers who assisted sergeants in their duties, training and monitoring the fresh recruits of 1776 despite having little experience themselves. Many of those in the Seventh Independent Company were recruited from Kent, Cecil, and Queen Anne counties, and were in their twenties. The average age was about twenty-five, but soldiers born in the thirteen colonies were slightly younger than those from foreign countries. [1]

The independent companies, early in the war, had a different role than William Smallwood's First Maryland Regiment, which was raised as full-time Maryland soldiers to be part of the Continental Army. They were tasked with securing the Chesapeake Bay's shoreline from British attack. The Seventh Independent Company was stationed in Kent County's Chestertown and Queen Anne County's Kent Island. During this time, Veazey was uneasy that they did not receive "arms nor ammunition" until June. [2]

While the independent companies were originally intended to defend Maryland, three of them accompanied the First Maryland Regiment when it marched up to New York in July 1776. The transfer of the independent companies to the Continental Army showed that Maryland was more than willing to do its part to recruit the men needed. The independent companies and the First Maryland Regiment arrived in New York in early August, with the Battle of Brooklyn set between the Continental Army and the British Army, joined by their Hessian allies. [3]

Sears served with his company at the Battle of Brooklyn in late August 1776. Sixty-eight percent of Veazey's company were killed, wounded or captured. Captain Veazey was "killed at [Sergeant Hezekiah Foard's] side," while Second Lieutenant Samuel Turbutt Wright and Third Lieutenant Edward De Coursey were captured. As a result of Veazey's death, First Lieutenant William Harrison took charge of the company. After the battle, only about 36 men remained out of the original force of over 100. [4]

Sears reenlisted in the Second Maryland Regiment in February 1777 for a three year term of service and was promoted to sergeant. On January 10, 1780, his enlistment expired and he was discharged. During his term of service in the Second Maryland Regiment, he likely fought at the battles of Brandywine (1777), White Marsh (1777), and Germantown (1777), and Monmouth (1778). [5]

Sears was discharged on January 10, 1780, due to the expiration of his enlistment, the same day as a private named William Dawson. On that day, Mordecai Gist gave Dawson "a written discharge from the Continental service." Years later, when Dawson applied for his pension, he accused Sears of losing the papers, saying that Sears was supposed to bring the papers to Annapolis to deposit them, but had not done so. [6]

On January 26, 1780, Sears enlisted again in the Second Maryland Regiment and was promoted to ensign, fulfilling Colonel Woolford's recommendation that Sears be promoted. As part of this position, Sears enlisted numerous men in the regiment, mainly in Kent County. On April 16, 1780, he told Governor Thomas Sim Lee about his success in recruiting more men and his accounts, saying that "I have had as good success as an Officer in the Line....if your Excellency sees Proper that I should Continue Recruiting any longer Please to let me know by the Post" and if not, he would stop his recruiting. Colonel William Bordley, of the Kent County militia, confirmed this, telling Governor Lee that "Ensign Sears has enlisted three men and drafted them before" him. [7]

As an ensign, Sears participated in various skirmishes in the Southern campaign and fought at the Battle of Camden on August 16, during which he was taken prisoner. The battle was disaster for the Continentals, who were completely overrun. The Maryland troops once again bore the brunt of the attack, losing some 600 men--about one-third of their troops. The battle was followed by a hectic retreat during which numerous Marylanders were wounded and captured. [8]

After Sears was released, he was transferred to the Fifth Maryland Regiment on January 1, 1781 and became a second lieutenant. For the next few years, he served as a recruiter in Elk Neck, Maryland, recruiting additional soldiers for the regiment, in Cecil and Kent counties, and along the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. [9]

As the war drew to a close, Sears was transferred again, this time to the First Maryland Regiment, on January 1, 1783. He served as a first lieutenant until his discharge on November 15, 1783. Sears joined the Society of the Cincinnati of Maryland not long after his discharge, likely to keep in contact with his fellow officers. [10]

After the war, Sears lived in Cecil County. On July 23, 1785, Sears married a woman named Mary Dutton in Cecil County. A few years later, he had a bounty land warrant application issued, on June 17, 1789, but "no papers" from the application have been preserved. This warrant related to four lots of land, totaling 200 acres, granted to him in Western Maryland. This land sat vacant until 1834. He may have felt, like fellow veteran Mark McPherson, that the land, located in a remote mountainous area of Western Maryland, was "absolutely good for nothing...unfit for Cultivation." [11]

Sears moved to Harford County some time before his death on September 29, 1802. In 1828, Mary, John Sears's wife, then living in Harford County, was paid the half pay of a lieutenant for the rest of her life. [12]

- Burkely Hermann, Maryland Society of the Sons of American Revolution Research Fellow, 2016.

Notes

[1] Monthly return for the 7th Independent Company, 9 June 1776, Maryland Historical Society, MS 1914; Monthly return for the 7th Independent Company, 4 July 1776, Maryland Historical Society, MS 1914; Friedrich von Steuben, Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, Part I (Philadelphia: Styner and Cist, 1792), pp. 137-140; Mark Andrew Tacyn, “'To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 24-25, 34, 97; Descriptions of men in Capt. Edward Veazey’s Independent Comp, 1776, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, MdHR 19970-15-36/01 [MSA S997-15-36, 1/7/3/13].

[2] Tacyn, pp. 33-34, 37, 39.

[3] Tacyn, pp. 44-45.

[4] Tacyn, pp. 4, 98.

[5] Reiman Steuart, A History of the Maryland Line in the Revolutionary War (Towson, MD: Metropolitan Press, 1969), p. 127; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, National Archives, NARA M881, Record Group 93, Roll 0401, from Fold3.com.

[6] Pension of William Dawson, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, Roll 771, pension number S. 34,732, from Fold3.com.

[7] Steuart, p. 127; Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 163; Recruits enlisted by Ensign Sears, 20 March 1780, Maryland State Papers, Series A, MdHR 6636-18-12B [MSA S1004-22-6027, 1/7/3/34]; Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1779-1780, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 43, p. 474; William Bordley to Governor Lee on state of county recruiting, April 6, 1780, Maryland State Papers, Series A, MdHR 6636-18-12C [MSA S1004-22-6191, 1/7/3/34].

[8] Tacyn, 216-225.

[9] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 364; Compiled Service Records.

[10] Steuart, p. 127.

[11] Marriage of John Sears to Mary Dutton, 1785, Cecil County Court, Marriage Licenses, MdHR 9435, p. 38 [MSA C632-1, 1/11/6/38]; Bounty Land Warrant Application of John Sears, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, NARA M804, Record Group 15, Roll 2145, pension number B.L.Wt. 2049-200, from Fold3.com; John Sears's lots in Western Maryland, Land Office, Lots Westward of Fort Cumberland, MdHR 17302, p. 271272 [SE1-1]; Pension of Mark McPherson, The National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, W 2144. 1-73, from Fold3.com.

[12] Journal of the House of Delegates, 1828, p. 73 [MSA SC M3200]; Pension Payment to Mary Sears, 1828, Treasurer of the Western Shore, Military Pension Roll, MdHR 4534-4, pp. 41, 51 [MSA S613-1, 2/63/10/33]; Session Laws, 1827 Session, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 474, p. 282; Steuart, p. 127.

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