Laurence Laurenson
MSA SC 3520-17452
Biography:
Laurence Laurenson enlisted as a private in Captain Edward Veazey's Seventh Independent Company in 1776. He was only seventeen years old, making him one of the youngest men to enlist. Laurenson lived in Cecil County, Maryland, probably in the Bohemia Manor area, where a number of Veazey's men came from. [1]
Maryland's independent companies were formed in early 1776, and differed from the nine companies that made up Colonel William Smallwood’s First Maryland Regiment. While the Council of Safety, Maryland's Revolutionary executive body, used the nine companies of regular troops to fulfill the state's quota for the Continental Army, it dispatched seven independent companies throughout Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore to guard the vast shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay. Half of the Seventh Independent Company was stationed on Kent Island, while the rest, including Laurenson, were sent to Chestertown, in Kent County. In these first months, the company had great difficulty obtaining supplies, including uniforms and weapons. In the summer of 1776, Congress requested additional troops from Maryland to help reinforce the Continental Army, and the state agreed to shift the independent companies to that duty. When the First Maryland Regiment marched for New York in early July, it was accompanied by the Fourth, Fifth and Seventh independent companies; the rest followed later that fall. [2]
The Marylanders arrived in New York in early August, and prepared to protect the city from attack by the British. On August 27, the Americans clashed with the British at the Battle of Brooklyn (also called the Battle of Long Island), the first full-scale encounter of the American Revolution. The battle was a rout: the British were able to sneak around the American lines, and the outflanked Americans fled in disarray. During the retreat, the Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, but were blocked by the swampy Gowanus Creek. Half the regiment was able to cross the creek to safety. The rest, the Seventh Independent Company among them, were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, these men, now known as the "Maryland 400," mounted a series of daring charges, which held the British at bay for some time, at the cost of many lives, before being overrun. [3]
The Seventh Independent Company suffered greatly during the battle. Its commander Captain Veazey was killed early in the fighting and two of the company's lieutenants were captured. First Lieutenant William Harrison was the sole officer in the company to escape, and only 36 men avoided death or captivity, just a third of the company. [4]
Laurenson's exact fate at the battle is uncertain. His name does not appear among the men captured at Brooklyn, but it is not known whether he was wounded or captured at one of the other battles in the fall and winter of 1776. Regardless, he did not reenlist after his original term of service ended in late 1776, presumably returning instead to his home in Cecil County.
Laurence Laurenson probably died in early 1829, about seventy years old. What became of him in the years after his service in the Revolutionary War is not clear. He seems to have never married or had any children--at least none who survived him--and had few assets to his name at the time of his death. While his brother James owned over 200 acres of land and ten slaves, Laurence had none. Still, Laurence did have over $150 in cash when he died, a not insignficant amount. His estate was divided betweeen his siblings James, Richard, and Mary, along with their children. [5]
Owen Lourie, 2017
Notes:
[2] Mark Andrew Tacyn “’To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 33-34, 43; Journal of the Maryland Convention and Council of Safety 1775-1776, Archives of Maryland Online vol. 11, pps. 318, 468; Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, July-December, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online vol. 12, p. 4.
[3] Tacyn, 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.
[4] Extract of a letter from an officer in the Maryland Battalion, 28 August 1776, American Archives, series 5, vol. 1, p. 1195; Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com.
[5] Estate of Laurence Lauenson, Cecil County Register of Wills, Estate Papers, 1829 [MSA C645-33, 112/6/45]; General Assembly, House of Delegates, Assessment Record, 1783, Cecil County, Second District, p. 5 [MSA S1161-3-8, 1/4/5/46]; U.S. Federal Census, 1790, Cecil County, Maryland, Bohemia Manor.
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![Descriptions of men in Capt. Edward Veazey’s Independent Company, 1776, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, MdHR 19970-15-36/01 [MSA S997-15-36, 1/7/3/13]](https://msamaryland400.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/7th-independent-company-descriptive-roster.jpg){kind=link}