Matthew Hardikin
MSA SC 3520-18167
Biography:
Matthew Hardikin enlisted as a private in Maryland's Fourth Independent Company on January 23, 1776 under Captain James Hindman. Hindman’s company originally played a role in the Maryland Council of Safety's plan to protect the Chesapeake Bay from potential British invasions. At first stationed at Oxford in Talbot County, Hindman's company travelled to New York to reinforce the Continental Army in preparation for a British invasion. The Fourth Independent Company arrived in New York by mid-August 1776. [1]
On the morning of August 27, 1776, American forces faced British troops at the Battle of Brooklyn (otherwise known as the Battle of Long Island). While several companies engaged the British Army on the Gowanus Road and the nearby Gowanus Creek, taking severe losses in the process, the Fourth Independent Company suffered only three casualties. Hindman defended his actions during the battle to the Council of Safety, arguing that rumors referring to the Fourth Independent Company’s “very ill” behavior were unfounded. Hindman instead declared that “the company [he] had the honor to command...behaved themselves as well as in the service, notwithstanding the dark insinuations...thrown out to their prejudice.” Hardikin likely fought at the Battle of White Plains with the rest of the Fourth Independent Company in October 1776. Hardikin's enlistment ended in the winter of 1776. [2]
Matthew Hardikin lived in the Bolingbroke, Talbot County, Maryland area in 1783. A "Matthew Hardagin" lived in Talbot County in 1790 in a household of five people. Although these two individuals cannot be fully connected to the Fourth Independent Company, his name's unique nature suggests that Hardikin left the service following the end of his enlistment in the winter of 1776 and returned home to Talbot County. [3]
-James Schmitt, Maryland Society Sons of the American Revolution Research Fellow, 2019
Notes:
[1] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 25; Mark Andrew Tacyn, “‘To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), pp. 33-34, 44-45.
[2] Tacyn, pp. 52-67; Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety July 7, 1776 to December 31, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 12, pp. 345-346.
[3] General Assembly, House of Delegates, Assessment Record, 1783, Talbot County, Bolingbroke Hundred, p. 2 [MSA S1161-10-5, 1/4/5/53]; U.S. Federal Census, 1790, Talbot County, Maryland.
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