Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Elijah Beauchamp (b. circa 1792 - d. 1856)
MSA SC 5496-050826
War of 1812 Escaped Slave, Somerset County, Maryland, 1814

Biography:

On October 15, 1814, twenty-two-year-old Elijah "Lige" Beauchamp escaped from Thomas Beauchamp's farm in Somerset County. He fled with his brother, Stephen Beauchamp, and another slave named Jack Teagle. Mentor Beauchamp fled from Isaac Beauchamp's farm at the same time. They reached the British ship Regulus in the Tangier Sound, off the coast of Somerset County.1 Captain Robert Ramsay had commanded the 74-gun2 frigate Regulus since October 29, 1813.3 Elijah and Stephen Beauchamp both joined the Sixth Company of the Colonial Marines under the British.4

Following the War of 1812, Elijah, Stephen, and Mentor Beauchamp settled in Trinidad in the Company Villages, on the sixteen acres of land that the British had promised each soldier's family.5 According to British records, Elijah "Beecham" and his wife Martha lived on plot 16 in the northern part of the Monkey Town Division.6 He died on December 26, 1857 at the Mission of Savanna Grande,8 modern-day Princes Town.7
 

1.     Claim of Samuel Beauchamp, Case 784, Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828. *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190*. National Archives, College Park.
3.     John McNish Weiss, The Merikens: Free Black American Settlers in Trinidad: 1815-1816 (London, UK: McNish & Weiss, 2002) 43.

2.     James MacQueen, A Narrative of the Principal Military Events During the Memorable Campaigns of 1812, 1813, 1814 in Russia, Germany, Spain, France, & America (Glasgow, UK: Edward Kuhl, & Co., 1814) 641.

3.     Admiralty-Office, The Navy List (London, UK: H.M. Stationery Office, 1814) 66.
3.     Michael Crawford, ed., The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History. Vol. 3 (Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 2002) 163 and 165.

4.     Claim of Samuel Beauchamp.
3.     U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Thomas Jones, 1810, Somerset County, Great Annamessex Hundred, Somerset County, Page 1, 12th line from bottom. [MSA SM61-57, M 2061-4].

5.     Weiss 43.
3.     Wiley Hall, ed., "The Colonial Marines." The Maryland Natural Resource 11.4 (Fall 2008): 9. Maryland State Archives.
3.     Junius P. Rodriguez, ed., "Black Freedom Fighters (War of 1812)." Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion. Vol. 1: A-N (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2007) 66.

6.     Weiss 43, 69 and 70.

7.     James H. Stark, Stark's Guide-Book and History of Trinidad (Boston, UK: James H. Stark, 1897) 67.
        Weiss 23.

8.     Weiss 11 and 43.
 

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