James Coursey
MSA SC 5496-50999
War of 1812 Refugee, St. Mary's County, MD, 1814
Biography:
James Coursey was one of the forty-eight refugees that escaped from Sotterley Plantation in St. Mary's County, Maryland, during the War of 1812. At age 6, James escaped from Sotterley on July 22, 1814 by boarding the H.M.S. Severn, captained by Joseph Nourse, while the British frigate was in the Patuxent River. James was joined on the Severn by forty-four other refugees from Sotterley including his father Stephen Coursey, mother Susannah Coursey, brother Mathew Coursey, and sisters Peggy and Ester Coursey.1 The next day, Captain Nourse reported on the incident in a letter to Admiral Cockburn as he commented "Last night 39 men, women, and children came off Colonel Plater's".2
James is unique among the Sotterley refugees because he is the only one that John R. Plater does not list as having a surname in the reparations claim. The 1821 reparations claim specifies that Stephen Coursey and his wife Susannah Coursey have three children, but it only names Mathew Coursey and Peggy Coursey, not Ester or James.3 The ship musters for the Severn list a refugee named James Coursey as boarding the ship in the Patuxent on July 22, 1814 along with the other forty-four refugees from Sotterley who escaped via the Severn.4 This James Coursey is likely to be the same James referenced in the reparations claim, and also the son of Stephen and Susannah Coursey.
The Severn ship musters also indicate that James and his family only spent two days on the Severn before being discharged to the H.M.S. Aetna on July 24, 1814.5 James again appears with the other members of the Coursey family on the ship musters for the Aetna. They spent three days on the Aetna until they were discharged to the H.M.S. Albion on July 27.6 After a few weeks on the Albion, James and the other Courseys were finally discharged to the H.M.S. Jasseur on August 12, 1814.7 The Jasseur was likely the vessel that transported the Coursey family out of the Chesapeake to their new home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A Nova Scotian newspaper reported that on September 1, 1814 the H.M. Brig Jasseur had arrived in Halifax after a 10 day voyage from the Chesapeake, and that it had brought a few hundred Black refugees, some of whom had died during the journey.8 Once in Nova Scotia, James and his family could safely maintain their freedom within the confines of the British Empire and over a thousand miles away from Sotterley.
The Coursey family retained their freedom after the war and are listed in the official census taken of the new Black refugees in Halifax. The Halifax List, however, only identifies Stephen and Susannah Coursey as having one child.9 On November 2, 1815, Stephen Coursey along with John R. Plater’s other slaves John Seale and Lewis Munroe settled on land in the Northwest Arm of Halifax Harbor conveyed to them by Henry H. Cogswell. An 1815 census taken of the refugee families that settled on Cogswell's land lists Stephen Coursey as having under his care one wife (Susannah Coursey) and four children: Ester, Peggy, Mathew, and James Coursey. The refugee families struggled during their first months on Cogswell's land. A letter from Cogswell to the governor of Nova Scotia indicates that by December 24, 1815 the families still had not received any supplies of clothing. Despite having a limited supply of clothing during the harsh Nova Scotian Winter, the refugee families survived. An 1816 census indicates that Stephen Coursey had the same number of people under his care as in 1815.10
Another James Coursey also escaped from slavery in St. Mary's County during the War of 1812. He was one of the six refugees who William C. Somerville claimed as escaping from his plantation Mulberry Fields in 1813. Among the six refugees included three other refugees with the surname "Coursey": Henny, Jenny, and Rawleigh Coursey.11 William C. Somerville was the half brother of Elizabeth Plater; they both shared the same father William Somerville Sr. Elizabeth Plater was also the wife of George Plater IV and sister-in-law of John R. Plater. When Elizabeth Plater and her husband George Plater IV both died in 1802, William Somerville Sr. became guardian of the couple's daughter Anne Plater and the initial executor of George Plater IV's estate; John R. Plater became guardian of the couple's other child George Plater V. Upon William Somerville Sr.'s death in 1806, John R. Plater became the guardian of his niece Anne Plater and executor of his brother George Plater IV's estate: giving him full control over Sotterley and its slaves until George Plater V came of age.12 When George Plater V did come of age, he inherited a sizeable debt from his father and uncle, and had to sell Sotterley to William C. Somerville in 1822; one year after John R. Plater filed his reparations claim for the slaves who escaped during the War of 1812.13 Considering the close relations between the Somerville and Plater families, it is possible that the Coursey family from Mulberry Fields was related to the Coursey family from Sotterley. The two James Courseys may have shared a family in addition to a name.
1. Claim of John Rousby Plater, St. Mary’s County, Case #310, Case Files Ca. 1814-28, 3.5 ft. entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
2. Stanley Quick Research Collection, MSA SC 5969 4-1170
3. Claim of John Rousby Plater, St. Mary’s County, Case #310, Case Files Ca. 1814-28, 3.5 ft. entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
4. "Severn Ship Musters" UKNA: ADM 37/5430.
5. Ibid.
6. "Aetna Ship Musters" UKNA: ADM 37/4878.
7. "Albion Ship Musters" UKNA: ADM 37/5005.
8. NSARM Acadian Recorder 3 September 1814 p.3 (microfilm no. 5193)
9. National Archives and Records Administration NSARM (Washington DC) RG 76 Entry 185 GB 1814 no. 51 G.B. 6 (microfilm copy only available at NSARM, microfilm no. 13577)
10. Commissioner of Public Records NSARM RG 1 vol. 420 no. 93 (microfilm no. 15464)
11. Claim of William C. Somerville, St. Mary's County, Case No. 643, Case Files. Ca. 1814-1828, entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
12. Himmelheber, Peter "Sotterley Plantation During the War of 1812" Chronicles of St. Mary’s, vol. 51 no. 4 (Winter , 2003): 90-91.
13. David G. Brown, Sotterley: Her People and Their Worlds (Baltimore: Chesapeake Book Company, 2010), 50.
researched and written by Charles Weisenberger
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