Mathew Coursey
MSA SC 5496-51071
War of 1812 Refugee, St. Mary's County, Maryland, 1814
Biography:
Mathew Coursey was one of the forty-eight slaves that John R. Plater claimed escaped from Sotterley Plantation in St. Mary's County, Maryland, during the War of 1812. At age 8, Mathew escaped with his family from Sotterley on July 22, 1814 by boarding the British frigate H.M.S. Severn, captained by Joseph Nourse, while the frigate was in the Patuxent River. Mathew was joined on the Severn by 44 other refugees from Sotterley including his father Stephen Coursey, mother Susannah Coursey, brother James Coursey, and sisters Ester and Peggy 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
The ship musters for the Severn indicate that the Courseys only spent two days on the Severn before being discharged to the H.M.S. Aetna on July 24, 1814.3 After leaving the Severn, the Coursey family then spent three days on the Aetna until they were discharged to the H.M.S. Albion on July 27.4 The Courseys then spent a few weeks on the Albion before finally being discharged to the H.M.S. Jasseur on August 12.5 The Jasseur was likely the vessel that transported the Courseys from 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.6 Within the confines of the British Empire, the Coursey family could safely maintain their freedom in their new home over a thousand miles away from Sotterley.
The Coursey family retained their freedom after the war in Nova Scotia and are listed in the official census taken of the new Black refugees in Halifax. The Halifax list identifies Stephen and Susannah Coursey as having only one child for which an age is not given.7 In his reparations claim, John R. Plater listed Mathew as 8 years old and described him as "sickly".8 Regardless of whatever physical limitations he had, Mathew seems to have survived the journey to freedom. On November 2, 1815, the Coursey family settled on land in the Northwest Arm of Halifax Habor conveyed to them by Henry H. Cogswell. They were joined there by the Munroe and Seale families who had also escaped from Sotterley. In the 1815 census taken of the refugee families settled on Cogswell's land, Stephen Coursey is listed as having under his care a wife (Susannah Coursey) and four children: Ester, Peggy, James, and Mathew Coursey. The refugee families likely 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 and an 1816 census indicates that Stephen Coursey had the same number of people under his care as in 1815.9
Although John R. Plater claimed Mathew as his property in the reparations claim, Mathew likely belonged to John R. Plater's nephew George Plater V. George Plater V formally inherited Sotterley Plantation upon the death of his father Colonel George Plater IV in 1802. At the time, George Plater V was only five years old, and incapable of managing Sotterley. Consequently, his uncle and guardian John R. Plater assumed responsibility for running the plantation. After the death of George Plater IV's father-in-law William Somerville in 1806, John R. Plater became the executor of his late brother's estate, giving him full control over both Sotterley and its slaves.10 An 1807 inventory of the deceased George Plater IV's estate includes a two-year-old male slave named Mathew.11 Seven years later, eight-year-old Mathew Coursey escaped with his family from Sotterley on July 22, 1814. Only a few weeks after the refugees escaped, John R. Plater reported his loss to the local St. Mary's County tax commissioners. An entry in the tax commissioners' minute book for August 16, 1814 lists slaves that ran away to the enemy from both John R. Plater and his ward George Plater V. The entry does not include surnames for the slaves, but under George Plater V's name appears a six-year-old named Mathew and a four-year-old named James: likely Mathew Coursey and his younger brother James Coursey. The entry also lists under John R. Plater's name a thirty-seven-year-old male slave named Stephen, likely Mathew's father Stephen Coursey, but does not include any obvious matches for Mathew's sisters Ester and Peggy Coursey, or their mother Susannah Coursey. The minute book identifies John R. Plater and his nephew George Plater V as losing in total forty-three slaves to the British, which is five less than what appear in the 1821 reparations claim.12
2. Stanley Quick Research Collection, MSA SC5969, 4-1170.
3. "Severn Ship Musters" UKNA: ADM 37/5430.
4. "Aetna Ship Musters" UKNA: ADM 37/4878.
5. "Albion Ship Musters" UKNA: ADM 37/5005.
6. NSARM Acadian Recorder 3 September 1814 p.3 (microfilm no. 5193)
7. 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)
8. 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.
9. Commissioner of Public Records NSARM RG 1 vol. 420 no. 93 (microfilm no. 15464)
10. Himmelheber, Peter "Sotterley Plantation During the War of 1812" Chronicles of St. Mary’s, vol. 51 no. 4 (Winter , 2003): 90-91.
11. St. Mary's County Register of Wills (Inventories) 1807-1810 MSA CE443-4.
12. St. Mary's County Commissioners of the Tax (Minutes) 08/07/1810-07/11/1815 MSA C1656-6
Researched and Written by Charles Weisenberger
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