General Montgomery

Sloop-of-War	Commander Benjamin Hill
Pennsylvania Privateer Brigantine	[January] 1777-8 March 1777

Commissioned/First Date:	[January] 1777
Out of Service/Cause:	8 March 1777/captured by HM Frigate Levant

Owners:

Tonnage:

120, 180

Battery:

Date Reported: 8 March 1777 Number/Caliber  Weight     Broadside 18/6-pounder and 4-pounder Total: 18 cannon/ Broadside: 9 cannon/ Swivels: three (and four cohorns) Date Reported: 6 August 1777 Number/Caliber  Weight     Broadside 18/ Total: 18 cannon/ Broadside: 9 cannon/ Swivels: Date Reported: 22 August 1777 Number/Caliber  Weight     Broadside 18/ Total: 18 cannon/ Broadside: 9 cannon/ Swivels:

Crew:

(1) 6 February 1777: 100 [total] (2) 8 March 1777: 87 [total] (3) 22 August 1777: 87 [total]

Description:

Officers:

(1) First Lieutenant James Bryant, [January] 1777-8 March 1777; (2) Second Lieutenant Thomas White, [January] 1777-8 March 1777; (3) Master William Williams, [January] 1777-8 March 1777; (4) Prizemaster James Lee, [January] 1777-8 March 1777; (4) Surgeon John Steel, [January] 1777-8 March 1777; (5) Surgeon’s Mate George Seigar, [January] 1777-8 March 1777; (6) Captain of Marines Sewell Tuck, [January] 1777-8 March 1777

Cruises:

(1) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to sea, 6 February 1777-8 March 1777

Prizes:

Actions:

Comments:

TThe 120¹ or 180 ton ² Pennsylvania Privateer Brig General Montgomery was fitted out at Philadelphia in early 1777, under Commander Benjamin Hill of Massachusetts. Her First Lieutenant was James Bryant, who had served in the Royal Navy, and her Second Lieutenant was Thomas White of Salem, Massachusetts. Her Master was William Williams; James Lee (of New England) served as a Prizemaster; John Steel (of Pennsylvania) as Surgeon; and George Seigar (of Maryland) as Surgeon’s Mate. The Captain of Marines was Sewell Tuck of Beverly, Massachusetts.³ All told the crew numbered 100 men.⁴ General Montgomery was armed with eighteen guns, 6-pounders and 4-pounders, four cohorns and three swivels.⁵

The General Montgomery, as painted in a Nowland Van Powell work. For more detailed comments see the Final Note.

General Montgomery sailed from Philadelphia on 6 February 1777. By 8 March 1777 General Montgomery was off the Madeira Islands. Here she fell in with HM Frigate Levant (Captain George Murray) and was captured. Murray reported that she struck without firing a gun. Although she had sailed from Philadelphia with 100 men aboard, only eighty-seven were aboard when she was captured. Sickness and various accidents had reduced the crew.⁶ She was taken in to Gibralter.⁷ General Montgomery’s capture was reported in the Philadelphia newspaper on 2 July 1777.⁸

The officers, and perhaps the crew, of the General Montgomery were sent to England as prisoners. An account from a prisoner at Forton Prison says that “August the 9th this day came on shore forty nine American prisoners. Amongst them were three captains of armed vessels viz Capt Courier, of the Oliver Cromwell, Capt Harris, of the Miscator, and Capt Hill, of the Montgomery. The Agent made his business to make them deliver up their money by the point of the bayonet. There is no such thing as refusing.”⁹

Twenty-six more of the crew, prisoners at Gibralter, were sent to England in the Alarm by 11 August.¹⁰ Hill was committed to Fortun Prison on 9 August, but escaped.¹¹ White, Seigar, Tuck, Bryant and Williams were also sent to Fortun Prison, on 8 August.¹² White was not exchanged until 11 December 1779.¹³ Williams, Tuck and Seigar escaped.¹⁴

The prize was sold and re-named the Queen of Portugal, in which incarnation she was captured by the Massachusetts Privateer Brigantine Oliver Cromwell (Commander William Coles) on 6 August 1777.¹⁵

Final Note: The detail of the General Montgomery is from The American Navies of the Revolutionary War, by Nowland Van Powell and Richard Morris. The original painting shows an action with a British merchant vessel named the Millern, off Ireland, in July 1777. According to the text accompanying the painting (p. 54), there was a one hour fight with the Millern before she was captured. The prize was sent to America, but was re-captured off the Delaware Capes.

Another detail from the Van Powell painting.

Another drawing of the General Montgomery-Millern action is in Copeland, Peter F., American Sailing Ships Coloring Book, New York: Dover Institute Publications, Inc., 1987. Copeland’s text (p. 5) dates the action to July 1776, and misdates General Montgomery’s capture to 1776, and her subsequent re-capture to 1776.

There are no known contemporary drawings of the General Montgomery, so both painting and drawing are based on what contemporary brigs or brigantines are known to appear. In the Van Powell painting General Montgomery flies the striped Rattlesnake Flag, which is certainly possible.

There are however, additional problems with the text and painting. The General Montgomery, of Philadelphia, never approached the Irish coast, and was captured by the Levant before the action had taken place. The only vessel named Montgomery on the Irish in the early spring of 1777, was the Rhode Island Privateer Sloop Montgomery, and she was back in port by May 1777.

Furthermore, the “Millern” is untraceable. The only reference to the Millern that can be found at this time is the text accompanying the painting and the drawing.

At this time it appears that this is a case of several mistaken identities, and of a sea fight that never took place.

¹ NDAR, “Libels Filed in the Massachusetts Maritime Court of the Middle District,” X, 90 and notes

² NDAR, “Vice Admiral Robert Man to Philip Stephens,” IX, 595-596

³ NDAR, “Philip Stephens to Vice Admiral Robert Man,” IX, 563 and note

⁴ Urban, Sylvanus, The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, vol 47, 1777, London, 1777, 192. http://books.google.com/books?id=9ntIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

⁵ NDAR, “Journal of a Cruise in Massachusetts Privateer Brigantine Oliver Cromwell, Captain William Coles,” IX, 552-553 and 553 note; “Vice Admiral Robert Man to Philip Stephens,” IX, 595-596

⁶ Urban, Sylvanus, The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, vol 47, 1777, London, 1777, 192. http://books.google.com/books?id=9ntIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false See also NDAR, “Vice Admiral Robert Man to Philip Stephens,” IX, 595-596.

⁷ NDAR, “Vice Admiral Robert Man to Philip Stephens,” IX, 595-596

⁸ The Pennsylvania Gazette, Wednesday, July 2, 1777

⁹ “A Yankee Privateersman in Prison in England 1777-1779,” in New-England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. XXX, Boston : New England Historic and Genealogical Society, 1876, 345. http://books.google.com/books?id=97IUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

¹⁰ NDAR, “Philip Stephens to Vice Admiral Robert Man,” IX, 563 and note

¹¹ Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 150. He refers to the brig as the Montgomery.

¹² Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 32, 275, 317, 340. Bryant is here Briant.

¹³ Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 335

¹⁴ Claghorn, Naval Officers of the American Revolution, 275, 317, 340. Seigar is spelled Seger and he is called the Surgeon in this source.

¹⁵ NDAR, “Journal of a Cruise in Massachusetts Privateer Brigantine Oliver Cromwell, Captain William Coles,” IX, 552-553 and 553 note

Posted 13 February 2011

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