Henry Hamilton (colonial administrator)
Henry Hamilton | |
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Born | c. 1734 Dublin, Ireland |
Died | (aged 62) |
Nationality | British |
Other names | Hair Buyer, Hair-buyer General |
Occupation(s) | Soldier, army officer, governor |
Spouse | Elizabeth Lee |
Children | Mary Anne Pierpoint Hamilton (daughter) |
Parent |
|
Relatives | Sackville Hamilton (brother) Frederick Hamilton (uncle) Gustavus Hamilton (uncle) Gustavus Hamilton, 1st Viscount Boyne (grandfather) |
Signature | |
Henry Hamilton (c. 1734 – 29 September 1796) was an Anglo-Irish military officer and later government official of the
In 1779, Hamilton was captured during the Revolutionary War by Virginian forces at
Early life
Henry Hamilton was born in
, and his wife.Hamilton was raised in
Military career
As was typical of younger sons, Henry Hamilton entered the military. During the
With the support of Governor General of British North America Guy Carleton, Hamilton rose to the rank of brigade major. In 1775, he sold his commission, leaving the British Army for a political career.
American Revolutionary War
Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs at Fort Detroit
In 1775, Henry Hamilton was appointed as Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs at Fort Detroit, Province of Quebec (it then extended from the Atlantic to this area), British North America. (The fort site is now within the borders of Detroit, Michigan).
This was one of five newly created lieutenant governorships in the recently expanded eastern territory of Canada. When Governor Hamilton reached his base at Fort Detroit to assume his government duties in the
British war policies on the western frontier
Governor Henry Hamilton became adept at diplomacy with Native Americans, establishing good relations with local Indian leaders of the Huron and Ottawa tribes. An amateur artist, Hamilton also sketched portraits of many Native Americans while in Detroit, leaving what has been called the "earliest and largest collection of life portraits of Native Americans of the Upper Great Lakes." This is now held by Houghton Library at Harvard University.[4]
At the beginning of the war, British policy encouraged neutrality among the Native American leaders. But in 1777 Hamilton received instructions to encourage Indian raids against the American frontier settlements in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky. Hamilton responded to Lord Germain, "Would to God this storm which is ready to fall on the Frontiers could be directed upon the guilty heads of those wretches who have raised it, and pass by the miserable many who must feel its fatal effects."[2]
This was a controversial policy, because he and other officials realized that
George Rogers Clark and Illinois Regiment, Virginia state forces in the Illinois Country
In 1778, Patriot Colonel
Defeat and prisoner in Virginia
In early March, General George Rogers Clark ordered Hamilton to be taken to the Virginia state capital in
Later career as British royal governor
Henry Hamilton was reassigned to Canada in 1782 under an appointment as Lieutenant-Governor, and later Deputy-Governor of the Province of Quebec. He administered during the transition in the postwar years as the Crown granted thousands of acres of land, mostly in what became Upper Canada, to Loyalists as compensation for their losses in the former Thirteen Colonies and as payment to soldiers.
After a few years, Hamilton was reassigned as royal
Death
Hamilton died in office on the island of Antigua, British North America, now Antigua and Barbuda, on 29 September 1796.
Among his papers, Hamilton had kept a journal from 1778-1779 as Lieutenant Governor at Fort Detroit during the American Revolution; this was published for the first time posthumously in 1951 in a history that addressed his and George Rogers Clark's roles in the war.[15]
In popular culture
US author
References
Citations
- LCCN 68020537.
- ^ a b Sheehan 1983, p. 11.
- ^ Macleod, Normand (1778). Detroit to Fort Sackville, 1778–1779. Detroit: Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library. pp. x–xiii. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
- ^ "Henry Hamilton drawings of North American scenes and Native Americans: Guide". Cambridge: Houghton Library, Harvard College Library. 2009. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- ^ Sheehan 1983, p. 12.
- ^ Greene, George E. (1911). History of Old Vincennes and Knox County, Indiana, Volume 1. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. p. 182. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
- ^ Brown, Zachary (1 September 2016). "The Rhetoric and Practice of Scalping". Journal of the American Revolution. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
- ^ Sheehan 1983, pp. 13–4.
- ^ Farrell, D. R. "Mobilizing for War: Logistics and the British War Effort in the West, 1775-1783". National Park Service. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
- ^ Fort Sackville was named in honor of George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville.
- ^ Skaggs 1977, p. 182.
- ^ Skaggs 1977, p. 183.
- ^ Sheehan 1983, p. 26.
- ^ a b "Hamilton, Henry, d.1796. Henry Hamilton drawings of North American scenes and Native Americans: Guide". Cambridge: Harvard University. 2001. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
- ^ Barnhart, John D. Henry Hamilton and George Rogers Clark in the American Revolution, with the Unpublished Journal of Lieut. Governor Henry Hamilton. Crawfordville, Indiana: Banta, 1951
Sources
- Arthur, Elizabeth (1979). "Hamilton, Henry". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. IV (1771–1800) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
- Sheehan, Bernard W. (1983). "'The Famous Hair Buyer General': Henry Hamilton, George Rogers Clark, and the American Indian". Indiana Magazine of History. 79 (1): 1–28. JSTOR 27790676. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
- Skaggs, David Curtis, ed. (1977). The Old Northwest in the American Revolution. Madison, Wisconsin: The State Historical Society of Wisconsin. ISBN 0-87020-164-6.
External links
- "Henry Hamilton's Journal", 1778–1779, Indiana Historical Bureau