Harry ALEXANDER Letter to Lord George GERMAIN with Notes

Mississippi British Point Coupée 25^th April 1777

My Lord,

Some time in the month of July last I had the honor of being Introduced to your Lordships knowledge by His Excellency General MORRIS Governor of His Majestys Island of Saint Vincent; His Excellency was pleased to impart to me that part of his Letter to your Lordship which concerned Myself and to which I would humbly beg a Revisal; I believe it will Appear to your Lordship that I have for many years been a very faithful servant to His Majesty in several honorary Capacities; but they were such as yielded no profit but drew an additional Expense upon me in proportion to that honorary Rank which at different times I had in his Majesty’s Service, and I believe I may without being Subject to the Charge of Vanity add that wherever I stood connected in Duty Serving His Majesty in any Capacity whatsoever, I never wanted anything to stimulate the most zealous and Respectfull Attention in the Discharge of it.

If I am right in my Recollection General MORRIS’s Letter to your Lordship mentioned to You, indeed it is Notorious, that I had frequently been in the Command of St. Vincent for His Majesty; That I had the honor of being Colonel of and Commanding a Regiment of Horse Military composed of the Principal Gentleman of the Country; That I was the Senior Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, where for Years I presided in the place of the Chief who had the Salary, & that I was Chief Barron of the Exchequer and the Second in His Majestys Council. I was early in life bread to the Study of the Law by which I acquired some Reputation and a considerable fortune, sufficient to induce me to think I could live without the labor of its Study and quit the practice of it. Thirty two thousand pounds Sterling, I laid out in St. Vincent in the hurry of Delusion of those times of Mad purchase; in this I was fatally mistaken whereby my fortune dwindled and my honorary appointments with innate Hospitality; and I may add a general Respectable attention to Myself, hastened very fast my destruction. In limited situations it is sometimes a misfortune to possess the power of pleasing, they frequently occasion more followers than are always convenient. To finish this picture which is the last of the kind I shall ever presume to disturb your Lordship with I beg leave to Open to your View a Man who has lived in the Manner before described, who for many years spent of his own Monies from two to three thousand pounds Sterling a year, and who has lost his Wife the Partner of his Bosom and left with Eight children, three Sons, and five Daughters who were expensively educated in England and taught to think themselves independent and above the common level; Yet I am with them by the Sequestration of my Estates reduced to less than three hundred, and with a life not in its dotage, but only a little past its Meridian, tho perhaps not in its Utmost Vigour yet possessed of Strong footings. This picture, my Lord, may be badly drawn but it is a very Just description of all its constituent parts, and I persuade Myself your Lordships humanity and goodness will induce You to lay it before His Majesty whose compassionate Heart is ever disposed to relieve the Distressed. Whether I shall be so or not; Education, principle & habit command me His most faithful devoted Servant. Let me yet, my Lord beg leave farther to add that of your Lordship should wish to be more Acquainted with my Character for any Trust under Government than General MORRIS has spoke to, I intreat to refer that matter to my much esteemed friend and intimate Acquaintance Sir William YOUNG Bart.

Dissatisfied with my Situation I could no longer think of continuing in St. Vincent where I had from its first Settlement (and Actually was the first purchaser) held Rank with the first and in every measure of Government legislation & Justice bore equal weight with any other Individual; I resolved for a time to retire to the Wilds of West Florida, where I have bought a small Farm on the River Mississippi opposite Point Coupee, but Alas! I can find no Comfort here separated from my Family who are still at St. Vincent and here I am unable to provide for them.

Your Lordship I hope will pardon this intrusion on your time and even yet allow me to add a few Words concerning this Colony of West Florida. It seems naturally well Adapted to yield all the real necessary comforts of life, and with a proper Management in the distribution of the Lands so as to be proportionately bestowed or given among His Majesty’s faithful Subjects who really mean to become Settlers and not Land Jobbers, who are the Ban of Colonisation, there is every Reason to hope in a few Years this Colony would give grateful returns to the Mother Country and every other proof of thankfulness for His Majesty’s Gracious care of which, my Lord, this infant Colony stands much in need, especially from its peculiar Situation Surrounded both by Natural and Savage Enemies, these last are grown as imprudent and troublesome of late that I much fear they are ripe for any Mischief – protection and Support must necessarily be our first humble Solicitation; That this Colony is in this Critical Situation is most certainly true from a variety of indubitable proofs, too Notorious, I humbly presume, not to be more particularly made known to your Lordship by those whose Official Duty made it more immediately their Concern.

His Majesty’s Troops in this province are at present Quartered at Pensacola and Mobile, both places are merely calculated as places of Arms, but in their local Situation, so extremely distant from any part of the Settlement either begun or likely to be commenced, at least for some time, that they are totally incapable of giving protection and countainance; it is true is also a small post at Fort Pitt and of as little real countainance to the Colony. Were the Seat of Government and the Courts of Justice removed from Pensacola to some more Convenient central place on the River Mississippi where the Land is as extremely rich as all the Country about Pensacola is in the highest degree Sterile, little better than a dry sandy Desert, whereas the lands on the Mississippi for a Vast extent of Country far exceed all others on the Continent, and if Supported will be the Richest and the most powerful province in America. – The Seat of Government and His Majestys Courts of Justice at Pensacola from the Vast distance and a tedious Navagation by Water and a long difficult unsettled Country to travel thorough almost deprive the people of Access to the Governor and his Countenance, and the Avenues of Justice attended with so many difficulties, that many people think the remedy very little better than the Desease; As to the Courts of Justice they would be very necessary in both places and entirely independent of each other, But any Arrangements of this kind if your Lordship should think fit to enquire into the Utility of them I make no doubt they may be differently represented , because several leading Individuals would in private Interest be Affected by the Change, but I do Aver that I do not write my Own Opinion merely but the united Sentiments of the most Sensible Inhabitants that I have met with in the province and who wish they had a better and more direct method of humbly imparting their Wishes to your Lordship. With humble Submission, if I know anything of myself, I think under the roof of my Forrest Cottage, I am above deception; One incontestable example of the truth of the position that I have set down I beg leave briefly to relate to your Lordship from the following Circumstance – A Man only the Other day was guilty of a most Atrocious Murder at a place called the Natche; they i. e., the people were Obliged to carry him to Pensacola to be tried, a distance not less than five or six hundred Miles of Land and Water, and the Evidence to convict him must go thither also; this is not the only Instance of a like kind from the Same place, and I much fear they will be too frequent; the People in that part of Settlement seem to be a lawless Set and the hand of Justice lying so remote from them, they have too often escaped its Vengeance and forget its force; Besides it draws reproach upon Government and loads it with an extraordinary expense; But Alas! My Lord with what confidence can We approach his Majesty thorough the medium of your favor to grant Us any Blessings at a time when so many of the provinces so Justly stand Branded with the highest ingratitude, however I would faine hope long before this time they are returned to their Duty (here We are as Ignorant about what is doing as if We were out of the World) and the misguided deluded multitude have got the better of the Delusion and freed themselves from the Slavery of following the Sinister purposes of Plunder and Ambition; they are the Men who best deserve to pay the Debt to legal resentment; the bulk of the People never think for themselves, of course they are often an easy prey; this is a circumstance much to be lamented, but it is the concomitant of Ignorance and one of its greatest frailties, so that when his Majesty shall be pleased to reflect on the proportion that his thinking Subjects bear to those who never think of all He will not be surprized at the Appearance of so large a Disaffection, and naturally open a passage to his human and feeling Heart; the more readily to receive the common People into His Royal Mercy and favor. – I believe the people of this province are remarkably well affected to his Majesty and Government indeed they seem to be principally composed of persons, who were forced to seek and Asylum here and fly from an Evil they were unable to contend with contented by encountering the hardships of a Desert Country and all its connected difficulties rather than risque, from the Mad torrent of Faction being Dragooned into one Single Act of disloyalty to His Majesty and Government. Several of the first or Oldest Settlers are Old Officers who sold out at the close of the last War and retired and took up Lands, both Country & Climate much favoring Persons drawing towards the decline of life and from such inhabitants I am sure your Lordship will admit it is not Probable the Seeds of Rebellion will ever be sown here; Indeed I flatter Myself that is of all Others a plant that will not grow here. The Soil is good, the Country healthy, and the Climate sufficiently moderate both in Summer and Winter; But my Lord, this Country is as yet very little known; I believe I am among the first that Curiosity brought hither and in Nine Months I have traveled more than many others who have been here, ten, twelve and thirteen Years, and tho I have had Opportunity of Visiting the most Delightful Seats in England, your Lordship will I hope pardon, tho You will think it a bold expression when I tell you, yet it is not less true, that I have seen, even but a few Miles back from the Mississippi, Spacious green fields of eight ten miles in length so Adorned by the Bountious hand of Nature only that I never saw anything in England to be compared to them! Governor BROWN, who was late a Lieut. Governor of this province has I am told a Grant of 17,400 Acres of these beautiful Lands; I don’t know if he knows the Value of them, but if he chose them from a View of them, they Do honor to his taste and Judgment. Nature must have been Studied Contemplated to make them a perfect Picture. And yet the Savages give the thicket of the forrest the preference. What apology can I make to your Lordship for so great a trespass on your time and patience? – To attempt one will be a continuance of the trespass – I beg forgiveness and that I may be permitted to be with most perfect Respect

Your Lordships
Most Obedient & Most humble Servant
Harry ALEXANDER

To the Right Honorable
Lord George GERMAINE
One of His Majesty’s principal
Secretaries of State
Whitehall


Endorsed Point Coupeé 25th April 1777/Mr. Harry
ALEXANDER/Rx 13 Sept.

The source of the above letter is CO5/155:54-55, the transcribed copy was received in September 2005 from the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C., USA.

NOTES: In this letter we learn the following:

1) Harry ALEXANDER had three sons and five daughters. The first born son, Charles, was identified in a 1752 letter that Harry ALEXANDER wrote to his cousin Alexander LEITH, in Aberdeen, Scotland. A second son, Harry, Jr., has been identified from an article written by Mary Smith FAY, C. G., titled “Louisiana Loyalists in 1781”, which is included in the booklet “Mississippi Valley Melange, Volume II”. On page 57 of this work, Harry ALEXANDER, Sr. and Harry ALEXANDER, Jr., are identified as “Moderate Royalists” in a letter that was read on June 20, 1782 by Oliver POLLOCK to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The letter described other Royalists as “Violent Royalists.”

2) Harry ALEXANDER’s wife had died prior to 1777. (The burial of Lydia (MARTIN) ALEXANDER is noted in the records of St. George’s Anglican Cathedral in Kingstown, St. Vincent as having taken place on July 08, 1771.)

3) Governor (Valentine) MORRIS of St. Vincent had written to Lord George GERMAIN in July 1776 on behalf of Harry ALEXANDER. In the book, “The Unfortunate Valentine Morris,” by Ivor Waters, there is made mention in Chapter 12, on page 42: "In 1776.... he (Governor Valentine MORRIS) asked (Lord George GERMAIN) to appoint a Lieutenant-Governor 'for the purpose of watching over the more remote part of the island,' and recommended Harry ALEXANDER of the St. Vincent Council for the post. Lord George GERMAIN would not agree to this request because the islanders were unwilling to pay a salary even to the Governor." The reference for this letter from MORRIS to GERMAIN is P. R. O. (Public Record Office), C. O. (Colonial Office) 101/17, 12th, 26th July, 1776 or C. O. 260/4 26th July, 1776.

4) Harry ALEXANDER was well acquainted with Sir William YOUNG, Bart., of St. Vincent, and considered him an intimate friend.

5) Harry ALEXANDER had been in Mississippi British Point Coupeé for a period of nine months at the time the letter was written, placing his arrival there about July 1776. His arrival there is described in the book “The Economy of West Florida” by Robin F. A. FABEL on page 69: “Similar economic inspiration rather more blatantly drew several men of St. Vincent to West Florida at this time. The Windward Islands, without being technically neutral in the war, were thought of and referred to as neutral islands. The flight of settlers there who were looking to escape the tumult of revolution enormously increased the price of land in St. Vincent. 86 Harry ALEXANDER, a middle-aged man of substance who had lived in St. Vincent for years, was a judge, a councillor, and the employer of twenty-five servants and slaves. Fearing that he could not provide land for his eight children on St. Vincent, he immigrated to West Florida. Clearly moved by economic considerations, he abandoned what was generally considered (quite wrongly, as it turned out) a refuge. Other white immigrants accompanied ALEXANDER. One was William WALKER, also a councillor and a considerable proprietor. Leaving behind him in St. Vincent his wife, his three children, and thirty slaves, WALKER arrived in West Florida with an overseer, a free black, and thirty-seven more slaves and was generously treated. In addition to 2,000 acres granted on family right, he received another 1,000 as loyalist bounty, all on a plantation east of Thompson's Creek, opposite Pointe Coupeé. He was promised yet more acreage when the rest of his ménage arrived in the province. At least part of his family did follow him. In January 1778 his son Emanuel [WALKER] was granted 500 acres near the Great Lake at Tonica Bayou when he applied for land on behalf of himself and one slave. 87 – Footnote 87 refers to: CO5/631, Council Minutes for 26 December 1776, 22 January 1778. [Note: Thompson's Creek and Tonica (Tunica) Bayou are in the Baton Rouge area, all upriver (the Mississippi River) from New Orleans.]

6) Harry ALEXANDER had purchased “a small farm”. No mention is made of any attempts to obtain a land grant. However, in the book “The Economy of West Florida” by Robin F. A. FABEL, on pages 69 – 70, it states that Harry’s son-in-law “Thomas HACKSHAW applied for 1,800 acres of adjoining property on the east side of the Great Lake near the Tonica Bayou. He left behind him on St. Vincent his wife, three children, and twenty-four slaves. He intended to bring them to Florida as soon as he could but hesitated while rebel privateers haunted the coast. The council was more interested in actual than promised immigrants and granted HACKSHAW only 500 of the 1, 800 acres he asked for. 90 – Footnote 90 refers to: CO5/631, Council Minutes for 1 January 1778.

Names and apparent misspelled words are highlighted in yellow. Some of these word spellings might have been in vogue in 1777 as compared to today. The strikethrough in paragraph 5 is not a typo and is as it appears in the letter.