• Return to Revolutionary War Records

NAMES OF SOME OF THE PRISONERS OF 1776

The officers who were taken prisoners by the British fared well in comparison with the wretched privates. They were generally paroled and allowed the freedom of the city and had better opportunity to obtain the necessities of life.

As a general rule, however, American prisoners were grossly mistreated, flogged, drowned and made to dig their own graves.

The records of the Revolution kept in the War Department in England have been searched in vain by American historians. It is said that the Provost Marshal, William Cunningham, destroyed his books, in order to leave no written record of his crimes. Yet the names of 8,000 prisoners, mostly seamen, who were confined on the prison ship Jersey, alone, have been obtained by the Society of Old Brooklynites, from the British Archives.

The Muster Roll of Henry Bedinger Davenport, Esquire, a descendant of Major Bedinger is the pay-roll of one company of companies of riflemen, viz; Captain Abraham Shepherd of Shepherdstown, Virginia. It is in the handwriting of Henry Bedinger, one of the lieutenants of the company.

MUSTER ROLL OF CAPTAIN ABRAHAM SHEPHERD'S COMPANY OF RIFLEMEN RAISED IN JULY, 1776

"An ABSTRACT of the Pay due the Officers and Privates of the Company of Riflemen belonging to Captain Abraham Shepherd, being part of a Battalion raised by Colonel Hugh Stevenson, deceased, and afterwards commanded by Lieut Colonel Moses Rawlings, in the Continental Service from July 1st, 1776, to October 1st, 1778."

• Captain Abraham Shepherd.
• First Lieutenant, Samuel Finley.
• Second Lieutenant, William Kelly.
• Third Lieutenant, Henry Bedinger.
• First Sergeant, John Crawford.
• Second Sergeant, John Kerney.
• Third Sergeant, Robert Howard.
• Fourth Sergeant, Dennis Bush.
• First Corporal, John Seaburn.
• Second Corporal, Evert Hoglant.
• Third Corporal, Thomas Knox.
• Fourth Corporal, Jonathan Gibbons.
• Drummer, Stephen Vardine.
• Fifer, Thomas Cook.
• Armourer, James Roberts.

Privates, William Anderson, Jacob Wine, Richard Neal, Peter Hill, William Waller, Adam Sheetz, James Hamilton, George Taylor, Adam Rider, Patrick Vaughan, Peter Hanes, John Malcher, Peter Snyder, Daniel Bedinger, John Barger, William Hickman, Thomas Pollock, Bryan Timmons, Thomas Mitchell, Conrad Rush, David Harman, James Aitken, William Wilson, John Wilson, Moses McComesky, Thomas Beatty, John Gray, Valentine Fritz, Zechariah Bull, William Moredock, Charles Collins, Samuel Davis, Conrad Cabbage, John Cummins, Gabriel Stevens, Michael Wolf, John Lewis, William Donnelly, David Gilmore, John Cassody, Samuel Blount, Peter Good, George Helm, William Bogle (or Boyle), John Nixon, Anthony Blackhead, Christian Peninger, Charles Jones, William Case, Casper Myre, George Brown, Benjamin McKnight, Anthony Larkin, William Seaman, Charles Snowden, John Boulden, John Blake, Nicholas Russell, Benjamin Hughes, James Brown, James Fox, William Hicks, Patrick Connell, John Holmes, John McSwaine, James Griffith, Patrick Murphy, James Aitken.

SOME PRIVATES OF THE PENNSYLVANIA FLYING CAMP WHO PERISHED IN PRISON IN 1776-1777

The names of the officers who were prisoners in New York after the battle of Long Island and the surrender of Fort Washington.

"Charles Fleming, John Wright, James McKinney, Ebenezer Stille, Jacob Leinhart, Abraham Van Gordon, Peter D'Aubert, William Carbury, John McDowell, Wm. McKague, Henry Parker, James Burns, Henry Yepler, Baltus Weigh, Charles Beason, Leonard Huber, John McCarroll, Jacob Guiger, John May, Daniel Adams, George McCormick, Jacob Kettle, Jacob Miller, George Mason, James Kearney, David Sutor, Adam Bridel, Christian Mull, Daniel McKnight, Cornelius Westbrook, Luke Murphy, Joseph Conklin, Adam Dennis, Edward Ogden, Wm. Scoonover, James Rosencrants."

Note: "Upon the close of the campaign in 1776 there were not less than 10,000 prisoners (Sailors included) within the British lines in New York.