You Can't Just Walk Off

You can't just walk away. Whatever right you think you have, you better have such a right affirmed by legal approval. And that's the way this walk off was affirmed. Not doing so risks this: lashings usually, time in the gaol, a hanging maybe.

This story is about some volunteers who left the Virginia Regiment the right way, with permission and legal authority.

We highlight this because in late July of this year Colonel George Washington, after a trial, orders the hanging of two deserters at Fort Loudoun in Winchester VA.

One of them possibly has a legal argument for not being a deserter, but that legal argument comes up AFTER he was hanged, calling into question Washington's judgement.

You cannot just walk off even if you think you have the legal right. William Fairfax's son provides that example. He thought he could just resign from the Virginia Regiment. He is on his way to New York through Maryland when the local authorities throw him in jail for not having papers to prove he is not a deserter. See that story.

So back to the story of how to leave the Virginia Regiment the legal way.

Christopher Gist had recruited these men who made sure they had legal backup to leave.

And for those who don't know about Christopher Gist, a few highlights about him are in order.

You remember seeing Christopher Gist for the first time when you read about George Washington's trip to deliver a message from Lt Gov Dinwiddie to the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf?

Gist and Washington shared quite a journey.

Each wrote about it in their own diaries. Lt Gov Dinwiddie had George Washington's diary printed up and it got carried for further publication in London England.

Christopher Gist's diary did not get the same publicity of publication.

But here it is in this link.

By the way, Christopher Gist's son, Nathaniel Gist is alleged to have sired Sequoyah, the creator of the Cherokee written language.

Christopher Gist is with George Washington in just about every military venture.

He becomes George Washington's main Scout leader.

Christopher Gist is a Captain of a scouting company in the Virginia Regiment when we come upon this subject of recruiting volunteers.

Christopher Gist who moved out of Maryland into Winchester and who also had a place near Turtle Creek and the Monongahela was back in Maryland recruiting men for George Washington's Virginia Regiment.

Christopher Gist had signed on

"a certain William Stocksdale"

[ should be spelled as Stockstill] ,

Francis Brothers,

Patrick Constantine &

Edward Constantine

for a 6 month tour.

.

They were all Marylanders.

None of them could sign their own name.

That was on 5 Feb 1756.

It's 20 April 1757 now.

They did more than their required time.

This document attests to the fact this was all done legal like.

Why's this of any importance?

Because desertions are so high and not done legally. Men walk off with serving their agreed upon term. They are departing without permission. They are departing without paying someone to take their place or in the parlance of these times: "to be in their room" or "to take their room."

And it at the end of July Colonel George Washington hangs a man who claimed he got someone to take his room and then that replacement never showed up. The accused and now hanged deserter had walked off anyway without securing that replacement and without official approval to do so.

.

Below is a legal deposition confirming these recruits had served their time and had every right to leave:

.

Enclosure I: Deposition, 20 April 1757

Enclosure I Deposition Copy. Baltimore County ss

On the 20th Day of April 1757.

Came Richard Davis Serjeant in Captain Christopher Gist’s Company in the Virginia Regiment before Me

the Subscriber One of His Lordship’s Justices of the Peace for the afd [aforementioned] County of Baltimore

Who being duly Sworn on the Holy Evangels of Almighty God deposeth & saith that

on or about the fifth Day of February 1756

he was enlisted in Baltimore County1

by the afd [aforementioned] Capt. Gist to serve His Majesty in the Virginia Troops during the Space of Six Months from the Day of Enlistment and no longer.

That immediately after the said Capt. Gist made him this Deponent a Serjeant & gave him Orders to enlist any of his Comrades or other good Men for the same time.

That in Obedience to such Orders

He this Deponent did soon after enlist into the afd [aforementioned] Regiment a certain William Stoxdale, Francis Brothers, Patrick Constantine & Edward Constantine,2

who then resided in the County afd,

assuring all & Each of them that

They would not be required to serve longer than Six Months.

That soon afterwards the said Recruits were marched to Winchester & joined the Regiment & continued to serve therein as Soldiers for some time;

but that they have now left the said Regiment & declare that they will not return thereto as they ought by their respective Agreements to have been regularly discharged at the End of Six Months.

Ruxton Gay

DS, DLC:GW.

The document is in the hand of John Ridout, Sharpe’s secretary.

Nicholas Ruxton Gay, a surveyor living in Baltimore County, was a member of its court before 1762 and a commissioner of Baltimore Town by 1765.

1. The size roll of Christopher Gist’s company, 13 July 1756, confirms Sgt. Richard Davis’s testimony about his enlistment. In July 1756 he was 22 years old and 6 feet tall, “Fair, stout, lusty & fresh coloured” (DLC:GW).

2. Three of these men joined Gist’s company in Baltimore County on 10 Feb. 1756, and the fourth, William Stockstill (Stoxdale), joined on 14 February. Only Francis Brothers was as old as 20 when he joined. (He was 21 in July 1756.) All four were native Marylanders, and none of them could sign his name.

Source:

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-04-02-0220-0002

.

Examples of Men buying their way out of service.

This is called taking the man’s room.

.

The examples below got through the door before the law changed.

And George Washington got tired of the abuses, especially of the replacement man not ever showing up.

.

Example 1

6 January 1756 and [11–14 January 1756]

Jacob Funckhouser received his discharge at William West’s, January 11th as Ensign Buckner had taken John Berry in his room.

.

Example 2

Winchester: Friday, April 9th 1756.

John Bruner, of the Troop of Light Horse, having deserted, and procured another man to serve in his stead, is discharged.

.

Example 3

[Alexandria, 2–3 February 1756]

John Sellers, Enlisted by Ensign Deane, was this day discharged; as not being legally Enlisted.

.

Example 4

28 August 1756 letter asking GW to allow a replacement for a draftee.

“Since writing of the within Letter I’ve prevail’d with myself & Colo. Digges to wait on the Governour & represented Mr Roberts’s Case to him;1 he left the Matter entirely to us & agreed that he might be discharged if We could procure another Man to go up in his Room; this I’m afraid will not be in our Power; We have however pass’d our Words that Roberts shall surrender himself to you, to be disposed of as you think proper. If you can’t discharge him without having another Man in his Stead . . .”

.

Example 5

This is how you do it.

To George Washington from John Hall, April–May 1757

I make bold to address you & require your Permission to leave the Virginia Regiment, as likewise...

.

The Bryan Fairfax Example

We find William Fairfax' youngest of 3 sons,

Bryan Fairfax in jail in Annapolis in later April or May 1757.

His son was travelling through Maryland without an authorized pass.

The law was written to catch deserters.

And technically he was.

He had resigned. Then he disappeared.

You can't just resign, unless you have permission, or have power, or paid for that right.

In May 6, 1757, William Fairfax writes to GW. William Fairfax finds out about his son's whereabouts. He finds this out from a letter from his own son. He also understands why GW didn't mention anything about this.

Capt. Gist tells Me You was unwilling to write as You could not avoid touching on a Subject that must have lately greatly afflicted Me: And indeed I have been so for near a Week, when submitting to the Apprehension of Bryan being no more in Life and reducd so by the most deplorable & shocking Case, I recd a Letter from Him dated at Annapolis certifying that He was taken up, examind and having no Pass was committed as one Wm Fisher.

On the usual Fare among Felons, Runaways, Deserters &c. He was Sensible of his Condition

and writes to Me by the Post wch Mr Carlyle seeing at Alexandria, suspected the hand Writing, opened and found it to be from lost Bryan;

next Day sets off for Annapolis to redeem the Captive,

and sent Me Bryan’s Letter to the great Relief of my Mind.

Thus You will observe how a Youth endeavouring to go from Himself is capable of distressing his affecte Kindred.

I guess Bryan after being twice refusd in his Love Addresses

had formd the Resolution to throw himself as a private Centinel

in some of the No[rth]ern Regulars,

and as such to be Conceald.

I hope He will return compos’d wth Mr Carlyle, and Submit to God’s Disposal and the best Manner We can assist. I expect to set off homewards with G. Fx & Dame on Thursday next.

Last year, William Fairfax had pressured GW to give his son, Bryan, a rank in the Virginia Regiment.

Founders Online reports: William Fairfax wrote GW on 9 May 1756 and again on 13 May 1756 asking him to make his son Bryan Fairfax a lieutenant in the Virginia Regiment.

GW felt he owed a lot to William Fairfax, William Fairfax was a mentor and helper. But GW felt this request for the son was unfair to others who had more seniority. So GW tried to sidestep this request.

He finally gives in.

He replaces the more senior Lt Thomas Bullitt with Bryan Fairfax as Lieutenant.

And which month -- July or August -- was Bryan Fairfax hired?

Founders Online reports different months when Bryan Fairfax was given a lieutenancy. It was either July or August 1756:

Founder Online states: In July 1756 Bryan Fairfax replaced Thomas Bullitt as the lieutenant in Capt. George Mercer’s 4th company. (note at another time the Mercer Co was also the 2nd Company. There was no official number assigned thru the many reorganizations)

Bryan Fairfax (1736–1802), who became a lieutenant in George Mercer’s company of the Virginia Regiment in August 1756, had resigned his commission in December 1756. He disappeared in the spring of 1757, and when he was discovered in Annapolis . . .See Founders Online footnote.

But you really couldn't just resign. Unless you had some pull and permission or paid your way to be released. And then he disappeared.

His father, the main subject of our story, William Fairfax, was worried. Then he finds out his son is in jail in Annapolis.

William Fairfax writes that John Carlyle, one of the biggest merchants in Virginia and who married a daughter of William Fairfax went to fetch Bryan Fairfax. Source of all this is from William Fairfax writing from Williamsburg to Colonel George Washington a letter dated 6 May 1757.