Horatio Lloyd Gates (1727 - 1806)

Born 26 Jul 1727 in Maldon, Essex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Phillips) Gates — married Nov 1755 in St. Paul's Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Died 10 Apr 1806 at age 78 in New York City, New York, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Leila Schutz [send private message]

Horatio Gates participated in the French and Indian War. Join: French and Indian War Project Discuss: French_and_Indian_War

Biography

Horatio Gates is Notable.

Horatio Gates is an NSSAR Patriot Ancestor.
NSSAR Ancestor #: P-164647
Rank: Major General

Major General Horatio Gates served with Virginia Line during the American Revolution.

Horatio Gates is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A043466.

Horatio Gates was christened on April 30, 1728, in the Parish of St Nicholas, Deptford, Greenwich borough, Kent county. His parents of record were Robert and Dorothea Gates. Evidence suggests that Dorothea was the granddaughter of John Hubbock, Sr. (d. 1692) postmaster at Fulham. Horatio Gates married his wife Elizabeth at St. Paul's Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1754.^[1]

The French and Indian War (Seven Years War) During the French and Indian War, Gates joined his new company in the American Colony of Maryland in March of 1755, prior to the ill-fated expedition to control access to the Ohio Valley. The company was part of an army that General Edward Braddock would lead into the wilderness against the French and Indians. George Washington, Charles Lee, Thomas Gage and Daniel Morgan were also a part of this army. Braddock was defeated and killed in July 1755, and Gates was badly wounded by a bullet in the chest and was disabled for a long time afterward. After recovery, Gates early war experience was limited to commanding small companies, but due to his success at military administration, he was made brigade major to Brigadier General John Stanwix. After Stanwix left the command in 1760, Gates served under General Monckton in the capture of Martinique in 1762 and was given the honor of bringing the news of the victory to England.

Gates' wife Elizabeth died in the summer of 1783. In 1786 he married Mary Valens, a wealthy woman from Liverpool who had come to the colonies in 1773 with her sister and Rev. Bartholomew Booth, to operate a boy's boarding school in Maryland. Booth had been the curate for the "Chapel in the Woods," later to become Saint John's Church at Hagerstown, Maryland. He was elected to a single term in the New York State Legislature in 1800. Horatio died on April 10, 1806, and was buried in the Trinity Church graveyard on Wall Street, though the exact location of his grave is unknown.^[2]

Find A Grave bio: Revolutionary War Continental General. Born in Essex, England, he entered the British Army as a boy and received a Lieutenant's commission in 1745. He served in Germany during the War of the Austrian Succession and was promoted to Captain in 1753. Coming to the colonies in America, he fought in the French and Indian War, later served in the West Indies and retired from the British Army as a Major. In 1763, he emigrated to America and purchased an estate in Virginia. With the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1775, he went to Mount Vernon to offer his services to George Washington in organizing the Continental Army. In 1776, the Continental Congress commissioned Gates a Brigadier General and the first Adjutant General for the Army. He commanded the Northern Department and at the Battle of Saratoga, he forced British General John Burgoyne to surrender his whole army on October 17, 1777. In January 1778, he was appointed as Major General President of the Board of War, took command of the Army of South and was defeated by British General Cornwallis at Camden, South Carolina in August 1780. After the war, he retired to his Virginian estate for while and in 1783, was elected as vice-president of the National Order of Cincinnati. In 1790, he moved to New York City. He was elected to a single two year term in the New York State Legislature in 1800 as a Representative. He remained active in the city's affairs until his death at age 78. Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith

Death Notice: At New York, in the 79th year of his age, Major-General Horatio Gates, the Conqueror of Burgoyne. ^[3]

Find A Grave: Horatio Lloyd Gates BIRTH: 26 Jul 1727, Maldon, Maldon District, Essex, England DEATH: 10 Apr 1806 (aged 78) New York, New York County, New York BURIAL: Trinity Churchyard, Manhattan, New York County, New York PLOT: (location of grave is unknown) MEMORIAL ID: 5102

Legacy

• Gates County, North Carolina is named in the General's honor.
• The town of Gates in Monroe County, New York is named in Gates' honor, as is Horatio Street in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, New York City, Gates Avenue, which runs from Ridgewood, Queens to around Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Gates Avenue in Jersey City and Gates County, North Carolina. The Gen. Horatio Gates House was his home during the Second Continental Congress at York, Pennsylvania.^[4]

• Fact: Military Service (1745–1746) Captain under Edward Cornwallis; with the 20th Foot in Germany during the War of the Austrian Succession. Halifax, Nova Scotia, British America
• Fact: Military Service (1755) served under Braddock, was severly injured in the beginning of the fight. Ohio, British America
• Fact: Occupation (1769) sold his major commission, frustrated with the English system, which required money or influence to advance. England, Great Britain
• Fact: moved (1769) established a plantation [large farm] England, Great Britain
• Fact: Military Service (May 1775) rushed to offer his services to Washington, who urged the congress to appoint him as Brigadier/Adjutant General of the Contintenal army Mount Vernon, Virginia, British America
• Fact: Misc (1775) very talented in administration;created the army's system of records and orders and helped standardize regiments from the various colonies Virginia, British America
• Fact: Residence (1769–1783) Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia), British America
• Fact: Other (1777–1778) played a part in the attempt to replace George Washington with himself as commander in chief. when it failed he issued an apology. New York City, New York, New York, United States
• Fact: Military Service (26 April 1778–20 May 1778) took credit for the win, but it was really his officers weho went against his orders and attacked Burgoyne. Saratoga, New York, British America
• Fact: Military Service (19 November 1778) Boston, Essex, Massachusetts Bay, British America
• Fact: Military Service (16 August 1780) made major mistakes in command, blamed for the defeat of the battle, never held field command again. His His political connections, helped him avoid inquiries and courts martial into the debacle. Camdon, North Carolina, United States
• Fact: Residence (1784) retired here Virginia,[now] Kearneysville, Jefferson County, West Virginia
• Fact: Residence (1790) with his second wofe, were active in society there. Manhatten, New York, New York, United States
• Fact: Elected (1800) to a single term in the New York legislature New York City, New York, New York, United States
• Fact: Burial (1806) Manhattan, New York (Manhattan), New York, United States of America
• Fact: Ancestry.com http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/1191595/person/-1976292845
• Fact: http://familysearch.org/v1/LifeSketch From "Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1600 - 1889, vol II:"

GATES, HORATIO, soldier, b. in Malden, Essex co, England, in 1728; d. in New York city, 10 Apr 1806. The story that he was a natural son of Sir Robert Walpole is without foundation. His parents were the butler and the housekeeper of the Duke of Leeds, Horace Walpole, himself a mere lad, who chanced at the time to be visiting the nobleman, good-naturedly acted as his godfather. He entered the army while a youth, and served in this country in command of the king's New York independent company. Early in 1755 he wasa stationed at Halifax, where, under the protection of the Hon. Edward Cornwallis, at the time governor of Nova Scotia, uncle of Lieutenant-General Lord Cornwallis, he rose rapidly to the rank of major. Accompanying Braddock on his unfortunate expedition, he was shot through the body at the slaughter of the Monongahela, and for a long time was disabled. In July 1760, he was brigade-major under Monckton at Fort Pitt, and in 1762 was with that general as an aide at the capture of Martinique, rendering effective service and establishing a reputation for military ability. At the close of the war he bought an estate in Berkeley co, VA, where he remained, quietly cultivating his land, until the beginning of the Revolution caused him to offer his sword to congress; and in July 1775, he received from that body the appointment of adjutant-general, with the rank of brigadier. In the following year he was appointed to the command of that portion of the northern army which had been successively commanded in Canada by Montgomery, Arnold, Wooster, Thomas, and Sullivan. This step put Gates over Sullivan, his senior in rank, much to the disgust of that officer; and it marked the beginning of a series of intrigues by which, with the aid chiefly of the New England delegates in congress, Gates was pushed into higher places, at first superseding Schuyler and afterward attempting to supersede Washington. Gates's present command was over "the northern army in Canada," with headquarters at Ticonderoga. When he reached that fortess he found there was no longer any northern army in Canada, because it had retreated into New York. He then set up a claim to the command of this portion of the northern army independently of Schuyler, who was commander-in-chief of the northern department, with headquarters at Albany. The matter being referred to congress, a discussion ensued, as the result of which Gates was instructed to consider himself subordinate to Schuyler. The scheme for superseding the latter general only slumberd, however, and in the summer of 1777 it was carried out in the midst of the panic produced by the rapid advance of Burgoyne. On 2 Aug, Gates was appointed to command the northern department. He has been suspected of a lack of personal courage, a suspicion that is strengthened by his conduct during the battle of 7 Oct 1777; for while Burgoyne was in the thickest of the fight, receiving three bullets through his clothes, Gates, two miles away, was looking forward to a possible retreat. Scarcely had the action begun when, by his command, the baggage-trains were loaded, and teamsters placed at the horses' heads, in readiness to move at a moment's notice. Gates ordering them to move on or halt alternately, as the news from the battlefield was favorable or adverse. Indeed, the same incapacity that afterward was so apparent in Gates, during his unfortunate southern campaign, was manifested from the time of his assuming the command of the northern army until the surrender. The laurels won by him should really have been worn by Schuyler and Arnold. Not only had the army of Burgoyne been essentially disabled by the defeat at Bennington before the arrival of Gates, but the overthrow of St. Leger at Fort Stanwix had deranged the plans of the British generl, while safety had been restored to the western frontier, and the panic thus caused had subsided. After the surrender, the bearing of Gates toward the commander-in-chief wasa far from respectful. He did not even write to the latter on that occasion; nor was it until the second day of November tht he deigned to communicate to Washington a word upon the subject, and then only incidentally, as though it were a matter of secondary importance. Congress, in the first flush of gratitutde, passed a vote of thanks to Gates and his army, and presented him with a gold medal having on one side a bust of the general, with the words "Horatio Gates, duci strenuo," and on the reserve a representation of Burgoyne delivering up his sword. In November 1777, he was made president of the new board of war and ordnance, and during the following winter souoght, with the aid of disreputable clique known as the "Conway cabal," to supplant Washington in the chief command of the army. His falsehoods in a series of intriguiing letters having been exposed by Washington, he fell into some discredit, and in the spring of 1778 it became evident that his ambitious schemes had miscarried. In the course of this affair, he became involved in a quarrel with Wilkinson, his former adjutant, which led to a duel, the details of which may be found in the "Boston Evening Post and General Advertiser" for 17 Oct 1778. He retired from active service, and lived for some time on his estate in Virginia, until he was appointed, 13 June 1780, to the command of the army in North Carolina designed to check the progess of Lord Cornwallis. In the battle near Camden, SC, 16 Aug, he was defeated, and his army nearly annihilated. He was soon afterward superseded by Gen. Greene, and suspended from duty. A court of inquiry was appointed to investigate his military conduct, and he was not acquitted or reinstated until 1782; so that the battle of Camden virtually ended his military career. At the close of the war he retired to his estate in Virginia, where he lived until 1790, when he was elected to the state legislature, but for political reasons resigned soon after taking his seat. His death occurred, after a long illness, at his house, now the corner of 22d street and 2d avenue, then the Bloomingdale pike. Gates was a man of great plausibility and address, of a handsome person and fair education, and a great lion in society. Though having many faults, the chief of which was an overweening confidence in his own ability combined with arrogance and untruthfulness, he had also some noble traits. Before removing to New York from Virginia, he emancipated his slaves, providing for such of them as could not take care of themselves. In his domestic relations he was an affectionate husband and father, and, during the last years of his life, a sincere Christian. He married Mary, only child of James Valence, of Liverpool, who, at her father's death, before the Revolutionary Wr, emigrated to this country, bringing with her 0,000. In the struggle for independence, Mrs. Gates freely expended nearly all of her fortune in a lavish hospitality upon her husband's companions in arms, especially those that were in indigent circumstances; and many of the Revolutionary heroes were participants in her bounty, particularly, Thaddeus Kosciusko, who when wounded, lay six months at her house, tenderly nursed by herself and her husband. Mrs. Gates, who survived her husband, left the residue of her fortune (,000) to several relatives, whose descendants are still living in New York and Philadelphia. The Saratoga monument was erected to commemorate the surrender of Gen. Burgoyne to Gen. Gates, and is in the village of Schuylerville, NY. It is 55 feet in height, and stands within the lines of Burgoyne's intrenchments, on a bluff 350 feet above the Hudson river and overlooking the surrender grounds. A staircase of bronze leads from the base to the top, whence can be seen the entire region between Lake George, the Green Mountains, and the Catskills. On each of three sides of the monument is a niche containing heroic statues of Gens. Gates, Schuyler, and dMorgan, while the front is left vacant, with the name of Arnold inscribed underneath. Within the monument, and lining its two stories, are alto rilievo decorations in bronze, representing historical and allegorical scenes connected with the campaign of Burgoyne. The corner-stone of this structure wasa laid on 17 Oct 1877, when poems and addresses were delivered by Horatio Seymour, George William Curtis, James Grant Wwilson, Alfred B. Street, and William L Stone. See Stone's "Campaign of Lieut-Gen Burgoyne" (Albany 1877), and Bancroft's "History of the United States" (6 vols New York 1884).

• Fact: Other (December 1776–1777) disagreed with Washington on the plan of attack [he was conservative and did not favor risk taking] and refused to go, claiming illness, but rode to Philidelphia to complain that washington was a bad leader and it should have been he was in charge. Meanwhile his command in the north suffered without him there and Fort Ticondaroga was lost. Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, British America
• Fact: Mil. (June 1776–29 November 1777) Major General; field command=head of the army in the "northward" usually meaning NY; but when there was no action he went off to join Washington in PA. New York, British America

Sources

1. ↑ #Wikipedia
2. ↑ #Wikipedia, #FG, #C1790
3. ↑ 21 April 1806 The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume 25, page 92: Long Island, New York, deaths, as reported in the "Suffolk Gazette".
4. ↑ #Wikipedia

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 21 June 2020, 11:40), entry for General Horatio Lloyd Gates(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:MZ75-M5R); contributed by various users.
• Wikipedia:Horatio Gates
• Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed August 5, 2015), "Record of Horatio Gates", Ancestor # A043466.
• Bilias, George (1964). George Washington's Generals. New York: William Morrow.
• Mintz, Max M (1990). The Generals of Saratoga: John Burgoyne and Horatio Gates. Yale University Press.
• Find A Grave: Memorial #5102
• "United States Census, 1790", database with images, FamilySearch [1] Link]: accessed 24 March 2016), Horatio Gates, 1790
• ExplorePAhistory.com: General Horatio Gates
• Encyclopedia Britannica: Horatio Gates
• LDS: FamilySearch.org, Pedigree Resource File ID: MZ75-M5R

From behind the ancestry.com subscription wall:

• London, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1728
• US & Canada, Passenger & Immigration Lists Index, 1749
• US Census, 1790 (2 slaves)