Johann Franz Georg Rector (abt. 1759 - abt. 1842)

Born about 9 Aug 1759 in Wechmar, Gotha, Thuringia, Germany [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Rebeckah (Sparks) Rector — married about 21 Mar 1791 in Parrsboro N.S.

Descendants

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Biography

George Rector was a United Empire Loyalist.
UEL Status:Proven
Date: 1786

George Rector is likely the same person as Johann Georg Richter born in Wechmar, Saxony, 9 August 1759, son of Johann Gottfried Richter and his wife, Barbara Christina Hanwin. He was baptized the next day.

18-year-old Georg Richter from Saxony is on the troop embarkation list for England in May 1776. Military service was one of the best paths to a secure financial future in several of the German staaten. Land was passed down to the eldest son, leaving other sons without many options. The militaries in the northern staaten were so respected, they were hired by other countries to add professionals to their ranks when needed. Georg served in the Electorate of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire, apparently in his teenage years. When the British government was looking for troops to supplement their own in suppressing a colonial rebellion, Georg was already a seasoned veteran.

Most of the professional soldiers the British hired were from Hesse, so any German soldier in the Revolution has come to be called a Hessian. But Georg was no Hessian. The British government started preparing for war before independence was even declared, in Autumn 1775. They commissioned Colonel Georg von Scheither from Hannover, a German staat near Wechmar, to raise 4000 troops from all German staaten to complement the British regiments. Almost 2000 went to Dover, England, in small groups to be viewed, to embark later for New York. Georg left Stade, a port city near Hamburg, for Spithead, Ireland, according to the list of recruits (although Spithead is a port in Cornwall near Devon).

Arriving in New York on October 20, 1776, Scheither's recruits were distributed into many different regiments, about 40 each, and then evenly spread among each regiment's 10 companies. Georg was enlisted in the 38th Regiment of Foot, under commander Sir Robert Pigot, on October 21. With only 4 German speakers in the whole company, Georg must have learned English pretty fast, and he Anglicized his name to George Rector.

The 38th operated in the New York City- New Jersey - Long Island - Pennsylvania area. Georg's first action was the successful attack on Fort Washington in northern Manhattan, which chased the rebels out of New York for the duration of the war. On 9/11, 1777, while the main regiment remained in New York City, parts called the flank coys participated in routing General Washington's army in the Battle of Brandywine, resulting in the British capture of Philadelphia.

Having chased General George Washington out of the New Jersey area of New Brunswick and Piscataway, the 38th resided there until June 1778. That summer, the Americans and French combined tried to take Newport, Rhode Island, which the British held. The 38th was among the regiments sent to reinforce Newport, and fought in the Battle of Rhode Island in August. The remainder of the war was spent in Flushing, Bedford Heights, and Jamaica, Long Island; Camp Valentine Hill, Westchester; and Haarlem Heights, Manhattan; all British-held or -friendly areas.

At the end of the war, the 38th went home to England, but at least 84 of their members chose to stay in the New World. Between the lack of opportunity in Germany, the lush orchards of Long Island, and the attractions of democracy, many German soldiers did. On the other hand, maybe the promise of free land in Canada was the main reason. On the 25th of August 1783, George Rector transferred, still as a private, into the 57th Regiment of Foot. The muster rolls of the 38th show that he was discharged on the 7th of September, but at the time, it was customary to pay the soldiers an extra week to "carry them home." In September or October, the 57th sailed for Nova Scotia. George remained with the regiment for another 3 years, until 5 July 1786.

George was a private in the Revolutionary War and was part of the 57th regiment. According to records of the 57th Regiment, the regiment moved to Nova Scotia in September 1783 and remained there until 1793 when it was recalled to Europe to fight in Flanders. George was discharged from the regiment in 1786 in Halifax.

He was 31 when he married Mary Sparks in Parrsboro. She was 14. I don't know why her parents consented to that, but marriages of very young teenagers to adult men were not unheard of. I'm sure George presented as a good prospect as a provider. Marriages of elites at young ages were not expected to include sex until both were 16, and that seems to be the case here, as Mary and George's first child Elizabeth was not born until she was close to 17 in 1793.

Mary and George went on to have 11 children together, 5 sons and 6 daughters: Elizabeth, Robert named after Mary's father, Mary named after her mother, George Francis named after his father, Hannah named after Mary's sister, James, Jerusha, Thomas, Christiana named after George's mother, Reuben, and Ellenor named after George's sister.

When Mary and George had 6 children, he petitioned the governor for a land grant on the basis of military service for the Crown during the American Revolution. In 1809, along with Jesse Lewis, they received 400 acres on the Maccan River north of Parrsboro.

George was still living at age 79 in the 1838 census, with Mary and an adult son. Mary remarried after his death.

George and Mary have many descendants. Nearly every child had a son named George Francis, and the name continued down the generations.

Sources

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/fort-washington

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/38th_(1st_Staffordshire)_Regiment_of_Foot

http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Trails/2015/Loyalist-Trails-2015.php?issue=201538

http://www.royalprovincial.com/military/army/38service.htm

Saxony and Thuringia, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1591-1875

Parrsboro Township Book, marriage of Mary Sparks and George Rector, Parrsboro, 1791, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia.

Census Returns, 1838, George Rector Sr., Public Archives of Nova Scotia

Transcript re George Rector's land grant and arrival in NS, Detail from letter to Joseph Small from member of NS Historical Society Gene. Committee T. M. Punch, Nova Scotia Historical Society, Genealogical Committee, 1976, found in Family tree of Joe Patterson, Ancestry.com

copy of land grant petition shared on Ancestry.com by Miss Sisson in 2017

Embarkation list, May 1776, Georg Richter, (“Liste Des Recrués Anglois embarqués à Stade pour Spithead en Irlande ce 14me de Mai 1776”, War Office (WO), Class 43, vol. 405).

Georg Richter, arrival at New York on 20 October 1776, private in the 38th Regiment of Foot on 21 October 1776 (War Office, Class 12, vol. 5171).

25 August 1783 Richter transfer from the 38th to the 57th Regiment of Foot, private, Muster roll for the 38th Regiment of Foot, discharge on 7 September 1783. Muster roll of the 57th as George Rector, (War Office, Class 12, vol. 5172 and WO, Class 12, vol. 6633).

57th Regiment of Foot move from New York to Nova Scotia, September or October 1783. George Rector, discharge on 5 July 1786, (War Office, Class 12, vol. 6634).