Joseph Brewer Palmer Smyth (abt. 1737 - bef. 1788)

Born about 1737 in New Jersey

Ancestors

Descendants

Died before Jul 1788 before about age 51 in Canada

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Biography

Lieutenant Joseph Smyth served with King's Royal Regiment of New York during the American Revolution.

From a trading and landowning family at Knowlton, then in Sussex County, New Jersey, Joseph Smyth was born about 1737 as the youngest son of Benjamin Smyth and his first wife Catharina Hendriks Schoonhoven. When the American Revolutionary War reached New Jersey, he escaped to the British-held fort at Niagara and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in The King's Royal (Johnston's) Regiment of New York. In Nov 1778 he was sailing from Quebec to New York when his vessel was captured by a rebel ship and he was taken prisoner. Eventually freed by a British ship, he was landed at Falmouth, Cornwall, in Jan 1779 "in a most forlorn condition", destitute and suffering from fever and smallpox.

After having three known children in England, in 1787 he sailed back to America to reclaim his lands. His last letter to Caroline was from Quebec on 7 Feb 1788, and he died shortly afterwards. His claim for compensation from the British government was rejected after new evidence given in Apr 1789.^[1][2]

Sources

1. ↑ "The Loyalists of New Jersey" E Alfred Jones, NJ Hist Soc 1927 p 204
2. ↑ Tim Jeal "Baden Powell"