A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GEORGE ROBERTS WHO FOUGHT UNDER JOHN PAUL JONES That the man behind the gun may not be forgotten. 1905 REPRINT WITH CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONAL MEMORANDA Book 'R^^ZS' PRESENTICD l!Y Compliments of CHAS. H. ROBERTS, Concord, N. H. A FAC-SIMILE OF THE COMMISSION ISSUEliD'. By CONGRESS TO JOHN PAUL JONES AS CAPTAIN m.rUt NAVY. The original is oivned by Mary C. Curtis of Schenectady, New York, great-granddaughter of General Peter Gansevoort, '^Hero of Fort Stamuix.'' A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GEORGE ROBERTS'. By Charles H. Roberts. HEN in the summer of 1 90 1 I made a short visit to the home of my boy- hood a letter, of which the following is a copy, was handed me by the postmaster : Geo. W. Featherstonhaugh, Coimselor at Law. Schenectady, N. Y., July 28, 1901. Postmaster of Afiddleton, Af. H. Dear Sir: About seventy years ago one George Roberts who fought under Paul Jones in the battle between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis died at Middleton, N. H., and I presume he must have been buried there. If so, it must be a fact well known in your town, to those interested in local history. Can you kindly inform me if the grave of this man is in your place, and if so, where and what monument marks the spot and what the inscrip- tion says of him ? If the facts are not within your knowledge kindly hand this letter to some one who would be likely to know. I take the liberty of troub- ling you as I know no one in your town to address. The purpose of my inquiry is simply for historical information. Very respl. yours, Geo VV. Featherstonhaugh. I answered this letter giving him, so far as I was then able to do, the information sought. Later on I re- ceived the following : Schenectady, N. Y., Sept. 27, 1901. C. H. Roberts, Esq., Concord, IV. H. DE.4.R Sir : I was much gratified at receiving an answer to the inquiry which I sent out in July last and also much surprised at its coming from a grandson of George Roberts. I have always been interested in the life of Paul Jones and the brave men who fought with him. The battle between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis always seemed to me to be the most terrific contest ever fought upon the sea. Reading last winter the life of Paul Jones by Cyrus T. Brady I was struck with his descrip- tion of this battle. He says, "A daring sailor ran out upon the main yardarm which hung over the after hatch of the Serapis and began to throw grenades down the hatchway. ^ t last a hand! grenade struck the hatch combing, bounded aft and fell into the midst of a pile of cartridges. There was a terrific crash which silenced the roar of the battle. When the smoke cleared away the decks were filled with the dead and dying. It was this last shock that determined Pearson to surrender." I determined to investigate the truth of the statement and to ascertain if possible the name of the man who could perform such an act of unparalleled bravery. The result of my investi- gation has been that the act was performed as described by Mr. Brady, and the name of the sailor beyond all doubt was George Roberts. I then attempted to find out who George Roberts was, where he had lived and died. At last I located him in Middleton, N. H., and con- cluding that he might have died there and been buried there I wrote my letter. I should be much pleased if you could give me some account of his birth, life, etc., as well as inscription on stone. I am glad to learn that you are to publish a sketch of his life and services. In these times of the revival of interest in the American Revo- lution it cannot fail to attract attention. The part your grandfather acted in the battle between the Richard and Serapis not only showed his great bravery, but was of the first importance and far reaching, and should not be lost sight of in the passing years. The American sailor, the man behind the gun, should have the credit due to him. Very sincerely yours, Geo. W. Featherstonhaugh. [In response to a letter to Mr. Featherstonhaugh, inquiring how his attention was first called to the mat- ter of services rendered by George Roberts, I received the following un- der date of June 18, 1902 : A SKETCH OF GEORGE ROBERTS. My great grandmother lived at Scarborough, England, at the time of the battle between the Richard -axiA Serapis. Her son, after whom I am named, and who was a Fellow of the Royal Society, author, etc., became an extensive trav- eler in the United States, recording in his jour- nal everything of interest. These journals are now unfortunately destroyed except a very few. In one of the earlier ones between 1808 and 1813 he mentioned meeting a man who was one of the crew of the Richa)-d, who stated that the Serapis surrendered because her magazine was exploded by a common sailor named " Robert- son," from New England states, who threw •down explosives from the rigging of the Richard upon the deck of the Serapis. My attention was next called to the matter by an article in an old newspaper, on the death of George Roberts. I at once recognized the "daring sailor" men- tioned by Brady as the " Robertson " of my grandfather's journal and the George Roberts of the newspaper article.] George Roberts was born at Dover, New Hampshire, August 21, 1755. He was in direct descent from Thomas Roberts who settled at Dover Neck in 1623. There is nothing au- thentic as to where he emigrated from, but there is a tradition that he came from near Chester, England. The land upon which he settled is still owned in the Roberts family. George was of the fifth generation, the genealogy being as follows : Thomas (i), Thomas (2), Nathaniel (3), Nathaniel (4), George (5); his brothers were David, Isaac and Na- thaniel. His father was lost at sea, and his sailor brother, Isaac, met a like fate. When a lad George went to sea as a cabin boy, and when quite a young man was mate of a vessel trading between Portsmouth, N. H., and the West Indies. As related by him his vessel took out the first ice ever shipped to those islands, and when the negroes came on board to unload the vessel, they dropped the first cake of ice, crying out, " It burns our fingers." On May 29, 1775, he enlisted for two months in Capt. Jonathan Went- worth's company in Colonel Poor's New Hampshire regiment, and served as a sergeant until August first of that year. Poor's regiment was not at Bunker Hill, but was guarding the coast. Later it became a part of General Washington's army at Dorchester. He gave as his reason for not re- enlisting that he preferred going to war on the water rather than trudg- ing around on land, carrying a heavy knapsack and musket, and that he disliked his captain, who, it seems, was subsequently tried by court mar- tial and dismissed from the service. In the month of September, 1777, he enlisted as a mariner on board the continental ship of war, Ranger^ com- manded by John Paul Jones. The Ranger was built at Ports- mouth, N. H., and sailed on the ist of November, 1777. In this connection the following letters are of interest : Portsmouth, August 29, 1777. Gentlemen : As the continental ship of war Ranger under my command is ready for sea — and as I have jjiarticular orders from Congress to proceed with all possible expedition — I take the liberty of applying to you for authority to enlist a few men from the Forts and garrisons in the Harbour, whereby I may be enabled with the greater facility to complete my compliment and to fulfil the instructions of Congress . . . I am with due respect Gentlemen, Your most obedient very humble servant, J NO. P. Jones. To the Hon'ble The Committee of Safety for the state of New Hampshire. Portsmouth, Sept. 20, 1777. Mr. Speaker & Gentlemen : The enclosed letter to the Committee of Safety having pro- duced no effect, I think it my duty to lay it be- A SKETCH OF GEORGE ROBERTS. fore^ you, — as the departure of the Ranger is now impeded solely for the want of the liberty which I then asked and which I now hope to obtain from you. United as t^e continent is its interest must take precedence of all private concerns in every patriot breast, and as I hope I have served without blame since the first establishment of the Navy, I am persuaded I shall meet with the same countenance and assistance from you which any other officer hath experienced. Meantime, I have the honor to be, with senti- ments of respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient Very humble servant, J- P- J- The Hon'ble The Speaker and Representatives of the State of New Hampshire. On October, 30, 1777, Jones wrote to his friend Joseph Hewes, member of the Continental Congress from North Carolina : I have been for some time and am now de- tained by a heavy gale from the N. E. When it clears up I propose to embrace the first wind that can convey me thro' the enemies^ lines, and off the coast. I have received orders and dis- patches for France and hope to be the welcome messenger at Paris of Burgoyne's surrender. ♦ The Ranger finally sailed in such haste that a part of her " small stores " were left on shore, and when at sea it was discovered that but thirty gallons of rum had been taken on board. She arrived at Nantes, France, December 2, 1777. From Nantes she sailed for Brest, reaching there on the 13th of February, 1778, where Jones saluted the French admiral with thir- teen guns, which was returned with 'nine. This was the first salute to the American flag by a foreign man of war. [Sometime previous to the salute, Jones wrote the following letter to William Carmichael, who was secre- tary to the American Commissioners to France : Ranger, 13, Feb. 1778. My Dear Sir : You will confer a singular obligation upon me by presenting my respects to the French Admiral, whom I mean to salute with thirteen guns under American colours — provided he will accept the compliment and re- turn gun for gun. This proposal I hope will be the more acceptable to him as it may be a pre- lude to future amity between the United States and his Court. — I shall be happy to see you here as soon as possible after you have the Admiral's answer — meantime pray excuse this trouble. — I am my dear sir with sentiments of esteem and respect Your very obliged very obedient most humble servant Jno. p. Jones. On the same day the French Ad- miral wrote to Captain Jones that if the Ranger and Independence salute "The flag of the King" with thir- teen guns, the salute will be returned with nine. On February 14 Carmi- chael wrote Jones that he is convinced that further application for salute of gun for gun will be fruitless ; com- mon salute is three guns for twenty- one ; to show respect for ' ' the flag of Congress" the Admiral will return nine guns; desires this to be ac- cepted.] After leaving France the Ranger cruised in the Irish channel, tak- ing several unimportant prizes. She then entered Whitehaven where they seized the forts, spiked the cannon, and set fire to a ship in the midst of a hundred other vessels. This ex- ploit of Jones spread terror on the coast and was no doubt the cause of associating his name with the idea of piracy. When my grandfather was asked if he supposed he was fighting with a halter about his neck he answered that he thought if Jones or any of his men had been captured their lives would no doubt have been in great A SKETCH OF GEORGE ROBERTS. jeopardy, possibly nothing would have saved them, but the fear of re- taliation. That the British govern- ment held them to be outlaws is shown by the following official com- munication : Sir Joseph Yorke, the British ambassador to France, addressed the following letter to the French govern- ment : Hague, Oct. 13, 1779. High AND Mighty Lords: The undersigned Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the King of Great Britain, has the honor to communicate to your High Mightinesses, that two of His Majesty's ships the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough arrived some days ago in the Texel, having been attacked and taken by force by a certain Paul Jones, a subject of the king, who, according to treaties and the laws of war, can only be considered as a rebel and pirate. Again he writes : I cannot but cohiply with the strict orders of His Majesty by renewing in the strong- est and most pressing manner his request that these ships and their crews may be stopped and delivered up, which the pirate Paul Jones of Scotland, who is a rebel subject and a criminal to the state has taken. . . . My grandfather's account of the landing in Scotland, and taking away the plate of the Earl of Selkirk, was as follows : That the people at the castle at first thought them to be a British press gang, and when they 'found they were Paul Jones's men they were greatly alarmed, but the Ameri- can officers very soon quieted their fears ; both officers and men were served with plenty of food and drink ; that there was very little looting aside from the plate ; that among other tri- fles, an old sailor whose life had been spent on the ocean, accumulated a pair of gilt spurs, his attempt to util- ize them being extremely ludicrous ; he tried them on his nose, hands and feet, and finall}' threw them away with great disgust saying, "I do n't see any use to which the blanked things can be put." Shortly after the Whitehaven ex- ploit, occurred the engagement with and capture of the British ship Drake. My grandfather said that he went on board the Drake after her capture and saw there the dead body of an English officer in the uniform of the land service, and that an English sailor afterwards told him that this officer came on board to see them whip the Yankees, and that a hogshead of rum which had been sent on board to drink to their vic- tory had been demolished by a can- non ball. The Ranger took her prize to France where Captain Jones left the ship. She subsequently sailed for Portsmouth, under command of Capt. Thomas Simpson, where the crew was discharged. Late in the month of June, 1779, he sailed from Portsmouth, for France, joining the Bo7i Homme Richard a few days before the^ de- parture of Jones's little squadron, which sailed on August 14. The battle with the Serapis was fought on September 23, 1779. It is a matter of unwritten history in our family that when he left Ports- mouth he was accompanied by four- teen others, several of whom had' served on the Ranger, and that among the number were Joseph Rob- erts and Isaac Hanson, who after- wards lived in Farmington, and died there, Timothy Roberts of Milton, who lived and died in that town, and Caleb Roberts of Rochester. On A SKETCH OF GEORGE ROBERTS. which . vessel of the squadron they served I have no positive informa- tion. Mr. Oliver A. Roberts of Melrose, Mass., who has in preparation a gen- ealogy of the Roberts family, states that the five named above served on the Ranger, and some, if not all of them, on the Bon Homme Richa^'d. After his final discharge from the service he made his home for several years at Dover, but followed the sea as an occupation. The parish rec- ords show that he was married to Elizabeth Horn, January 17, 1782, by Rev. Jeremy Belknap. In 1796 he moved to Middleton, where he built his cabin near Moose Mountain and cleared the virgin forest from some twenty acres. Subsequently he moved to a small farm on the stage road leading from ' Dover to Wolfe- borough, where he continued to live and till the soil of that quiet town. The old men of the town said of him that he was a good neighbor, but not a very good farmer ; not given to boasting of his achieve- ments, very rarely talking of them unless urged to do so. That the bears and wildcats had no terrors for him, and the only living thing he* feared was a' snake, and to the most harmless of these reptiles he gave a wide berth. Being rallied at one time by his companions regarding the taking of the plate of the Karl of Selkirk, he answered, "After taking away what we did, we left the earl more plate than all of you have, or ever will have." One of his nearest neighbors, a man by the name of Hinah, was one of the 22,000 sold by the notorious Frederick II of Hesse to George III to fight his battles in America ; he was captured at Trenton, but after the war made his way to the wilds of New Hampshire, settling in Middle- ton. He became a good citizen and an ofl&cer of the militia. His broken English was a source of much amuse- ment to his men, and when going on parade he gave the order " Moosuc to der froont," the smiles were audi- ble. Between my grandfather and this old Teuton a warm friendship existed, and they spent much time in the company of each other, cheering themselves with their pipes, and an occasional sip of the wine of New England. In religious belief his family were followers of Penn. In his youth he affiliated with that sect, but in later life he neither wore the Quaker garb nor attended the meeting, but con- tinued on cordial terms with his rela- tives and others of that faith. My grandmother was a member of the- Baptist Church, but I well remember that her home, and my father's as well, was the stopping place for Friends on their way to the yearly meeting at Sandwich, and when these visits occurred our family observed the Quaker grace at mealtime. My grandmother related that during her husband's last illness and shortly be- fore his death, his brother David, a strict Friend, visited him, and, when about to take his departure, went to the bedside of his sick brother and said : " Peace be with thee, George." " Peace be with thee, David," was the answer ; and thus the brothers parted, to meet no more on earth. The story of how the Roberts fam- ily were converted to the faith of the Society of Friends is interesting. The emigrant, Thomas Roberts, A SKETCH OF GEORGE ROBERTS. was chosen president of the court (council). His son John was ap- pointed marshal, and his son Thomas was a constable of Dover. During their term of office the Quaker perse- cutions in Dover occurred. Several women of that faith had been arrested, and the court adjudged them guilty and ordered them to be whipped at the cart's tail through nine towns. The duty of the infliction of this penalty in Dover fell to John and Thomas Roberts. While the order of the court was being carried out in a very cruel manner, their father, Thomas Roberts, followed after, la- menting and crying, "Wo! that I am the father of such wicked chil- dren." The patience and humility with which these poor women bore their wrongs so impressed him that he investigated their belief, the re- sult being that he and his family became members of the Society of Friends with which their descendants were also identified for several gen- erations. In the military history of George Roberts, on file at the pension office in Washington, I found the follow- ing : In his declaration for pension he makes no allusion to any service other than that on the Ranger, owing, no doubt, to the fact, that the law under which he applied, Act of March i