royal governor; born in
Scotland in 1732; was descended in the feminine line from the house of
Stuart.
He was made governor of New York in January, 1770, and of
Virginia, July, 1771, arriving there early in 1772.
When the Virginia Assembly recommended a committee of correspondence (March, 1773), he
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Seal of Lord Dunmore. |
immediately dissolved it, and in May, 1774, he again dissolved the Assembly because it had passed a resolution making the Ist of June a day of fasting and prayer.
This was the same day which had been appointed by the Massachusetts legislature for the same purpose.
In 1775, finding the people of his colony committed to the cause of freedom, he engaged in a conspiracy to bring the Indians in hostile array against the
Virginia frontier.
He employed
Dr. John Connelly, whom he had commissioned in 1774 to lead a movement for sustaining the claims of
Virginia to the whole district of
Pennsylvania west of
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Lord Dunmore's signature. |
the
Alleghany Mountains.
He was a native of
Pennsylvania, and lived at
Pittsburg; and it is believed that he suggested to
Dunmore the plan of combining the
Western Indians against the colonists.
He visited
General Gage at
Boston early in the autumn of 1775, and immediately after his return to
Williamsburg he left
Dunmore and departed for the
Ohio country, with two companions.
They were stopped near
Hagerstown as suspicious persons, sent back to
Frederick, and there an examination of
Connelly's papers revealed the whole nefarious plot.
He bore
Dunmore's commission of colonel, and was directed to raise a regiment in the western country and
Canada, the rendezvous to be at
Detroit, where hostilities against the white people might be more easily fomented among the Indians.
Thence he was to march in the spring, enter
Virginia with a motley force, and meet
Dunmore at
Alexandria, on the
Potomac, who would be there with a military and naval force.
The arrest of
Connelly frustrated the design.
He was put in jail and his papers were sent to the Continental Congress.
He was kept a prisoner until about the end of the war.
What is known historically as “
Dunmore's War” was a campaign against the
Ohio Indians undertaken by Lord Dunmore in 1774.
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162]
The cold-blooded murder of the family of
Logan (q. v.), an eminent
Mingo chief, and other atrocities, had caused fearful retaliation on the part of the barbarians.
While Pennsylvanians and the agents of the Six Nations were making efforts for peace,
Governor Dunmore, bent on war, called for volunteers, and 400 of these were gathered on the banks of the
Ohio, a little below
Wheeling.
This force marched against and destroyed (Aug. 7, 1774) a Shawnee town on the
Muskingum.
They were followed by
Dunmore, with 1,500
Virginians, who pressed forward against an Indian village on the
Scioto, while
Col. Andrew Lewis, with 1,200 men, encountered a force of Indians at
Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha River (Oct. 10), where a bloody battle ensued.
The
Indians were led by
Logan,
Cornstalk, and other braves.
The Virginians were victorious, but lost seventy men killed and wounded.
Dunmore was charged with inciting the
Indian war and arranging the campaign so as to carry out his political plans.
It was charged that he arranged the expedition so as to have the force under
Lewis annihilated by the Indians, and thereby weaken the physical strength and break down the spirits of the Virginians, for they were defying royal power.
His efforts afterwards to incite a servile insurrection in
Virginia for the same purpose show that he was capable of exercising almost any means to accomplish his ends.
The
Indians in the
Ohio country, alarmed at the approach of
Dunmore, had hastened to make peace.
Logan refused to attend the conference for the purpose, but sent a speech which became famous in history.
Dunmore's officers in that expedition, having heard of the movements in
New England, and of the Continental Congress, held a meeting at
Fort Gower (mouth of the
Hockhocking River), and after complimenting the governor and declaring their allegiance to the
King, resolved to maintain the rights of the colonists by every means in their power.
The bold movement in the Virginia convention (March, 1775) excited the official wrath of
Governor Dunmore, who stormed in proclamations; and to frighten the Virginians (or, probably, with a more mischievous intent), he caused a rumor to be circulated that he intended to excite an insurrection among the slaves.
Finally, late in April, he caused marines to come secretly at night from the
Fowey, a sloop-of-war in the
York River, and carry to her the powder in the old magazine at
Williamsburg.
The movement was discovered.
The minute-men assembled at dawn, and were with difficulty restrained from seizing the governor.
The assembled people sent a respectful remonstrance to
Dunmore, complaining of the act as specially cruel at that time, when a servile insurrection was apprehended.
The governor replied evasively, and the people demanded the return of the powder.
When
Patrick Henry heard of the act, he gathered a corps of volunteers and marched towards the capital.
The frightened
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Remains of Lord Dunmore's palace. |
governor sent a deputation to meet him. One of them was the receiver-general of the province.
They met 16 miles from
Williamsburg, where the matter was compromised by the receiver-general paying the full value of the powder.
Henry sent the money to the public treasury and returned home.
In November, 1775, Lord Dunmore proceeded in the war-ship
Fowey to
Norfolk, where he proclaimed freedom to all slaves who should join the royal standard, which he had unfurled, and take up arms against the “rebels.”
He declared martial law throughout
Virginia, and made
Norfolk the rendezvous for a British fleet.
He sent marauding parties on the shores of the
Elizabeth and
James rivers to distress the
Whig inhabitants.
Being repelled with spirit, he resolved to strike a severe blow that should produce terror.
He began to lay waste the country around.
The people were aroused and the militia were rapidly gathering for the defence of the inhabitants, when
Dunmore, becoming
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163]
alarmed, constructed batteries at
Norfolk, armed the Tories and negroes, and fortified a passage over the
Elizabeth River, known as the
Great Bridge, a point where he expected the militiamen to march to attack him. Being repulsed in a battle there (Dec. 9, 1775),
Dunmore abandoned his intrenchments at
Norfolk and repaired to his ships, when, menaced by famine —for the people would not furnish supplies—and annoyed by shots from some of the houses, he cannonaded the town (Jan. 1, 1776) and sent sailors and marines ashore to set it on fire.
The greater portion of the compact part of the city was burned while the cannonade was kept up. The part of the city which escaped was presently burned by the Virginians to prevent it from becoming a shelter to the enemy.
Thus perished, a prey to civil war, the largest and richest of the rising towns of
Virginia.
After committing other depredations on the
Virginia coast, he landed on Gwyn's Island, in
Chesapeake Bay, with 500 men,
black and
white, cast up some intrenchments, and built a stockade fort.
Virginia militia, under
Gen. Andrew Lewis, attacked and drove him from the island.
In this engagement
Dunmore was wounded.
Burning several of his vessels that were aground,
Dunmore sailed away with the remainder, with a large amount of booty, among which were about 1,000 slaves.
After more plundering on the coast the vessels were dispersed, some to the
West Indies, some to the Bermudas and
St. Augustine, and
Dunmore himself proneeded to join the naval force at New York, and soon afterwards went to
England.
In 1786
Dunmore was made governor of
Bermuda.
He died in
Ramsgate, England, in May, 1809.
