Military officer; born in
England in 1729.
In 1746 he was an ensign in the Coldstream Guards, and before he came to
America, in 1776, was a colonel and aide-de-camp to the
King.
He commanded a brigade of the Guards, with the rank of brigadier-general, in the attack on
Fort Washington.
In May, 1779,
General Clinton sent 2,000 men from New York, under
General Matthews, to plunder the coast of
Virginia.
He entered the
Elizabeth River on transports, escorted by a squadron of armed vessels under
Sir George Collier, on May 9.
They plundered and spread desolation on both sides of the river to
Norfolk.
They seized that city, then rising from its ashes and enjoying a considerable trade, and also
Portsmouth,
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opposite.
These were the chief places of deposit of
Virginia agricultural productions, especially tobacco.
They captured and burned not less than 130 merchant vessels in the
James and
Elizabeth rivers, an unfinished Continental frigate on the stocks at
Portsmouth, and eight ships-ofwar on the stocks at
Gosport, a short distance above
Portsmouth, where the Virginians had established a navy-yard.
So sudden and powerful was the attack, that very little resistance was made by
Fort Nelson, below
Portsmouth, or by the
Virginia militia.
Matthews carried away or destroyed a vast amount of tobacco and other property, estimated, in the aggregate, at $2,000,000. Afterwards he assisted in the capture of
Verplanck's and
Stony Point.
Appointed major-general, he was stationed at or near New York, and returned to
England in 1780; was commander-in-chief of the forces in the
West Indies in 1782, and the next year was governor of
Grenada and the
Caribbean Islands.
In 1797 he became a general.
He died in
Hants,
England, Dec. 26, 1805.
