Yo Ho Ho And 100 Gallons Of Rum

     I've been looking around the net for more information on the Semple brothers, John and Robert who married my 7th-great-aunts, sisters Betty and Mary Wheat.  I managed to find the inventory of the goods on board The Ship Peggy when it was captured by the Rebels as mentioned in yesterday's blog.  The document can be found in Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Volume 6, part one, page 15.

     It makes interesting reading if only for the amount of alcohol in the shipment.  I've read before that colonial Americans liked their libation and that is certainly borne out by this inventory.  The drink on board The Peggy included--74 dozen porter, 83 dozen strong beer, 100 gallons of rum, 12 1/2 dozen claret, 230 dozen red port wine, 50 dozen sherry, 53 dozen white port wine, and another 16 dozen strong beer.

     I'm not sure if those numbers denote bottles, barrels or something else.  Also in the shipment was "Rappee snuff", salted beef, 6 barrels of herring, and 2,648 mutton hams.  There were supplies for the British Army, camp kettles and canteens, along with home furnishings such as candlesticks, spoons, and fabrics like 180 yards of Irish sheeting and 3,884 yards of oznabrig, an unbleached linen.  It was quite a haul for the Rebels and the Rebel officers too, who seem to have divided the vino between themselves.

     Even more interesting, to me, the inventory listed the names of Tories traveling on The Peggy; among them was, "Robert Semple and wife", she being my relative Mary Wheat.  When they were later questioned, the Tories revealed they had left Halifax on 4 July 1776, heading for New York in the company of three transport ships carrying Hessian Troops.  Blown off course by a gale they were separated from the transports, making them easy prey for the privateers.  Also traveling on The Peggy was a man named Thomas Semple who appears in one other Boston record I've seen.  I wonder if Thomas was another Semple brother, or maybe even their father?

     I also found mention of the Semple brothers in the book, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, volume 2.  This publication claims Robert Semple left Boston in 1776, (as I wrote yesterday he left with the British evacuation fleet), but this source claims he did so with a family of three.  If that can be interpreted to mean he and his wife Mary had two children at the time, Mary who was born in 1757 must have been a teenager when they wed.  It too narrows the places their nuptials could have occurred since the marriage must have happened before they left Boston.

     Another engrossing find was dated nine months earlier, 14 October 1775.  At that time, Continental Privateers overpowered the brigg Loyal Briton, of which John Semple was a part owner, just as it was leaving St. John's River in Nova Scotia loaded with cattle, sheep, hogs, smoked salmon, butter and sundry items for the British Army in Boston.  The privateers then raided the British fort located at St. John's River, appropriated their provisions, took prisoners, and burned the fort.  One of the prisoners taken that day was none other than John Semple of Boston.  The Loyal Briton was hauled to the nearest American port at Machias, Maine with it's cargo and prisoners, but somehow John and the ship's mate managed to escape their captors.

   I don't anticipate finding much more about this band of loyalists, digitized records are few and far between for those early dates, but it's been fun researching them and I find it fascinating that relatives of mine were involved in this intrigue on the high seas.  Maybe those papers of George Washington I mentioned in the last blog will hold more information once they make their way online...