John Richmond, Gunner’s Mate, Midshipman

John Richmond. According to his pension application #R-8705, John Richmond born about 1754, was married to Elizabeth or Betsey Walker, born 1758, on 2 December 1774 by the Episcopal Rev. Dr. Beach. The couple had at least three sons; John, Nathaniel C. and William. Richmond entered on board the privateer Beaver as a seaman in 1777. In 1778, he was “engaged assisting to rig the frigate Confederacy” at Norwich and acted as midshipman. John Richman is listed on the frigate Confederacy Riggers’ Returns 1778-1779 and noted as “returned”. It is doubtful that he sailed with the ship. On 9 March 1779, Richmond entered on board the privateer Tyranaside under Captain Allen Hallet. On 29 March they captured the British privateer Revenge with 54 enemy and 31 American casualties. Afterward they took a schooner and the Lilly Glasgow of Scotland. In July, Richmond was engaged in the Penobscot Expedition under Captain Cathcart. He then went on board the Renown under Captain Robert Anderson as Gunner’s Mate. He then served on the frigate Trumbull under Captain Nicholson and was in the engagement with the Watts with eighty killed or wounded. In July of 1780, John Richmond entered service on the Essex under Captain Cathcart. He came down sick with yellow fever and was put into port in Ireland. Taken prisoner, he was sent to Mill Prison in Plymouth for 18 months. Put on a British frigate, he escaped in the Cove of Cork, arriving in America on the cartel Chatham in the Spring of 1782 or 1783. John Richmond was lost overboard and drowned in June of 1796 off North Carolina on a voyage between Perth Amboy and “some Southern port.” Elizabeth Richmond remarried to James Renton who died on 5 June 1810. Elizabeth Renton lived in New Brunswick, NJ until at least 1838. Richmond also had a brother-in-law N. Hoope of New York. Richmond kept a journal of his exploits but it is thought to have been lost in a tornado in June of 1835.