Thomas Hore, Surgeon

The frigate Randolph’s surgeon Dr. Thomas Hore has proved to be an elusive figure in the historical record. No mention of his upbringing, education, Philadelphia connections or private pre-war practice has yet been uncovered. In “Give Me a Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America’s Revolution at Sea” (2015), Tim McGrath notes Hore as the medical professional attending to wounds inflicted by the cat-o-nine tails judgement on the mutinous ringleader of some of her crew. William Bell Clark in “Captain Dauntless” (1949) records Dr. Hore as the surgeon who saved young Midshipman John McPherson’s life and limb with his great skill in treating a severe splinter wound to the leg and groin gained in hot action. In Appendix B of “Captain Dauntless”, Clark also definitively identifies Thomas Hore as the ship’s surgeon and notes his service as commencing on 11 October 1776, the same date as Captain Nicholas Biddle and other ranking officers on the Randolph. The only record I have been able to associate with Thomas Hore is a petition of the “Officers of the Continental Navy Frigate Randolph” dated 1 September 1777 in Charleston to Captain Nicholas Biddle which appears on pages 864-865 in Volume 9 of the “Naval Documents of the American Revolution” requesting that Second Lieutenant of Marines Panatiere de la Falconer be dismissed from service on the vessel for behavior “very unbecoming an Officer” and being “a disgrace to the Randolph”. In addition to Hore, the petition was signed by 1st Lieutenant William Barnes, Captain of Marines Samuel Shaw, 2nd Lieutenant John McDougall, Sailing Master Robert Johnson and 3rd Lieutenant Joshua Fanning. In response to a 20 November 1777 advertisement appearing in the South Carolina and American General Gazette, “WANTED immediately on board the Frigate Randolph…two young gentlemen who can fill the office of Surgeon’s Mate: Such, by making application on board said ship, will meet with proper encouragement”, Joseph Cauffman and Thomas Budd were apparently engaged to serve as Thomas Hore’s medical assistants. Little known Dr. Thomas Hore would lose his life in service to his shipmates and the Continental Navy in the explosion of the frigate Randolph on 7 March 1778.