Jacques Marcus Prevost

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Jacques Marcus Prevost (* 1736 in Geneva , Switzerland , † 1781 in Jamaica ) was a British officer who was colonial governor of the Province of Georgia for a short time during the American War of Independence .

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Jacques Marcus Prevost is also known under the names James and Mark Prevost. His exact date of birth, as well as the date of death, has not been recorded. He was born in Geneva and had eight siblings. Together with two brothers he entered the service of the Dutch army. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War and its American version of the French and Indian War , British recruiters recruited soldiers in many parts of Europe. This is how the Prevost brothers joined the British Army, where Jacques Marcus was given the rank of captain. Together with his brothers, he was transferred to the British colonies in North America in 1756. He took part in the lost battle for Fort Carillon , in which he was injured. After his recovery in 1761, he was initially involved in the establishment of an outpost near what is now the city of Erie , Pennsylvania . He was then transferred to New York City . After the end of the war in 1763 he married Theodosia Bartow (1746-1794) there, with whom he had five children, including their son John , who later held several high offices in the United States as a member of the Democratic Republican Party . In the following years Prevost was stationed in various locations, mainly in Pennsylvania and New York. With his wife he moved into a home in what is now the US state of New Jersey , which became known under the name The Hermitage or Ho-Ho-Kus .

At the outbreak of the War of Independence Prevost held the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was mainly used in the Province of Georgia , later the US state of Georgia . There he was installed for a few months to succeed Archibald Campbell as military governor. He held this office in 1779 until the return of former Governor James Wright . During this time, large parts of the Georgia colony were recaptured from the British. In 1781 Prevost was posted to Jamaica, where he was supposed to help put down a rebellion. He died there in 1781 as a result of a war wound.

The behavior of his wife during the war of independence is remarkable. She was an ardent American patriot , in contrast to her husband, the British officer. During his stay in Georgia, she met with leaders of the American Revolution in her New Jersey home. These included George Washington , James Madison , Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr . With the latter, she began an affair. After Prevost's death, the two married and Burr adopted their five children from their first marriage. She also had five children with Burr, but only the daughter Theodosia of them reached adulthood. This in turn went down in history. As the wife of Joseph Alston , the US governor of South Carolina , she embarked on a voyage around the turn of the year 1812/13, from which neither the ship nor Theodosia ever returned. The ship probably went down. But to this day there are conspiracy theories in this case that she might have survived then.