William Tryon

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William Tryon, 1767

William Tryon (born June 8, 1729 in Norbury Park , Surrey , England , † January 27, 1788 in London ) was a British politician and colonel in the infantry . After taking up a military career, he was appointed governor and administered the colonial province of Carolina from 1765 to 1771 , he was best known in this role for the suppression of the rebellion of the regulators in North Carolina. From 1771 to 1780 he was governor of the province of New York , after differences in warfare during the American Revolutionary War he was ordered back to England, from where he monitored his subordinate units in America and Canada until his death.

Origin and early career in the army

Tryon was born on June 8, 1729 in the Tryon family home in Norbury Park, the son of Charles Tryon and Lady Mary Shirley. In 1751 he pursued a military career as a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards , and in the same year he was promoted to the rank of captain .

He had a daughter with Mary Stanton, but he never married her mother. Instead, Tryon married Margaret Wake, a London heiress who had an inheritance of £ 30,000. Her father was Governor of the British East India Company in Bombay from 1742 to 1750 and died on his journey home in Cape Town.

Tryon was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1758 . During the Seven Years' War he was used with his regiment in the campaign near Cherbourg-St Malo. They landed at Cherbourg and destroyed all military installations. They moved on to St. Malo, where the operation went smoothly until they withdrew. On the way back, however, they came under heavy French fire. Tryon was injured in the hip and head.

North Carolina Governor

On April 26, 1764, Tryon was named acting lieutenant governor of the province of North Carolina through family ties . He arrived in North Carolina on October 9th with his family, including one of his young daughters and the architect John Hawks. There he met his predecessor Arthur Dobbs , who refused to resign before May of the following year. Tryon had to live without an income until Dobb's death on March 28th and then took over the office of lieutenant governor. On July 10, 1765 he was finally promoted from the king to governor and established his official residence in Brunswick Town .

After taking office, Tryon worked to expand the influence of the Church of England in North Carolina. At that time there were only five Anglican clergy in the colony and Tryon pushed for the completion of several church building projects that had begun in Brunswick Town, Wilmington , Edenton and New Bern. He assigned clergy to these churches and helped build new churches, especially in rural North Carolina.

In North Carolina, there was a strong opposition to the introduction of the Stamp Act (Engl. For Stamp Act ) from the year 1765. With this by the British Parliament adopted law one was stamp duty collected that every official document and the document in the Thirteen Colonies taxed. When the delegates from the colonies met in Ney York for the so-called "Stamp Act Congress" to decide on this law, the North Carolina Colonial Council was not in session, so no delegates for the Stamp Act Congress are selected and sent to New York could. In order to prevent North Carolina's participation in this assembly and the rejection of the Stamp Act in a corresponding resolution, Tryon refused to approve meetings of the Colonial Council from May 18, 1765 to November 3, 1766. Tryon claimed he was against the introduction of this stamp duty himself and offered to pay the tax on all papers and documents that made him eligible for fees. He called on troops to enforce the tax against opposition from the population, instead he was informed on June 25, 1766 that the law was repealed.

Tryon Palace

Tryon Palace after reconstruction in 2017

While Tryon was already working on the plans for Tryon Palace, the governor's residence before his inauguration, he worked with Hawks on the construction in 1764 and 1765. The council approved £ 5,000 to build the building in December 1766, but Tryon advised the council that it would take at least £ 10,000 to build his modest home, not including the outdoor facilities. Hawks agreed to direct the construction work for three years and after Tryon went to Philadelphia to recruit workers in the north. Tryon assumed that workers in North Carolina would not be able to properly build a structure like this. Tryon convinced the colony's legislature to raise taxes to cover the cost of the building. In 1769 he established a postal service in the colony. In the following year, Tryon Palace was completed and Tryon moved into his new residence, which has been described as an "extraordinary monument of opulence and elegance in the American colonies".

Revolt of the regulators

He was best known for suppressing the regulator revolt in western North Carolina between 1768 and 1771. Tryon suppressed the uprising, which was triggered, among other things, by the tax levies for the construction of the Tryon Palace, as well as by the waste through taxes and corruption. Tryon's militia defeated 6000 insurgent regulators in the Battle of Alamance in May 1771. Supported by Judge Richard Henderson he allowed seven of the regulators to death, most of which were based on the rules established by the General Assembly Riot Act (English for "Sedition Act" condemned), the uproar temporarily declared a felony. Those executed included James Few, Benjamin Merrell, James Pugh, Robert Matear, "Captain" Robert Messer, and two other men. Six other men - Forrester Mercer, James Stewart, James Emmerson, Herman Cox, William Brown, and James Copeland - were made by King George III. pardoned and released by Tryon. The regulator revolt is seen by some historians as the prelude to the American Revolutionary War .

After his tenure ended, Tryon left North Carolina on June 30, 1771.

Governor of New York

On July 8, 1771, Tryon arrived in the province of New York and took up his new office as governor. In 1771 and 1772 he was able to convince the colonial council to provide funds for the billeting of British troops. On March 18, 1772 he achieved the establishment of a state militia . Funds were also granted to rebuild the city's defenses.

1773 grew the resistance to the planned Tea Act (English for "tea law"). This law was intended to lower the price of tea imported by the East India Company, but not the American import tariffs, which would have led to a clear preference for British imports. In December, the opposition " Sons of Liberty " in various states convinced the captains and pilots of ships loaded with English tea not to call at American ports any more. Tryson suggested letting the ships in, unloading them, and storing the tea in Fort George until further notice . The Sons of Liberty opposed the proposal, and Alexander McDougall , one of their leaders, said "... stop the landing, kill the governor and the whole council" When news of the Boston Tea Party reached New York on December 22nd , Tryon gave the plan to get the tea ashore. He reported to London that the tea could "only be brought ashore under the protection of an attached bayonet and the muzzle of a cannon". In 1774 the New Yorkers threw their tea into the water, as did the Bostonians.

On December 29, 1773, the governor's house burned down completely, he was granted £ 5,000 by the New York City Council to make up for his losses.

On April 7, 1774, Tryon left for a visit to England. During his absence, Cadwallader Colden took over as the governor's deputy. Tryon returned to the provinces on April 7, 1775, after the start of the American Revolutionary War. Isaac Sears returned from the Continental Congress with orders to arrest Tryon , but George Washington instructed New York Commandant Philip Schuyler not to carry out the warrant. On October 19, 1775, Tyron was ordered to seek refuge on the British naval ship Halifax in New York Harbor. In 1776 he dissolved the New York Council and called for new elections in February. After the newly elected council also supported independence, Tryon dissolved it as well.

During the spring and summer of 1776 Tryon and the Mayor of New York were implicated in a plot . According to a poorly prepared plan, they wanted to kidnap General George Washington and murder his leading officers. One of Washington's bodyguards, Thomas Hickey, was privy to these plans. Whenever he was jailed for spreading counterfeit money, he boasted in front of his cellmate Isaac Ketcham about the planned kidnapping. Hoping to be released, Ketcham contacted authorities and revealed the plan. Hickey was tried, sentenced to death, and hanged for mutiny on June 28, 1776 .

American War of Independence

In June, Admiral Howe reached New York with the British Army. Howe put the city under martial law and appointed James Robertson to command New York. Tryon was reinstated, but had significantly less power than before. In early 1777 Tryon was promoted to the rank of major general of the continental troops. He was ordered to invade Connecticut and take the town of Danbury and destroy the magazine there. Tryon advanced and on the way back to the British invasion fleet in Westport he defeated the patriotic forces under David Wooster and Benedict Arnold in the Battle of Ridgefield . In May he also received the rank of major general in the British Army, but this was only valid in America itself. He was appointed commander of the 70th Regiment of Foot and commander of the British troops on Long Island .

Tryon had long spoken out in favor of attacks on civilian targets, but Henry Clinton , his commander, rejected his proposals. In July 1779, Tryon commanded a series of raids on the Connecticut coast. In this New Haven , Fairfield and Norwalk attacked, most of Fairfields and Norwalk was looted and burned. Tryon's intention was to pull American troops away from the defense of the Hudson Valley , but despite pressure from Governor Trumbull , Washington stood firm and maintained the defense in the Hudson Valley. The Americans accused Tryon of "waging war on women and children" and British commander Clinton was outraged by Tryon's behavior and the failure to give his orders. Tryon's behavior was supported by Lord Germain , but Clinton refused to give him an important command again.

In September 1780 Tryon returned to his native London. He still directed the fortunes of the colonial 70th Regiment of Foot and in 1783 gave the order to bring the men back to England to disband the unit. In 1782 he was promoted to lieutenant general and in 1784 was given command of the 29th Regiment of Foot stationed in Canada .

He died in London on January 27, 1788 and was buried in a crypt in the churchyard of St. Mary's Church in Twickenham , Middlesex .

Commemoration

Various places and streets in the United States are reminiscent of Tryon:

  • Tryon County, New York, and Tryon County, North Carolina, were named after Tryon, but were later given different names.
  • The Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan now bears his name. This area was held almost entirely by the British during the American Revolution.
  • The place Tryon , North Carolina.
  • One of the main streets in Charlotte , North Carolina is named after him.
  • Another street, Tryon Road in Raleigh also bears his name and is located in Wake County , which was named after his wife Margaret Wake.
  • Other streets: Tryon Street in Hillsborough , North Carolina, Albany , New York and South Glastonbury , Connecticut. The latter runs along the Connecticut River and past the Tryon farms, which still belong to the Tryon family today. Many of Tryon's descendants live in Connecticut and New York.

literature

  • Marshal D. Haywood: Governor William Tryon and his Administration in the Province of North Carolina . Kessinger Publ., New York 2007, ISBN 978-1-4326-5151-0 (reprinted from the Raleigh 1903 edition).
  • Richard M. Ketchum: Divided loyalties: how the American Revolution came to New York . Henry Holt, New York 2002, ISBN 0-8050-6119-3 , p. 243.
  • Paul Nelson: William Tryon and the Course of Empire . University Press, Chapel Hill, NC 1990, ISBN 0-8078-1917-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Catherine Bishir: North Carolina Architecture . UNC Press, 2005, pp. 34-35.
  2. ^ A b c d Catherine Bishir: North Carolina Architecture . UNC Press, 2005, pp. 55-58.
  3. ^ "Prevent the landing, and kill [the] governor and all the council" in Richard M. Ketchum: Divided loyalties: how the American Revolution came to New York. Henry Holt, 2002, page 243, ISBN 0-8050-6119-3
  4. ↑ "only under the protection of the point of the bayonet, and muzzle of cannon, and even then I do not see how consumption could be effected" in John A. Garraty, Mark C. Carnes: The American Nation: A History of the United States (to 1877) , Longman Publishing, 1999, page 101, ISBN 0-321-05288-9
personal data
SURNAME Tryon, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician and governor of the colonies of North Carolina and New York
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1729
PLACE OF BIRTH Norbury Park , Surrey
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1788
Place of death London