I represent Rebecca Dutton. I was the wife of William Dutton, a Pensacola-based merchant during the British period in West Florida. We eventually moved to a plantation in the Manchac district, near the Mississippi River in Louisiana. In March 1778, the American raider James Willing came down the Mississippi with his raiders and plundered all the British plantations they could find. We ran into the woods while Willing’s men did their work, then watched as native allies burned everything to the ground after. We went to New Orleans, the nearest place of safety, but we were expelled by Spanish authorities withing 48 hours. We fled to Pensacola, where my husband was commissioned as a captain in His Majesty’s 16th Regiment of Foot. He returned to Manchac, which was now garrisoned by Waldeck troops. In the fall of 1778, he died “after suffering much.” I and our young child returned to England where I petitioned for relief from the Crown as a widow before the end of 1778. I stated that in England, I had “no family or acquaintance,” but it may have been the only place we felt safe.
Sources: 12, 65, 105