I represent John Firby. I was schoolmaster at Pensacola from 1765 until the surrender of the town on May 10, 1781. As there was no minister, at the time – and had not been for some years – I was the closest thing there was to a representative of the church. I had been recommended to my position by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. My 1782 petition to the Crown for losses suffered in West Florida I mention my son-in-law, Richard Wilder Carr, with whom I settled a plantation of 200 acres three miles west of Ft. George in Pensacola. My request for funds from Parliament with which to travel to West Florida in 1765 mentioned needing enough to move my family, but their names are not mentioned. My 1778 petition for a land grant near Natchez said I had three children.
Sources: 3, 7, 8, 16, 65, 66