I represent Georg Philipp Meister. I was a corporal in the 3rd company of the 3rd Waldeck Regiment. I was born on April 21, 1758 in Helsen, Waldeck Province. My parents were Emanuel and Catherine Elisabeth Grass Meister. I was Evangelical (which means “Protestant” in this context) and stood 5′ 4″ tall – about average for the men in my regiment. I was a shoemaker by trade, married with six children. The 3rd Waldeck Regiment was hired by the British from Waldeck Prince Frederick Karl Augustus to assist them in fighting the American rebels in the Revolutionary War. The Regiment reached North America in 1776. After two years of heavy action the regiment was sent to Pensacola, along with the provincial loyalist forces of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Robert Farmar’s journal of the siege of Pensacola has the following entry for April 25, 1781: “About 7 o’clock a.m. the advanced picquet had a skirmish with the enemy and beat themoff. We had one of the Provincials dangerously wounded. I was wounded there; Farmar was mistaken about my being a provincial, or he was talking about someone else and I didn’t rate a mention. After the surrender, we were sent by the Spanish to New York, on our honor not to fight against the Spanish again until we were exchanged. We lived in encampments at New Town on Long Island. The Waldeckers resumed duty in July of 1782, and a year later, in July of 1783, I and the Waldeck Regiment, 418 men and women and 13 children, left New York to return to Europe. Later I served in Waldeck 5th Battalion. I died April 18, 1829.
Sources: 28, 54