I represent Stephen Shakespear. I was a prosperous merchant in Philadelphia until the revolution broke out. I sent my wife and six children to England for safety and I fled to West Florida, looking for someplace to settle. In December 1776 I arrived in the colony with four slaves. I sent for my family and we settled on land in the Manchac District, which sounded like a good choice but put it put me and my holdings in the path of James Willing’s raiders in the spring of 1778. Despite having lost almost everything, I was elected to represent Manchac in the House of Commons of the seventh and last provincial general assembly in fall of 1778. Later that year I was awarded a compensatory grant on the Pascagoula River, but that came under Spanish conquest in 1779. According to my later claim to the Crown for damages, we went to New Orleans and continued a modest business, but we were expelled for refusing to swear an oath to the Spanish king. We went to Pensacola, where I was a shopkeeper. I was counted in the Spanish listing of householders remaining in Pensacola at the time of the capitulation in May 1781. We went to New York with the rest of the survivors of the siege.
Sources: 3, 5, 6, 12, 65