SAR visit to Revolutionary War site in Bermuda

Chuck Mills, Historian of the Colonel William Grayson Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) recently visited Ordnance Island the site of the Bermuda Gunpowder Plot. He interviewed Peter Frith, an eleventh generation descendant of one of the first settlers in Bermuda about Virginia’s involvement in the Plot.

The Bermuda Gunpowder Plot of 1775, was a covert operation where Bermudians sympathetic to the American Revolution stole about 100 barrels of British gunpowder from a magazine in St. George’s, Bermuda, and delivered it to American ships. This supply was vital for the Continental Army, which was critically short on powder early in the war.

St. George Tucker, a 22-year-old Virginian studying law at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, took part in the plot. Born in Bermuda to a prominent family, he had moved to Virginia around 1771 and was living there in 1775. His father, Henry Tucker, a leading Bermudian merchant, negotiated the deal with Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris in Philadelphia, trading the gunpowder for an exemption from the Continental Congress's trade embargo on British colonies. Tucker shared details about the lightly guarded magazine with Americans, including a letter to Thomas Jefferson on June 8, 1775, pleading for relief from the embargo and confirming the powder's vulnerability. On the night of August 14, 1775, he helped roll the barrels from the magazine to Tobacco Bay for loading onto American ships.

Tucker returned to Virginia after the raid, served in the Continental Army (where he was wounded twice), became a prominent lawyer, judge, and law professor.

The Colonel William Grayson Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution serves Prince William County and western Fairfax County. Membership in the Sons of the American Revolution is open to the lineal descendant of a Revolutionary War soldier, sailor or Patriot. This includes persons who not only fought in the military or militia, but who also may have provided supplies, medical aid, signed oaths of Faith and Fidelity and similar acts. Contact the chapter’s registrar Michael Blythe mblythe@comcast.net for help in applying for membership.