Col. Andrew deVeaux

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Deveaux

Andrew Deveaux (30 April 1758 – 11 July 1812) was an American Loyalist from South Carolina who is most famous for his recapture of the Bahamas in 1783.

Early life

He was born to plantation owners Andrew Deveaux senior & Catherine Barnwell on 30 April 1758 at St Helena's Parish in Beaufort, South Carolina. Deveaux's ancestry stretches back to France in 1665 when André de Veaux (who was born in 1665 at Château de Veaux, France) went to the American Colonies in late 17th or early 18th century. Andrew Deveaux (junior) was owner of many thousands of acres around Prince William's Parish & Port Royal Island.

Service

At the age of 17 Andrew Deveaux, Jr., enlisted in the Continental army. However, the elder Deveaux senior was under constant badgering by Beaufort locals for his support of the British. In defense of his father, young Deveaux banded together a group of loyalists who created havoc in and around Beaufort. Deveaux joined the services of British under Major General Augustine Prévost in 1779 and was present at the Siege of Savannah where the Franco-American assault was repulsed with heavy loss. He was present at the Siege of Charleston which afterwards he was given a commission by Lord Cornwallis to raise a regiment called the Royal Foresters. This however did not succeed but Deveaux was promoted to colonel & was given command of a group Loyalist irregulars for which 2 American generals were captured in woodland ambushes.

In December 1782 the British evacuated South Carolina and Deveaux with his men went to St. Augustine, Florida capital of East Florida. He thus set about a plan to recapture the Bahamas for himself & the British crown. Nassau had fallen to the Spanish earlier in the year.

Recapture of the Bahamas

Main article: Capture of the Bahamas (1783)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_the_Bahamas_(1783)

From St Augustine Deveaux set off with 70 men and 6 vessels. He was joined by another 170 men whilst on Harbour Island, Bahamas and thus with only 220 men and 150 muskets to face a force of 600 Spanish soldiers. Deveaux forced the Spanish under Don Antonio Claraco Sauz to surrender on April 17, 1783, without a single shot fired. When Deveaux took down the Spanish flag, it marked the last time that a foreign banner was to fly over the Bahamian capital.

Later life

As a reward for his efforts in the Bahamas Deveaux was given a large portion of Cat Island where he built a mansion at Port Howe, Cat Island the remains of which can be seen today. He left for England in September 1783 and he often returned to the islands. His fortune however was made in Red Hook, New York where he resided for the remainder of his life. He married Anna Verplanck and thus had four children; Steven, William, Augusta Maria and Julia who would later marry the American agriculturalist John Hare Powell. Deveaux and his family were the foremost of the developers of the new plantation islands. Deveaux died in July 1812 leaving a sizable portion of the land of the islands of the Bahamas in his will.

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https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/deveaux-andrew-iv/

Loyalist. Deveaux was born in Beaufort on April 30, 1758. His father was Andrew Deveaux III, a wealthy planter and cattleman on Port Royal Island, and his mother was Catherine Barnwell, a granddaughter of “Tuscarora Jack” Barnwell. His father was prominent in local politics as a member of the St. Helena’s Parish vestry and as commissioner to build the first Beaufort District courthouse in 1769. He was also a well-known Loyalist who was among the delegation of Beaufort men who encouraged Governor Charles Montagu to move the colonial capital from Charleston to Beaufort in 1772.

With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775, Andrew Deveaux III was subjected to insults and harassment by the local patriot sympathizers. This prompted Andrew Deveaux IV to form a body of Loyalist ruffians, who disrupted patriot meetings in Beaufort whenever possible. This local rivalry continued for several years until the arrival of British troops from Savannah on Port Royal Island in February 1779. Deveaux assisted the British landing and joined the invading army. Deveaux and his Loyalist partisans are believed to have been responsible for burning the Prince William Parish church at Sheldon in April 1779. Deveaux was commissioned as a major in the South Carolina Loyalist militia known as the “Royal Foresters” and served the British army occupying South Carolina for the next three years. He was second in command of the Loyalist garrison at Fort Balfour in Beaufort District in 1781. In 1782 he was among the British occupation garrison in Charleston. He led several daring and successful waterborne raids among the Sea Islands and actually occupied Beaufort for two weeks in March 1782.

When the British evacuated Charleston in December 1782, Deveaux, now a lieutenant colonel, left with them. His father’s estates were confiscated, and most of his family became refugees in St. Augustine, Florida. In 1783 Deveaux raised a small army of volunteers from the Carolina Loyalist refugees in Florida and outfitted six small-armed vessels at his own expense. With this little fleet he sailed to Nassau, Bahamas, which was then occupied by seven hundred Spanish soldiers from Cuba. Nassau had been captured from the British in 1782 by a combined American and Spanish fleet. Deveaux successfully blockaded the harbor and by daring maneuvers forced the surrender of superior Spanish forces. By this conquest Deveaux was made de facto governor of the Bahamas from April to September 1783. By the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the Bahama Islands remained part of the British Empire and southern Loyalists were given large grants of Bahamian lands. The Bahamian Loyalists took over the politics of the colony, populated the islands with their slaves, and began growing a crop later known in America as Sea Island cotton.

Deveaux traveled to London, where he was awarded half-pay as a lieutenant colonel in the British army for his service to the crown. He then moved to New York, where he married a wealthy heiress, Anna Maria Verplanck. They settled at Red Hook, Duchess County, New York. Deveaux died in New York City on July 11, 1812, as a result of injuries sustained in a fall from a balcony.

• Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via daughter Julia Powell (born Deveaux) by SmartCopy: Oct 23 2014, 0:04:45 UTC