A British sailor killed in the War of 1812 has been identified more than 200 years after being buried in a grave marked “unknown” thousands of miles from home. William Adamson, from Pittenweem in Scotland, died in 1814 during a confrontation between American militia and a British cutter from the HMS Terror bomb ship in Mystic, Connecticut.
Adamson was buried “with reverence” by the militiamen, but his identity remained a mystery until a team of local historians uncovered it through persistent research.
Research reveals sailor's identity
Local historian Grace Cleere said Adamson joined the Royal Navy in 1807 as an able seaman, either through signup or conscription, and rose to become a quarter-gunner, responsible for overseeing the ship's munitions. He was assigned to HMS Terror during the War of 1812 and by 1814 was involved in the North American campaign.
The researchers spent years investigating ship records before finding Adamson's name in the personnel logs, marked down during the second week of August 1814. His name disappeared following the skirmish with the American mercenaries. Cleere said: “By August 17th, he was no longer in the rolls.”
Skirmish and burial
Adamson was likely 43 when he died and was manning a small artillery piece at the front of an armed British rowboat. He was the sole casualty of the encounter, which likely saw the smaller boat come under heavy American fire, while other crewmembers were taken prisoner in what is now the Groton Long Point neighbourhood.
The groups skirmished days after a squadron of British ships led by Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy bombarded Stonington. The Americans sent a boat down the Mystic River to test the British blockade before ambushing a cutter sent to respond.
Commemoration planned
Adamson was buried beneath an apple tree in Packer Cemetery, leaving behind a widow and two daughters in Scotland. In August, a gathering was held at the cemetery to honour him by name for the first time, with plans to place a new brass plaque at his gravesite.
Cleere said: “We have discovered more and more descendants of William Adamson's family still living in the Pittenweem area of Scotland. I'm hoping to hold a tribute every year at William's gravesite. Will try to make it on or around the date he was buried in 1814.”
She added: “The story of how William Adamson lost his life is extraordinary. He was buried with reverence by the Americans, and why he lay unidentified for more than two centuries.”
HMS Terror later took part in the siege of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, which inspired Francis Scott Key's poem that became the US national anthem. In 2016, the wreck of HMS Terror was found in the Arctic Ocean, where it had been lost in the 1840s during a failed British expedition to find the Northwest Passage.
