| Jane McCrea was born about 1752
in Bedminster (now Lamington), New Jersey. Jane McCrea, the daughter of
the Rev. James McCrea, was born in 1751. Jane had eight brothers and
sisters: John, William, Samuel, Stephen, Philip, Catherine, Creighton,
James and Robert. She grew to be a tall, attractive woman with
long blonde hair, and she was courted by David Jones. In 1776 Jones was
one of several Tories in the area to join the British army. In the
summer of 1777 the approach of a large British force under General John
Burgoyne down Lake Champlain and the Hudson River valley and the
consequent abandonment of Fort
Ticonderoga and Fort Edward by colonial defenders caused a panic
among the remaining settlers, who quickly began to evacuate southward.
McCrea declined to leave, however, because she had received a letter
from Jones, by then a lieutenant with Burgoyne, saying that he hoped
soon to see her at Fort Edward. Later legend has it that they were to be
married at that time.
On the morning of July 27, 1777, McCrea visited
a friend, Sarah McNeil, who was preparing to leave Fort Edward for
safety. About noon the two women were captured by some Native
American scouts whom Burgoyne had employed as an advance force.
McNeil was delivered safely to British hands, but McCrea was later
discovered dead, several bullet wounds in her body, and scalped. Her
captors claimed she had been killed by a stray bullet from a colonial
detachment, but it was generally accepted that one of the scouts had
killed her. The murder and scalping sent a shock of
horror through the colonies; it was even felt in England, where in the
House of Commons Edmund Burke denounced the use of Indian allies. In
America the deed galvanized patriotic sentiment, swung waverers against
the British, and encouraged a tide of enlistments that helped end
Burgoyne's invasion three months later. Tory sympathizer Jane McCrea and
a local family were massacred by Indians during the British army's
advance south from Canada. Patriot militia, outraged that
"Burgoyne's Indians" were allowed to rampage through the
countryside, swarmed to Saratoga in
anger -- defeating Burgoyne and resulting in the turning point of the
American Revolution. Jane McCrea, though a Tory, inspired patriots to
fight because of her tragic death. The incident continued to be used as
propaganda against the English and the story was immortalized by John
Vanderlyn's painting, The Death of Jane McCrea, in 1804. The tale
of Jane McCrea became a favorite and was much romanticized in popular
versions by such authors as Philip Freneau, Joel Barlow, and Delia S.
Bacon. |
