The Holes in Thomas Machin’s Biography
Despite such prominence, the details of that life are impossible to confirm. Sometimes the information is just too vague. For example, “He was born March 20th, 1744, O. S., four miles from Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England.” I’ve looked at birth records from parishes that fit the description and haven’t found Machin’s name, but of course I might have missed the right register.
As for Machin’s father being “John Machin, a distinguished mathematician,” I can rule that out. John Machin (1686?-1751, shown above) was the most distinguished man in eighteenth-century England with that surname. He was secretary of the Royal Society from 1718 to 1748 and professor of astronomy at Gresham College.
Gresham College is in London. Prof. Machin had no connection to Wolverhampton, more than a hundred miles away. He never married, and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that when he died “his only relative was a second cousin, Mary Tasker.”
The biography says Thomas Machin’s first military experience was in “a corps of English cadets,…or fencibles, as called,” in the Battle of Minden in 1759. “Fencibles” meant militia troops raised to defend the British homeland, so they didn’t fight in Germany.
Was Machin clerk to James Brindley (1716-1772), the canal engineer? In the mid-nineteenth century, legend had it that Brindley was “practically illiterate” and kept no records, which would have made it impossible to test that statement. Now we know that some of Brindley’s records did survive, but without specific dates it’s hard to know where to look.
The biography says Machin arrived in America in 1772 and was “one of the celebrated Boston tea party of 1773.” That was a secret, risky operation, and it’s extremely unlikely that the Boston radicals would have shared their plans with a new arrival from England. I haven’t spotted Machin’s name in any of the records of pre-Revolutionary Boston, particularly those of political activity.
The capsule biography goes on to say that Machin “was engaged and wounded (in one arm) in the conflict on Bunker’s hill, while acting as lieutenant of artillery.” But Thomas J. Abernathy’s study of Col. Richard Gridley’s artillery regiment in 1775 says that Machin’s name doesn’t appear on its records until his commission as a second lieutenant in January 1776.
TOMORROW: Which is not to say Machin wasn’t in the army during that battle.
11 comments:
Fascinating. Invalid pension claims by him, his wife, and his son are all detailed in "Donderburg's Pumpkin Vine" by Kenneth B. Lifshitz (2010). Read most of it through free Google Books preview!
Hi This is Kenneth B. Lifshitz, Author of the book mentioned above, 'Donderburg's Pumpkin Vine'. I have read some of your research on Machin with great interest. He was unquestionably a flawed man but as I point out in the book, also one of great ingenuity and energy, which genius Washington was quick to recognize and employ. While you are correct that Machin was not related (at least not closely) to the mathematician of that name, he was almost certainly from Staffordshire and associated with Brindley. Brindley had done some work for Machin's father and young Thomas was probably indentured to Brindley subsequently. That much of his early history I have been able to document. As for his deserting from the British Army rather than coming thru the West Indies this certainly bears some further research but it should be noted that his is not all that uncommon a name so I would not jump to conclusions. The engineering job on which he was employed immediately after the siege of Boston on Cape Cod, cutting a shipping canal, certainly bespeaks an individual of considerably more training and expertise than a private in the British army would have acquired and also tends to substantiate the previous apprenticeship to Brindley. Thanks again for your mention of my book.
Thanks for the comment. I haven't seen Donderburg's Pumpkin Vine, and am curious about what evidence exists on Thomas Machin's life in England. The record of his joining the 23rd Regiment is the earliest I've found, and those muster rolls show his continuous presence with the regiment until July 1775, when he deserted. After that, there are mentions of him in American sources for a few months, and then his commission in the Continental Army provides a solid record for the next several years. I kept my eyes open for another man of the same name and haven't spotted any other Thomas Machin in contemporaneous records from Boston. So if there were multiple men of that name, one disappeared from those records just as the other appeared.
Have any you gentlemen seen information on his marriage or children? I realize you are doing Revolutionary War research on Thomas Machin. I'm doing genealogical research on a Phoebe Machin who married John Wells 04 Jul 1802 at Ryder's Corners Baptist Church, Charleston, Montgomery Co, New York. At the same location, a Thomas Machin, born possibly 1785, married a Nancy Brown on 01 Nov 1805. I have had difficulty finding any family information on Thomas Machin (Sr). I do, at this time, believe these are possible 2 of Thomas Machin's children. Does a pension record on-line exist? John's older brother Teunis (Anthony) Wells, born 1761, was NEW YORK IN THE REVOLUTION AS COLONY AND STATE
Heading: Albany County Militia -- Third Regiment
Rank: Enlisted Men
Name: Teunis Wells
I've read with great interest the military information on this blog.
Thank you for your consideration.
The Thomas Machin who's the subject of this posting had two sons named Thomas. The first was a little boy he adopted during the Sullivan expedition against the British-allied Iroquois. That boy reportedly died of illness during or shortly after the war.
The second was a son from Machin's marriage. Simms's Frontiersmen says that Thomas, Jr., "died at his residence In Albany, May 18, 1875, in his 90th year," meaning he could have been born in 1785. In 1812 that Machin was living in Charleston, Montgomery County, New York, as this letter shows. (The author of that letter was William Eustis, who had been a doctor attached to the Continental artillery and a governor of Massachusetts.)
In 1838 Thomas Machin, Jr., filed a pension application stating that he'd had one sister, Phoebe, who had died (P.D.F. download). So it looks like those are the siblings you're looking for. Some records give Thomas, Jr.’s wife Nancy’s surname as some variation on McNichol, not Brown, so there's another mystery.
As this series of postings argues, Capt. Thomas Machin and his family obscured his career in the British army through July 1775, and obscured his origin in England. Their statements of when and where he was born are therefore suspect without any confirmation, which I haven't been able to find. Furthermore, Thomas, Jr.'s pension application was later deemed fraudulent, so it has to be treated carefully, too.
Thank you very much for the information (J.L. Bell). I always love a good biography for dates and locations but, as you know, the embellishments are always interesting. My goal is genealogical and for that, I'm thankful for this information. My interest is also military and for that, I'm also indebted to the authors of this article and those who have posted responses.
My information regarding Thomas Machin's early life comes from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol8/pp81-104#fnn521
In discussing this with an expert on British troops in America he forwarded me a muster list for Machin's company which notes a Thomas Machin deserted on July 28 1775.
I noted in the muster list another Machin "John Machin." It was not uncommon for brothers or relatives to enlist in the same company so I think the assumption that the Thomas Machin who deserted was related to John Machin. This may be where the theory that Thomas Machin was related to John Machin the noted mathematician comes from.
Scratch my previous comment on John Machin appearing on the muster roll as someone who is far better acquainted with British muster rolls than I believes this is John Martin not Machin.
Thanks for the link to that English regional history. It looks like a lead to this Thomas Machin's family, but doesn't appear to confirm it. With more definite information about the local parish, it might be possible to find church records from there that provide a reasonable match for our man's birth and parents. That source also confirms that Brindley was working on mills and canals in the area, though again not confirmation that Machin worked for him. I think it likely that he did, but probably not in so important a capacity as his family later understood.
HI there I am reading with interest these postings for Thomas Machin. I am a Hessian researcher and follow some of the early connections to the American Revolution. I have just finished reading the very short diary of one Lieut. Richard Williams who was in Boston with the 23rd Welsh fusiliers. His diary is called Discord and Civil Wars and can be found on Hathitrust. On page 33-34 which is somewhere around July 28th, 1775 Colonel James of the British army had just sailed away to England. Then Williams says " Thomas Machin a soldier in OUR regiment deserted'... Thus it looks like he was in the 23rd.The diary starts off in 1774 and describes some of their adventures coming to America. Hope this helps.
Denis Robillard
Poet and researcher
Canada
Yes, Lt. Williams’s diary is one of the key documents linking the Thomas Machin who surfaced in 1776 as a junior officer in the Continental artillery to the 23rd Regiment of the British army. The muster rolls of the 23rd list him as deserting just as Williams (and some other sources) say. I put most of my research into Machin into the report on Washington’s work in Cambridge for the National Park Service.
Nineteenth-century local lore says Machin employed former Hessian soldiers at his mill in the early republic. That seems to be a myth, or at least there’s nothing but those rumors to support the idea.
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