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Hamilton Douglas Halyburton
Lt. Hon. Hamilton Douglas Halyburton (10 October 1763 – 31 December
1783) Lt. Hamilton died of exposure while commanding the barge of
HMS Assistance, which was caught in a snowstorm while going to look
for deserters and wrecked on Sandy Hook.
He had changed his name to Halyburton when he inherited the Pitcur
estates. The date of James Halyburton’s death has not been firmly
established. Family histories place it around 1742–3, but his son,
Colonel James Halyburton, was served as heir on 17 July 1755. When
the colonel, who was himself by all accounts a rather unstable
individual, died childless in 1765, Pitcur passed to his
great-nephew, Hamilton Halyburton Douglas, son of the 15 th Earl of
Morton.
"On this spot were buried the remains of the Honorable Hamilton Halyburton, 1st Lieutenant, Royal Navy, son of the Earl of Morton, and James Ohampion, Lieutenant of Marines. Together with twelve members of the crew of H.M.S. Assistance who died here at Sandy Hook in line of Duty on December 31, 1783.." Explanatory information board: "In January of 1783, as the Revolutionary War was ending, British warships withdrew from New York Harbor. While the warship H.M.S. Assistance was anchored in Sandy Hook Bay, some of her crew deserted and escaped into the salt marshes here. A search party of thirteen men, led by 1st Lieutenant Hamilton Douglas-Halyburton was sent to find them only to get caught in a blizzard and perish. The bodies were buried in a common grave that, some time later, was lost. In 1908, workmen discovered the remains and the British sailors were re-interred at Cyupress Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn. The present memorial was erected by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937."
The H.M.S. Assistance was off Sandy Hook at the end of December,
ready to sail back across the Atlantic. On the 31st, six seamen
under the command of a midshipman set off from the Assistance in a
long-boat to retrieve water from the transport Bridgewater nearby.
These men overpowered the midshipman, cut the rope, and pushed
toward the Jersey shore. (Five men had also deserted from the
Assistance on the preceding day.) The fourteen men named above
boarded a barge in pursuit of the deserters. Soon after the sailors
left the Assistance the weather began to worsen; the wind picked up
and it began to snow heavily. The snow and wind continued on New
Year's day, so much so that the crew members aboard the Assistance
could not make out any of the smaller boats. The Remains of the Honourable Hamilton Douglas Hallyburton, Son of Sholto Charles Earl of Morton and Heir of the Ancient Family of Hallyburton of Pitcurr in Scotland, who perished on this coast with twelve more young gentlemen and one common Seaman, in the spirited Discharge of Duty on the 30th or 31st of December 1783 Born on the 10 of October 1763. A youth who in contempt of hardship or Danger, though possessed of an ample Fortune served seven years in the British Navy with a manly Courage and seemed to deserve a better fate. This plain Monumental stone is erected by his unhappy Mother Katherine Countess Dowager of Morton to his dear memory and that of his unfortunate companions.
James Champion Lieutenant of Marines
Alexander Johnstone, George Paddy, Robert Haywood Midshipmen Charles Gascoigne William Tomlinson Andrew Hamilton William Spry William Scott John McChain David Reddie Robert Wood Young Gentlemen George Towers common seaman Cast away, all found dead and frozen, and buried in one Grave.
On Hamilton Douglas Halyburton's
death in 1783, Lord Douglas Gordon-Hallyburton (10 October 1777 – 25
October 1841), a Scottish soldier and Member of Parliament,
succeeded to the estate of Pitcur, near Kettins in Forfarshire, and
adopted the name and arms of Hallyburton of Pitcur.
Any contributions will be gratefully accepted
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Halyburton's mother, the Countess Dowager
of Morton, originally erected a marble monument over the graves of
the men at Sandy Hook. Sometime around the year 1808, during the
Napoleonic Wars, an armed French vessel landed on the Hook, and some
of the crewmen took the time to destroy the monument. The grave was
rediscovered when excavations were being done at Fort Hancock with
the view of erecting new government buildings there. The New York
Times reported that a vault was found during the excavation in which
the remains of fourteen men of the Royal Navy were found. The
remains were reinterred at Cypress Hills National Cemetery in
Brooklyn, New York in 1909, and a large, granite monument was
erected over their grave in 1939.