Samuel Campbell Clegg

Samuel Campbell Clegg (b. abt 1740- April 1779) was a Tory in the American Revolution. Samuel Campbell Clegg was born in Virginia about 1740. He was an ensign in the South Carolina Royalists. Prior to the American Revolution, he married Barbara Maria Flick, who had immigrated to the South Carolina colony from Germany in 1764. They were married about 1772 in Ninety Six District, South Carolina and had four children before Samuel was captured at the Battle of Kettle Creek in Georgia and hanged for his activities as a Tory in 1779.

After the successful siege of Savannah by the British forces, a Colonel Boyd was dispatched to recruit a band of Loyalist militia in the back county of the Carolinas and to join the British forces in Augusta, Georgia. Colonel Andrew Pickens and his patriot forces planned to engage the Loyalists before they could cross the Savannah River. However, his scouts discovered the Loyalist band of about 600 men encamped on Kettle Creek, near present day Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia. On 14 February 1779, the Loyalists were surprised and defeated by the Whigs commanded by Colonels Andrew Pickens, John Dooly and Elijah Clarke. About 20 men were captured and 78 surrendered. All were marched to the stockade in Augusta, Georgia.

South Carolina authorities proclaimed the men criminals under civil jurisdiction, rather than prisoners of war; and most of them were marched to the Ninety Six jail in South Carolina. “On March 8, the prisoners crossed the Savannah and were held one night at Mathis Pond near Edgefield. A second night they were crowded into an unsanitary, cramped bull pen on Williamson’s (Col. Andrew Williamson) Whitehall Plantation. They arrived under guard at the Ninety Six jail on March 10.” (Cann) They were charged with sedition and treason, crimes punishable by hanging and forfeiture of all property. For various reasons, about half of the men were released and charges dropped. About 20 men were sentenced to death and scheduled to be executed on April 17. The men were transferred to Orangeburg for security reasons. All but five men were granted reprieves and those were marched back to Ninety Six, where they were hanged at Star Fort in late April 1779. The five men were Samuel Clegg, James Lindley, John Anderson, Aquilla Hall, and Charles Draper.

There are several records of Samuel Clegg at the Ninety Six jail. The Sheriff of Ninety Six District, William Moore, compiled a list of the five men as part of his claim for money owed to him by the state treasury. "To the gaol fees on commitment of James Linley, John Anderson, Aquilla Hall, Samuel Clegg and Charles Draper who were hanged &c L 86 : 4: 0 each." (William Moore file)

The family of Samuel Campbell Clegg and Barbara Maria Flick

1. Jonathan Clegg was born 22 February 1773 in Edgefield District, South Carolina. He married Louisa Phoebe (or Pharabay) Holloway. He died 31 May 1841 in Social Circle, Walton County, Georgia.

2. Campbell B. Clegg was born about 1775 in Edgefield District, South Carolina. He married Nancy Faulkner. He died in January 1843 in Edgefield County, South Carolina.

4. Nancy Clegg was born about 1777 in Edgefield District, South Carolina. She married a Johnson man about 1796.

3. Elizabeth Clegg was born about 1778 in Edgefield District, South Carolina. She married Jacob Timmerman about 1794. She died 10 August 1860 in Edgefield County, South Carolina.

Sources

Dr. Marvin L. Cann, “Kettle Creek and Ninety Six: The story of a Revolutionary Battle and a Loyalist Trial,” "The Carolina Herald" (Summer Issue 2004): 4-7.

William Moore, Revolutionary Accounts Audited File #5335. South Carolina Dept. of Archives and History, Columbia. Murtie June Clark, "Loyalists in the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War" (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1981).