Person:Charles Edmonstone (2)

Captain Charles Edmonstone

• Captain in the 18th Royal Irish Regiment (1684–1922)of Foot
• Hazard, Samuel. Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. 10. Printed by Joseph Severns & Co. Philadelphia, Pa., 1854.

Page 463, 464 – Bill of Sale, &c. – Know all Men by these presents that I Charles Edmonstone, Esq., Capt., in his Majesty’s 18th or Royal Regiment of Foot of Ireland, and Commanding at Fort Pitt, for and in consideration of the sum of Fifty Pounds, New York Currency to me, in hand paid by William Thompson, Gent. In the County of Cumberland and Province of Pennsylvania, and Alexander Ross, Agent, Victualler at Fort Pitt; the Receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, Have Bargained and sold on behalf of the Crown & by these presents do Bargain, sell and deliver unto the said William Thompson & Alexander Ross; All the Pickitts, Bricks, Stone, Timber, and Iron, which now is in the Building or Walls of the Fort, and in the Redoubts to be demolished by order of his Excellency the Honerable Lieut. General Thomas Gage, Commander in Chief of his Majisty’s Forces in North America. To have and to hold the said Bargained Pickitts, Bricks, Stones, Timber and Iron, unto the said William Thompson and Alexander Ross, their Executors, admrs. & assigns forever. And I the said Charles Edmonstone, in behalf of the crown, shall and will Warrant & forever defend against all Persons, by these presents the said Bargained Premises unto the said William Thompson & Alex’r Ross, their Executors and Assigns. In Witness whereof, I have hereunto, set my hand & seal the tenth day of October, one thousand seven hundred & seventy-two.

(Signed.) Cha's Edmonstone, [seal] Commanding

Signed, Sealed & delivered In Presence of,

Edm’d Prideaux,

Edw’d Hand (see Edward Hand)

1,244,160 Bricks,

Sundry Bricks, &c., remg. In the Govn House,

Sundry Square & cut Stones in the Walls of the Fort,

2,026 Pickitts,

4,250 Feet of Walnut Scantling,

499 Feet of Plank,

16 Double Frames of Barrack Rooms,

2,380 Feet of Square Timber,

A Square Log House, 50 Feet long,

2 Redoubts, 8 Stacks of Chimneys.

• Dahlinger, Charles William. Fort Pitt, Privately Printed, Pittsburgh, 1922.

Pages 31, 32, 33 – Chapter 4 – In Virginia – After the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and eight years later in 1771, the forts were regarded as useless by the English and in order to conciliate the Indians, in the autumn of 1772, General Gage ordered their abandonment.

On October 10, 1772, Major Charles Edmonstone of the 18th Royal Irish Regiment (1684–1922), the commander of Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania), sold the buildings and materials of the fort consisting of pickets, briks, stone, timber and iron in the building and walls of the fort and in the redoubts to be demolished, for the sum of fifty pounds, New York currency, to William Thompson and Alexander Ross.

The people of Pittsburgh protested and petioned the Governor Penn to intervene and prevail on General Gage to restore the fort. In spite of Governor Penn’s attempts to do so failed. On February 19, 1773 the Assembly gave their reason why they declined the request, giving reason that it might offend the Indians with whom the country was at peace.

But while Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania) was abandoned it was not fully destroyed and continued to be occupied in some way for a score of years afterward. Upon its evacuation by the English it was taken possession of by Major Edward Ward, a half brother of George Croghan, the Indian trader, and Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs to Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet. He was the same Ward who, while Ensign, had been compelled to surrender to the French the uncompleted fort at the forks of the Monongahela River and Allegheny River.

It is not quite clear by what right Ward took possession of Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania), but it was perhaps done as agent of or by permission of Ross and Thompson, to whom Major Charles Edmonstone of the 18th Royal Irish Regiment (1684–1922) had sold the materials and buildings of the fort. That is is probably the explanation of Ward’s possession, is indicated from the fact that a petition was presented to the Virginia Convention on December 18, 1775, by Ross and Thompson, in which they asserted that they were in possession of Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania) from the time of its abandonment by Major Charles Edmonstone of the 18th Royal Irish Regiment (1684–1922) until it was occupied by Dr. Connolly on January 1, 1774. Ward’s occupation of the fort ending at that time, and asking to be compensated for the use of the fort by Dr. Connolly. Also Ross had been the agent in Pittsburgh for the contractor for victualling his Majesty’s forces in North America, and was besides the possessor of the title to several tracts of land located about the fort, the grant of which had been made to him directly or indirectly by Major Charles Edmonstone of the 18th Royal Irish Regiment (1684–1922) prior to the evacuation of Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania) by the British. Hence he was strongly suspected of being disloyal to the American cause, and was in fact afterward attainted of treason by Act of the Pennsylvania Assembly. The possession of the property at the fort may therefore have been turned over to Ward whose loyalty was unquestioned, in order to avoid being confiscated.

Source Fort Pitt, Page 31, 32, 33.

• Acquired land in 1786 along with his son John.

John Ward, Edward's son, and Mary, John's wife (on August 4, 1797), sold lots 22 and 23 on Coal Hill to James O'Hara and Isaac Craig. (D.B. 17, p. 294, Allegheny County records). Sometime prior to John's conveyance of those lots to O'Hara and Craig, they had been taken "in execution as the property of Edward Ward" and sold to Abraham Kirkpatrick, but Kirkpatrick, for some reason, executed a deed, in which his wife joined, in John's favor, in 1794, for those lots.

A living descendant of Edward Ward's, Frank Joseph Forsyth, when he made application to the S.A.R. to be enrolled in it, was unable to give the date of birth or of marriage or of death of Edward Ward, and he made the same error as to the name of Edward's wife that some other of Edward's descendants had made when they applied for membership in the D.A.R. The error was this: they stated that Mary Archer was the wife of Edward Ward and the mother of Edward's son John. As this article discloses, the name of Edward's wife was Hannah Sample.

1.   Hazard, Samuel. Pennsylvania Archive. First Series. (Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph Severns & Co., 1853)
   Vol. 10, Pages 463, 464.
2.   Dahlinger, Charles William. Fort Pitt. (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Privately Printed, 1922)
   Pages 31, 32, 33.