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We often think of the Civil War as the conflict that pitted “brother against brother,” but the Revolutionary War also splintered families along loyalist and patriot lines, even in the most fervently patriotic families. John Stinson Jr., the nephew of Patriot General John Stark, a veteran of the Battle of Bunker Hill and coiner of the phrase, “Live free or die,” fought alongside his uncle but later defected to the British side. In this 1781 legal document, Stark, who raised his nephew, submits a bill for “board and nursing from the time that he was a year and a half to the time he was seven years” as well as “interest for the above sum from the year 1762 to the year 1781.” Asking for more than seventy-three pounds, an astronomical sum for the time, Stark's anger over Stinson’s defection to the British side is expressed through this bill.

31.61

1781 – The Estate of John Stinson Junr. – To John Stark – D –
To the said Stinsons board & nursing from the time that he was a year [inserted: and a half] old, to the time he was seven years, being Two Hundred & Eighty six weeks at Two Shillings & five pence per week – 2/5 –

}£ 31.11.2

To Interest for the above sum from the year 1762 to the year 1781 – nineteen years at 6 per sentum per annum is –

}£ 39.78 ½
}£ 73.18.10 ½

Errors excepted
John Stark
[struck: To Messrs Herriman, Page, & Hogg, Esqrs Agents for the disposal of Confiscated Lands.]

Item Description and Credits

GLC01412.42: Charges to the confiscated estate of John Stinson, Jr.
Dunbarton, New Hampshire, 19 May 1781. Document signed, 2 pages + docket.

Suggested Reading

Brown, Wallace. The Good Americans: The Loyalists in the American Revolution. New
York: Morrow, 1969.

Middlekauf, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Rose, Ben Z. John Stark: Maverick General. Victoria, British Columbia: Treeline Press, 2007.

Royster, Charles. A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American
Character, 1775-1783. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1979.