General William Edmeston (died 1804) was a British Army officer who owned an estate in

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

. As a captain in the

48th Regiment of Foot The 48th (Northamptonshire) Regiment of Foot was a regiment of the British Army, raised in 1741. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 58th (Rutlandshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Northamptonshire Regiment in 1881. History Early ...

, he was posted to North America in 1755 with his brother, Lieutenant Robert Edmeston, to fight in the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

. In 1763, by

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proclamation, the brothers were each awarded 5,000 acres (20 km²) of land in the colonies for their military service. They attempted to establish their claims in what was then a disputed part of the

New Hampshire Grants The New Hampshire Grants or Benning Wentworth Grants were land grants made between 1749 and 1764 by the colonial governor of the Province of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth. The land grants, totaling about 135 (including 131 towns), were made o ...

, now

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. However, in 1770 they decided to locate on the east bank of the

Unadilla River The Unadilla River is a river in the Central New York Region of New York State. The river begins northeast of the hamlet of Millers Mills and flows generally south to the village of Sidney, where it converges with the Susquehanna River, which d ...

in New York State just west of

George Croghan George Croghan (c. 1718 – August 31, 1782) was an Irish-born fur trader in the Ohio Country of North America (current United States) who became a key early figure in the region. In 1746 he was appointed to the Onondaga Council, the governin ...

's Otsego

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, in what is now the Town of Edmeston in Otsego County. They established their homes on the land, which became known as the Mount Edmeston

Tract Tract may refer to: Geography and real estate * Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots * Land lot or tract, a section of land * Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census ...

s. The transactions were facilitated by

Percifer Carr Percifer Carr (also given variously as ''Parsifer'', ''Persifor'', ''Persefer'' and ''Persafor'' Carr) (died 1804) was a British allied Loyalist (American Revolution), Loyalist living in what is now Otsego County, New York around the time of the A ...

, who had been a sergeant in the 48th with Edmeston and when the Edmeston brothers later returned to England, Carr would be employed as

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of their land. When the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

broke out in 1775 Edmonston was arrested by the Americans and sent to Boston to be exchanged, after which he became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 48th Foot. He was captured by a French privateer in 1779, but he made his way to England the following year and spent the remainder of the war serving in Europe as a lieutenant-colonel, first with the 48th Foot but from 1782 to 1783 with the

50th Foot The 50th (Queen's Own) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1755. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 97th (The Earl of Ulster's) Regiment of Foot to form the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment ...

. Between 1793 and 1796 he was the Colonel of the short-lived 95th Regiment of Foot and in 1802 he was appointed Colonel of the 1st Royal Veteran Battalion. He was promoted full general in 1803. He died the following year and was buried at Hanwell, Middlesex on 3 July 1804.

References

James H. Pickering, ''New York in the Revolution: Cooper's Wyandotté'' Published in ''New York History, Vol. XLIX, No. 2'' (April 1968)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edmeston, William 1804 deaths British Army generals British Army personnel of the French and Indian War People from Edmeston, New York Year of birth unknown 48th Regiment of Foot officers