#It is entertaining to read the Kinloch-Müller letters and watch Kinloch develop more and more of a “mommy's mad at me :'(” attitude

[john-laurens]

Patriot Mother vs. Loyalist Son: Anne Kinloch's Attempts to Change Francis Kinloch's Political Beliefs

Francis Kinloch's transition from a loyalist receiving an education in England to a (reluctant) patriot fighting in the American military is one that has long intrigued me. In this post, I'll explore how Francis's relationship with his mother contributed to his change of heart. As a preview of the information contained below, please enjoy this (questionably historically accurate) meme:

For those interested in the John Laurens-Francis Kinloch relationship, it is well known that Francis Kinloch was a loyalist at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, much to the detriment of his personal relationships. His loyalist beliefs and preference for a monarchy are conveyed in his letters to John, particularly when they engaged in their political debate throughout the year 1776 (the letters can be found here). Francis's political views may have in part been due to the fact that he was placed under the guardianship of Thomas Boone, a staunch loyalist, after his father's death. Under Boone's direction, Francis was educated in England during 1768-1774 and again during 1777-1778. Despite this, Francis would return to the colonies in 1778 and fight on the American side. This post will address but one of the various factors that contributed to this decision.

Francis's loyalist views were not shared by others in his family. His mother Anne Cleland Kinloch and sister Mary Esther Kinloch Huger remained in South Carolina and supported the patriot cause. Being located in the colonies for the entirety of the war, the two certainly had a much greater exposure to the ongoing conflict. While Francis was abroad, Mary Esther married Major Benjamin Huger, who served in the 5th South Carolina Regiment. Mary Esther unfortunately lost her husband to the war, as Benjamin was killed in a friendly fire incident in Charleston in 1779.

Anne and Francis exchanged letters while Francis was in Europe, and Francis must have made his loyalist beliefs apparent to his mother. A recurring theme in their correspondence is Anne encouraging her son to rethink his views and to return home while Francis wonders how to respond to his mother's exhortations. The collection "Kinloch family history and genealogy research files" in the South Carolina Historical Society archives contains transcripts of parts of letters from Anne to Francis during the American Revolutionary War period. While the following paragraphs were written in different sections across the collection, they all appear to be from the March 10, 1776 letter from Anne to Francis. Any x's are directly copied from the transcripts and may indicate a skipped portion of the transcribed letter. Any ellipses are my own.

"this will be sent to you by an Officer in our Continl [Continental] Troops, who has promised to see you xx who is besides an intimate friend & acquaintance of ours. xx shall show Capt. Gillon & c xx I hope before he leaves you, you may perhaps be able to congratulate yourself on being the subject of a free and great Empire, that may in future times vie with ancient Greece or Rome xx"

"this will be sent you from a Sea port in France by an Officer in our Continental troops who has promised to see you; I have assured him you will with pleasure go to him, as he will be 4 or 5 days ride from you, he says he will meet you half way & perhaps return with you as he will have little else to do but to travel about xxx I have taken the liberty to give him an invitation to your house_ I tell him I am sure you will do everything in your power to make agreeable to him & suppose that tho' tis Bachellor's Hall that you have a spare bed for a friend. We shall all be much obliged to you for any civilities You, or thro' your means your friends shall shew Capt. Gillon whom you will find a agreeable sensible obliging intelligent man & who can give you a very good account of the unhappy differences between our unnatural Parent & us xxx I have had for some time very little of my amiable worthy Huger's company, he being obliged to be on duty in Town in the Service of his Country & has lately been made a major of a Company of Riflemen ... Your old friend Mr Baird is again our neighbour but quite different & an imperious young wife & young children bawling about his ears & for heavens sake my dear Francy if you don't take a wife when you are young, never marry at all & to ad to poor Archie's troubles he cannot be prevailed upon to sign the association so that no person can buy from him, his situation is truly Deplorable, looked at unkindly by his old friends & stigmatized with the detested name of Tory xxx"

"... cause I am hopes to send you a book wrote by a native American, whose arguments will I hope convince you, we are right & which I assure you it will give me great pleasure to hear. … you'll please not to mention to Mr Boone, your going to meet this Gentn [Gentleman], till his return to America, as I suppose you sometimes make little excursions with out his leave, then you may if you please make an apology. At the same time this present situation of our affairs, renders this caution necessary, you'll please likewise to introduce him as coming from America, to none of your English friends. As he is not an American nor an English Man, & speaks many different languages, you may converse in which you please."

Anne appears to have sent both literature and people engaged in the American cause to convince her son to support the side of the colonies. Captain Gillon is likely Alexander Gillon, who was a merchant in Charleston, captain of the German Fusiliers of Charleston, and later Commodore of the South Carolina Navy. He was born in the Dutch Republic, which explains Anne's comments about him being neither American nor English. Anne made her opinions of the British Empire and the revolutionary American colonies clear in her letters. She describes the British Empire as an "unnatural parent" and hopes that her son will one day be proud to call himself a free citizen of America, a soon-to-be formed country that she believes will rival ancient empires. She also clearly realizes that Thomas Boone would be unhappy to know that Francis is associating with members of the American military, and she cautions Francis to avoid mentioning his meeting with Captain Gillon to his guardian. I do not know what role Anne played in naming Boone as the guardian of her children (I assume her late husband Francis was likely the one who made this decision), but it is interesting to see her strive to counteract Boone's influence on her son.

Captain Gillon may not have been the only person who helped Anne get through to her son. According to the "Kinloch family history and genealogy research files," Anne may have worked with John Laurens to persuade Francis to join the American side. As described above, John debated the merits of monarchism and republicanism with Francis in 1776, and the Kinloch family collections suggest that Anne may have been involved in this exchange. There are some brief mentions of John that describe his potential partnership with Anne. These descriptions, to my understanding, are written by descendants of the Kinlochs who compiled biographical information about the family:

"When 21 and travelling in France the American War was beginning and his [Francis's] mother [Anne] wrote to him to return and sent his friend John Laurens & Com. Gillon to urge his doing so."

Another anecdote mentions John without directly connecting him to Anne:

"He [Francis] was [loathe] to abandon England, his allegiance, career, & hopes there and the influence of his guardian & protestations of his friends & relations there detained him But his Mother's earnest solicitations brought him back to Carolina (I have one of her letters to him & his dear friend John Laurens alludes to his position in a letter to his father [Henry Laurens])."

I see two possibilities for these potential interactions between Anne, Francis, and John.

The Kinloch family has correspondence between Anne and John or other documents that indicate the two directly communicated and jointly endeavored to change Francis's political views. These documents, if they exist, do not appear to be present in the "Kinloch family history and genealogy research files."

The Kinloch family read some of John's letters to Francis in 1776 and assumed that Anne encouraged John to send these letters. This assumption may have been false, as there are no surviving letters (or at least no publicly available letters) between Anne and John that suggest they worked together or otherwise interacted. The families certainly knew each other, but we do not know the extent of their interactions outside of Francis Kinloch, Sr. and Henry Laurens engaging in business with one another. I do think it's hilarious that the Kinloch descendants potentially read John's scathing letters to Francis and went "Wow, Anne Kinloch must have asked him to send such blistering letters. Why else would John have been so highly motivated to criticize Francis's beliefs?" When in reality...John was a very passionate person who was Just Like That.

Francis was not immediately receptive to the arguments of his mother and friends, but his mother's criticism did eventually wear him down. He repeatedly wrote to Johannes von Müller about his mother and the conflict he felt between pursuing a career in England and returning home to South Carolina:

"My Mother, I hear, has suffered very much with a pain in her face. This has broke her health so much that She is scarce to be Known again, I hope in God that She may have got rid of it by this time, but the bane idea of her suffering at this very moment perhaps, added to all She must feel on my account, this wrings my very soul_ In the middle of my dreams of Ambition, the thought of Her shoots like lightning across my mind, I see her pale emaciated face, I see Her beckon to me, I hear her tell me how many times She has watched the live long night at my bedside, & Nature stirs within Me._ What can I do, my Muller, You Know, as well as I do, what I owe to My Guardian, You & every one must see the propriety of the plans that he has lay’d for my future welfare, & there is now every probability of their succeeding, on the other hand_" – Francis Kinloch to Johannes von Müller, April 4 [or 14], 1777

"some times I think of living in Switzerland, but then I am afraid of getting too much dishabituated to the World, & particularly to the English world, nor do I Know how soon the sources of my money may be dry, at others I have thought of serving a Campaign as a volunteer with General Howe, but that idea my Guardian has already smothered by objecting that it would immediately be attributed to Him, besides, I should draw down the curses of an angry mother, of a Mother whom I love too, upon my head. What remains then to do? An Idle life I neither can nor will lead_" – Francis Kinloch to Johannes von Müller, July 30, 1777

"Born to a fortune as ample as was necessary to render me independent, for upon moderate Computation My Brother & I would have been worth a thousand a year each, I find myself reduced to thank a Merchant for allowing me what I can just live upon for one year, burning with Ambition & preferring a military life, I am prevented from entering the field of Glory now opened to All corners in my Native Country, & am daily agitated by the sense of what I owe my Mother, whose solicitations should melt a heart much harder than mine, joined to the reflection of the numerous obligations I have received from Mr Boone._" – Francis Kinloch to Johannes von Müller, August 3, 1777

"If a man who is deprived of his fortune, who is cut off from his country, who is daily incurring the displeasure of His Mother, & who sees no probability of being provided for but by wading through the Chaos of an interested, laborious, sedentary, profession should utter some complaints, why clothe them with the appellation of ennuie, & cut off his only resource_" – Francis Kinloch to Johannes von Müller, August 14, 1777

After much contemplation, Kinloch would ultimately leave Europe and return to America in 1778. One can only imagine how Anne felt to finally be reunited with a son she had not seen for 10 years - a son who had left a boy and returned a man, a son who defied her pleadings for so long but ultimately heeded his mother's call.