# George Maddison (British Army officer)

Lieutenant-colonel George Maddison was a British army officer who served as the Lieutenant governor of Saint Vincent from 1763–1764. Maddison served as the commander of the King's Own Royal Regiment. Maddison led his regiment in several battles of the revolution, including Concord and Bunker Hill.
Maddison is most known for his raid, during the Powder Alarm of '75, where he led 260 regulars to remove 250 sub-barrels of gunpower from the patriots. Maddison is known to have survived an assassination plot from the sailor Samuel Dyer in October, 1774.

## Early career

Maddison was born on August 29, 1729 in Ketton, Rutland Unitary Authority, Rutland, England, to John Maddison, and his wife, Katherine Whichcote.
Maddison was commissioned into the British army, aged around 16, joining the 11th Regiment of Foot. Maddison presumably served with his regiment abroad during the War of the Austrian Succession, and fighting at the Battles of Fontenoy and Rocoux
Maddison was promoted to captain on January 20, 1750. The regiment embarked for the continent in spring 1760 for service in the Seven Years' War; it fought at the Battle of Warburg in July 1760, the Battle of Kloster Kampen in October 1760 and the Battle of Villinghausen in July 1761 Maddison was promoted again to major on may 9th, 1762. Maddison and his regiment fought at the Battle of Wilhelmsthal in June 1762 and the inconclusive Iberian campaign.
On his return to England, on April 20, 1763, Maddison is promoted yet again to lieutenant-colonel of the 4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot, currently in the west indies. Maddison was further appointed Lieutenant governor of Saint Vincent. Several islands, including Saint Vincent had recently been won during the recent war, and Brittan established the Windward Islands, with the Governor of Barbados becoming the Governor of Grenada and the Grenadines, St. Vincent and Tobago, with each island having its own lieutenant-governor. This arrangement was plagued with the difficulty of west to east communication among the islands in the days of sail.
In the spring of 1764, Maddison's tenure of Lieutenant governor ended, and both he and his regiment returned to England, arriving in July, and commenced recruiting its diminished numbers. In 1768, the King's Own proceeded to Scotland, where they were stationed during the four succeeding years, but returned to England in the spring of 1773, and remained on home service until the following year, when they were again ordered to hold themselves in readiness to proceed abroad.

## North America

Maddison and the King's Own, were one of the corps selected to proceed to North America, embarked for that service on the 17th of April, 1774. After landing at Boston the King's Own were encamped for some time near the town; and the violent revolutionary spirit which many of the colonists displayed, occasioned a detachment of the regiment to be sent during the winter to Marshfield, for the protection of a number of the friends of the government in that town and neighborhood.
Amidst growing tension between Great Britain and it's American colonies, Sheriff David Phips was dispatched on August 31, 1774 to William Brattle under orders of governor Thomas Gage to remove the provincial powder; Brattle turned the key to the powder house over to Phips. Gage also gave orders to ready a force of troops for action the next day, something that did not go unnoticed by the local population. At some point that day, General Gage, whether by his intent, accident, or theft by a messenger, lost possession of the August 27 letter from William Brattle; the widely held story is that it was dropped. News of its content spread rapidly, and many considered it to be a warning to Gage to remove the provincial powder before Patriots could seize it.
Early in the morning of September 1, a force of roughly 260 British regulars from the 4th Regiment, under the command of Maddison, was rowed in secrecy up the Mystic River from Boston to a landing point near Winter Hill in modern-day Somerville. From there they marched about a mile (1.6 km) to the Powder House, a gunpowder magazine that held the largest supply of gunpowder in Massachusetts. Phips gave the King's Troops the keys to the building, and after sunrise, they removed all of the gunpowder. Most of the regulars then returned to Boston the way they had come, but a small contingent marched to Cambridge, removed two field pieces, and took them to Boston by foot over the Great Bridge and up Boston Neck. The field pieces and powder were then taken from Boston to the British stronghold on Castle Island, then known as Castle William (renamed Fort Independence in 1779).
In the aftermath of the raid, false rumors flew throughout the day across the countryside about the British troop movements. The regulars were marching; provincial powder had been seized; war was at hand; people had been killed; Boston was being bombarded by His Majesty's warships. The alarm spread as far as Connecticut. From all over the region, people took up arms and began streaming toward Boston. On September 2, several thousand men bent on violence gathered in Cambridge, where they forced several notable Loyalists, including Brattle, to flee to Boston and the protection of the military. Sheriff Phips was forced, in writing, to dissociate himself from any and all government actions. Eventually facts caught up with the rumors, and militia units (some of which were still heading toward Boston) returned home.
Maddison remained in command of his regiment during the siege, and during the costly victory at the Battle of Bunker Hill. By November, he was replaced as commander of his regiment by lieutenant-colonel Harry Blunt. He remained in the city, and left when the British evacuated the city on March 17, 1776, retiring first to Halifax, and then to England.

## Death

He died on January 10, 1806, aged 76 in Dunstable, Central Bedfordshire Unitary Authority, Bedfordshire, England, having outlived his wife by 15 years.

## Personal life

Maddison married Mary Baugh, the daughter of Captain Lancelot Baugh on October 11, 1757, in Portsmouth, England. She died in 1791. They had 3 children.
1) Colonel George Maddison (1762-) 2) Colonel John Thomas Maddison (1759-1837) 3) Katharine Blacker (Maddison) (1769-1823)