Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1874-01-30
[ For the Sunbury American. ]
Sunbury Bar, I772.
CHRISTIAN HUCK, ESQ.

Among the attorneys admitted to the Bar at
Sunbury at the first Court of Common Pleas of
Northumberland county, held upon the fourth
Tuesday of May, 1772, was Christian Huck,
Esq.
Alexander Graydon Ca captain in Col. Lam
bert Cadwallader's regiment, and captured at
Fort Washington, 10th November, l77G, and
first Prothono;ary of Dauphn county, 1850
published at Harrisburg, in 1911, ''Memors of
his~own times" book pronounced by John
Gait, a competent English critic, to be the best
personal narrative that has yet appeared rela-
tive to the history of the great conflict, which
terminated in establishing the Independence of
the United States. 1t was unpublished by Lind
say & Blakiston in 1916, edited by John 5. Lit
tell, of Germantown, and from the text and foot
notes | gather the following Information of
Christian Huck. "
Mr.. Graydon says, ''to the best of my recol-
lection it was early in the month Of June Q777g
/ met with Christian Huck, the lawyer, Il refu-
gee (tory) from Philadelphia, at Flatbush (Long
Island, Coils. Atlee and Miles, Major West, Len
nox, Graydon and other American officers were
on parole confnement.) This Huck had read
law in Philadelphia with Isaac Hunt, and had
received the early part of his education at the
charity school of the Academy, when l was a
pupil there. He is spoken of in our accounts of
him as 4 monster of profanity and cruelty. But
this ferocity must have been acquired by the
fury with which the war was wageG III the South
ern quarter, as | remember nothing of these IT,
ger. qualities in him, and / knew him from his
boyish years up to those of manhood"
''1f he was distinguished for anything, it was
for affected sapience and a pretension to
more knowledge than he possessed. A waggsh
fellow-student Of his, the late Edward Tilghman,
him if a ts!o-de-se could inherit an estate, when
IIuck, applying his finger to his nose, in an at
titude OF profound thought replied, that in some
cases, he believed he could
General Henry Lee III his memoirs, speaks of
Huck's death (l7SO-s1), as follows: "Captain
Huck, of Tarleton's Legion, lad been detached
! by Lieutenant Colonel Turnbull, commanding
at Hanging Rock, to dsperse some of the exiles
of South Carolina, who had lately returned to
the State, and were collected in the neighbor-
hood to assist in protecting their country. The
captain Win IoTty CTaSOOhs, twenty mounted
infantry and sixty militia, ventured thirty miles
up the country, where the very exiles he was
sent to disperse, attacked and destroyed his de-
tachment. The Captain notorious for his cru
elites and violence, was killed, as were several
others, and the rest dispersed
How long Huck practiced at the SUnbury Bar
am unable to say. He probably retired to
Philadelphia with the outbreak OF the Revolu-
tion in April, 1775, as the atmosphere of North
umberland county was exceedingly unwhoe-
some for such characters.
Philadelphia also becoming little too warm
for him, he aed to The British at Long Island,
(where Graydon met him), subsequently Joined
Tarleton Legion, and became eminentg infa-
nous in the annals of Southern warfare.
j. B. LINN.