Henry Hamilton ( governor ) Henry Hamilton ( c . 1734 – 29 September 1796 ) was an Irish - born soldier and official of the British Empire . He was captured during the American War of Independence while serving as the Lieutenant Governor at the British post of Fort Detroit . Early career . Henry was probably born in Dublin , Ireland , a younger son of Henry Hamilton , an Irish Member of Parliament . He was raised in County Cork , then started his military career during the French and Indian War , as a Captain in the 15th Regiment of Foot in the 1758 attack on Louisbourg and the Battle of Quebec . With the support of Lieutenant Governor of Canada Guy Carleton , Hamilton rose to the rank of brigade major . In 1775 , he sold his commission , leaving the British Army for a political career . American War of Independence . In 1775 , Hamilton was appointed Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs at Fort Detroit , one of five newly created lieutenant governorships in the recently expanded Province of Quebec . The American Revolutionary War was already underway by the time Hamilton arrived at Detroit to assume his duties . Hamilton was in a difficult position : as a civil official , Hamilton had few regular troops at his command , and the natives of the region — French Canadians and American Indians — were not all supporters of the British regime . Normand Macleod , a local fur trader , acted as " town major " before Hamilton ' s arrival . Hamilton became adept at diplomacy with American Indians , establishing good relations with local Indian leaders . Hamilton , an amateur artist , sketched portraits of many Native Americans while in Detroit , leaving what has been called the " earliest and largest collection of life portraits of Native Americans of the Upper Great Lakes . " When the war began , British officials initially determined not to enlist Indians as allies in the war effort , but in 1777 Hamilton received instructions to encourage Indian raids against the American frontier settlements of Virginia and Pennsylvania . This was a controversial policy because it was realised that civilian colonists would inevitably be killed in these raids . Hamilton attempted to limit civilian casualties by sending British officers and French - Canadian militia with the American Indian war parties . Nevertheless , hundreds of settlers in Kentucky and western Pennsylvania were killed and scalped by raiding parties during the war . In Detroit , Hamilton is alleged to have paid bounties for prisoners and scalps brought in by the Indians . He became hated by American settlers , who dubbed him the " Hair - buyer General " . In 1778 , Virginia forces under Colonel George Rogers Clark captured several undermanned British posts in the Illinois country , including Fort Sackville at Vincennes . Hamilton set out from Detroit on 7 October 1778 to recapture the post , 600 miles away . His small force gathered Native American allies along the way , and entered Vincennes on 17 December 1778 , capturing Fort Sackville and the American commandant , Captain Leonard Helm . In February 1779 , however , Colonel Clark returned to Vincennes in a surprise march , recapturing the outpost and taking Hamilton prisoner . Because of his support of the Indian raids , the Virginians regarded Hamilton as a war criminal rather than a conventional prisoner of war . Clark sent Hamilton to Williamsburg , Virginia , where he was jailed and placed in irons by Governor Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Executive Council from June 16 to September 29 , when he was released from chains . He rejected parole on the grounds that the terms of it violated his freedom of speech in restraining him from " saying any thing to the prejudice of the United States . " [ See " Order of Virginia Council Placing Henry Hamilton and Other in Irons , " 16 June 1779 , and Thomas Jefferson to George Washington , 1 October 1779 , both in the Papers of Thomas Jefferson ] Jefferson and the Council did not grant Hamilton parole until October 1780 , when he was sent to New York to await his exchange , which was accomplished in March 1781 . He then went immediately to London . Later career . Hamilton returned to Canada in 1782 , becoming Lieutenant - Governor , and later Deputy - Governor at Quebec . He went on to serve as Governor of Bermuda from 1785 to 1794 , and of Dominica from 1794 until his death in 1796 . In March 1795 , at age 61 , Hamilton married 25 - year - old Elizabeth Lee from Banbury , Oxfordshire , a daughter of Colonel Lee . They had one daughter , Mary Anne Pierpoint Hamilton , who died in 1871 unmarried and without children . Hamilton died on the island of Antigua in 1796 , while still Governor of Dominica . Sackville Hamilton , his older brother , was a Privy Councillor and Under - Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland .