Nicholas Lechmere

Colonel Nicholas Lechmere: The Crown’s Collector

Before the first shots of the Revolution, Nicholas Lechmere was a pillar of the British establishment in Beaufort, serving as the Royal Customs Collector for the port. His social standing was further solidified through his marriage into the prominent DeVeaux family, tying his personal fortunes to the local aristocracy. When the revolutionary government demanded an oath of allegiance to the new state in 1777, Lechmere was among the few who initially chose exile, placing a public notice of his departure in the South Carolina Gazette.

The Return and the Royal Foresters

Lechmere’s exile was temporary. Following the British capture of Savannah and Charleston, he returned to the Beaufort District not as a customs official, but as a soldier. Commissioned as an officer in the Royal Foresters, a Loyalist regiment authorized by Lord Cornwallis, Lechmere was tasked with maintaining order and securing the countryside. His command was a “peacekeeping” force in name, but in practice, it was a vital arm of the British occupation, responsible for patrolling the roads and suppressing Patriot “gangs” and rangers.

The Capture at Fort Balfour

Lechmere’s military career came to a sudden and embarrassing halt in April 1781. He was stationed at Fort Balfour, the primary British stronghold guarding the Pocotaligo River crossing. While the fort was well-garrisoned, Lechmere and his fellow officer, Thomas Fenwick, were caught off-guard. While visiting a field hospital outside the fort’s protective walls, they were ambushed and captured by a detachment of Colonel William Harden’s Patriot rangers.

His capture was a catastrophe for the British. Left without their senior leadership, the garrison at Fort Balfour became paralyzed by indecision. When Harden demanded a surrender, the Loyalist troops—some of whom already harbored secret Patriot sympathies—mutinied and forced the fort’s capitulation without a shot being fired.

Legacy of the “Displaced Official”

Following the war, Lechmere’s property was subject to the confiscation acts of the new Patriot government. Unlike his kinsman Andrew DeVeaux, who led a daring expedition to the Bahamas, Lechmere’s post-war life was marked by the quiet struggle of an official whose world had vanished. He eventually left South Carolina permanently, a symbol of the high-ranking Loyalists who lost everything in the struggle to keep the Lowcountry under the British flag.