Founder’s Musings   •   June 18, 2026

©2026, Allison Peacock, Family History Detectives® – All Rights Reserved

(For the background on this story, read an earlier blog post here.)

Note: This biographical sketch is a snapshot based on the best available DNA technology and historical records at the time it was written. Records can be missing, illegible, or contradict each other, requiring further research. New records might surface later to change the narrative.

In January of 1777, a young Maryland boy traveled from his rural Anne Arundel County home to Baltimore City to build a new life for himself as a soldier. That new life, after years of chaos at home, was cut short when he fell 3 1/2 years later in a South Carolina pine forest on August 16, 1780 in one of the bloodiest battles of the entire Revolutionary War.

Introduction

Formerly known simply as Camden 9B after his discovery by archaeologists in Burial 9 on the Camden battlefield with 4 other Continentals, Private John Pumphrey gave his life for our country’s right to self-governance. More than 240 years after he fell in battle, his skeletal remains were discovered in 2022 by a team of archaeologists from the University of South Carolina. A year later, he and a dozen of his compatriots were afforded full military honors and reburied in the historical cemetery nearby that was in use at the time of the war.

Even as someone who does this work every day for law enforcement, medical examiners, archaeologists, adoptees, and trafficking survivors, the opportunity to give the gift of knowing this young hero to the entire country as we’re celebrating our 250th birthday as a nation is something that will stick with me for the rest of my life. When a budget shortfall hit the project, it was his relatives and fans inspired by a Genealogy For Justice patron, that came to the rescue ensuring we had the funds to pay for fine-tuned DNA reference testing and fees that would have otherwise prevented closure on his identification.

Very little is known about John Pumphrey other than what we can infer based on our research, both genetic and historical. There would have been almost no opportunity in colonial Maryland for an orphaned rural teenager to have left behind any kind of legal record. That said, the context surrounding his life, as glimpsed in historical records from his time and place, lends a picture that helps us get to know him.

An anthropological examination performed on his remains prior to his reburial with military honors in 2023 revealed that John Pumphrey was a subadult, or under the age of 20 when he was killed. In several subsequent conversations with the project’s biological anthropologists, it was their opinion that he was only 16 to 18 when he died in 1780, and perhaps even younger. This conclusion was based on the fact that the growth plates around both knees had not fully closed. This means he would have been about 13 to 15 years-old when he joined the 7th Maryland Regiment in January of 1777. At a height of about 5’8″ tall, the average in that era for a grown man according to studies of other soldiers, he may have been able to blend in with his older regiment mates.

Although his age seems rare, Owen Lourie, Senior Research Archivist and Project Director of Finding the Maryland 400, provided data to us indicating that enlistment at anywhere from age 13 to 15 is completely plausible. Although John Pumphrey was definitely among the youngest in the Maryland Line at the time, his life circumstances make his choice believable. Lourie has authored biographical sketches for the Finding the Maryland 400 project of boy soldiers who were younger than 15. James Marles enlisted in 1776 at age 13. Solomon Brittenham enlisted in early April 1780 as a 14 year old.

Military life

His mark on his enlistment papers reveals that John was not literate. His military record also shows the dogged determination of youth. After leaving behind all he knew, his regiment marched about 200 miles to become embroiled in the Northern Theater. He and his comrades in arms later left the north from Morristown where they were stationed with General George Washington and traveled back through Maryland and Virginia into the Carolinas in 1780. Calculating their documented appearances at the Battle of Brandywine, Battle of Germantown, and the Battle of Monmouth prior to marching south to Camden clocks in at least 1000 miles of marching during his 3 years of service.

Five days after John became a Continental soldier, his recruiting officer, Captain Frederick Deems, wrote to the Council of Safety in Annapolis about his new recruits’ clothing needs. Essentially acting as Maryland’s executive government during the Revolutionary War, the Annapolis Council of Safety bridged the gap between English Colonial rule and the newly emerging state government from 1775 to 1777. The quaint letter addressed “To The Honnorable Counsill of Safety at Anapulas [sic]” gives some insight into the prizes a young recruit might gain by joining the Army.

With these few lines I let you know that I could not buy any cloth from Mr Igelberger, for he asked me 18/ shillings pr yard. I bought some in another store for 17/6, and it was allowed by several store keepers that that cloth for 17/6 was 5 shillings better as that for 18/. Now Gentlemen I would know of you if I shall send the bill of cost to you or give it to Mr Chace. I would know if you would allow my men lether britches, for they are agreed to pay the ballance of the britches out of their wages, if you are agreed, and I let you know that the first Leftennent, as you desired me to let you know, he is a wool card maker, my Leftennent Stelz is since I left you come to me again, and is well, and is will to go with me again. I would be obliged to you if you would send me the Peoples shirts and shoes, and send me stead of one shirt and one pair of shoes, two pair, for I am ready to march at every minute I have not any blankets yet, but Mr Chase promised me to give me an order for them this day.

Private Pumphrey’s initial enlistment contract was from 7 Jan 1777 to 7 Jan 1780. Had he served out that term of commitment and returned home, he would not have been present at the Battle of Camden for what Revolutionary War Journal’s Harry Schenawolf called, not “a humiliating defeat, but for the men who remained on the battlefield that day, their proudest moment.”

What we do know

John Pumphrey was confirmed by a Maryland muster roll compilation to have gone “missing” on the day of the Battle of Camden. The fact that we have John Pumphrey’s name on any list at all for that day is extremely fortunate. If not, his memory might have been lost forever.

The rapid collapse of leadership at Camden as most Continentals fled the field resulted in a loss of the baggage with most of the rebels’ military records. Most of it was left behind and plundered by the British. The subsequent “Race to the Dan,” during which both sides tried to reach the Dan River to cross back into Virginia meant that record keeping was stalled for several months.

Even months later, in February of 1781, George Muter, Commissioner of the War Office in Virginia, explained in a letter to Thomas Jefferson his inability to provide an accurate accounting of Virginia soldiers due to this very chaos. “I was unfortunate enough to lose most all the Papers respecting the Regiment with my Baggage, in that unfortunate Action near Cambden [sic],” he writes.

Pumphrey’s muster roll mate, Private William Ashwell, enlisted with Captain Deems four days before him on January 1, 1777. Ashwell’s name is immediately adjacent to his on a 9 Sep 1778 muster roll of the 7th Regiment at White Plains, New York. Like John Pumphrey, Ashwell is noted on a later muster roll as “Missing” on the date of the Battle of Camden. Almost a year later, he was exchanged as a prisoner of war on August 1, 1781.

There is no such prisoner exchange record for Private Pumphrey. Nor was there a single record found in the post-Revolution era in extensive searches of Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina – nor in the whole country – for a man named John Pumphrey that wasn’t accounted for by another similarly named man from another branch of his extended family tree.

DNA evidence, supported by an exhaustive historical records search, indicates that John Pumphrey did indeed die along with the brave men of Maryland who held the line against a brutal enemy when hundreds did not.

Family background

Extensive genetic genealogy research analyzing three different kinds of DNA matches to Camden 9B – autosomal, X Chromosome, and Y chromosome – was carried out by the genealogists at FHD Forensics. Results of this analysis confirm that John Pumphrey was a direct descendant and great grandson of Walter Pumphrey I (1655-1721), the colonial-era immigrant founder of the Pumphrey family in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Thanks to Pumphrey researcher and author, Larry Neal Pumphrey author of The Pumphrey Pedigree much is known about Walter and his colorful life.

As a middle aged man, John’s great grandfather moved his family to the Baltimore area from Burlington, New Jersey about 1713 to provide carpentry services to the many Quakers migrating to that city. He and his sons purchased extensive real estate and established sawmills and other businesses throughout northern Anne Arundel County. At the time of his passing in 1721, his will named six sons and one daughter.

John Pumphrey’s family tree as proven by DNA. Although we don’t know his mother’s maiden name yet, a cluster of X Chromosome matches tracing to her helped make his identification.

John Pumphrey’s grandfather, Ebenezer Pumphrey (1694-1759) was Walter I’s favored middle son and executor, who became even more prominent than his father in the lumber and building industry in Maryland. The preponderance of the DNA evidence indicates John’s parents were Ebenezer’s son, Walter Pumphrey II (1721-1771), and his wife, Rachel (d. bef. 1770). Walter of Ebenezer is labeled Walter II to distinguish him from the other many men in the family of the same first name.

The Pumphrey family’s humble Quaker beginnings notwithstanding, not long after moving to Maryland they began intermarrying with the more gentrified Anglican families of Anne Arundel County. While we don’t yet know John’s mother Rachel’s maiden name, both his genetic matches and the genealogical records for his siblings and their descendants reveal multiple connections to prominent founding families of the county, with names like Griffith, Ridgley, Cheney, Welsh, and Warfield. John’s eldest brother Greenberry (1752-1815) married Mary Warfield, their descendants sharing 17th century common ancestors Richard Warfield and Elinor Browne with Wallis Warfield Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, and Edwin Warfield, the 45th Governor of Maryland.

For months, our team asked ourselves why a boy from an apparently prosperous family would go to war at such a young age – a young teenager. The state of affairs after his father’s death might explain one such inspiration.

The ground shifts

John’s mother, Mrs. Rachel Pumphrey died before her husband, sometime between 1767 when she was last seen on a land record, and 1770 when Walter’s second wife Thomasine released her dower on the sale of a tract called Mistake In Friendship. Walter Pumphrey II had purchased the property years earlier from his uncle, Nathan Pumphrey (1693-1764).

This January 30, 1772 Maryland Gazette notice helps establish the approximate death of Walter Pumphrey II, Private John Pumphrey’s father.

Soon thereafter, Walter Pumphrey II died intestate about 1771, which may have left his minor children in the care of his widow, Thomasine, or other family members. No records on their behalf were every found. More importantly, the administration of Walter’s estate soon inexplicably found it’s way into the hands of his cousin, Rezin Pumphrey (1735-1812).

In Colonial Maryland, under normal circumstances, a surviving widow was the default administrator of her deceased husband’s estate. If she were to remarry, then her new husband would assume the role. Failing a widow’s ability to act, the role would usually pass to other adult blood relatives more closely tied to the deceased, such as the eldest adult son if he were an adult, or a brother, such as Walter’s brother, Ebenezer, Jr. That said, for unknown reasons, yet financially predatory in nature as indicated in Greenberry’s later actions, Walter’s cousin Rezin took on the role of administrator, which allowed him substantial control over the family’s assets and land holdings.

Much of what we know about this situation was gleaned from dozens of pages of Maryland Chancery Court documents left behind when about 25 years after Walter Pumphrey II’s death, his eldest son Greenberry began a legal battle to secure the Pumphrey family land from the former administrator and cousin. Quite the land jobber, Rezin Pumphrey bought and sold land in Maryland and Pennsylvania before finally settling in West Virginia leaving his cousin’s children to post legal notices attempting to call him into court. Spanning 50 years, the case involved multiple generations of Walter’s descendants, who managed to maintain residency on the property despite their cousin’s efforts to displace them.

All of this reveals that in the five years leading up to Private John Pumphrey’s enlistment in the Continental Army, his life at home would have been fraught with both personal and financial upheaval. First, his mother died, then his father remarried briefly before dying himself. His father’s death was almost certainly sudden since he left no will.

Like his father before him, Walter Pumphrey II made a living in the lumber business, and likely farmed as well. He was variously described as “miller” and “planter” on legal documents. Given that the family land holdings of all types were tied up by Walter’s cousin for many years, a middle son faced a bleak future.

In this way, the earth shifted dramatically under John Pumphrey’s feet over the span of a few years, likely leaving him with few attractive options by the time of his enlistment. A young teen from an apparently prosperous family, and once with a bright, predictable future, now had little prospects.

There may have also been another great lure to Baltimore for a young Anne Arundel boy seeking adventure.

A new world at his doorstep

John Pumphrey’s father and grandfather owned extensive property in north Anne Arundel County, Maryland, across the Patapsco River from the city of Baltimore.

Having fled Philadelphia in the winter of 1776 to escape advancing British forces, the Second Continental Congress set up shop in Baltimore at the home of Henry Fite, which also served as a local tavern.  The distant excitement of war was now being managed literally across the Patapsco River from various Pumphrey properties. Suddenly, a newly birthed free nation was quite literally at his front door.

Whatever may have inspired young John to join the war for our freedom as a teenager, leaving home he would have traveled by a dirt road that passed just a few feet away from a family burial ground. Today that same family plot holds the graves of his 19th century relatives whose own descendants provided the DNA for John’s identification. Perhaps he stopped at his uncle Ebenezer Pumphrey, Jr.’s home on the south side of the river, just a ferry ride from the city of Baltimore. Or perhaps he was already in Baltimore seeking employment by that time.

After becoming settled with the Army, he and his fellow enlistees must surely have been a sight to behold in new shirts and shoes, courtesy of their captain.

Aftermath of the war

On December 23, 1783, three years after John Pumphrey was hastily buried in a shallow hole in South Carolina with four of his fellow soldiers, his Commander in Chief traveled from New York to Annapolis in order to resign his military commission. General George Washington traveled a similar route from Baltimore via Annapolis Road that rural Anne Arundel County resident John Pumphrey might have traveled to enlist in Baltimore.

Maryland Gazette news clippings from 1789, top, and 1797, bottom give a glimpse into the post-war lives of John Pumphrey’s brothers.

In attendance at Annapolis with Washington was the disgraced General Gates, whose poor behavior at Camden led to his removal from command before he joined Washington’s staff. In fact, the slaughter at Camden was forever known among military pensioners as “Gates Defeat.”

A few years later, life seemed to go on for John’s siblings. A nearby newspaper gives us a tiny glimpse of that apparent normalcy after the strife of war for the whole country. His brother Walter III (abt. 1754-1818) tried for weeks to rid himself of a stray horse on his farm in 1789. Only known sister Rachel Pumphrey Hall gave birth to their father’s namesake, Walter Pumphrey Hall on October 21, 1793 and christened him the following May at Saint Paul Protestant Episcopal Church in Baltimore.

Greenberry Pumphrey posted legal notices in 1797 about his great quest to right the wrongs done to them after the death of their father. In this public notice, he openly accuses Rezin Pumphrey of actions taken “in order to defraud the complainant, the heir of his father.” Thanks to his efforts, Walter and Rachel Pumphrey‘s descendants continued to live at Mistake In Friendship for several generations.

We may never know if Greenberry Pumphrey named one of his sons, John after his heroic brother, or for another reason. Although one of the most common names in the country, what the records reveal is that the name John appeared in the family for generations after our young private seems to have been the first in his family of that name.

What we do know is that this rather ordinary life his siblings and their descendants lived in rural Maryland for many generations to come, until a thriving metropolis rose up around them, was afforded to them in part by the sacrifice of their own young brother.

One final note…

Often in this work, as investigators of all types likely understand, there comes a moment in an investigation when you get a tiny inkling that order from chaos is real…that there is some overarching plan to what we all to do try to make a difference in each other’s lives.

In a full circle development, just a few feet away in the very same burial ground where John Pumphrey is newly interred, lies another very special man.

That man’s YDNA, passed down to his own son, helped to confirm our hero’s identity. That DNA was offered when the son randomly saw our story on CBS News, and it ended up being one of the last missing links we needed. And in the ultimate stroke of irony, this man is a descendant of Rezin Pumphrey, the greedy cousin that likely sent John Pumphrey into battle when the family resources were hijacked. Fitting that his descendant should help us reclaim John’s identity, I think.

Oh, and when I called to warn our project test subject last week that I might be dissing his ancestor, and asked for his forgiveness, he just laughed. It is what it is.

Behind the scenes: A delightful discovery

One of the great things about being a genealogist is the unexpected things we find in our digging. This circa 1900 portrait was unearthed during genealogical research at the Kuethe Library in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

The photo was something that most of the descendants of the men depicted had never seen. Shown are Benjamin Pumphrey (1854-1927), far left, and Addison Pumphrey (1869-1931), second from left, as well as two other unidentified brothers. The men were four of the eight sons of John Robert Pumphrey, Sr. (1831-1875). In fact, six of his ten children had DNA matches traced to them in our study.

John Robert Pumphrey was a grand nephew of Private John Pumphrey. Descendants of several of the men provided critical DNA samples that helped to to identify Private Pumphrey who was killed at the Battle of Camden in 1780.

Source: The Kuethe Library

Sources

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