Fords

Brigadier General Archibald McArthur. Origin: Loyalist.

Brigadier General Archibald McArthur had ascended the British military ranks rapidly: in 1771, he was promoted to captain, and to major in 1777. He was a major in 1780 at the city of Camden, South Carolina. Later captured in the Battle of Cowpens (1781), but subsequently released, he’d then been made a brigadier general by 1783.

Leading 900 other Loyalists, McArthur had been sent with a fleet departing from Charleston in October of 1782, and subsequently found himself living in East Florida, 1782-83, as commandant of the St. Augustine Fort. From there, McArthur was dispatched by the British government to Nassau to make military arrangements for the defense of the island, and to temporarily govern—until John Maxwell, the next appointed governor of the Bahamas, arrived. McArthur arrived in Nassau on 12 January 1784. He received 1000 acres in the Fords area of Long Island on 30 July 1788.

Reference: HB, LSC