Dunbar, Moses

DUNBAR, MOSES. (1746–1777). Loyalist. Born in Wallingford, Connecticut, on 14 June 1746, Dunbar was the son of a Congregationalist minister. In 1764 he married Phebe Jerome and broke with his family and church, joining the Church of England in Bristol, Connecticut. This congregation was primarily Loyalist, and Dunbar—influenced by the ministers James Scovil and James Nicholas—sided with the crown in the accelerating political crisis. With the start of the Revolution, both his and his wife's families divided politically. Two of her brothers died fighting on the Patriot side, while two other brothers were arrested for Loyalist activities. Dunbar based his loyalty to the crown on his religious faith, insisting that since George III was head of the church, he owed a sacred allegiance to the king. Dunbar found himself regularly harassed for his religious and political views, being set upon by a mob in 1776 and imprisoned in New Haven. Upon his release from jail, he went to Long Island and enlisted as a captain in the British army. In 1777 he began recruiting men for the army in New York and Connecticut. Arrested by Patriot authorities, he was jailed in Hartford and tried as a traitor under Connecticut's Treason Act of 1776. The state's supreme court found him guilty of illegal recruiting and sentenced him to death. Aided by Elisha Wadsworth, Dunbar escaped on 19 March 1777 but was recaptured the same day and immediately hanged, becoming the first person executed by the state of Connecticut for the crime of treason.