| Arent de Peyster | |
| Birth Name: | Arent Schuyler de Peyster |
| Birth Date: | 27 June 1736 |
| Birth Place: | New York City, New York, British America |
| Death Date: | 26 November 1822 |
| Death Place: | Dumfries, Scotland |
| Parents: | Pierre Guillaume DePeyster Cornelia Schuyler |
| Relations: | Abraham de Peyster (grandfather) Arent Schuyler (grandfather) Peter Schuyler (uncle) |
| Allegiance: | British America |
| Branch: | 50th Foot, 51st Foot, 8th Foot |
| Serviceyears: | 1755–1794 |
| Rank: | Colonel |
| Battles: | French and Indian War American War of Independence |
Arent Schuyler DePeyster (27 June 1736 – 26 November 1822) was an American-born military officer best known for his term as commandant of the British controlled Fort Michilimackinac and Fort Detroit during the American Revolutionary War. Following the capture of Lieutenant-Governor General Henry Hamilton in 1779, DePeyster became the de facto military leader of British and Indigenous forces in the Ohio Country and the upper Great Lakes region.[1]
De Peyster was a native of New York City, the son of Pierre Guillaume DePeyster (1707–1785) and Cornelia Schuyler (1715–1785). His maternal grandparents were Arent Schuyler (1662–1730) and Swantje Van Duyckhuysen (1679–1724), and his paternal grandparents were Catharina de Peyster and Abraham de Peyster (1657–1728), the 20th Mayor of New York City. His godparents were his uncles, Philip van Cortlandt (1683–1746) and Peter Schuyler (1707–1762) and his godmother was his aunt, Eva Schuyler Bayard (died 1737). Arent was educated in London and obtained a commission as ensign in time for the Seven Years' War.[2]
De Peyster was educated in London and after returning to British America, received a commission as an ensign in the British Army in 1755. He joined the 50th Regiment of Foot, which had been raised in America in 1748 by William Shirley, the Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.[3] In 1745, Shirley, along with de Peyster's uncle, Col. Peter Schuyler, had directed the Siege of Louisbourg against the French in today’s Nova Scotia. De Peyster next held a commission in the 51st Foot, a regiment raised by Lieutenant General Robert Napier in America, which at one point, had three Schuylers in it.
During the French and Indian War, he served under his uncle in the Province of New York, gaining experience in frontier warfare. He was captured, held as prisoner in France, and after being exchanged, served out the war with the 8th Regiment of Foot in Germany.
In 1768, the 8th Regiment was assigned to the Province of Quebec, and DePeyster enjoyed a series of promotions. In 1774, he was appointed commandant of Fort Michilimackinac, in present-day Mackinaw City, Michigan. DePeyster spent the next five years at the fort.[1]
Until the summer of 1777, British policy during the Revolutionary war was for their Indigenous allies to be ready to support the Crown but remain inactive. When the policy changed DePeyster recruited Ojibwe and Odawa from the upper Great Lakes region to support the 1777 campaign of General John Burgoyne in DePeyster's native New York. He was rewarded with a promotion to major.[4]
In 1779, Major DePeyster took over as commandant of Fort Detroit.[4] DePeyster, by his tact and the adoption of conciliatory measures, effectively managed Britain's Indigenous allies against American militia from Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Although Great Britain ceded control of Detroit to the United States at the end of the war, Detroit remained in British control until 1796.[5]
In November 1783, DePeyster was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel of the 8th Foot and transferred to Fort Niagara, situated at the mouth of the Niagara River.[4] He did not depart for Niagara until 30 May 1784, where he assumed command on 5 June 1784.[1] In the summer of 1785, he returned to England with the regiment and continued to serve, eventually receiving a commission as colonel, on 12 October 1793.[1]
He retired in 1794 due to illness, and sold his lieutenant-colonelcy to an associate of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Ten years later, DePeyster had still not been paid. Upon his retirement, DePeyster and his wife moved to Dumfries, where they settled down at Mavis Grove, a country estate.[1]
In 1795, when England was threatened by Napoleon, he became actively involved with the militia. He played a significant role in enlisting and drilling the 1st Regiment of Dumfries Volunteers. One of the original members of the Volunteers was Robert Burns, the prominent Scottish poet, who dedicated to DePeyster his "Poem on Life," and with DePeyster carried on a poetical controversy in the columns of the Dumfries Journal. DePeyster, also wrote poetry and published Miscellanies, by an Officer in 1813.
After the Seven Years' War, when the 8th Foot was stationed in Scotland, DePeyster married Rebecca Blair (d. 1827), a daughter of Bryce Blair, Provost of Dumfries, and aunt to Lieutenant-Colonel Bryce McMurdo.[6] [7] They married in 1757, and purportedly had a happy, but childless, marriage and were seldom apart.[1]
De Peyster died as the result of an accident on 26 November 1822 in Dumfries, Scotland.[5] A large funeral was given in his honor, and he was buried in St Michael's Churchyard. His wife died on 20 February 1827.[6]