Witness to Invasion: Ambrose Serle’s Account of the British Invasion of Cecil County

As we celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary, it’s worth reflecting on the complex events that have shaped our history. One such incident was the British invasion of Cecil County in late August 1777, when his majesty’s forces landed along the Elk River and began their march toward Philadelphia. While most accounts of this invasion rely on the memories of local residents who experienced the occupation firsthand and the often retold local narratives, events are multi-faceted and best understood through multiple perspectives.

The observations of Ambrose Serle, who served as secretary to Admiral Lord Richard Howe, the commander of the British fleet, provide one of those lesser-known accounts. Watching the invasion begin from the deck of the HMS Fanny, Serle recorded his thoughts on the British forces and the landscape they encountered. On the morning of August 25, 1777, he described an unsettling scene as British soldiers disembarked along the Elk River. The landing area, known as Elk Neck, was empty, with no resistance or sign of local residents.

Frustrated by the arduous journey along the coast in the oppressive August heat and humidity, and finding the area largely abandoned, some British soldiers turned their attention to the property left behind by fleeing residents. They broke into homes, damaged buildings, and looted items of value. Serle recorded these acts of disorder with disapproval, noting that General William Howe, the British commander, was also concerned. Determined to maintain discipline, Howe issued strict orders prohibiting the destruction and looting of private property.

Yet even with these orders, the temptation of abandoned homes proved too great for some soldiers. Serle, despite his position as only the admiral’s secretary, once found himself in awkward situations as his manner of dress and official demeanor led soldiers to mistake him for a naval officer. On this occasion, when Serle was on shore opposite Cecil Courthouse, he encountered men looting. Lacking any real authority to discipline them, he ordered the relieved soldiers to return to their official duties. However, those caught by actual officers faced far harsher consequences. General Howe ordered two men to be executed for plundering and several severely whipped.

Between August 29 and the 31st, after the army had moved northward toward Head of Elk (Elkton), he wrote that “Forty seven Grenadiers and several other Parties straggling for Plunder were surprised by the rebels. The Hessians are more infamous and cruel than any.”¹

For all the turmoil, he was struck by the Eastern Shore. On Sept. 2nd, his ship fell down to the Elk to the mouth of the Bohemia River. Then on Sept 8th, with the ships under sail, he wrote:²

The Country all along the Eastern Shore of Maryland, from Sassafras River to Swan Point (which we sailed very close to), is very pleasant and appears fertile. Many agreeable Plantations, many of them bearing the Appearance of our better kind of Farms in England, are interspersed every where; though the Country is not cleared one tenth Part, except near the Shore. Scarce a white Person was to be seen; but negroes appeared in great abundance. These live in Huts or Hovels near the Houses of their Owners, and are treated as a better kind of Cattle, being bought or sold, according to Fancy or Interest, having no Property not even in their Wives or Children. Such is the Practice or Sentiment of Americans, while they are bawling about the Rights of human Nature, and oppose the freest Govt, and most liberal System of Polity known upon the Face of the Earth!

 

He described the countryside as some of the finest he had seen in America, with its rolling green hills, elegant homes, and the “striking sight of over a hundred Royal Navy ships moving along the river, their white sails gleaming against the blue sky.” Yet this idyllic landscape was deceptive. Despite his vantage point from both ship and shore, Serle observed very few free inhabitants in the area. The fields were untended, the houses abandoned, and the river unnervingly still, writes Historian Aaron Sullivan in The Disaffected: Britain’s Occupation of Philadelphia During the American Revolution. ³

Occasionally, White residents appeared briefly to peer at the passing ships before vanishing into the woods or over the hills. Most of the people who remained visibly present were enslaved people, who sometimes approached the British fleet. Some came out of curiosity; others to share information with the invaders. Serle’s notes reveal a sense of discomfort at the sight of slave quarters dotting the shoreline, a stark reminder that this beautiful landscape rested on the foundation of human bondage.

Sullivan writes that one of Serle’s most striking observations was the “absence of resistance or enthusiasm among the local population. Unlike New England, where local militias had risen to defend their homes and the cause of independence, residents appeared to have no such inclination. Yet Serle also noted a lack of loyalist support. There were no crowds cheering for the arrival of the king’s army, no rush of locals eager to restore the region to British rule. Instead, he found a population that seemed fearful and withdrawn, more concerned with avoiding the army at their doorstep than with grand debates over empire or independence.”⁴

For the admiral’s secretary, this quiet abandonment was perhaps the most revealing aspect of the invasion. According to Sullivan, it suggested that ordinary people, caught between two warring powers, were less concerned with political ideologies than with simple survival.

Ambrose Serle’s account stands out as one of many voices recording observations about the occupation of Cecil County. But it offers an invaluable perspective from the other side of the conflict.

Notes

1. Ambrose Serle, The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, Secretary to Lord Howe, 1776–1778, ed. Edward H. Tatum Jr. (San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1940), 246 ↩︎
2. Serle, The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, Secretary to Lord Howe, 1776–1778, ed. Edward H. Tatum Jr. 247–49 ↩︎
3. Aaron Sullivan, The Disaffected: Britain’s Occupation of Philadelphia during the American Revolution (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), 51–52. ↩︎
4. Sullivan, The Disaffected, 51–54.
   
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