Jane McCrea (1752–July 27, 1777) was a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War whose reported death at the hands of Indian allies of the British became a motivating event for the American rebels. Her last name has also been spelled "McCrae" and "MacCrae".

Life and slaying

McCrae was born one of the younger children in the large family of Rev. James McCrae of New Jersey. The McCrae family illustrated one of the difficulties caused by the war. Since her father's death she had been living with her brother John near Saratoga, New York. She had become engaged to David Jones. When the war began two of her brothers joined the American forces while her fiancé fled with other Loyalists to Quebec. As John Burgoyne's Saratoga Campaign expedition neared Saratoga, Colonel John McCrae took up his duty with a regiment of the Albany County militia, and Jones was serving as a lieutenant in one of the Loyalist militia units accompanying Burgoyne, which was stationed at Fort Ticonderoga after its capture.

McCrea left her brother's home and was travelling to join her fiancé at Ticonderoga. She had reached the village surrounding the old Fort Edward, but so had the war. She was staying at the home of Sara McNeil, another Loyalist and an elderly cousin to the British General Simon Fraser. On the morning of July 27, 1777, a group of Indians led by a Wyandot known as Le Loup that were moving in advance of the main British force, descended on the village of Fort Edward. They massacred a settler and his family, and then killed Lieutenant Tobias Van Vechten and four others when they walked into an ambush. This same company of Indians then also raided the McNeil house, taking Jane and Mrs. McNeil hostage. As they withdrew, the two women were separated. Mrs. McNeil was later united with her cousin, but discovered to her horror that another brave had Jane's scalp, which was supposedly quite distinctive.

There are conflicting accounts of her death. The traditional version has it that two warriors quarreled over who would take her in for an expected reward, and that one of them killed her with a tomahawk to settle the issue. Another, that she was killed by a bullet from the rear guard of the Americans withdrawing from Fort Edward. This second version was claimed by the warrior who had her scalp, presumably to avoid punishment when questioned by General Fraser.

Reaction to killing

When Burgoyne heard of the killing he went to the Indian camp and ordered the culprit to be delivered, threatening to have him executed. He was told by General Fraser and Luc de la Corne, the agent leading the Indians, that such an act would cause the defection of all the Indians and might cause them to take revenge as they went back north.Ketchum (1997), p. 276 Burgoyne relented, and no action was taken against the Indians.

News of her death traveled relatively quickly by the standards of the time, with news accounts being published in Pennsylvania on August 11 and on August 22 as far away as Virginia. Often the accounts became more exaggerated as they traveled, with the reports describing indiscriminate killings of large numbers of Loyalists and Patriots alike. The event provided a success in the British government's campaign to use the Indians as a means to intimidate the colonists; however, the American reaction to the news was not the one they hoped for.Ketchum (1977), p. 277
Her death, and those of others in similar raids, inspired some of the resistance to Burgoyne's invasion leading to his defeat at the Battle of Saratoga. But the effect expanded later as reports of the incident were used as propaganda to excite rebel sympathies during the war, especially before the Sullivan Expedition in 1779.
David Jones never married, and later lived in Canada as a United Empire Loyalist. The place where Jane died is marked by a monument three miles south of Fort Edward, New York.

Exhumations

Her remains have been moved three times. The first time was in 1822, and the second was in 1852 when they were moved to the Union Cemetery in Fort Edward. The body was exhumed again in 2003 in hopes of solving the mystery of her death. Surprisingly, two bodies—those of McCrae and Sara McNeil—were found in the grave; the skeletons of both were largely complete, except that McCrea's skull was missing. The bodies were exhumed again in 2005 for further analysis, and were this time reburied in separate graves.Starbuck

Legacy

The story became a part of American folklore when James Fenimore Cooper described similar events in his novel The Last of the Mohicans.

Footnotes