John Montresor (322)

John Montresor (6 April 1736–26 June 1799) was a British military engineer and officer, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1772. John spent his early years in Gibraltar, learning the basics of military engineering from his father, who was a colonel of engineers. In 1754, his father arranged for John to accompany him on a military expedition led by General Edward Braddock at the beginning of the French and Indian War. In 1755, Braddock’s troops attacked the French-held Fort Duquesne, and John was badly wounded; he would suffer from this injury for the rest of his life. He served on several other expeditions throughout the war, some of which were marked by dangerous and nearly deadly conditions: on a mission in Quebec under General James Murray, John suffered a month of freezing and nearly starving circumstances. In 1766, while on leave in England, he was promoted, earning the titles captain-lieutenant and engineer-extraordinary. Montresor served with the British army throughout the Revolutionary War, occasionally destroying fortresses, including Castle William near Boston, that he had helped to fortify just a few years before. John had married in 1764 and made his home on an island near New York, but in 1778 decided to return to England, resigning his post and hoping to live out the rest of his life peacefully. However, in 1782, the commissioner of public accounts became suspicious of some of John’s expenditures during the war; it seemed that he had spent tens of thousands of government pounds for which he could not account. He fought this audit and tried to clear his name for nearly a decade, but was thrown in Maidstone prison for his misdealing, where he died in 1799. (ANB, DNB)