Alright was she or wasn't she?

by Jonathan Robert De Mallie, Historian and an Original American
(Borough of Park Ridge, Bergen County, New Jersey)

Was it North American friendlies which killed her? First Nations of North America killed her? Bloody British which killed her on A.D. July 27, 1777?

Miss Jane Mc Crea a young maiden woman born in Lamington, Bedminster the Province of New Jersey. Daughter of a Presbyterian circuit minister, the Reverend James Mc Crea and Mrs.Katherine Rosbrugh Mc Crea. She became engaged to her New Jersey neighbor now British Major David Jones.


Her siblings were on both sides of the Revolutionary War too:

Her brother she resided with before staying over her Torrie friends that fateful night ;
Colonel John McCrea, born in Lamington, Bedminster, Sommerset County, New Jersey son of Reverend James Mc Crea and Mrs. Mary Grahamn Mc Crea, he was a graduate of Princeton in 1762.
He studied law and was admitted to practice at Albany, Albany County, Province of New York, in 1763.

He settled and built a house in Northumberland, Saratoga district, N.Y., where he was living at the time the revolution broke out.
He enlisted for the war, and was commissioned colonel in the thirteenth regiment of infantry from the Saratoga district of Albany County, October the 20th, 1775.
He remained at his home until the near approach of British General Burgoyne's army rendered his further stay dangerous, when he then removed to Albany and resided until his house was burned in 1781, at the time of the great fire.
He then removed to Salem, New York, in 1783.
He was the clerk of Washington County, New York from April 16, 1785 to February 24, 1797.

Supervisor of Baliston, New York;
*Colonel John McCrea; 1802-04
James McCrea; 1824— 1835

He died at Lisbon, St. Lawrence County, New York about 1811.
He married (first) in 1766, Eva Buckman, who died in 1780; (second) Eleanor, daughter of John McNaughton.


Sibling Brothers in the Revolutionary War;


*Colonel John McCrea, American Army

Lieutant William McCrea 12th Albany, N.Y. Regt.

Private Samuel McCrea, 12th Albany, N.Y. Regt.

Dr. Stephen McCrea, surgeon American Army

Private Philip McCrea, American Army


Captain Creighton McCrea, 75th Highlanders, Queens Rangers, Calvary

James McCrea, 12th Albany, N.Y. Regt.

Major Robert McCrea, Captain in Queens Rangers, and Major in 5th Royal Vet. Battalion.


..

Sisters:


Catherine Mc Crea


Jane Mc Crea





Jane was first buried a few miles north of Fort Edward, and later re-buried at Union Cemetery in Fort Edward. But this was not the end of her tale. Nearly 50 years later, when he wrote the book "The Last of the Mohicans", James Fenimore Cooper immortalized Jane's story when he created the character of Cora.

FACT: ((The British taught teh Indians how to scalp!))

McCrea's remains have been moved three times. The first time was in A.D. 1822, and the second was in A.D. 1852 when they were moved to the Union Cemetery in Fort Edward. The body was exhumed again in A.D. 2003 in hopes of solving the mystery of her death. Unexpectedly, two bodies—those of Miss McCrea and her neighbor Mrs. Sara McNeil were found in the same grave. The 1822 move had placed McCrea's remains atop the burial vault of McNeil (who died in 1799 of natural causes). The skeletons of both were largely complete, except that McCrea's skull was missing, possibly due to reported grave-looting in the 19th century. The bodies were exhumed again in A.D. 2005 for further analysis, and were this time reburied in separate graves

The traditional version of what happened appears to be based on the account of Thomas Anburey, a British officer. Two First Nations warriors, one of whom was Wyandot Panther, were escorting Miss McCrea to the British camp, when they quarreled over an expected reward for bringing her in. One of them then killed and scalped her, and Wyandot Panther supposidly ended up with her scalp. Anburey claimed she was taken against her will, but there were also rumors that she was being escorted at her fiancé, Captain David Jones' request. The second version of the story, apparently advanced by Wyandot Panther under questioning, was that McCrea was killed by a bullet fired by pursuing Americans. Historian in Maine James Phinney Baxter, in supporting this version of events in his 1887 history of Burgoyne's campaign, asserts that an exhumation of her body revealed only bullet wounds, and no tomahawk wounds.


News of her death traveled relatively quickly by the standards of the time. News accounts were published in Pennsylvania on August 11, 1777 and on August 22, 1777 as far away as the province of Virginia.



This was like that Remebr the MAINE! etc..

It made so many come to Saratoga and Battle the British and defeat tehm here. This is waht caused France and after Spain to join our Americans in defeating the British.

Which cuaed her death ?