One Theory of Albert's Lineage

Our oldest known ancestor on the Behunin line is Albert Behunin. According to his son Isaac, his father was born in 1758 and his mother's name was Nancy Lords. Albert was the first settler of a place in was was then the frontier in upstate New York which later became named Richland. An early census record indicates that Albert or Nancy was not a US citizen.

Here is my theory regarding the origins of this family: There have been stories of Albert being a soldier in the revolutionary war. If this is true and if he were born in 1758, Albert would have been 18 in 1776 when the revolutionary war began. While some have suggested that Albert was a member of George Washington's revolutionary army. I believe that he was, instead, a member of the British army and a member of the Royal Highlander Brigade. He would have enlisted with other Scottish young men in 1775 and would have gone to America as a young soldier. This is consistent with the family tradition that the Behunin's were Scottish and that Isaac was red headed.

Another reason to believe Albert was a member of the Royal Highlander Brigade is that during the revolutionary war, the Royal Highlander Brigade was for a time at Fort Oswego which is near Richland New York where the Behunin's settled. My theory is that Albert was a member of the Brigade while it was stationed in Fort Oswego, and then decided to return to the area with his family in 1803. After the war, many former British soldiers and many of those who were Loyal to the crown were forced to flee to Canada. This would account for Albert being a non-citizen during the early census. During the years soon after the revolutionary war, the region of upstate New York were not established as territory of the United States. It was not until the war of 1812 that the region in and around Oswego and Richland were established as U.S. Territory. It doesn't seem unreasonable for a former revolutionary war soldier to go to a place he became familiar with during the war and to take his young american wife to that location.

I believe the focus of our family history work should be to identify the names of those individuals who served in the Royal Highlander Brigade during the revolutionary war. The war records for the revolutionary army are kept in Londan England at the National Archives at Kew Gardens. I'd like to examine the elistment records for british soldiers during the revolutionary war to see if we cannot find an Albert Behunin or someone with a similar name.