To The Commissioners Appointed by the Act of Parliment for Enquiring into the Losses & Services of the American Loyalists.

The Memorial of Colonel Thomas Waters , late of Savannah in the Province of Georgia, by James Jackson of London, Merchant and Attorney & Agent for Col. Thomas Waters.

That your Memorialist was formerly an officer in his Majesty's Troop of Horse Rangers in the Province of Georgia & possessed considerable property & valuable lands and other effects in the Province & also in the Province of South Carolina. All which he had purchased for valuable consideration & was at a great expence in improving & clearing the same & upon the said troop being reduced your Memorialist obtained grants of other tracts of valuable lands being part of them that were ceded by the Cherokee & the Creek Indians to Great Brittain & was at a further very heavy expence in clearing & improving the same & erecting several houses & buildings thereon as particularized in the schedule hereunto attached & that in the year 1773 when the aforesaid lands were ceded by the Indians to Great Brittain it was necessary for their protection & the inhabitants to whom they were granted to raise a Troop of Horse & your Memorialist was by his Excellency Sir James Wright, Baronet, Governer, & Commander-in-Chief of said province appointed second in command of the said troop & afterwards Colonel of a Loyal Reg't. of Militia & Justice of the Peace in the sd. province in all which stations he discharged his duty as a faithful active & loyal subject. ( Note: A Justice of the Peace was the same as our County Judges today.)

That your Memorialist being possessed of considerable property & his being Colonel of Militia & Acting Magistrate in the province had the principal care & management of a very extensive county until he was obliged by superior force of the rebel army to resign & abandon the different forts which he had established for it's protection & was afterwards severely persecuted & sought after by the rebels for the active part he had taken in discharge of his duty.

That in the month of September 1780 Col. Brown was attacked at Augusta by a large party of the rebels, but fortunately relieved by the arrival of Col. Crueger from Ninety_Six with a reinforcement of provincials & loyalists and the rebels were obliged to fly to the back country & upon Col. Crueger pursuing them with the army under his command above Broad River and the militia also pursuing the dispersed rebels through different parts of the country part of a large quantity of provisions, stores & forage that this Memorialist had laid up at his own expense for use by the Royal Army were destroyed and in the month of October afterward two thousand Cherokee Indians having passing down to Augusta & on their return entirely destroyed the remainder of the sd. provisions & forage.

That after the return of Col Crueger to Ninety-Six the Chief Command of the Militia then left in the Province of Georgia revealed to your Memorialist and provisions becoming very scarce & difficult to be obtained your Memorialist laid up the whole of his own crop to supply each of his Majesty's troops that should arrive for the future protection of the country & also collected such other forage & provisions in the country as could be contained all which he lodged under the protection of his own fort & your Memorialists was at a further very heavy expence by keeping in pay a number of scouts & spies to gain intelligence & supporting them during the whole of the winter until the month of March when he was surprised by a powerful number of rebels from the mountains greatly superior to him in number & force & was obliged to retreat to Augusta leaving behind him almost everything that was valued, but hopeing that he should be able to reinforce the troops under his command & to return & drive the rebels back which to his great  mortification he was not able to do & could only remove his negroes & horses. And your Memorialist was immeadiately after beseiged in Augusta which after a brave & resolute defence for ELEVEN WEEKS  was compelled to surrender and everything that was before saved fell a prey to the rebels. He being robbed of all his effects, cash, cloaths, books, bonds, bills, notes, grants & title deed of every kind & description whatever.

That your Memorialist afterwards went to Savannah destitute of every necessary comfort of life and in February of 1782 when the rebel Gen. Wayne drove the country within the lines of Savannah your Memorialist in hopes to draw off the majority of the rebels untook as Deputy Superintendent to go up to the Cherokee & Creek Indians and attack the rebel settlements but as soon as he was prepared for that event intelligence was brought him that the Royal Troops were leaving Savannah & a large body of rebel troops marching from Virginia, North Carolina,  South Carolina & Georgia towards that country & that the Indians could not be persuaded to make an effectual stand in consequence of which your Memorialist lost most of his bravest men & himself in great danger of being taken prisoner & was afterwards obliged to retreat with about one thousand Cherokee Indians to Saint Augustine in East Florida where he now remains & is a daily witness to the hardship & distress of many of his former men and loyal friends who formerly lived in the greatest comfort & affluance but now reduced to misery and want-----

Signed: Colonel Thomas Waters