REVOLUTIONARY BLAKENEYS, GUERRILLA FIGHTERS – ANCESTORS OF MANY CLAIBORNE PARISH FOLKS
by Joan HOUGH, 
Great, great, great, great great granddaughter of Capt. John Blakeney,
Gggg daughter of John Blakeney (Jr.) 
Gggg niece of Thomas and Robert Blakeney

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joan Hough Tomlinson johough@swbell.net April 4, 2007
 
Captain John BLAKENEY’s Blakeney family emigrated from England to 
Ireland.  About 1750, when he was seventeen, he came from Mount Blakeney, 
Limerick, Thomastown twp, Ireland to the colonies and settled in North Carolina. 
During the French and Indian War, he moved to South Carolina.  He is recorded 
as one of the heroes of America’s first war for Independence, the American 
Revolution. Despite the dangers of war, the prevalent diseases, primitive medicine, and 
environmental hazards of the time, Captain John Blakeney lived to be 100 years 
of age, giving his descendants a remarkable genetic background for longevity.
 
Captain Blakeney fought as a member of Francis Marion’s Swamp Fox unit 
in South Carolina, despite the fact that Blakeney, as a member of the Provincial 
Congress of South Carolina, was considered non-expendable to the SC government, 
and despite the fact that his age was such that he was considered too old for 
battle.  Neither factor kept him from collecting a group of peaceful fellow 
farmers and shop keepers and volunteering to fight in the swamps and on the 
coast with General Francis Marion’s Swamp Fox volunteers.  BLAKENEY’s three 
sons, Sgt. John Blakeney a direct ancestor of the Claiborne Parish bunch, and 
Privates Robert and Thomas Blakeney, also fought with the Swamp Fox Unit.  Son 
John, in addition, fought with the regular Army.  
 
The Swamp Fox’s band of merry men became recognized as the greatest 
guerrilla fighters in the American Revolution.  Incredibly daring, they 
terrorized the entire British Army in the Carolinas, striking with amazing 
speed, then disappearing like so much mist back into the swamps. Initially 
without guns and ammunition, they managed to acquire all they needed from the 
British.  Their food came to them directly from the swamps and from patriotic 
farmers in their area.
 
From a tiny, unfinished island fort the Swamp Fox Unit crippled fifty 
warships of the greatest navy in the world and saved the city of Charleston, 
giving the Americans their first victory.   Eventually when the enemy took 
Charleston, Marion and his band escaped and formed Marion's Brigade of one 
hundred fifty ragged, penniless patriots. They received nothing from the 
Continental Army—no food, no supplies, no ammunition, no guns.  As the finest, 
and purist of patriots, they fought only for freedom from British taxation and 
oppressive laws for themselves, for their loved ones, and for their land—their 
America. 
 
Although Marion received a Congressional citation for exemplary wisdom and 
bravery, he and his men were never given the highest of honors their country 
owed them.   In fact, it is on record that when the Swamp Fox Unit saved 
Charleston, and the city indulged itself in the greatest of celebrations, the 
Swamp Fox Unit was not permitted to attend—because they were too dirty and too 
ragged.
 
Until this very day, songs about the Swamp Fox and his men are being sung in the 
Carolinas.  Murals depicting them in action are to be found scattered throughout 
South Carolina.