Francis Geary (British Army officer)

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Cornet Francis Geary (1752, Great Bookham, Surrey–December 14, 1776, Hunterdon County, New Jersey) was a British military officer killed during the American Revolutionary War.

Eldest son and heir of Admiral Sir Francis Geary and Mary Bartholomew, the younger Geary was raised in Surrey and educated at Balliol College, Oxford. Purchasing a Cornetcy in the 16th Light Dragoons in 1773, Geary was sent to America in 1776, arriving in New York at the end of September. In October and November, Geary's unit was mainly occupied with forays in northern New Jersey where they met little organized resistance, but on December 1st, the 16th Light Dragoons were ordered further south.

Based in Pennington, outside Trenton, New Jersey, Geary was ordered on December 14, 1776, to take a small scouting party to Flemington. There they discovered a cache of arms and supplies for the American army. Sealing the warehouse wherein they had found the contraband, Geary and his small troop set out to report their find to their superiors. Passing though a wooded area near Larison's Corner on the road back, they were ambushed by a group of militia under the command of Capt. John Schenck. Geary fell dead with the first volley of musket-fire with a ball though his forehead and his troop scattered and fled back to their lines.

The Ambush of Geary is oft recounted in the local history of East Amwell, New Jersey. In 1907, a small monument was placed there on Geary's previously unmarked grave. In St. Nicholas Church, Surrey, a bas-relief depicting Cornet Francis Geary and the battle of Fleming-ton remind Geary descendants of the loss of the young heir to the baronetcy.