JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – While Florida wasn't a colony at the time of the American Revolution, there are at least six patriots who fought in the Revolutionary War buried in Northeast Florida.
According to FindGrave.com, there are revolutionaries buried in Nassau, Duval, and St. Johns counties.
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Burris Higginbotham, Amos Latham, John Daniel Vaughn and James Decatur Pelot are buried in Nassau County cemeteries. Capt. John Carroll Houston is buried in Jacksonville, and Juan McQueen is buried in St. Augustine.
Higginbotham was born in Virginia in 1759 and died in Georgia in 1816. According to FindGrave.com,a special marker in the Higginbotham Family Cemetery was dedicated in 2005. He is considered a founding father of Nassau County.
Latham is buried in the Bosque Bello Cemetery in Fernandina Beach. Born July 18, 1759 in Groton, Connecticut, Latham was a corporal in the Revolutionary War and the first keeper of Amelia's Lighthouse in 1838. After his death in Fernandina Beach on April 28, 1842, he was buried near the lighthouse with his wife. The Coast Guard sold part of the property and the graves were moved to the current location, according to FindGraves.com.
Vaughn's marker says that he was a Revolutionary War Patriot, and a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Florida Indian Wars. The family cemetery is on land granted by the United States government to the family as a pension in 1832.
Pelot, who was born January 18, 1743 on a plantation near the Euhaw River in South Carolina served as a petit juror and furnished beef to the Army. He died in 1824 on Amelia Island. Family members believe he and his wife were buried in the Vaughan family cemetery because a Pelot descendant married into the Vaughn family.
Houston, who was born in 1756 and died in Duval County in 1838, is buried in the Houston Cemetery on Talbot Island. At least three Confederate Civil War veterans from the family are buried nearby.
McQueen, whose marker that was placed in 2012, calls him both John McQueen and Don Juan McQueen. He was born in 1751 and died in St. Johns County on Oct. 11, 1807. The old Spanish Cemetery, located near the corner of Orange and Cordova streets within the Historical Old City of St Augustine, contains about 175 marked graves. The exact location of McQueen's grave site is no longer marked, hence the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution marker was place near Fr. Miguel O'Reilly's tombstone. O'Reilly was a known colleague of McQueen. He was a sea captain and ship owner. As a Revolutionary War patriot, he had business connections with France and carried letters from George Washington to Jean Lafayette to enlist the aid of the French in the American Revolution, according to an entry on FindGrave.com.