Benjamin Hallowell Carew - Early Years

Early Years

Although he is often identified as Canadian, Hallowell's place and exact date of birth have been the subject of dispute among researchers. He was probably born on 1 January 1761 in Boston, Massachusetts, where his British father, former naval captain Benjamin Hallowell (1723–1799), was Commissioner of the Board of Customs. His mother, Mary (Boylston) Hallowell, was the daughter of Thomas Boylston, and a first cousin of Susanna Boylston, the mother of the 2nd President of the United States, John Adams, and grandmother of the 6th President, John Quincy Adams. He was a brother of Ward Nicholas Boylston and a nephew of Governor Moses Gill.

His father's job exposed Hallowell's Loyalist family to attacks as American revolutionary sentiment grew. In August 1765 the Hallowell house in Roxbury was ransacked by a mob and the family relocated to Jamaica Plain and in September 1774 his father was pursued by a furious mob of 160 mounted men who had gathered to hear news of the resignation of other customs officials. The family left the country in March 1776, at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and their estates were confiscated. They stayed for a short time in Halifax, Nova Scotia, then took a passage to England in July 1776.

Educated in the private schools of England, through his father's connections with Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, Hallowell entered the Royal Navy at a slightly later age than was normal, receiving his promotion to lieutenant on 31 August 1781.