John George Kittson (1740-1779)

He was said to have been an Anglo-Irish officer who had seen considerable service in North America. He married Julia Calcutt of Newton-Limavady after the death of his first wife, Alice St. John. According to tradition Julia and her infant son, George, sailed from County Cork to join her husband but by the time they arrived in Montreal he was dead. If so, he almost certainly died from wounds received in battle, possibly at Saratoga. His great-grandson - a son of Norman Bethune who had grown up in the same household as his grandmother, Julia Calcutt - recalled: "our great-grandfather Kittson was born in Dublin, where I have been told the name may still be met with. He was in the army, but in what rank or branch of the service I am unable to say". This would imply that he was perhaps a son of George Kitson, Gent., of Dublin who died in 1781 who appears to have been a brother of William Kitson (d.1777) of Ballyng, Co. Kilkenny. 

There is an alternative theory that Julia's husband was in fact called "Thomas" Kittson, an officer with the 24th Regiment who came to Quebec from County Cork (where his regiment had previously been stationed) and fought/died at Saratoga. There was indeed a Lt. Thomas Kitson (b.1758) of the 24th Foot, a native of Yorkshire, but he was alive and well when Julia married Alexander Henry in 1785 - his retirement from the army was recordedin 1799. If Julia's husband was Thomas, then this would imply that Julia had married bigamously - had she fallen in love with another man while her husband was held captive at Saratoga, and had Kittson left her and her new love in Canada?