Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident

The Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident occurred in April 1818 during the First Seminole War when American General Andrew Jackson invaded Spanish Florida and his troops captured two British citizens, Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister, separately. They were charged with aiding the Seminole, the Red Stick Creek Indians and Maroons against the United States.

Arbuthnot and Ambrister were tried and executed in modern Wakulla County, Florida, at Fort Saint Marks. Jackson's actions triggered short-lived protests from the British and Spanish governments and an investigation by the United States Congress. Congressional reports found fault with Jackson's handling of the trial and execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, but Congress chose not to censure the popular general.

Robert Chrystie Ambrister (1797–1818) was a British citizen and a native of Nassau, Bahamas. Ambrister had served in the Royal Navy as a volunteer and as a midshipman between 1809 and 1813, when he returned to the Bahamas. During 1814–1815, he served in Spanish Florida as an auxiliary 2nd lieutenant of the British Corps of Colonial Marines, commanded by Brevet Major Edward Nicolls of the Royal Marines. Discharged from the military in Nassau in 1815, the former Marine lieutenant returned to Spanish Florida in 1817 with his fellow former Marine, Brevet Captain George Woodbine, and the Scottish soldier of fortune Gregor MacGregor.

Alexander (George) Arbuthnot was an older man, a Scottish merchant, translator, and diplomatic go-between, on occasion, who had been present in Florida since 1803. Jackson's execution of Arbuthnot, Ambrister, and at least two prominent Creek-Seminole leaders (Josiah Francis and Hoemotchernucho) was perceived, both in Great Britain and elsewhere, as an act of barbarity violating the conventions of warfare.

A decade later in 1828, Jackson was elected President of the United States.