Henry Mowat (1734–1798) was an officer of the Royal Navy commanding ships in northern New England during the American Revolutionary War.

[1] Canceaux, with Mowat in command, conducted a hydrographic survey of the coast of North America from the estuary of the Saint Lawrence River to Boston.

Paul Revere alerted the local militia of rumored British seizure of munitions there; gunpowder was removed from the fort by patriots before Mowat arrived, and a colonial maritime pilot ran Canceaux aground in the Piscataqua River estuary.

[3] Mowat patrolled the New England coast for smugglers[4] until ordered to Falmouth (present-day Portland, Maine) in March, 1775 to assist a loyalist shipbuilder who was attempting to defy the Continental Association boycott on goods manufactured in Great Britain.

Mowat anchored the sloops so they blocked the harbor entrance while their broadsides could provide mutually supportive fire with British forces ashore.

Late 19th century American historians of the Revolutionary War launched an exhaustive search for the manuscript, including substantial reward offers, in the hope it might provide missing information about the early battles in which Mowat had participated.