American sailor.

By his own account, Walkar was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (c. 1752), and enlisted in a Lancaster County company of riflemen (June 1775); his name does not appear on the company list, but he may have been one of the many men who went along as independent volunteers. He then served on the Washington under Captain Sion Martindale and was taken prisoner by the English; he is probably the John “Rilkar” who appears on the list of prisoners taken from the brig Washington by the Fowey and carried to England on the Tartar (December 1775). He was involuntarily inducted into the Royal Navy (c. February 1776) and served aboard the Royal Oak, Ostrich, and Cornwall before he escaped.