WE COULD JOIN THE DAR (OR SAR)

 


Archibald Willard, Spirit of 76, Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spirit_of_76_Herrick_Memorial_Library.jpg: accessed 8 July 2024).

Although most of my family came to America in the mid-1800s, we do have some ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War; one lost his life. We had family in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts at that time. New Jersey was a crossroads of armies of both sides, but I have not discovered any ancestors who fought from that state.

One of our ancestors with the most dramatic life was Moses Hale, a ship captain from Newburyport, Massachusetts. Since the brand-new United States had no navy, it commissioned existing ships and seamen to attack the British Navy, the largest in the world. These Americans were called privateers by the Americans, and pirates by the British. Shipowners would apply to the Continental Congress for a Letter of Marque authorizing their ships to attack British ships. The shipowner and captain had to take out a bond guaranteeing they would not attack any Americans, or forfeit a large sum, 4,000 pounds in this case. Captured ships were called “prizes” as they carried valuable cargo. A bond from 1780, shown below, called him “Moses Hale in the State of Massachusetts Bay Master of the Letter of Marque Schooner Norwich Witch.” You can see his signature, the first one at the bottom right side of the document. This bond mentions capturing people on board enemy ships to be used to exchange for prisoners held by the British Army. I found four commissions from the American government to Moses to attack the British. Unfortunately, he was captured and died in 1782, leaving a widow and four small children.[1] The DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) recognized him as patriot A132107.

Bond to state of Massachusetts Bay, Moses Hale et al, 16 March 1780, Norwich Witch, Mass. Archives 6: 316; “Muster/payrolls, and various papers (1763-1808) of the Revolutionary War [Massachusetts and Rhode Island],” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSJ7-CXCS?i=745&cat=729681:accessed 6 Aug. 2022  > Vol. 6, Armed vessels, bonds 1775-1780 > DGS 8092031 > image 746 of 803.


The youngest Revolutionary veteran of ours was Nathaniel Downs Jr. of West Haven, Connecticut. He was only thirteen years old when he enlisted, two months after his father, in the same company (Van Deursen’s, then Warner’s). It was a state militia located at New Haven. Nathaniel was enlisted from April 1781 through January 1782. His job was to “lead the horses in front of the field pieces and hand out the cartridges while the cannon were firing, and to attend on the Captain, and carry his orders and messages; and while in the company, he was ordered out to the West Haven Shore twice when the enemy landed; a distance of 5 or 6 miles, but they had left with their sheep and booty before we arrived, and gone on board of a British privateer that lay of and used to visit the coast as often as once a fortnight…he remembers of parading in the company on the green of New Haven on the receipt of the news of Cornwallis’ surrender in the fall of ’81, to celebrate it by firing a salute, and remembers of passing cartridges to the field pieces…”[2] The DAR calls him patriot number A034393.

Most veterans did not live long enough to receive a pension, but since Nathaniel was still alive in 1832 when Congress passed a pension act, he applied and qualified to receive one. His father Nathaniel, who served in the same company, died in 1801, too early to get a pension.[3] Nathaniel Sr. is patriot number A034392 at the DAR.

More and more records are coming online now, so we may find out that we have more Revolutionary ancestors. I think we have at least one or two more, but have not found enough evidence to prove it. So far we have not found evidence of any Loyalist ancestors. A very good TV series about New Jersey, New York and Connecticut during the Revolution is Turn. It’s fascinating to see the way people dressed and lived in those days.


[1] For capture, “Salem, October 10,” Salem Gazette (Salem, Mass.), 10 October 1782, p. 3, col. 3: (GenealogyBank.com: accessed 22 August 2022.) For death, Essex County, Massachusetts, Probate Court, File no. 12156, Moses Hale, 10 December 1782; “Probate File Papers, 1638-1881,” images, American Ancestors (https://www.americanancestors.org: downloaded 11 October 2021) > loose papers, p.2. For widow, Essex County, Massachusetts, Probate Court, File no. 12156, Moses Hale, 4 April 1783; “Probate File Papers, 1638-1881,” images, American Ancestors (https://www.americanancestors.org: downloaded 11 October 2021) > loose papers, p.7. For children, Essex County, Massachusetts, Probate Court, File no. 12168, Moses Hale, 29 September 1783; “Probate File Papers, 1638-1881,” images, American Ancestors (https://www.americanancestors.org: downloaded 1 November 2013) > loose papers, p.15.

[2] “Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: downloaded 20 Jul 2021) > D > Done, Richard - Dryden, Artemas Downman, Rawleigh - Dowrey, Joe > image 348 of 562, Nathaniel Downs, S. 15813, application, image 349 of 562; citing NARA RG 15, microfilm M804 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives).

[3] Henry P. Johnston, ed., Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the Military and Naval Service During the War of the Revolution 1775-1783 (Hartford, Ct.: Connecticut Adjutant-General, 1889), 575; GoogleBooks (books.google.com: accessed 19 June 2024). First Congregational Church, West Haven, New Haven County, Ct., death record no. 282, (1 Nov. 1801), Nathaniel Downs; Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Ct.; “Church records, 1724-1916,” database and images, FamilySearch (familysearch.org: accessed 14 July 2021) > DGS 8615152 > image 415 of 783.

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