Ancestors Who Fought in the Revolution – part 1

I thought that members of my family might be interested hearing about some of our ancestors that have been documented as having been involved in the Revolutionary War.  All of the ones that I know about are on the New England branches of my father’s family and have been pretty well documented.  So far, I have found nine direct ancestors along three branches of our family tree that fought in the Revolution.  These gentlemen range from a 3^rd great grandfather to a couple of 5^th great grandfathers.

In this series of three blog posts, I am planning to include short biographies about the Revolutionary service for these direct ancestors:

Abraham Howland (1762-1853), a 3^rd great grandfather

Samuel Scribner (1735-1815), a 4^th great grandfather

Stephen Staples (1739-1798), a 4^th great grandfather

Joseph Ricker, Jr (1746-1825), a 4^th great grandfather

 

James Smith (1732-1798), a 5^th great grandfather

John Rogers (1760-1796), a 4^th great grandfather

Nathaniel Dickinson (1749-1797), a 4^th great grandfather

 

Aquila Hall (1750-1815), a 4^th great grandfather

Walter Tolley (~1715-1783), a 5^th great grandfather

While there are no names of any female ancestors on the above list, the women, mothers and wives and families of these ancestors were involved in ways that supported the efforts of their men and the Revolution as they struggled for Independence from Britain.

This first blog post will begin with my direct ancestors that lived in Massachusetts and Maine.  Maine was a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820.  Most of the place names noted below were a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at the time of the Revolution, though now many are located in Maine.

Abraham Howland (1762-1853) was a direct descendent of John Howland & Elizabeth Tilley, both passengers on the Mayflower and mentioned in a few of my earlier blog posts.  Abraham was also a descendant of one of John Howland’s brothers, Henry Howland, who arrived several years after the Mayflower.  Abraham’s mother was a direct descendent of John Howland, and his father was a direct descendant of Henry Howland, John’s younger brother.

Abraham was born in Pembroke and moved when he was 5 years old with his family to Topsham in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  When he was only 16 years old he joined a Revolutionary militia in Topsham.  Abraham served in 1779 as a Private with Capt Aster Patten and under Col Samuel McCobb and participated in a mission afterwards known at the Penobscot Expedition.  The troops traveled to Bagaduce on the Penobscot Bay where they attacked the British troops and proceeded to Cox’s Head on the Kennebec River where he assisted with the building of a fort.  At the expiration of his service he returned home to Topsham.  Abraham’s service was documented and he was granted a pension at the end of the War. 

In 1787 Abraham married Anna Staples in Topsham where they lived and raised at least 12 children that lived to adulthood.  Abraham’s father-in-law, Stephen Staples also fought in the Revolution.

Stephen Staples (1739-1798) was born and raised in the town of Falmouth, Massachusetts.  He married Judeth Morrill in Topsham in 1760 and they had 2 children before Judeth died.  He then married Susannah Hobbs in 1764 and they had 9 more children including a daughter, Anna, through which my line descends.

Records indicate that Stephen Staples joined the Continental Army on or before 1777.  He served in regiments with Capt Lane’s Company, Col Ichabod Alden’s 6^th regiment, and Capt Daniel Lane’s Company.  He was included on muster rolls at Cherry Valley in 1778 and also with Capt Asa Coburn’s Light Infantry Company in 1779 at Fort Harkimer.  The Continental Army pay accounts for the service of Stephen Staples date through 1780. 

Stephen died in 1798 at Topsham, Massachusetts.  Five years after Stephen’s death, Susannah Hobbs Howland married again, but had no more children.  She died in 1824 in Topsham, Maine.

Samuel Scribner (1735-1815) was born in Exeter, New Hampshire and was a resident of Massabesic. He married Sarah Bucknell in 1764 in Somersworth, New Hampshire and they settled in York County, Massachusetts.  Their family eventually grew to 10 children of which 6 reached adulthood. 

When Samuel was about 40 years old, he enlisted in July 1775 at Hollis, Massachusetts, and he served 8 months in the Revolutionary War with the Massabesic Militia Company.  Later, in 1778, he served with the 3^rd York County Regiment in Capt John Smith’s Company.  He also appears in Revolutionary War pay documents in August 1778 as a Private in Capt Ebenezer Webster’s Company, Col Nichol’s Regiment, Gen Whipple’s Brigade of the New Hampshire Volunteers who participated in the Expedition to Rhode Island.  According to a letter written by Samuel’s grandson, “he [Samuel] saw hard service in that war [Revolution] and was a noble soldier.”

Samuel Scribner had a distinguished life, and I plan to write a blog post about him and his endeavors at a later time.  He died in 1815 on his farm in Waterborough, York County, Massachusetts at 80 years of age.

 

Joseph Ricker, Jr (1746-1825) was born in Berwick, York County near the New Hampshire border.  Joseph Ricker Jr’s grandfather, Maturin Ricker, was born in St Brelade, Isle of Jersey, one of the Channel Islands in England.  He came from England to America with his brother in 1670 and was an early settler in New Hampshire.  Both brothers were killed by an Abenaki Indian raiding party in 1706 while working in the fields.  Maturin’s youngest son was carried away by the Indians but his wife, Rebecca Shaw Ricker, and another son, Joseph, survived to raise his family in the territory.

Before the Revolution began, in 1767, Joseph Ricker Jr married Deborah Wentworth in York County, Massachusetts where they raised a family spanning the time before, during and after the Revolution and had at least 7 children that survived into adulthood.

Joseph Ricker Jr was commissioned in 1776 as a First Lieutenant with Capt Samuel Grant’s 3^rd Berwick Company; and he also served as a captain with Col J Godwin’s 2^nd York G Company, 6^th Regiment in 1780.   

 

My next blog post will focus on several of my direct descendants from the New London area in Connecticut that participated in the Colonial campaign for Independence.

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Notes:

If you are interested in any of the supporting documentation sources used for any of the individuals and their Revolutionary service, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I will be happy to share.

- Jane Scribner McCrary