2nd Lt Thomas Tanner
Birth:
17 June 1743, Cornwall, Connecticut to Thomas Tanner, Sr. and Martha Borden.
Death:
17 January 1817/18, Cooperstown, New York.
Marriage:
30 October 1765, Cornwall, Connecticut to Anna Baldwin. She was born in October 1741, probably at Goshen, Connecticut, and died in 1821 or 1822, probably at Cooperstown, New York.
Children:
4 sons and 3 daughters.
Parents:
2nd Lt. Thomas Tanner’s father was Thomas Tanner who was born about 1695, probably at Haddam, Connecticut, and who died before 19 June 1750. His mother was Martha Borden who was born on 11 September 1700 at Lyme, Connecticut, and died after 1753 at Cornwell, Connecticut. 2nd Lt. Thomas Tanner’s parent were married on 26 December 1727 at East Haddam, Connecticut.
Occupation:
Carpenter.
Military:
French and Indian War:
Enlisted at age 18 (abt. 1761), and served 2 years.
Revolutionary War:
Second Lieutenant, Bradley’s Connecticut State Regiment, Captain Smith’s Company, 10 June 1776; Taken prisoner at Fort Washington, 16 November 1776; Billeted and paroled as a prisoner of war at Flat Bush, Long Island, New York; Released after 4 years a prisoner of war.
Cincinnati:
First represented in 2017 by Ryan James Corker.
Discussion:
From Genealogy of the Descendants of Thomas Tanner, Sr. ,(1893):
“In October 1773, a war with England pending, he was made ensign of a “trainband” of his townsmen. In May [sic] 1776, he was appointed second lieutenant of Capt. Smith’s company, Col. Bradley’s battalion, Gen. Wadsworth’s brigade. He was in the Battle of Long Island, August 27, in the retreat to New York, Harlem, Washington Heights and into Fort Washington; where, with more than 2,000 Connecticut and Maryland troops, he was taken prisoner November 16. During the night, he and his comrades were marched through New York to Brooklyn, where he was held 4 years a prisoner, meanwhile following his carpenter trade for his support. Released then on parole, he returned to his family in Cornwall, to their great joy and relief. Soon after, in 1781, he moved with his family to New Lebanon, New York, where some of his brother William’s family had doubtless preceded him, and where he remained some twelve years, pursuing his trade, and where his two youngest children were born. In 1793, he removed to Cooperstown, where his two oldest sons had preceded him. Here in this young thriving town, he continued working at his trade till old coming on, he died in 1817, aged 74, and was buried in the old Christ Church cemetery. His wife, Anna, followed him some four years later. Of his moral and religious character, of his personal traits, habits and manners there is nothing known. Family tradition says he was a large, heavy man, while his wife was a quite slim and small woman; hence perhaps the medium size of most of his descendants. His army trunk, hair covered and iron bound, still exists in a great grandson’s family at South Cortland, N. Y.”
References:
Bates, Albert C., ed. Lists and Returns of Connecticut Men in the Revolution: 1775-1783, in Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, Vol. XII. Hartford, CT: Case, Lockwood, & Brainard Company, 1909. https://archive.org/details/collectionsofcon12conn.
Ford, Worthington Chauncey. “Prisoners of War: British and American, 1778,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (1893): 11-12. https://archive.org/details/prisonersofwarbr00ford.
Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution, April 1775 to December 1783, New, Revised and Enlarged Edition. Washington D. C.: The Rare Book Shop Publishing Company, Inc., 1914. https://archive.org/details/franheitmanreg00bernrich.
Johnston, Henry Phelps, ed. Record of Connecticut Men in the War of the Revolution. Hartford, CT: The Case, Lockwood, and Brainard Company, 1889. https://archive.org/details/waroftherevolution00recorich.
Tanner, Elias F. Genealogy of the Descendants of Thomas Tanner, Sr. Lansing, MI: Darius D. Thorp, Printer and Binder, 1893. https://archive.org/details/genealogyofdesce00tann.
The National Archives. “Thomas Tanner: Bradley’s Regiment, Revolutionary War” in Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War. NARA M881, Record Group 93, Roll 363. https://www.fold3.com/image/16839154.
________. “A Pay Roll of Capt. Simeon Smith’s Company in Col. Philip B. Bradley’s Regiment” in Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783. NARA M246, Record Group 93, Roll 27, Folder 195. https://www.fold3.com/image/ 10109216.
________. “Return of the American Officers and Other Prisoners on Parole on Long Island” in Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783. NARA M246, Record Group 93, Roll 136, Folder 6. https://www.fold 3.com/image/9685388.
Biographical information provided by Ryan James Corker.