Capt Stephen Betts
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Birth:
Stephen Betts was born on 15 July 1756 at Norwalk. He was the son of Isaac and Elizabeth Betts. Stephen Betts had a sister, Ann Betts.
Death:
Stephen Betts died on 28 November 1832. He is buried in Church Hill Cemetery, New Canaan, Fairfield County, Connecticut. Also buried in the Church Hill Cemetery is his wife, Ruth, who died 24 March 1835.
Marriage:
He was married to Ruth Church 04 January 1784.
Children:
Charles (b. 1784), Harriet (1786-1795), Esther (b. 1790), Lewis (b. 1796), Harriet (1798).
Military:
1st Lieutenant 7th Connecticut, 6th July to 23d December 1775; 1st Lieutenant 19th Continental Infantry, 1st January to 31st December, 1776; Captain 2d Connecticut, 1st January, 1777; transferred to 3d Connecticut, 1st January, 1781; wounded at Yorktown, 14th October 1781; served to close of war; Brevet Major, 30th September, 1783.
Stephen Betts enlisted in July 1775, served as Sergeant, Ensign, Second Lieutenant and First Lieutenant in Captain Joseph Hait’s company, Colonel Charles Webb’s Connecticut regiment. On Jnuary 1, 1777, he was commissioned Captain and served to the end of the Revolutionary War in Colonels Charles’s Webb’s and Samuel B. Webb’s Connecticut regiments. On October 10, 1783, he was commissioned Brevet Major in the United States Army. During his service in the Revolution he was in the battles of Trenton, Monmouth and at the siege of Yorktown and surrender of Cornwallis.
Stephen Betts was issued bounty land warrant #139 for 300 acres on 18 May 1789.
Stephen Betts was allowed pension on his application executed April 28, 1818, while a resident of New Canaan, Fairfield County, Connecticut where he had resided since the close of the war and was still living in 1828.
Cincinnati:
Original Member.
Discussion:
Capt. Stephen Betts was a member of one of two traveling Masonic Lodges at West Point, American Union No. 1. Among the other members were Col. Samuel Wyllys, Major Jonathan Heart, Lt. Robert Allyn, Dr. John Simpson, Dr. Jedediah Ensworth, Col. Rufus Putnam, Lt. Isaac Tiffany and others of the Connecticut Line.
References:
Connecticut. Adjutant-General’s Office. Record of Service of Connecticut Men In the I. War of the Revolution, II. War of 1812, III. Mexican War. Hartford: [Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co.], 1889. pp. 79, 104, 306, 334, 354, 367, 374 & 633.
“Deaths”, Connecticut Courant, Hartford, Connecticut, 18 December 1832, p. 3, col. 4.
Connecticut Vital Records to 1870 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) From original typescripts, Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection, 1928. Norwalk, pp. 14-17.
Edwin Hall, The Ancient Historical Records of Norwalk, Conn.; with a Plan of the Ancient Settlement and of the Town in 1847. New York: Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman & Co., 1865. p. 259.
Gary L. Heinmiller, Membership in American Union Lodge No. 1 during the Revolutionary War. (http://www.omdhs.syracusemasons.com/sites/default/files/history/American%20Union%20Lodge%20No.%201%20-%20Membership.pdf)
Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution April, 1775, to December, 1783. Washington, D.C.: The Rare Book Shop Publishing Company, 1914. p. 102.
Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 15. Fold3.com(http://www.fold3.com/image/13928087/). Connecticut. Stephen Betts, Pension S37749.
Rev. Charles M. Selleck, Address by Rev. Charles M. Selleck at the Centenary of St. Paul’s Church, Norwalk, Conn., July 15, 1886. Norwalk: The Hour Printing Office, 1886. pp. 26-27.
Biographical information compiled by V. Allen Gray