William Lord died at Saybrook, Connecticut on 08 July 1825.
Marriage:
On 16 October 1783 at Saybrook, Connecticut, William Lord married the widowed Chloe (Bushnell) Waterhouse, who was born about 1761. The ceremony was performed by Frederick William Hotchkiss, Pastor of the First Church of Christ.
Children:
William Lord (b. abt 1786), Richard Lord (b. about 1796, who in 1820 was very feeble and subject to turns of derangement, and a daughter who married Mr. Fisk.
Occupation:
Farmer.
Military:
Sergeant 6th Connecticut, 1st April, 1777; Ensign, 11th April, 1779; transferred to 3d Connecticut, 1st January, 1781; 2d Lieutenant, 6th December, 1781; retired 1st January, 1783.
Cincinnati:
Never represented.
Discussion:
In 1820, a 10-year-old grandson, William L. Fisk, was living with William and Chloe Lord. This may be the same person identified as William Lord Fisk of Saybrook, Connecticut who, after being enrolled at Yale for four years received an M.D. degree in 1833. William Lord Fisk drowned while swimming at the end of Long Wharf on Saturday evening 22 August 1834.
References:
“Selected Summary.” Boston (Massachusetts) Traveler, 02 September 1834, p. 2; digital image, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.GenealogyBank.com : accessed 12 January 2016).
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. 77, 338, 206, 355 & 635.
Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Church Record Abstracts, 1630-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: 2013. William Lord, v. 5, pp. 102 & 223.
Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Hale Cemetery Inscriptions and Newspaper Notices, 1629-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. William Lord, Junction Cemetery, Old Saybrook, Connecticut, Section 6.
Find A Grave, Inc. Find A Grave, digital image (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 12 January 2016), photograph, tombstone for “William Lo rd”, Memorial # 20257518, Upper Cemetery , Old Saybrook, Middlesex County, Connecticut; photograph by Ellen O.
Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Biographical Notices of Graduates of Yale College, Including Those Graduates in Classes Later Than 1815, Who Are Not Commemorated in the Annual Obituary Records. New Haven: [N.P.], 1913. p. 199.
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. 357.
Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 15. Fold3.com(http://www.fold3.com/image/15190966/). Connecticut. William Lord, Pension W. 20501.
Biographical information compiled by V. Allen Gray.
John Mansfield was born in 1748. He was the son of Moses Mansfield (1709-1754) and Ann Mary Kierstead (1709-1742)
Death:
He died at Wallingford, Connecticut on 01 June 1823. His obituary appeared in the Connecticut Herald on 10 June:
At Wallingford, on the 2d inst. Capt. John Mansfield, in the 75th year of his age – He served his country faithfully during the Revolutionary War—was the same man (then Lieut. Mansfield) who commanded the ”Forlorn Hope”, at the storming of the redoubts at Yorktown—and whose name was honorably mentioned by Col. Hamilton, the Commander of the Detachment—he received a wound in that attack, which would have entitled him to a pension, but he refused to apply for it. When peace was concluded and the Independence of his country acknowledged, he was discharged from the service, with a captain’s commission and the thanks of the Commander and Chief. Poor in purse, but rich in honor, he returned to his family, and by strenuous exertions, succeeded in accumulating a small property. When the pension law was passed in 1818, his friends believed he was entitled to the benefit of that act; he petitioned and received a pension until the law was amended – the stipend was then withdrawn, on the ground that he was not wholly destitute of property, (although his circumstances were far from affluent.) He sustained through life the character of an industrious, honorable, upright man, died lamented by all the friends of worth who knew him.
Marriage:
John Mansfield was twice married. First to Sybil Sexton on 20 February 1772, and second to Esther Lewis.
Children:
He had two children: Ira Mansfield who settled at Atwater, Ohio, and Sybil Mansfield who married John Hiddleson of Georgetown, South Carolina. Ira Mansfield, who married Susan Kirtland, died at Atwater in 1849. Sybil Hiddleson and her husband, John, both died in Wallingford, Connecticut.
Occupation:
Farmer.
Military:
Sergeant 1st Connecticut, 1st May to 28th November, 1775; Ensign of Douglas’ Connecticut State Regiment, 20th June to 25th December, 1776; 2d Lieutenant 6th Connecticut, 1st January, 1777; 1st Lieutenant, 18th April, 1779; transferred to 4th Connecticut, 1st January, 1781; wounded at Yorktown, 14th October 1781; transferred to 2d Connecticut, 1st January, 1783, and served to 3d June, 1783.
A more expansive discussion of John Mansfield’s military service follows:
John Mansfield was a Sergeant in the company of Isaac Cook, Jr., in the 1st regiment, Colonel David Wooster, raised on the first call for troops in April-May, 1775. He served in New York and on Long Island during the summer. In September, his unit marched to the Northern Department, where it served under General Schuyler about Lakes George and Champlain. In October, he was present at the reduction of St. Johns. He was discharged 28 November 1775.
In June, 1776, he was Ensign of the 6th company of the 5th battalion, Wadsworth’s brigade, commanded by Colonel William Douglas, raised to reinforce Washington’s army at New York. He served in the city and at the right of the line during the Battle of Long Island, 27 August; was at the battle of White Plains, 28 October, and continued in service until 25 December 1776. He reenlisted in the Connecticut Line on 01 January 1777. On 14 March 1777, he was commissioned a Lieutenant in the 6th regiment, Connecticut Line which was raised to continue through the war. The regiment went into camp at Peekskill in the summer and served during the fall in Parsons’ brigade on the Hudson. It wintered, 1777-78, at West Point and in the summer was encamped with the main army at White Plains. It wintered, 1778-79, at Redding, and in the summer of 1779 served on the east side of the Hudson. It wintered, 1779-80, at Morristown Huts, New Jersey, and in the summer of 1780, it served on both sides of the Hudson. It wintered, 1780-81, at camp “Connecticut Village,” opposite West Point, and there consolidated for formation of 1781-1783. In this formation, John Mansfield continued as a Lieutenant in the 4th regiment, Connecticut Line, and was present with the regiment at Yorktown.
In the attack upon Redoubt #10 at Yorktown, a “forlorn hope” of 20 men under Lieutenant Mansfield led the column. Mansfield was among the first to enter the redoubt and received a bayonet wound. The entire action was accomplished in less than 10 minutes in which under furious fire the attacking troops climbed over or broke through obstructions, crossed a defensive ditch, scaled the parapet and captured the redoubt. Lt. Col. Alexander Hamilton reported that Mansfield, of Lt. Col. Jean-Joseph Sourbader de Gimat’s battalion, deserved particular recognition for his “coolness, firmness, and punctuality”.
In the formation of January-June, 1783, he continued as Lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment, Connecticut Line, commanded by Colonel Heman Swift, in service at West Point and vicinity, until in early June when the regiment was disbanded with the greater portion of the army by orders of Washington.
Cincinnati:
Original member.
Sources:
Frances Atwater, comp. Centenniel of Meriden, June 10-16, 1906. Meriden, CT: Journal Publishing Company, 1906. pp 232-233.
Frederic William Bailey. Early Connecticut marriages as found on ancient church records prior to 1800.. vol. 4. New Haven, Conn.: Bureau of American ancestry, 1899. p. 61.
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.
“Died”. Connecticut Herald. New Haven, Connecticut. 10 June 1823. p 3., col. 4.
William Richard Cutter. Genealogical and family history of the state of Connecticut: a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation. vol. 4. New York: Lewis historical publishing company. 1911. pp 1734 & 1738-1739.
Charles Henry Stanley Davis, History of Wallingford, Conn., From Its Settlement In 1670 to the Present Time, Including Meriden, Which Was One of Its Parishes Until 1806, And Cheshire, Which Was Incorporated In 1780. Meriden: The author, 1870. p. 847.
Eckenrode, H. J. Official guidebook of the Yorktown sesquicentennial celebration, October 16-19, 1931. Richmond: Virginia Yorktown sesquicentennial commission, 1931. p. 14.
“Letter from Alexander Hamilton to Marquis de Lafayette, [15 October 1781],” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-02-02-1200-0001 [last update: 2015-12-30]). Source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 2, 1779–1781, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961. pp. 679–681.
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. 378.
Henry Phelps Johnson, The Yorktown Campaign And the Surrender of Cornwallis, 1781. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1881. pp. 145-146.
J. E. Norris, R. C. Brown, Warner & Beers. History of Portage County, Ohio: Containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of the Northwest territory; history of Ohio; statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc. . . Chicago: Warner, Beers & co., 1885. p 583.
Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 15. Fold3.com(http://www.fold3.com/image/23586654/). Connecticut. John J.
Sons of the American Revolution. Connecticut Society. Year-book of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution for 1897-1898. [S.l.]: Committee on Publication, Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1900. p. 537.
Biographical information compiled by V. Allen Gray.
Samuel Augustus Still Barker, son of Samuel Barker and Esther Baker, was born 19 October 1756 at Branford, Connecticut.
Death:
He died on 19 November 1819 at La Grange, Beekman County, New York.
Marriage:
In 1786, he married Mariah Delavan.
Children:
Samuel Augustus Still Barker and Mariah Delavan had a son, Samuel Augustus Barker who was born at Beekman, Ductchess County, New York and died on 12 May 1852 at McConnellsville, Ohio. He married Eliza Brooks Shugart at McConnellsville in 1820.
Military:
Adjutant of Douglas’ Connecticut State Regiment, 20th June to 29th December, 1776; 1st Lieutenant and Adjutant 6th Connecticut, 26th December, 1776; Captain, 10th May, 1780; transferred to 4th Connecticut, 1st January, 1781; Brigade Major in 1781; transferred to 2d Connecticut, 1st January, 1782; resigned 13th April, 1782.
References:
Find A Grave, Inc. Find A Grave digital image (http://www.findagrave.com) Gravestone for Maj Samuel Still Augustus Barker (1756-1819), Memorial #14771272, Virtual Cemetery information created by Beth Devin Marsau.
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. 87.
“Baker Ancestry of Mrs. Edgar H. Allen.” Nebraska and Midwest Genealogical Record 4, no. 2 (April 1926): 249-50.
Biographical information compiled by V. Allen Gray.
Private in the Lexington Alarm, April, 1775; Sergeant 6th Connecticut, 6th May to 15th December, 1775; Ensign 10th Continental Infantry, 1st January, 1776; 1st Lieutenant 4th Connecticut, 1st January 1777; Captain Lieutenant, 1st June 1778; Captain, 20th May, 1779; transferred to 1st Connecticut, 1st January 1781; retained in Swift’s Connecticut Regiment June, 1783, and served to 3d November, 1783.
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. p. 355.
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. 160.
Marriage: 15 Jul. 1759, Pachog, CT. SARAH WORTHINGTON daughter of WILLIAM WORTHINGTON and TEMPERANCE GALLUP. She was born 15 May 1735 in Pachog, CT and died 15 Jan 1808 in Sand Lake, NY (now Averill Park, NY).
Children: Children of JOHN ELY and SARAH WORTHINGTON are:
i. WORTHINGTON ELY, b. 1759, Saybrook, CT; d. 1803, Coeymans, NY.
ii. EMMA ELY, b. 1760; d. 1837.
iii. ETHLINDA ELY, b. Abt. 1764; d. 15 Aug 1829, Goshen, NY.
iv. ELIZABETH ELY, b. 22 Feb 1764, Saybrook, CT; d. 03 Mar 1837, Berlin, CT.
v. ANNA ARNOLD ELY, b. 13 Jul 1766. Anna Arnold Ely only appears in “The Ely Ancestry” and no other evidence has been found for her. Some DAR lineages claim it was she who married Matthew Cole others show Amy/Amah/Emma married to Cole.
vi. TEMPERANCE ELY, b. 1768.
vii. LUCRETIA ELY, b. 04 Mar 1770, Saybrook, CT; d. 26 Feb 1839, Sand Lake, NY (now Averill Park, NY).
viii. TEMPERANCE ELY, b. 10 Oct 1772.
ix. DR. JOHN ELY, b. 1774, Saybrook, CT; d. 20 Aug 1849, Coxsackie, NY.
x. EDWARD ELY, b. 06 Jan 1777, Saybrook, CT; d. 22 Nov 1825, Goshen, NY1; m. DOLLY UNKNOWN. Edward was a lawyer in Goshen, NY. Some sources give his name as Edwin. His will mentions wife Dolly and his six brothers and sisters: Worthington(deceased), John, Ethelinda Elliott, Elizabeth Goodrich, Emma Cole, Lucretia Gregory. No children named.
Note: There are no Ely surnamed descendants after the 5th generation from John.
Occupation: Medical Doctor.
Education: There is no record of Ely attending College, but his career as a successful Doctor would indicate that he had some education.
Military: Captain 6th Connecticut,1st May to 18th December, 1775; Colonel Connecticut Militia Regiment in 1777; taken prisoner on the Long Island Expedition, 10th December, 1777; exchanged 5th December, 1780. (Heitman, p216). Col. of the 4th Battalion of CT Militia under Gen. Joseph Spencer starting 4 Oct. 1777. Since he was in a militia unit in Continental Service under Gen. Spencer of the Continental Army, his 3 years in captivity are qualifying Continental service.
Cincinnati: Not an original member. First represented by LEONARD BRONK LAMPMAN (1872-1939) a great-great-grandson who joined in 1895, a lifelong bachelor. From 1970 to 1994, Ely was represented by THEODORE FROTHINGHAM III, a great-great-great-great-grandson. Ely is currently represented by GREGORY BELL SMITH, a great-great-great-great-grandson who joined in 2013 and his son AMOS KENDALL SMITH III is his designated Successor. JAMES PARKER (1854-1934), a great-great-great-grandson was made an honorary member of the Rhode Island Society in 1929. PRIESTLEY TOULMIN III, a great-great-great-great-grandson is a member of the Connecticut Society through collateral descent from Col. John Ely’s brother, Capt. Christopher Ely. Another current CT member is a great-great-great-great-grandson who joined the Connecticut Society in 1995 through descent from 2nd Lt. Elias Mather and his son is his designated Successor. The obituary of HOMER HOWLAND STUART, Jr. (1918-2011) a great-great-great-great-grandson, indicated he was a member without specifying his Propositus or Society but no record of his membership has been found in Cincinnati records.
Discussion: John Ely became a physician and surgeon with a reputation that reached far beyond the Westbrook village in which he lived. He specialized in the treatment of smallpox. He bought Duck Island off the Saybrook shore and then built a hospital for his smallpox patients. When this dread disease broke out in the Army of General George Washington in July 1776, Dr. Ely was sent for and did much to arrest the plague.
But Colonel Ely is remembered better as a soldier of the Revolutionary War and as a patriot who gave not only his skill as physician and military commander to the cause, but his fortune and his health.
In 1775 Ely, after the news of the battle of Lexington came to Westport, mustered a company of militia as Captain and marched with it to Roxbury, now part of Boston. The next year as Major he performed a tour of duty as commandant at Fort Trumbull, New London, also serving there as physician and one day he sent a “pithy” letter to the Captain of a vessel at the mouth of the harbor suspected of being English. She promptly sailed away.
Major Ely was a man of wealth, mostly invested in farms. One of these in 1777 he sold and used most of the proceeds in raising a regiment of which he was commissioned Colonel. To many of his men he furnished arms, uniforms and other supplies at his own expense. What little remained of the money he poured, one day, into the lap of his wife saying: “Here Sarah is all that is left of the Griswold farm.”
“It is the price of liberty,” she replied with an approving smile.
He marched his regiment to New London and was again appointed commandant of the Fort.
After the war, broken in health and fortune, Col. Ely applied to Congress for recompense for his services and for the money he had devoted to the great cause. As a result, long after his death, we have the following official report of his services from the Committee on Rev. Claims of the House of Representatives, January 23, 1833:
“Col. Ely, at the commencement of the Revolutionary War, was a physician of celebrity, residing at the town of Saybrook, Conn. In the early stages of the conflict he abandoned his profession and raised a regiment of regular troops and was commissioned as a colonel; and at the head of his regiment he entered into the service of his country. “On the 9th of Dec. 1777 he was captured by the enemy and became a prisoner of war, and was paroled at Flatbush, on Long Island, where were also prisoners several hundred American officers. Among these officers a distressing illness prevailed, and Col. Ely, from the humanity that belonged to his character, from the day of his captivity to the day of his exchange, faithfully and exclusively devoted his time to them as physician. In discharging this duty he encountered much hardship and expense as the residences of the sick officers were scattered over a considerable space of country, many of them being as much as twenty miles apart. Col. Ely, when unable because of bodily infirmity or the state of the weather, to perform his long tours on foot, hired a horse at an extravagant price and paid the cost out of his own private means. He was also compelled frequently to purchase medicine for the ill at his own cost.
“Soon after he became a prisoner his son Capt. Worthington Ely, in conjunction with other friends, fitted out at their own expense a vessel and manned her for the purpose of surprising and capturing a British force with which to effect the exchange of Col. Ely. The object of the expedition succeeded so far as regarded the surprise and capture of the enemy, and the prisoners were delivered to the proper authorities to be exchanged for Col. Ely. This, however, was not done by reason of the earnest entreaties of the ailing officers, who considered their lives as greatly depending on the continuance, and skill of Col. Ely. He was induced to forego his right to an exchange and consented to remain for the comfort and safety of his sick brother officers. It appears from a certificate of Samuel Huntington, president of Congress that still subsequent to the time when his exchange might have been effected, through the valor of his son and friends, and when he became entitled to an exchange by the regular rule, that a deputation of exchanged officers, who had been his fellow prisoners, was appointed to wait on Congress, by the sick officers who remain in captivity, and to urge the continuance of Col. Ely as their physician and surgeon. At the head of the deputation were Col. Matthews (since a member of Congress and Governor of Georgia) and Col. Ramsay of the Maryland line. Col. Ely was in consequence of this representation not exchanged, although entitled to an exchange. He remained and acted as physician and surgeon till the 25th of Dec. 1780, when he was released – a period of more than three years.”
When he was captured by the British, Col. Ely and his regiment were in a ship crossing the sound from Conn. to Long Island for an attack there with other Continental forces. As to his application for recompense, General Henry Knox, Secretary of War, made a highly favorable report. President Washington wrote the Colonel promising a successful outcome for his petition. The House adopted a bill to grant him $20,000.00. Ely was at Philadelphia at the time. Much pleased he wrote his daughter, Mrs. Samuel Goodrich, that in a few days he would be able to give her the marriage outfit which his poverty had hither to prevented him from doing. But the Colonel did not have in mind what U.S. Senator Oliver Ellsworth could do to his bill. Ellsworth much opposed to special money grants and decidedly a watch dog of the Treasury, successfully fought the Ely measure in the Senate. Col. Ely returned home full of grief and despondency. About forty years later his heirs presented a claim to Congress, which was at once recognized, but as most of the papers in the case had been lost only $5,000.00 was allowed.
After his release from Long Island he returned broken in health to Westbrook to find himself in debt, his house dilapidated, his wife prematurely aged from care and anxiety, and weeping over the desolation of herself and children. But courageously Dr. Ely resumed his practice. He arose early each morning, saved and chopped his wood, built fires, fed and milked the cows then went forth on his Professional rounds, among patients who like himself were impoverished. So poor had the once prosperous Ely’s become they had little other food than hasty pudding, or mush and milk, He cheered his wife by saying that the children of the poor were always the healthiest because of the simplicity of their diet. “The bones of our children,” he added, “shall be made of Indian meal, and they shall be as strong as Spartans.” He partly recovered from his difficulties, but his health again gave way because of over work.
Those who knew Col. Ely described him as tall, erect, and having a manner marked by dignity, ease, and winning grace. His features were regular and his somewhat prominent brown eyes were tender and friendly. His conversation abounded in wit and illustrative anecdote. He was the idol of his soldiers, family and friends because of the magnetism of his presence, his intelligence and courage. Prof. William Chauncey Fowler of Durham, Conn. who when a child sat on the Colonel’s knee added this to the foregoing characterization, “The witty sayings with which he sparkled, the abounding stories he told, the songs he sang are ‘whelmed in times neglect’.”
Among his friends he numbered Washington, Lafayette and Rochambeau. Mrs. Ely was able to speak in their native tongue to the French officers she entertained. Washington wrote the Colonel affectionate letters acknowledging his “incomparable services.” There was preserved this bid to dinner from General Benedict Arnold, before the latter betrayed his country: “General Arnold’s compliments wait on Col. Ely. He asks the favor of his company to dine with him at his house today at 2 o’clock.”
His name is seen sometimes in DAR/SAR Applications as John Pierce Ely. No other evidence for this seems to exist.
