Capt Benoni Shipman 1753-1820
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Biography of CPT Benoni Shipman May 2012 by Charles E. F. Drake
Birth: 20 May 1753, Saybrook, CT [Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Vol. II, Part I, p. 41]
Death: 23 May 1820 Saybrook, CT [Saybrook Colony Vital Records, p. 461] (Heitman gives 22 May)
Marriage: Never married.
Children: No children.
Education: Unknown.
Military: Private Lexington Alarm April 1775; Private 1st Connecticut 25 May to 20 Dec 1775; Sergeant-Major 19 Continental Infantry 1 Jan 1776; Ensign 10 August 1776; 2d Lieut 1 Jan 1777; 1st Lieut 27 May 1777 [Francis Bernard Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution, April 1775, to December, 1783. 1914 p. 495]; Jan 1778 transferred to Betts’s Co., in service Jan-Feb 1778; March-April 1778 on furlough; in service May-June 1778; took oath at Valley Forge on 13 May 1778 [Joseph Lee Boyle, Fire Cake and Water, The Connecticut Infantry at the Valley Forge Encampment]; Captain Lieut 1 June 1778; retired 1 Jan 1781 [Heitman]. After retirement from the army, he became a privateer, commander of the armed boat Success. On 28 April 1782 captured the British schooner Fairplay near Sag Harbor and another sloop, also in April of that year. [Louis F. Middlebrook, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution, 1775-1783; Salem Mass 1925, Vol. II, The Connecticut Privateers]
Cincinnati: Did not join the Society. First represented by a current Hereditary Member who joined in 2007.
Occupation: Mechanic [The British Invasion of New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven, 1779, p. 102]
Discussion: On 28 Sept 1776 he underwent General Court-martial at Harlem Heights [New York] along with Ensign Thomas Fosdick for abusive language, disobedience and mutiny. [D. S: G. Weedon, Calendar of the correspondence of George Washington, commander in chief of the Continental Army, with the officers (Volume 1, page 16 of 67)]
In 1778 he was assigned to guard the harbor with his cousin Capt John Shipman, and along with John, signed a document offering 4 pounds for each non-commissioned man who enlisted. (Mss material)
He had command of the guard of the scaffold at the execution of Major John Andre’ 2 October 1780 [William B. Tully, The Town of Old Saybrook. History of Middlesex County 1635-1885, J. H. Beers & Co., 36 Vesey Street, New York, 1884; Pages 282-320 ]