USA > California > Register of the California Society, Sons of the Revolution in the State of California, 1902 > Part 4
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When the war of the Revolution broke out, Nicholas Gilman had wealth, ability and a great name, and he threw them all into the scale for the patriot cause.
At the commencement of the Revolution, he was com- manding a Regiment of State militia, and he held his com-
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mand during the war. Detachments of his Regiment were from time to time despatched by him for active duty in the field, but it is not known that he served as Regimental com- mander in any campaign. In the autumn of 1777, at what seemed an urgent call, Col. John Langdon organized an in- dependent Company of light infantry. composed of men of Col. Langdon was the Captain and Col. Nicholas Gilman was the Lieutenant, of this Company. They marched to Saratoga to join Gen. Gates in his work of capturing Burgoyne's army, but the decisive battle had been fought before their arrival. Their term of service was thirty-two days, including thirteen days allowed for travel home, a distance of 260 miles.
From early in 1775 to the time of his death, in 1783, Col. Nicholas Gilman's whole energies and time were given to the cause of liberty. He was elected treasurer of the State in 1775, and continued to hold the office, by success- ive re-elections, until his death in 1783. He was Receiver General of the State, Continental Loan Officer and a mem- ber of the Committee of Safety, from 1775 to 1783, and Councillor of the State from 1777 until he died.
Nicholas Gilman married, December 21st, 1752, Ann, the daughter of Rev. John and Elizabeth (Rogers) Taylor, of Milton. His wife died March 17th, 1783. Three of his sons took prominent parts in the patriotic cause. Nicholas Gilman died in Exeter, New Hampshire, April 7th, 1783.
Governor JOHN TAYLOR GILMAN Ancestor of HENRY ATHERTON NICHOLS WILLARD ATHERTON NICHOLS
3 OHN TAYLOR GILMAN, the oldest child of Colonel Nicholas Gilman, and Ann Taylor, his wife, was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, on the 19th of December, 1753.
He was brought up with no more education than the usually excellent common schools of Exeter afforded ; but his inclination and public duties and responsibilities led him in after years, to become not only a student but a leader in the educational development of his State.
At an early age he became interested in shipbuilding, a prominent industry of Exeter at that time, giving also a part of his time to agriculture and to trade. On the 13th of January, 1775, he married Miss Deborah Folsom, one of his early school mates, and daughter of Major General Na- thaniel Folsom, of Exeter.
On the morning of April 20, 1775, at daybreak, the news arrived of the battle at Concord. All Exeter was at once astir, and by nine o'clock of that morning one hundred and eight men stood in array before the court house, armed, equipped and provisioned for the march to Cambridge, the appointed meeting place for the minute men. John Taylor Gilman, the happy husband of only a few months, and only twenty-one years of age, was one of them and had been one of the most active and energetic in getting the company so
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promptly into the field. They had not even chosen a leader when they came together. With acclaim, James Hackett was declared Captain and they started at once for Cam- bridge, a distance of fifty miles. The company spent the first night at Andover and arrived in Cambridge at two o'clock in the afternoon of the next day. They were as- signed to quarters in one of the buildings of Harvard Col- lege. The next day they elected permanent officers and John Taylor Gilman was chosen First Sergeant. The Company, as such, remained in Cambridge but little more than a week, the immediate danger having passed. John Taylor Gilman returned to Exeter, and from that time un- til the end of the war he devoted much of his time to the patriotic cause. He entered immediately upon duty as Commissary in supplying the three New Hampshire Regi- ments then in the field and in assisting his father, Colonel Nicholas Gilman, in his official duties.
On the 18th of July, 1776, John Taylor Gilman was se- lected for the honor of reading the Declaration of Independ- ence, which had just arrived by express messenger, to the assembled State and Town officials and citizens. This he did with clear tones, except at one point, where for a time his patriotic feelings interfered with his powers of speech.
In 1779 he was elected a member of the New Hamp- shire Legislature, and in 1780 he was chosen from that body to serve on the Committee of Safety, which continued in session during the Revolution. In 1780 he was the sole del- egate from New Hampshire in the Hartford Convention. In 1781, Mr. Gilman was elected to the Continental Con- gress and was re-elected the succeeding year. He was the youngest man in Congress during his second term, but he took an influential part in the proceedings. He voiced New Hampshire's vote to prosecute the war to an honorable and
Massachusetts ball, harvard College, Occupied as Barracks by Continental Troops, During the Seige of Boston.
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successful end, and took a strong stand in favor of main- taining our boundaries and fisheries.
In 1783, immediately after the reception of the prelim- inary Articles of Peace, he was called home by the death of his father, and in June was chosen Treasurer of the State to succeed him. He showed remarkable ability as a finan- cier and was continued in that office by successive re-elec- tions until 1786, when he was appointed one of the Com- sioners to settle the war accounts of the several States. The duties were laborious and ill health at one time led him to tender his resignation, but he was persuaded by Gen. Washington to continue his labors for a while longer. On his final resignation he was re-elected Treasurer of the State, which office he held until he was chosen Governor. He was a member of the New Hampshire Convention on the adoption of the United States Constitution, which met in Exeter the 13th of February, 1788. The records of this Convention have not been preserved, but the discussion as to the adoption was a prolonged one and much opposition was manifested. At an adjourned session, after a recess of four months, it was finally adopted, and it is said that John Taylor Gilman, the delegate from Exeter, was one of the most influential in bringing about this result.
John Taylor Gilman was a Federalist in politics and a firm supporter of the administration of George Washing- ton. In 1794 he was elected Governor of the State and for ten successive years thereafter he was re-elected to that office. In 1805 he was defeated for re-election by the can- didate of the Republican party. He afterward, in 1810, represented Exeter in the State Legislature for one year. In 1812 his name was placed on the electoral ticket for De Witt Clinton for President. In 1813 John Taylor Gilman was again elected to the governorship, again in 1814, and
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in 1815 he was elected Governor for his last term, declining a re-nomination in 1816. He had been eleven years success- ively elected Governor, and afterward for three successive years. As Governor during the war of 1812, he managed the affairs of the State with energy and skill, directing his almost exclusive attention to military affairs. Attacks were expected from land and sea. Under his orders more than 10,000 men gathered to meet the enemy. But the danger passed and New Hampshire was not invaded.
The latter part of Gov. Gilman's life was spent in the rural occupations that he loved, and in the cultivation of the social relations for which his hospitable home had long been a center.
He was president of the Board of Trustees of the Phil- lips Exeter Academy from 1796 to 1827, when he resigned. Dr. Phillips, its founder, in the exercise of the power re- served to himself and his successors as President of the Board, had named Gov. Gilman to succeed him ; but Gov. Gilman, in a well considered letter at his resignation of the office, declined to accept the right of naming the President to follow. He was also Treasurer of the Academy for a long term of years. The site now occupied by the Acad- emy was given by him. Gov. Gilman was for a long time a trustee of Dartmouth College, and in 1815 this college gave him the degree of L. L. D.
His first wife Deborah Folsom, died the 20th of Febru- ary, 1791. There were five children by this marriage. The oldest child and only son, John Taylor, born in 1779, was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1796, and died unmar- ried in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1808, where he had gone hoping for benefit to his failing health. His four daughters, Ann Taylor, Dorothea Folsom, Mary and Eliza- beth Taylor, named in the order of their birth, marrried
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scholarly men, and all except Mary left children. Ann married Hon. Nicholas Emery, of Portland, Maine, a grad- uate of Dartmouth College and a Judge of the Supreme Court of Maine. Dorothea married Rev. Dr. Ichabod Nich- olas, a graduate of Harvard College and for nearly fifty years the pastor of the First Church in Portland, Maine. Mary married Joseph G. Coggswell, L. L. D., a graduate of Harvard College, a prominent educator, holding for some time a professorship in Harvard, and for many years from its foundation, Superintendent and Librarian of the Astor Library in New York City. Elizabeth married Hon. Charles S. Davies, a graduate of Bowdoin College, a prom- inent lawyer of Portland, Maine, distinguished as a leader in equity and admiralty practice, and who served his State eminently in the negotiations which finally resulted in the Ashburton Treaty.
Gov. Gilman married, second, Mrs. Mary Adams, and third, Mrs. Charlotte Hamilton, who survived him. There were no children by the second and third marriages.
Gov. Gilman was six feet in height, of portly figure and of light complexion. He was famed, even in the day of courtly manners, for the dignity of his bearing and life. He wore the old costume, long waistcoat, breeches and queue, to the last.
John Taylor Gilman died on the 31st day of August, 1828, in Exeter, the town of his birth, and his remains were laid beside those of his ancestors in the old burying ground of that town.
Private RODERICK MORRISON Great-great-grandfather of Rev. WILLIAM AUGUSTUS BREWER
JB ORN in Hebron, Connecticut, on December 30, 1763,
the early years of Roderick Morrison presented no advantages for intellectual cultivation, but in his youth he was able to devote enough time from his daily avocations to become sufficiently versed in the rudiments of an educa- tion for the ordinary business transactions of those days.
On November 1, 1780, when only seventeen years old, he enlisted in the Fourth Regiment of the "Connecticut Line, " commanded by Colonel Zebulon Butler, in which he served until his honorable discharge, December 31, 1781.
In 1787, he moved to Cambridge, Washington County, New York, where on February 29, 1788, he was married to Charlotte Besse. He was a farmer at Cambridge until 1797, when he took his family to Westmoreland, New York, where he purchased the farm which he cultivated until his death, August 17, 1843.
He lived in the cordial good will and confidence of his fellow citizens. He was Supervisor of his town for fifteen years ; he represented his District in the New York Legis- lature in 1816, and he was repeatedly elected to the office of Justice of the Peace.
Ho was prosperous in his later life, and he left an am- ple provision for his children, his wife having died on May 15, 1835.
Arthur Burnett Benton, Secretary.
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Private ZADOCK BENTON
Great-grandfather of ARTHUR BURNETT BENTON
ADOCK BENTON was born in Tolland, Connecticut, March 6, 1761, and died in Chardon, Geauga County, Ohio, November 3, 1845.
He was a descendant of Andrew Benton, (1620-1683), who came from England to America about 1630 and who was an original proprietor of Milford and of Hartford, Con- necticut, and whose grandson, Samuel Benton Sr., (1680- 1763), was one of the founders of Tolland.
Zadock Benton was the son of Samuel Benton Jr., (1717-1800), of Tolland, and was one of ten children. At the outbreak of the war of the Revolution he was a lad of fourteen, and two years later, in 1777, while still but a boy in years, he joined the army fighting for American inde- pendence. As no less than twenty-nine Bentons served with the Connecticut troops, he had no lack of patriotic ex- amples among his kinsmen. After his first term of service had expired, he re-enlisted four times and saw much active service both with the militia and in the Connecticut Line.
At the close of the war he returned to Tolland with impaired health. He learned the trade of millwright and engaged in that occupation and in farming during the re- mainder of a long life. About 1786 he married Lydia, (1767-1852), daughter of Adinijah and Sarah Day of Tol- land, by whom he had nine children. He remained in Tol-
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land until 1817, when he removed to Chardon, Geauga County, Ohio, in which place three of his sons had settled the preceding year. That part of Ohio was then almost as virgin soil as Connecticut had been when his first American ancestor helped to found Milford. The roads were but mere trails through the woods, and the transportation of the stock and the goods brought by team from Connecticut, consumed thirty-three days. The country west of the mountains had in the recent war of 1812 been swept by the British and Indian raiders. In Buffalo, when Benton's sons passed through, but one house was standing; a tavern erected among the ruins caused by the burning of the town by the enemy.
In the far western wilderness, bear and wolves still haunted the edges of settlements. The commonest necessi- ties of life had to be transported long distances, or won from the soil and forest. The first Benton house in Char- don was one mile north of the town square. It was of logs and was twenty-seven feet wide and forty-two feet in length and had six rooms and a six-foot passage on the ground floor. Floors and partitions were of boards and the roof of shingles six inches wide by four feet long, rived out of ash or oak logs, and, says the record, "these shingles held on by 'weight poles' shed the rain perfectly." The sum- mer after the Bentons arrived in Chardon they also built a barn, 20 feet by forty feet, made of logs, and with plank floors, and "in three days' time after the materials were on the ground," the barn was complete with threshing-floors, stable and mow. In the latter was stored their first wheat harvest from five acres of land cleared by them the preced- ing fall, which when threshed yielded 100 bushels of grain. This was a fine beginning then, for flour was worth $16.00 per barrel.
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Zadock resided at Chardon, surrounded by his children the remainder of his life. He attended the Presbyterian Church from boyhood and continued a staunch believer in the old Puritan doctrines until his death. When seventy- two years old he was granted a pension from the National Government for his military services. He died at the age of eighty-four years, and was buried in Chardon cemetery, where a monument still marks his grave, on which is re- corded the fact of his having been "a soldier of the Revolu- tion."
The record of his life is a simple one and resembles that of thousands of his countrymen, whose constant, stur- dy practice of the common virtues of good citizenship ena- bled them to bequeath to their descendants an heritage ten- fold greater than they had won for themselves in early man- hood by courage in war.
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Captain THOMAS LEE Great-grandfather of BRADNER WELLS LEE
ATHANIEL LEE, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in the City of Dublin, Ireland, of English Ancestry, in the year 1695. He was a commis- sioned officer in the British Army, and at the time of the rebellion and accession of George I., he sided with the " Re- volt," his property was confiscated, and while yet a single man, in 1725, he emigrated to America and settled on the banks of the Hudson, near the village of Fishkill, in Dutch- ess County, New York, where he soon married Margaret De Long, and the issue of such union was three sons, Thomas, Joshua and John (who died at the age of twelve years), and four daughters, Margaret, Patience (who mar- ried Eben Crandall), Polly and Sally.
Nathaniel died in 1793, aged 98, and his remains, to- gether with those of his wife, are interred in the cemetery at Dover, Dutchess County, New York.
Thomas Lee was born at the family residence, Novem- ber 15, 1739. He was married July 22, 1760, to Watey Shearman (or Sherman, as it is variously spelled), born De- cember 9, 1743, of the same place, and soon purchased a farm near Fishkill, at a point called "Quakertown," where he resided a few years.
At the outbreak of the War of the Revolution, he was among the first who responded to his country's call. His
Bradner Wells See,
Treasurer.
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name frequently appears in the published military records of the part taken by New York in that struggle. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in Captain Jacob Rose- crans' Dutchess County Company, Colonel James Holmes, Fourth Regiment, New York Continental Line, June 30, 1775. This was one of the first four regiments of the Con- tinental Line organized in the Colony of New York upon the Establishment of 1775, by act of the Provincial Con- gress at its session of June 30, 1775. He was promoted to First Lieutenant, same Company and Regiment, August 3, 1775. In a report made to the Continental Congress, Octo- ber, 4, 1775, it is said :
"The Fourth or Colonel Holmes' Regiment is now at the outposts ; part of this Regiment was obliged to be detalned at Albany until arms could be procured for them, but the last Company proceeded down Lake George the 27th of Sep- tember."
In the minutes of the Provincial Congress, March 10, 1776, appears the following :
"The Congress took Into consideration the application made by Mr. Gilbert Livingston, one of the members, yesterday, on behalf of Lieut. Lee with respect to some Minute men now in Col. Swartwout's Regt. which he claims to have en- listed for the Continental service before they enlisted in Captain Clark's Com- pany of Minute men. A letter rec'd from Col. Swartwout yesterday was read and filed-he therein alleges that those Minute men were enlisted in Capt. Clark's Company before Mr. Lee had any warrant and that therefore his Regi- ment has the preference to their service, but that he Is cheerfully willing that they enter into Continental service when his Regiment is discharged.
"Thereupon ORDERED that the recruiting officers for the Continental service who are employed in that business by virtue of warrants from this Con- gress be allowed to enlist men from any of the Regiments of Minute men In this Colony but however under the following restrictions with respect to the Minute Regiments now in actual service in this City and its environs,-That no man shall be allowed to leave the Minute service till the time of their Enlistment as Minute Men is expired or they are discharged from the present service, or until the commanding officer of the Continental service at this point shall think it nec-
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essary for the public service that they should join their respective Regiments Into which they shall have enlisted."
In a report of the state of the New York Regiments of the Line, April 25, 1775, it is said :
"Capt. Rosecrans' Company 77 men are at the fortifications."
Lieutenant Lee served in this command until Novem- ber, 1776. At the session of the Provincial Congress, Nov. 21, 1776, four additional Battalions of the Continental Line of the State of New York were authorized, and a list of the offi- cers and their ranks arranged. In this list appears, in the Fourth Battalion, Colonel Henry B. Livingston, William Jackson's Company, Thomas Lee, First Lieutenant, rank- ing tenth in the Battalion. The minutes of this session further show .that Col. Lewis Du Bois was being urged for appointment as Colonel of one of the four Battalions, but was left out of the arrangement, the record saying, "That from the Quota of this State being assessed so low as Four Battalions many good officers will be unprovided for. That sundry applications have been made to your Committee for Commissions by Young Gentlemen of Fortune and Family whose services your Committee are under the disagreeable necessity of declining to accept."
It resulted finally in a fifth Battallion or Regiment of the Continental Line for the State of New York being au- thorized and Colonel Lewis Du Bois appointed Colonel thereof with the "Rank of fourth Colonel of the New York forces." In this Regiment Thomas Lee was commissioned Captain of the Eighth Company of date November 21, 1776, and a complete roster of this Regiment and his Company is preserved and appears in Vol. I., "New York in the Revo- lution, " af the publication of the New York Archives, Al- bany, 1887. This Regiment participated in the battles of Forts Montgomery and Clinton, White Plains, and other
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engagements along the Hudson. He was a member of a General Court Martial held by order of Gen- eral Washington near White Plains. This Court was com- posed of Brigadier Gen. McDugall, President, a Colonel, a Lieutenant-Colonel, a Major, and ten Captains. Colonel Morris Graham was tried before this Court on the charge of cowardice at the Battle of White Plains, preferred against him by Col. Joseph Reed, Gen. Washington's sec- retary, and was acquitted, the evidence showing that his movement of troops from which the charge arose was di- rected by his superior officer.
Captain Lee was also a member of a General Court Martial held at Fort Montgomery, April 30, 1777, by order of Gen. George Clinton, composed of Col. Lewis Du Bois, President, fifteen Captains, and two Lieutenants. Nine men were tried before this Court, charged with treason, convicted, and sentenced to death. The proceedings and evidence taken is published in full. In the minutes appears the following :-
"The Court having sat till 3 o'clock in the Afternoon and the Guard House being crouded with Prisoners and the Court resolving that an Immediate example was necessary and requisite to deter our Intestine Enemies from continuing their Treasonable Practices against the State, And it being also probable that this Post would soon be besieged by the enemy, the Court adjourned to 5 o'clock this Afternoon."
The Court met pursuant to the adjournment and com- pleted its business, that evening. This Court again met May 2, 1777, and proceeded to try sixteen additional men charged with treason, convicted them, and sentenced them to death, but recommended seven of them for mercy. Gen. Geo. Clinton, however, disappoved the recommendation, urging a severe example to deter others from like crime. His recommendation was followed, and the prisoners or- dered executed.
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The weekly returns of forces at Fort Montgomery for the months of May, June and July, 1777, show the presence there of Captain Lee and his Company, and he continued at this post and participated in the battles of Fort Montgom- ery and Clinton. Gen. Clinton, in his report of this battle, says : "Not more than 11 officers of Col. DuBois' Regi- ment are missing." After this battle, this Regiment went into camp at the Heights of New Windsor. On October 14, 1777, at this place, Capt. Lee served as a member of a General Court Martial appointed by Gen. George Clinton. The Court was composed of Col. Du Bois, President, two Majors, and ten Captains. Daniel Taylor, charged with being a spy, was tried before the Court, convicted, and sen- tenced to death. This sentence was approved, and ordered carried into execution.
In a letter dated November 24, 1777, from Gen. Geo. Clinton to Gen. Israel Putnam, from New Windsor, state- ment is made that "Capt. Lee was permitted to return with his Family & Effects to New York agreeable to your first letter." On March 1, 1778, returns of the Regiment show Capt. Lee at New Windsor. On May 19, 1778, Capt. Lee resigned.
On February 18, 1779, at Fort Ranger, Capt. Thomas Lee served as President of a Court Martial of Inquiry for the purpose of trying Melkiah Grout, a Justice of the Peace, appointed in New Hampshire, who had attempted to exercise jurisdiction within New York in the disputed territory known as the New Hampshire grants. He com- plained that he was arrested by "seven men armed with guns & sword bayonets." The Court found that the charge was not sustained, and ordered the prisoner set at liberty.
October 19, 1779, Capt. Lee was commissioned Cap-
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tain in Col. Zephania Platt's Regiment, New York Militia, Dutchess County Associated Exempts, in which command he served for some time. The returns from the Regiment, November 9th, 10th, 14th and 17th, 1779, show Capt. Lee and Company at Camp Fishkill. Subsequently he was com- missioned and served as Captain in Col. Lewis Du Bois' Regiment New York Militia Levies of the State to re-in- force the Armies of the United States, July 1, 1780.
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