cowing house

While I was researching for the last post, I came across a picture of a house on the Historical Section of the Town of Weymouth website.



This is the house that Francis Cowing is living in around 1876, as shown in the Weymouth Map I discussed in my last post on Samuel Pratt. The house was near the location of Samuel and Alithea Pratt. Also, according to the History of Weymouth book (vol. 2, p 918), my 6th great-grandparents, Joshua Bates and Tirzah Pratt, lived in this house in the late 1700's or early 1800's, before Francis Cowing.
The caption above the Cowing house picture states that the family donated the farm behind the house to the town to build the Weymouth North High School (currently the Middle School). I searched the deeds on the Norfolk County website and found a Weymouth deed in Sept 1926, (1714-125, 126, 127) stating that the Town of Weymouth voted to "take", from Francis W. Cowing (Francis H. Cowing's son), a certain area of land between Hillside and Middle Street for the purpose of a playground, raising $100 for this owner, Francis W. Cowing. Another deed in Weymouth (1763-331,332) for 1927 states that Francis W. Cowing sold, to the Town of Weymouth, land "between Hillside Avenue and Legion Memorial Field" for $400.00. Hillside Avenue does not seem to be a street in Weymouth anymore, but Legion field is located behind the current Middle School (old High School), on Middle Street. This may be land in addition to what was already given or sold to the Town of Weymouth for the old High School on Commercial Street. I searched a little more to see if I could find the original deed that involved the Cowing family and the land for the old High School on Commercial Street. I found the following Weymouth deed (1677-361,362) for December 1925 which states Francis W. Cowing gave to the Town of Weymouth 13 acres on Commercial Street, originally his father's, Francis H. Cowing, land. The original deed for Francis H. Cowing is referenced to have happened in 1877, Norfolk deed book 490, page 80. This is probably the land that is referred to in the caption above the picture, behind the Cowing House, which is now the Middle School and was once the High School.
There are many more deeds online for Francis W. Cowing, but the ones discussed above were the ones that pertained to the Town of Weymouth. I find it interesting that the Town of Weymouth bought this land for what seems to be small amounts of money, for even this time period. It does see that Francis W. Cowing started the process by first giving a large amount of land, 13 acres, to the town. Then the town used Eminent Domain to take some land for only $100.00 to create a playground, perhaps Legion Field or an area near Legion Field. Then Francis W. Cowing decided to sell some more land to the Town of Weymouth for $400.00 in the same area. It is not clear why the Cowing Family decided to donate land to the Town, but it is nice to think that the school I once went to was once land belonging to my ancestors.

revolutionary war - joshua bates

The Revolutionary career of my sixth great-grandfather, Joshua Bates, began at the beginning of the war in April 1775 and ended towards the end of the war in 1780. He served for 5 years, a long time compared to most men in his town of Weymouth who would enlist for 3-9 month periods and be done after their first service. I was able to find Joshua's pension file on footnote.com. It was filed by his wife, Tirzah Pratt Bates Hunt, after he died (she remarried Ebenezer Hunt after Joshua's death). As the pension was applied for by his wife, it should be noted that the information comes secondhand from Tirzah, so it is not as detailed as it may have been coming directly from Joshua.
According to Tirzah, "first he served about two weeks commencing on the nineteenth of April 1775 on a minute Company raised at Charlestown where he was then an apprentice*, names of officers under whom he served unknown." The date of Joshua's service is significant in the Revolutionary War. April 19, 1775 was when the battles of Lexington and Concord were fought. During the battle, neighboring towns were alerted and minute armies marched to the alarm toward Lexington and Concord. After these battles, Massachusetts militia from different towns surrounded Boston to block the British from getting more supplies from their navy. This was known as the Siege of Boston, and lasted about a year. It seems likely due to the dates and location of Joshua's service in Charlestown that he was involved in a march towards Lexington and Concord or the beginning of this siege. The book, Historical Sketch of Charlestown..., discusses this time period in Charlestown on page 7,

A more detailed description of this time in Charlestwon is found at google books in History of the siege of Boston, and of the battles of Lexington... on page 79. Living in Charlestown at this time in history would have a great effect on Joshua, with people from the town fleeing with a war starting on their homeland. Joshua made the decision to protect and serve his home. Joshua only served for about 2 weeks in Charlestown, leaving about 2 months before the town was burned and destroyed by the British.
His next service began from Weymouth, in the town he was born. The pension file states, "Also that he served as a private at Weymouth and at Hull in a Company commanded by Capt Joseph Trufant from about the first of May 1775 to the first of January 1777 a term of twenty months. Also that he served at Hull four months ending on the first of May 1777 in one of the four independent Companies there Captain’s name not known" I did not find any information on Capt. Trufant's regiment until I searched for Joseph Trufant in the book on ancestry.com of Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War. It gives a bit more detail than Joshua's pension file as to how this independent company served in the war. The dates and places match what was stated in Joshua's pension.

Joshua's next bought of service is stated as follows, "Also that he served as orderly Sergeant in Capt. Amos Lincoln Company of Artillery, Col. Revere’s Regiment from May eight 1777 to December 31st 1779 . Also in second Company of Revere’s Regiment from January first to May eighth 1780 a term of three years in one continued period of service. While performing this period of service he was frequently marching from station to station and from one section of the Country to another, he was in the Penobscot Expedition and in an engagement at Rhode Island by which he lost his hearing which in a great measure unfitted him for active business through life."
The Colonel Revere referred to in Joshua's pension is the well-known Paul Revere. Amos Lincoln and Paul Revere were both participants in the Boston Tea Party. It is neat that a relative of mine had relationships with at least two members of the tea party. I am not sure how he became to serve with this group and not with a Weymouth regiment, perhaps he made ties with them when he apprenticed in Charlestown. (I also noted that there is an Edward Bates listed as a participant at the Boston Tea Party, not sure if there is a relation.) This last part of Joshua's pension tells a bit about how he served in the Revolutionary War, mentioning an engagement in Rhode Island and the Penobscot Expedition. If we look at Paul Revere's regiment information, we can get a better idea of their activities. The Rhode Island engagement is most likely referring to this engagement explained on the Revolutionary War and Beyond website, where Revere and his regiment "were sent to reinforce General John Sullivan at Newport, Rhode Island. The colonists were unable to recapture Newport and Revere was home in Boston by September." On this same website is a brief explanation of the failed Penobscot Expedition, "Summer 1779, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Revere was placed in command of the artillery train for the Penobscot Expedition to drive the British from Penobscot Bay, Maine (then part of Massachusetts). This turned out to be a disastrous expedition and was the worst US naval defeat in American history until Pearl Harbor. Paul Revere was charged with insubordination for several alleged offenses during this mission and was dismissed from the militia. He was exonerated from all charges after three years of trying to get a fair court martial."
Lastly, Joshua's pension file states, "Also that he continued his services as a soldier from the end of the last mentioned period to the close of the war: but the ? which he made and the officers under whom he served are not certainly known accepting that he served at Rhode Island in Capt. Theophilus Wilder’s Company several months in the year 1780." This last service in Rhode Island is probably the following described in History of the Town of Hingham... on google books:

The book goes on to state the Hingham men that were involved in this event. As Joshua was not from Hingham he is not listed on the Hingham roll. According to the History of Weymouth book on ancestry.com, some men would enlist from other towns if the town was paying more money than their own town could offer. Perhaps this is what Joshua did, or maybe he did not have the opportunity to serve from Weymouth if they were not enlisting men at this time. Regardless, Joshua chose to serve and protect his new country with many years of service.

notes:
*Joshua's son, Joshua Bates, was the benefactor of the Boston Public Library. This son Joshua also was a clerk in Charlestown for William Grey, a distinguished merchant. Excerpt here . This Bates family clearly had ties to Boston and Charlestown.
*I searched the rev. rolls - 2 joshua bates - one serving in vermont and one in 2nd reg and 23rd reg - probably not this joshua bates as those regiments are not listed in the pension file. Rolls mostly list the continental army, does not list all militia.

revolutionary war

I have traced many of my ancestors back to the Revolutionary War period of 1775-1783. After reading an article in the November 2008 issue of Family Tree Magazine, "Operation Online Records", I thought I would try to find out which ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War. This article includes a handy chart which lists the range of birth years of men who may have fought in the war. I searched my family database for any men that were born between 1726 and 1767 and came up with a possible list to check for revolutionary war records. I wanted to focus on my direct line ancestors first, so I narrowed the search for only great grandparents and not great uncles or cousins on my collateral line. I came up with the following list:

Direct Line Ancestors that may have fought in the Revolutionary War

Joshua Bates (b. 1755)
Samuel Bates (b. 1754)
John Blackington (b. 1756)
George Lane French (b. 1741)
Abner Holbrook (b. 1741)
Pierre Labrec (b. 1756 Canada)
Samuel Torrey (b. 1761)

The first place I looked for records was footnote's database of Revolutionary War Pensions. I was only able to find two pensions in this database for the men listed above, oddly it was the first two I searched for; Joshua Bates (6th great grandfather) and Samuel Bates (5th great grandfather). My next two posts will be about these two Revolutionary ancestors.


to do list:
1. The following men are my other ancestors that are on my collateral line that may have fought in the Revolutionary War. I will look more closely at these men later. George French (b. 1766), Joshua French (b. 1764), Adam Holbrook (b. 1750), John Holbrook (b. 1765), William Holbrook (b. 1739), Cushing Pratt (b. 1759), Zanas Pratt (b. 1766), James Vining (b. 1744), John Vining (b. 1752), Jeremiah White (b. 1756), John White (b. 1760), Luther White (b. 1743)