Nathaniel Stoddard's parents were Nathaniel Stoddar (the spelling appears not to have been Stoddard) (1705-1758) and Abigail (Garnet) Stoddar (1699 - ). Their Find A Grave memorials had not been created at the time of this writing in December, 2013. His paternal grandparents were JACOB STODDARD and SARAH HOWARD.
He is a fifth generation descendant of Richard Warren, a passenger on the Mayflower. His parents were:
Nathaniel Stoddar
Birth 08 May 1727 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Death 24 Feb 1803 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Elizabeth Sprague
Birth 10 Mar 1724 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Death18 Dec 1785 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
No Find A Grave memorial had been found for his parents as of the date of this writing in December, 2013.
The line of descent from Richard Warren, Mayflower passenger, to Nathaniel Stoddard is as follows:
NATHANIEL STODDARD, son of
Nathaniel Stoddar and ELIZABETH SPRAGUE, daughter of
Priscilla Knight and JEREMIAH SPRAGUE, son of
Anthony Sprague and ELIZABETH BARTLETT, daughter of
Robert Bartlett and MARY WARREN, daughter of
RICHARD WARREN, Mayflower passenger
The following text is taken from "Nathaniel Stoddard – Revolutionary Soldier," by Thomas J. Abernathy, published in the Perry Maine 1818-1968 Sesquicentennial Historical Souvenir Book. The entirety of the following text until the cemetery directions, set forth last below, is taken verbatim from that article.
"Nathaniel Stoddard, one of the early settlers of Plantation No. 1, now Perry, Maine, was the sixth generation of his family in America. The first of the line, John Stodder, came to Hingham, in Massachusetts Bay, from England probably from London, in 1638, and the line came down through a second John, Jacob, Nathaniel, and a second Nathaniel, to the Perry settler. Merging into his generation were the family names of Bartlett, Beal, Bryant, Cockerill, Eames, Lewis, Pitts, Ripley, Russell, Sprague, Ward, Warren, and Wilson. Through his mother he was a descendant of Richard Warren of Mayflower fame, and of Anthony Eames, a prominent citizen of Hingham, who was the center of the big dissention over military matters that split the town wide open in 1644 and 1645, and which was the cause of family feuds which lasted in Hingham through generations.
"Nathaniel's grandfather, the first Nathaniel Stoddard, at the age of fifty-one years sold his home place and joined Captain Ebenezer Beal's company in Colonel Benjamin Lincoln's regiment which responded on August 15, 1757, to the request for militia to go to the relief of Fort William in the French and Indian War. He re-enlisted in Captain Edward Ward's company in Colonel Joseph Williams' regiment early in 1758, and was engaged in the fighting at Lake George under General Abercombie [sic] in July of that year. He died there on August 10, 1758, at the age of 53 years. The use of the word "died" in the record, rather than "killed" indicates that he was not a combat casualty, but was probably the victim of smallpox, which was prevalent among the troops.
"Nathaniel, in the sixth generation, was the eighth of twelve children born to Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Sprague) Stoddard, being born on June 18, 1758. As a boy he was probably trained for the trade of cooper, as were his father and grandfather before him. The family lived on North Street in Hingham, near Marsh's Bridge, not too far, incidentally, from the residence of Benjamin Lincoln, who knew the young man, and who as will be shown later, took somewhat of an interest in him, as the son of a neighbor.
"Nathaniel Stoddard's military record is a long one. He was undoubtedly engaged in some sort of military activity in the fall of 1775, soon after his seventeenth birthday. The writer of this summary has copies of two receipts, signed by him, one dated at Roxbury on November 1, 1775, acknowledging receipt from Major John Crane of two pounds four shillings, his pay in full for the month of September, and the other dated February 12, 1776, acknowledging receipt from the same source of six pounds twelve shillings as full pay for the months of October, November, and December, 1775. Major John Crane was the commanding officer of the United Train of Artillery, an artillery company from Rhode Island which was stationed at Roxbury Fort during the siege of Boston, and the amount for each month was the pay of a private soldier in that company, so it is possible that Nathaniel was serving under Major Crane at the time. No rosters of the company are known to exist, however, so this is purely a conjecture that cannot be verified. There was also a Nathaniel Stoddard enrolled as a member of Captain James Lincoln's company of Hingham militia, which assembled on several occasions in 1775 and 1776 for brief periods of service at Hull and elsewhere for the defense of the seacoast. It is unlikely, however, that Major Crane would have been paymaster for such a unit. The writer is inclined to believe that the senior Nathaniel Stoddard was the man enrolled in Captain Lincoln's company, and that the younger Nathaniel was actually serving under Major Crane at Roxbury. He did not continue such service into 1776, however, and made no mention of it in his later application for a pension, but this is reasonable inasmuch as the pensions were based on Continental service, and any service in 1775 would have been in the "Army of the United Colonies."
"We have it on the evidence of his own affidavit, signed by him on May 8, 1818, as part of his pension application, that Nathaniel Stoddard enlisted "sometime about the month of February, 1776", as a private in Captain Charles Cushing's company, made up mostly of Hingham men, in Colonel John Greaton's regiment, for the term of one year. Actually these enlistments were intended to expire on the last day of December of that year. Greaton's regiment, the 24th Continental, was one of the first regiments ordered out of the Boston area for New York as the British sailed away from Boston in March of 1776, and on April 21st of that year left New York by boat by way of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain to Canada under Brigadier General Thompson, arriving there about the middle of May. Captain Cushing's company did not reach the main American force in time to be present at the disaster at Sorel on the St. Lawrence River on June 8, having arrived at a point 23 miles south of that town when met by Colonel Greaton himself and ordered to return to Crown Point, according to a letter written on June 13 by Captain Cushing to his brother.
"The regiment remained at Mount Independence, the low promontory on the eastern side of the lake opposite Fort Ticonderoga where the New England regiments were stationed in order to keep them from fighting with the Pennsylvania regiments stationed at Fort Ti itself on the west side of the Lake. The regiment, along with those of Colonels Reed and Poor, received a special commendation on October 29, 1776, from General Gates for its promptness in crossing the lake and manning the old French lines at Ticonderoga on the approach of General Burgoyne and his army within three miles of the fort on the previous day. The affidavits says further than [sic] Nathaniel Stoddard was discharged at Mount Independence at the termination of his enlistment, which was presumably the end of December.
"On March 8, 1777, he again enlisted, this time for a three year term in the new regiment of artillery then being formed under the command of Colonel John Crane (who is buried in the cemetery behind the church in Whiting, Maine). He was enlisted by Lieutenant Joseph Andrews of Hingham for Captain Jotham Horton's company, which in May fell to the command of Captain David Briant and, after the latter's death following wounds received at the Battle of Brandywine in September, 1777, to Captain Henry Burbeck, who commanded it for the rest of the war. Nathaniel Stoddard served in the company during his entire three years with the regiment.
"The regiment and company both bave a good account of themselves throughout their existence. Briant's company bore the brunt of the British attack across Brandywine Creek on September 11, 1777, with the gun crews manning their pieces until actually over-run by the enemy before withdrawing, leaving their weapons behind them. Camptain Biant died of his wounds the following day, and Lieutenants Joseph Andrews and Florence Crowley were also wounded, the former fatally. One sergeant and one matross (private) of the company were killed, one corporal was taken prisoner, and one bombasrdier, two gunners, and four matrosses were wounded, three of them dying shortly afterward. The company saw action again at Germantown on October 4, with one man fatally wounded. The entire regiment shared the hardships of the winter at Valley Forge, and each of its companies received an extra month's pay in March for the zeal with which they had worked to erect the log huts in which they survived the winter. Nathaniel's pay as a gunner was eight dollars and sixty cents per month. The company seems to have gone through the winter without a single desertion, although one company in the regiment had eleven men out of a total enlisted strength of thirty-six who either deserted or were absent without leave in the month of March alone.
"The regiment took part in the battle at Monmouth Court House on June 28, 1778, and portions of it were in other engagements. Two of its companies took part in the Rhode Island campaign in 1778 and 1779, the other companies being generally stationed at various points in New York – at Fort Stanwix, at West Point, and at the other forts along the Hudson River. Captain Bubeck's company served principally at West Point during this period.
"Nathaniel Stoddard served his three years in Colonel Crane's regiment, being discharged on March 11, 1780. At that time he was described as being 22 years of age, 5' 7" tall, and of dark complexion. He returned to Hingham and spent the next twelve months in civilian life.
"His affidavit states that on March 29, 1781 he again enlisted for a three year term, this time in Captain Alden's company in Colonel Ebenezer Sprout's regiment. This was the old 2nd Massachusetts regiment, previously commanded by Colonel John Bailey. The explanation given in the affidavit is interesting. He says "I enlisted at the request of Major General Benjamin Lincoln and went into his family, where I remained until after the capture of the British army at York Town under Lord Cornwallis." The term "family" was regularly used in the Revolutionary War to refer to the commissioned and enlisted personnel which made up the group surrounding a general officer at his headquarters, and did not refer to his personal family as we ordinarily think of the term. Nathaniel Stoddard apparently served in his capacity as corporal as part of the enlisted group attached to General Lincoln's headquarters, and as such was undoubtably [sic] present at the siege of Yorktown. This encouragement to enlist, and the immediate assignment to General Lincoln's "family", is the evidence of the interest on the part of the General mentioned earlier in this summary.
"The affidavit continues: "When General Lincoln was appointed Secretary of War I returned to my duty as a corporal in Captain Alden's company and continued in that company until some time in the latter part of the year One Thousand, Seven Hundred, and Eighty Three, when General Lincoln came to West Point where I was then stationed, on his way home. General Lincoln wished me to take charge of his baggage and applied to General Knox who gave me an honorable discharge and I returned home". General Knox was in charge of the demobilization procedures for the bulk of the army, with activities centered at West Point. One can imagine the satisfaction with which Corporal Stoddard let it be known among his fellows, sweating out the months waiting for their discharges, that his friend General Lincoln, just relieved from his duties as Secretary of War, especially asked that his baggage be put in the good hands of Corporal Stoddard on its way home.
"There is nothing on record as to his activities in the next four years. The uncertainties of making a living for himself and family, now including a wife and three children, must have weighted heavily upon him as it did on most other young ex-service men in those days of hard times, scarce money, and high taxes. The cheap land and chances for a fresh start in the new Passamaquoddy townships then being developed by General Lincoln and his associates must have appealed to him, and on July 30, 1787, he paid over the five shillings consideration and in return received the deed for the one hundred acres which comprised lot number 7 on the east side of East Bay, on condition that within four years of the date of the deed he should build upon the premises "a house sixteen feet in breadth and twenty feet in length" and should also "clear up and improve six acres of the premises lying together so as to be fit for tillage, pasturage, or mowing". He appears to have arrived with his family on his new holdings in early November of 1787, after an eight day passage from Hingham in the sloop belonging to one Captain Dexter.
"Nathaniel Stoddard was twice married. He first married Jane Gardner, daughter of Simeon and Hannah (Cockerill) Gardner, of Hingham, on April 19, 1779, apparently while home on furlough. Any of his descendants who have tried to trace the family history must have been baffled by the statement in the History of Hingham, Volume III, that on that date he married 'Sarah Garner' [sic]. A search of the orginal [sic] Hingham town records suggests to the writer a solution which seems adequately to explain the confusion. These records show on April 4, 1779, a 'Declaration of Marriage Intentions' for Nathaniel Stoddard and Jane Gardner, but on April 19 there is a record of the marriage of Nathaniel Stoddard and Sarah Gardner. Sarah Gardner was sister of Jane, and was already married. The marriage entries for a considerable period of time are recorded together, in one handwriting, and in an ink of similar intensity for all entries in the series, and give the impression of having been made all at one time. It appears quite probable that the town clerk or other person making the entries, perhaps copying from other records, inadvertently made a slip, and put down the name of Jane's sister rather than Jane. Furthermore, the birth records show the first child Betsy, born on December 26, 1780, as the child of Nathaniel and Jane Stoddard. The entry in the marriage record is obviously an error. Incidentally, a third Gardner sister, Huldah, married Daniel Bosworth of Dennysville and her name is erroneously entered in one instance as "Huldah Stoddard.
"Jane Stoddard bore her husband eight children, as follows:
1. Betsy, born December 26, 1780, in Hingham.
2. Sally, born October 19, 1783, in Hingham.
3. Charles, born March 12, 1786, in Hingham.
4. Jane, born July 14, 1788, in Perry.
5. Nathaniel, born April 14, 1792, in Perry.
6. Daniel, born in September, year not recorded, in Perry.
7. Stephen, born March 17, 1800, in Perry.
8. Ichabod, born March 16, 1802, in Perry.
"Jane died on March 16, 1802, at the age of 44 years, at the birth of her last child, Ichabod. She was buried on the hillside just off the old Leach's Point road where her husband is also buried.
"Nathaniel lost no time in providing a mother for his small children by the simple procedure, very common in those days, of taking a second wife, which he did on October 21 of the same year, marrying Hannah (Perry records say Sally) Todd, daughter of Samuel and Ruth (Lincoln) Todd of Hingham. She was ten years younger than Jane, and bore him three children:
1. Samuel, born September 27, 1803, in Perry.
2. Benjamin, born July 19, 1810, in Perry.
3. Ezekiel, born July 13, 1813, in Perry.
"She outlived her husband by twenty years and died in Perry on August 14, 1848, at the age of 79 years.
"Nathaniel Stoddard died in Perry on October 20, 1828, at the age of 70 years, and was buried beside his first wife Jane on the hillside on his property just off what is now an old woods road leading to Leach's Point on the east side of East Bay. The inventory of his estate shows that at the time of his death eh owned some 267 acres of land, two pairs of oxen, seven cows, four calves and yearlings, four swine, a horse, and twenty-four sheep, with the usual household goods, hay, grain, potatoes, etc., to say nothing of two notes of his fellow townsmen in the amount of $141.04, one of which was almost a year overdue. Nathaniel was evidently sympathetic to the troubles of his neighbors, and a real friend.
"The Eastport Sentinel, under the date of October 25, 1828, recorded his death thus: "Another Revolutionary Soldier Gone. Died, at Perry, of a short sickness, the 20th instant, Nathaniel Stoddard, aged 70 years. He was a provident and affectionate husband, a tender father, kind neighbor, and useful citizen, and has left a sorrowful widow, children, and grand-children, to lament his death. He early too a part in the Revolutionary struggle, and remained in the army to the end of the war."
He is a fifth generation descendant of Richard Warren, a passenger on the Mayflower. His parents were:
Nathaniel Stoddar
Birth 08 May 1727 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Death 24 Feb 1803 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Elizabeth Sprague
Birth 10 Mar 1724 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Death18 Dec 1785 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
No Find A Grave memorial had been found for his parents as of the date of this writing in December, 2013.
The line of descent from Richard Warren, Mayflower passenger, to Nathaniel Stoddard is as follows:
NATHANIEL STODDARD, son of
Nathaniel Stoddar and ELIZABETH SPRAGUE, daughter of
Priscilla Knight and JEREMIAH SPRAGUE, son of
Anthony Sprague and ELIZABETH BARTLETT, daughter of
Robert Bartlett and MARY WARREN, daughter of
RICHARD WARREN, Mayflower passenger
The following text is taken from "Nathaniel Stoddard – Revolutionary Soldier," by Thomas J. Abernathy, published in the Perry Maine 1818-1968 Sesquicentennial Historical Souvenir Book. The entirety of the following text until the cemetery directions, set forth last below, is taken verbatim from that article.
"Nathaniel Stoddard, one of the early settlers of Plantation No. 1, now Perry, Maine, was the sixth generation of his family in America. The first of the line, John Stodder, came to Hingham, in Massachusetts Bay, from England probably from London, in 1638, and the line came down through a second John, Jacob, Nathaniel, and a second Nathaniel, to the Perry settler. Merging into his generation were the family names of Bartlett, Beal, Bryant, Cockerill, Eames, Lewis, Pitts, Ripley, Russell, Sprague, Ward, Warren, and Wilson. Through his mother he was a descendant of Richard Warren of Mayflower fame, and of Anthony Eames, a prominent citizen of Hingham, who was the center of the big dissention over military matters that split the town wide open in 1644 and 1645, and which was the cause of family feuds which lasted in Hingham through generations.
"Nathaniel's grandfather, the first Nathaniel Stoddard, at the age of fifty-one years sold his home place and joined Captain Ebenezer Beal's company in Colonel Benjamin Lincoln's regiment which responded on August 15, 1757, to the request for militia to go to the relief of Fort William in the French and Indian War. He re-enlisted in Captain Edward Ward's company in Colonel Joseph Williams' regiment early in 1758, and was engaged in the fighting at Lake George under General Abercombie [sic] in July of that year. He died there on August 10, 1758, at the age of 53 years. The use of the word "died" in the record, rather than "killed" indicates that he was not a combat casualty, but was probably the victim of smallpox, which was prevalent among the troops.
"Nathaniel, in the sixth generation, was the eighth of twelve children born to Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Sprague) Stoddard, being born on June 18, 1758. As a boy he was probably trained for the trade of cooper, as were his father and grandfather before him. The family lived on North Street in Hingham, near Marsh's Bridge, not too far, incidentally, from the residence of Benjamin Lincoln, who knew the young man, and who as will be shown later, took somewhat of an interest in him, as the son of a neighbor.
"Nathaniel Stoddard's military record is a long one. He was undoubtedly engaged in some sort of military activity in the fall of 1775, soon after his seventeenth birthday. The writer of this summary has copies of two receipts, signed by him, one dated at Roxbury on November 1, 1775, acknowledging receipt from Major John Crane of two pounds four shillings, his pay in full for the month of September, and the other dated February 12, 1776, acknowledging receipt from the same source of six pounds twelve shillings as full pay for the months of October, November, and December, 1775. Major John Crane was the commanding officer of the United Train of Artillery, an artillery company from Rhode Island which was stationed at Roxbury Fort during the siege of Boston, and the amount for each month was the pay of a private soldier in that company, so it is possible that Nathaniel was serving under Major Crane at the time. No rosters of the company are known to exist, however, so this is purely a conjecture that cannot be verified. There was also a Nathaniel Stoddard enrolled as a member of Captain James Lincoln's company of Hingham militia, which assembled on several occasions in 1775 and 1776 for brief periods of service at Hull and elsewhere for the defense of the seacoast. It is unlikely, however, that Major Crane would have been paymaster for such a unit. The writer is inclined to believe that the senior Nathaniel Stoddard was the man enrolled in Captain Lincoln's company, and that the younger Nathaniel was actually serving under Major Crane at Roxbury. He did not continue such service into 1776, however, and made no mention of it in his later application for a pension, but this is reasonable inasmuch as the pensions were based on Continental service, and any service in 1775 would have been in the "Army of the United Colonies."
"We have it on the evidence of his own affidavit, signed by him on May 8, 1818, as part of his pension application, that Nathaniel Stoddard enlisted "sometime about the month of February, 1776", as a private in Captain Charles Cushing's company, made up mostly of Hingham men, in Colonel John Greaton's regiment, for the term of one year. Actually these enlistments were intended to expire on the last day of December of that year. Greaton's regiment, the 24th Continental, was one of the first regiments ordered out of the Boston area for New York as the British sailed away from Boston in March of 1776, and on April 21st of that year left New York by boat by way of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain to Canada under Brigadier General Thompson, arriving there about the middle of May. Captain Cushing's company did not reach the main American force in time to be present at the disaster at Sorel on the St. Lawrence River on June 8, having arrived at a point 23 miles south of that town when met by Colonel Greaton himself and ordered to return to Crown Point, according to a letter written on June 13 by Captain Cushing to his brother.
"The regiment remained at Mount Independence, the low promontory on the eastern side of the lake opposite Fort Ticonderoga where the New England regiments were stationed in order to keep them from fighting with the Pennsylvania regiments stationed at Fort Ti itself on the west side of the Lake. The regiment, along with those of Colonels Reed and Poor, received a special commendation on October 29, 1776, from General Gates for its promptness in crossing the lake and manning the old French lines at Ticonderoga on the approach of General Burgoyne and his army within three miles of the fort on the previous day. The affidavits says further than [sic] Nathaniel Stoddard was discharged at Mount Independence at the termination of his enlistment, which was presumably the end of December.
"On March 8, 1777, he again enlisted, this time for a three year term in the new regiment of artillery then being formed under the command of Colonel John Crane (who is buried in the cemetery behind the church in Whiting, Maine). He was enlisted by Lieutenant Joseph Andrews of Hingham for Captain Jotham Horton's company, which in May fell to the command of Captain David Briant and, after the latter's death following wounds received at the Battle of Brandywine in September, 1777, to Captain Henry Burbeck, who commanded it for the rest of the war. Nathaniel Stoddard served in the company during his entire three years with the regiment.
"The regiment and company both bave a good account of themselves throughout their existence. Briant's company bore the brunt of the British attack across Brandywine Creek on September 11, 1777, with the gun crews manning their pieces until actually over-run by the enemy before withdrawing, leaving their weapons behind them. Camptain Biant died of his wounds the following day, and Lieutenants Joseph Andrews and Florence Crowley were also wounded, the former fatally. One sergeant and one matross (private) of the company were killed, one corporal was taken prisoner, and one bombasrdier, two gunners, and four matrosses were wounded, three of them dying shortly afterward. The company saw action again at Germantown on October 4, with one man fatally wounded. The entire regiment shared the hardships of the winter at Valley Forge, and each of its companies received an extra month's pay in March for the zeal with which they had worked to erect the log huts in which they survived the winter. Nathaniel's pay as a gunner was eight dollars and sixty cents per month. The company seems to have gone through the winter without a single desertion, although one company in the regiment had eleven men out of a total enlisted strength of thirty-six who either deserted or were absent without leave in the month of March alone.
"The regiment took part in the battle at Monmouth Court House on June 28, 1778, and portions of it were in other engagements. Two of its companies took part in the Rhode Island campaign in 1778 and 1779, the other companies being generally stationed at various points in New York – at Fort Stanwix, at West Point, and at the other forts along the Hudson River. Captain Bubeck's company served principally at West Point during this period.
"Nathaniel Stoddard served his three years in Colonel Crane's regiment, being discharged on March 11, 1780. At that time he was described as being 22 years of age, 5' 7" tall, and of dark complexion. He returned to Hingham and spent the next twelve months in civilian life.
"His affidavit states that on March 29, 1781 he again enlisted for a three year term, this time in Captain Alden's company in Colonel Ebenezer Sprout's regiment. This was the old 2nd Massachusetts regiment, previously commanded by Colonel John Bailey. The explanation given in the affidavit is interesting. He says "I enlisted at the request of Major General Benjamin Lincoln and went into his family, where I remained until after the capture of the British army at York Town under Lord Cornwallis." The term "family" was regularly used in the Revolutionary War to refer to the commissioned and enlisted personnel which made up the group surrounding a general officer at his headquarters, and did not refer to his personal family as we ordinarily think of the term. Nathaniel Stoddard apparently served in his capacity as corporal as part of the enlisted group attached to General Lincoln's headquarters, and as such was undoubtably [sic] present at the siege of Yorktown. This encouragement to enlist, and the immediate assignment to General Lincoln's "family", is the evidence of the interest on the part of the General mentioned earlier in this summary.
"The affidavit continues: "When General Lincoln was appointed Secretary of War I returned to my duty as a corporal in Captain Alden's company and continued in that company until some time in the latter part of the year One Thousand, Seven Hundred, and Eighty Three, when General Lincoln came to West Point where I was then stationed, on his way home. General Lincoln wished me to take charge of his baggage and applied to General Knox who gave me an honorable discharge and I returned home". General Knox was in charge of the demobilization procedures for the bulk of the army, with activities centered at West Point. One can imagine the satisfaction with which Corporal Stoddard let it be known among his fellows, sweating out the months waiting for their discharges, that his friend General Lincoln, just relieved from his duties as Secretary of War, especially asked that his baggage be put in the good hands of Corporal Stoddard on its way home.
"There is nothing on record as to his activities in the next four years. The uncertainties of making a living for himself and family, now including a wife and three children, must have weighted heavily upon him as it did on most other young ex-service men in those days of hard times, scarce money, and high taxes. The cheap land and chances for a fresh start in the new Passamaquoddy townships then being developed by General Lincoln and his associates must have appealed to him, and on July 30, 1787, he paid over the five shillings consideration and in return received the deed for the one hundred acres which comprised lot number 7 on the east side of East Bay, on condition that within four years of the date of the deed he should build upon the premises "a house sixteen feet in breadth and twenty feet in length" and should also "clear up and improve six acres of the premises lying together so as to be fit for tillage, pasturage, or mowing". He appears to have arrived with his family on his new holdings in early November of 1787, after an eight day passage from Hingham in the sloop belonging to one Captain Dexter.
"Nathaniel Stoddard was twice married. He first married Jane Gardner, daughter of Simeon and Hannah (Cockerill) Gardner, of Hingham, on April 19, 1779, apparently while home on furlough. Any of his descendants who have tried to trace the family history must have been baffled by the statement in the History of Hingham, Volume III, that on that date he married 'Sarah Garner' [sic]. A search of the orginal [sic] Hingham town records suggests to the writer a solution which seems adequately to explain the confusion. These records show on April 4, 1779, a 'Declaration of Marriage Intentions' for Nathaniel Stoddard and Jane Gardner, but on April 19 there is a record of the marriage of Nathaniel Stoddard and Sarah Gardner. Sarah Gardner was sister of Jane, and was already married. The marriage entries for a considerable period of time are recorded together, in one handwriting, and in an ink of similar intensity for all entries in the series, and give the impression of having been made all at one time. It appears quite probable that the town clerk or other person making the entries, perhaps copying from other records, inadvertently made a slip, and put down the name of Jane's sister rather than Jane. Furthermore, the birth records show the first child Betsy, born on December 26, 1780, as the child of Nathaniel and Jane Stoddard. The entry in the marriage record is obviously an error. Incidentally, a third Gardner sister, Huldah, married Daniel Bosworth of Dennysville and her name is erroneously entered in one instance as "Huldah Stoddard.
"Jane Stoddard bore her husband eight children, as follows:
1. Betsy, born December 26, 1780, in Hingham.
2. Sally, born October 19, 1783, in Hingham.
3. Charles, born March 12, 1786, in Hingham.
4. Jane, born July 14, 1788, in Perry.
5. Nathaniel, born April 14, 1792, in Perry.
6. Daniel, born in September, year not recorded, in Perry.
7. Stephen, born March 17, 1800, in Perry.
8. Ichabod, born March 16, 1802, in Perry.
"Jane died on March 16, 1802, at the age of 44 years, at the birth of her last child, Ichabod. She was buried on the hillside just off the old Leach's Point road where her husband is also buried.
"Nathaniel lost no time in providing a mother for his small children by the simple procedure, very common in those days, of taking a second wife, which he did on October 21 of the same year, marrying Hannah (Perry records say Sally) Todd, daughter of Samuel and Ruth (Lincoln) Todd of Hingham. She was ten years younger than Jane, and bore him three children:
1. Samuel, born September 27, 1803, in Perry.
2. Benjamin, born July 19, 1810, in Perry.
3. Ezekiel, born July 13, 1813, in Perry.
"She outlived her husband by twenty years and died in Perry on August 14, 1848, at the age of 79 years.
"Nathaniel Stoddard died in Perry on October 20, 1828, at the age of 70 years, and was buried beside his first wife Jane on the hillside on his property just off what is now an old woods road leading to Leach's Point on the east side of East Bay. The inventory of his estate shows that at the time of his death eh owned some 267 acres of land, two pairs of oxen, seven cows, four calves and yearlings, four swine, a horse, and twenty-four sheep, with the usual household goods, hay, grain, potatoes, etc., to say nothing of two notes of his fellow townsmen in the amount of $141.04, one of which was almost a year overdue. Nathaniel was evidently sympathetic to the troubles of his neighbors, and a real friend.
"The Eastport Sentinel, under the date of October 25, 1828, recorded his death thus: "Another Revolutionary Soldier Gone. Died, at Perry, of a short sickness, the 20th instant, Nathaniel Stoddard, aged 70 years. He was a provident and affectionate husband, a tender father, kind neighbor, and useful citizen, and has left a sorrowful widow, children, and grand-children, to lament his death. He early too a part in the Revolutionary struggle, and remained in the army to the end of the war."
Nathaniel Stoddard's parents were Nathaniel Stoddar (the spelling appears not to have been Stoddard) (1705-1758) and Abigail (Garnet) Stoddar (1699 - ). Their Find A Grave memorials had not been created at the time of this writing in December, 2013. His paternal grandparents were JACOB STODDARD and SARAH HOWARD.
He is a fifth generation descendant of Richard Warren, a passenger on the Mayflower. His parents were:
Nathaniel Stoddar
Birth 08 May 1727 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Death 24 Feb 1803 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Elizabeth Sprague
Birth 10 Mar 1724 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Death18 Dec 1785 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
No Find A Grave memorial had been found for his parents as of the date of this writing in December, 2013.
The line of descent from Richard Warren, Mayflower passenger, to Nathaniel Stoddard is as follows:
NATHANIEL STODDARD, son of
Nathaniel Stoddar and ELIZABETH SPRAGUE, daughter of
Priscilla Knight and JEREMIAH SPRAGUE, son of
Anthony Sprague and ELIZABETH BARTLETT, daughter of
Robert Bartlett and MARY WARREN, daughter of
RICHARD WARREN, Mayflower passenger
The following text is taken from "Nathaniel Stoddard – Revolutionary Soldier," by Thomas J. Abernathy, published in the Perry Maine 1818-1968 Sesquicentennial Historical Souvenir Book. The entirety of the following text until the cemetery directions, set forth last below, is taken verbatim from that article.
"Nathaniel Stoddard, one of the early settlers of Plantation No. 1, now Perry, Maine, was the sixth generation of his family in America. The first of the line, John Stodder, came to Hingham, in Massachusetts Bay, from England probably from London, in 1638, and the line came down through a second John, Jacob, Nathaniel, and a second Nathaniel, to the Perry settler. Merging into his generation were the family names of Bartlett, Beal, Bryant, Cockerill, Eames, Lewis, Pitts, Ripley, Russell, Sprague, Ward, Warren, and Wilson. Through his mother he was a descendant of Richard Warren of Mayflower fame, and of Anthony Eames, a prominent citizen of Hingham, who was the center of the big dissention over military matters that split the town wide open in 1644 and 1645, and which was the cause of family feuds which lasted in Hingham through generations.
"Nathaniel's grandfather, the first Nathaniel Stoddard, at the age of fifty-one years sold his home place and joined Captain Ebenezer Beal's company in Colonel Benjamin Lincoln's regiment which responded on August 15, 1757, to the request for militia to go to the relief of Fort William in the French and Indian War. He re-enlisted in Captain Edward Ward's company in Colonel Joseph Williams' regiment early in 1758, and was engaged in the fighting at Lake George under General Abercombie [sic] in July of that year. He died there on August 10, 1758, at the age of 53 years. The use of the word "died" in the record, rather than "killed" indicates that he was not a combat casualty, but was probably the victim of smallpox, which was prevalent among the troops.
"Nathaniel, in the sixth generation, was the eighth of twelve children born to Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Sprague) Stoddard, being born on June 18, 1758. As a boy he was probably trained for the trade of cooper, as were his father and grandfather before him. The family lived on North Street in Hingham, near Marsh's Bridge, not too far, incidentally, from the residence of Benjamin Lincoln, who knew the young man, and who as will be shown later, took somewhat of an interest in him, as the son of a neighbor.
"Nathaniel Stoddard's military record is a long one. He was undoubtedly engaged in some sort of military activity in the fall of 1775, soon after his seventeenth birthday. The writer of this summary has copies of two receipts, signed by him, one dated at Roxbury on November 1, 1775, acknowledging receipt from Major John Crane of two pounds four shillings, his pay in full for the month of September, and the other dated February 12, 1776, acknowledging receipt from the same source of six pounds twelve shillings as full pay for the months of October, November, and December, 1775. Major John Crane was the commanding officer of the United Train of Artillery, an artillery company from Rhode Island which was stationed at Roxbury Fort during the siege of Boston, and the amount for each month was the pay of a private soldier in that company, so it is possible that Nathaniel was serving under Major Crane at the time. No rosters of the company are known to exist, however, so this is purely a conjecture that cannot be verified. There was also a Nathaniel Stoddard enrolled as a member of Captain James Lincoln's company of Hingham militia, which assembled on several occasions in 1775 and 1776 for brief periods of service at Hull and elsewhere for the defense of the seacoast. It is unlikely, however, that Major Crane would have been paymaster for such a unit. The writer is inclined to believe that the senior Nathaniel Stoddard was the man enrolled in Captain Lincoln's company, and that the younger Nathaniel was actually serving under Major Crane at Roxbury. He did not continue such service into 1776, however, and made no mention of it in his later application for a pension, but this is reasonable inasmuch as the pensions were based on Continental service, and any service in 1775 would have been in the "Army of the United Colonies."
"We have it on the evidence of his own affidavit, signed by him on May 8, 1818, as part of his pension application, that Nathaniel Stoddard enlisted "sometime about the month of February, 1776", as a private in Captain Charles Cushing's company, made up mostly of Hingham men, in Colonel John Greaton's regiment, for the term of one year. Actually these enlistments were intended to expire on the last day of December of that year. Greaton's regiment, the 24th Continental, was one of the first regiments ordered out of the Boston area for New York as the British sailed away from Boston in March of 1776, and on April 21st of that year left New York by boat by way of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain to Canada under Brigadier General Thompson, arriving there about the middle of May. Captain Cushing's company did not reach the main American force in time to be present at the disaster at Sorel on the St. Lawrence River on June 8, having arrived at a point 23 miles south of that town when met by Colonel Greaton himself and ordered to return to Crown Point, according to a letter written on June 13 by Captain Cushing to his brother.
"The regiment remained at Mount Independence, the low promontory on the eastern side of the lake opposite Fort Ticonderoga where the New England regiments were stationed in order to keep them from fighting with the Pennsylvania regiments stationed at Fort Ti itself on the west side of the Lake. The regiment, along with those of Colonels Reed and Poor, received a special commendation on October 29, 1776, from General Gates for its promptness in crossing the lake and manning the old French lines at Ticonderoga on the approach of General Burgoyne and his army within three miles of the fort on the previous day. The affidavits says further than [sic] Nathaniel Stoddard was discharged at Mount Independence at the termination of his enlistment, which was presumably the end of December.
"On March 8, 1777, he again enlisted, this time for a three year term in the new regiment of artillery then being formed under the command of Colonel John Crane (who is buried in the cemetery behind the church in Whiting, Maine). He was enlisted by Lieutenant Joseph Andrews of Hingham for Captain Jotham Horton's company, which in May fell to the command of Captain David Briant and, after the latter's death following wounds received at the Battle of Brandywine in September, 1777, to Captain Henry Burbeck, who commanded it for the rest of the war. Nathaniel Stoddard served in the company during his entire three years with the regiment.
"The regiment and company both bave a good account of themselves throughout their existence. Briant's company bore the brunt of the British attack across Brandywine Creek on September 11, 1777, with the gun crews manning their pieces until actually over-run by the enemy before withdrawing, leaving their weapons behind them. Camptain Biant died of his wounds the following day, and Lieutenants Joseph Andrews and Florence Crowley were also wounded, the former fatally. One sergeant and one matross (private) of the company were killed, one corporal was taken prisoner, and one bombasrdier, two gunners, and four matrosses were wounded, three of them dying shortly afterward. The company saw action again at Germantown on October 4, with one man fatally wounded. The entire regiment shared the hardships of the winter at Valley Forge, and each of its companies received an extra month's pay in March for the zeal with which they had worked to erect the log huts in which they survived the winter. Nathaniel's pay as a gunner was eight dollars and sixty cents per month. The company seems to have gone through the winter without a single desertion, although one company in the regiment had eleven men out of a total enlisted strength of thirty-six who either deserted or were absent without leave in the month of March alone.
"The regiment took part in the battle at Monmouth Court House on June 28, 1778, and portions of it were in other engagements. Two of its companies took part in the Rhode Island campaign in 1778 and 1779, the other companies being generally stationed at various points in New York – at Fort Stanwix, at West Point, and at the other forts along the Hudson River. Captain Bubeck's company served principally at West Point during this period.
"Nathaniel Stoddard served his three years in Colonel Crane's regiment, being discharged on March 11, 1780. At that time he was described as being 22 years of age, 5' 7" tall, and of dark complexion. He returned to Hingham and spent the next twelve months in civilian life.
"His affidavit states that on March 29, 1781 he again enlisted for a three year term, this time in Captain Alden's company in Colonel Ebenezer Sprout's regiment. This was the old 2nd Massachusetts regiment, previously commanded by Colonel John Bailey. The explanation given in the affidavit is interesting. He says "I enlisted at the request of Major General Benjamin Lincoln and went into his family, where I remained until after the capture of the British army at York Town under Lord Cornwallis." The term "family" was regularly used in the Revolutionary War to refer to the commissioned and enlisted personnel which made up the group surrounding a general officer at his headquarters, and did not refer to his personal family as we ordinarily think of the term. Nathaniel Stoddard apparently served in his capacity as corporal as part of the enlisted group attached to General Lincoln's headquarters, and as such was undoubtably [sic] present at the siege of Yorktown. This encouragement to enlist, and the immediate assignment to General Lincoln's "family", is the evidence of the interest on the part of the General mentioned earlier in this summary.
"The affidavit continues: "When General Lincoln was appointed Secretary of War I returned to my duty as a corporal in Captain Alden's company and continued in that company until some time in the latter part of the year One Thousand, Seven Hundred, and Eighty Three, when General Lincoln came to West Point where I was then stationed, on his way home. General Lincoln wished me to take charge of his baggage and applied to General Knox who gave me an honorable discharge and I returned home". General Knox was in charge of the demobilization procedures for the bulk of the army, with activities centered at West Point. One can imagine the satisfaction with which Corporal Stoddard let it be known among his fellows, sweating out the months waiting for their discharges, that his friend General Lincoln, just relieved from his duties as Secretary of War, especially asked that his baggage be put in the good hands of Corporal Stoddard on its way home.
"There is nothing on record as to his activities in the next four years. The uncertainties of making a living for himself and family, now including a wife and three children, must have weighted heavily upon him as it did on most other young ex-service men in those days of hard times, scarce money, and high taxes. The cheap land and chances for a fresh start in the new Passamaquoddy townships then being developed by General Lincoln and his associates must have appealed to him, and on July 30, 1787, he paid over the five shillings consideration and in return received the deed for the one hundred acres which comprised lot number 7 on the east side of East Bay, on condition that within four years of the date of the deed he should build upon the premises "a house sixteen feet in breadth and twenty feet in length" and should also "clear up and improve six acres of the premises lying together so as to be fit for tillage, pasturage, or mowing". He appears to have arrived with his family on his new holdings in early November of 1787, after an eight day passage from Hingham in the sloop belonging to one Captain Dexter.
"Nathaniel Stoddard was twice married. He first married Jane Gardner, daughter of Simeon and Hannah (Cockerill) Gardner, of Hingham, on April 19, 1779, apparently while home on furlough. Any of his descendants who have tried to trace the family history must have been baffled by the statement in the History of Hingham, Volume III, that on that date he married 'Sarah Garner' [sic]. A search of the orginal [sic] Hingham town records suggests to the writer a solution which seems adequately to explain the confusion. These records show on April 4, 1779, a 'Declaration of Marriage Intentions' for Nathaniel Stoddard and Jane Gardner, but on April 19 there is a record of the marriage of Nathaniel Stoddard and Sarah Gardner. Sarah Gardner was sister of Jane, and was already married. The marriage entries for a considerable period of time are recorded together, in one handwriting, and in an ink of similar intensity for all entries in the series, and give the impression of having been made all at one time. It appears quite probable that the town clerk or other person making the entries, perhaps copying from other records, inadvertently made a slip, and put down the name of Jane's sister rather than Jane. Furthermore, the birth records show the first child Betsy, born on December 26, 1780, as the child of Nathaniel and Jane Stoddard. The entry in the marriage record is obviously an error. Incidentally, a third Gardner sister, Huldah, married Daniel Bosworth of Dennysville and her name is erroneously entered in one instance as "Huldah Stoddard.
"Jane Stoddard bore her husband eight children, as follows:
1. Betsy, born December 26, 1780, in Hingham.
2. Sally, born October 19, 1783, in Hingham.
3. Charles, born March 12, 1786, in Hingham.
4. Jane, born July 14, 1788, in Perry.
5. Nathaniel, born April 14, 1792, in Perry.
6. Daniel, born in September, year not recorded, in Perry.
7. Stephen, born March 17, 1800, in Perry.
8. Ichabod, born March 16, 1802, in Perry.
"Jane died on March 16, 1802, at the age of 44 years, at the birth of her last child, Ichabod. She was buried on the hillside just off the old Leach's Point road where her husband is also buried.
"Nathaniel lost no time in providing a mother for his small children by the simple procedure, very common in those days, of taking a second wife, which he did on October 21 of the same year, marrying Hannah (Perry records say Sally) Todd, daughter of Samuel and Ruth (Lincoln) Todd of Hingham. She was ten years younger than Jane, and bore him three children:
1. Samuel, born September 27, 1803, in Perry.
2. Benjamin, born July 19, 1810, in Perry.
3. Ezekiel, born July 13, 1813, in Perry.
"She outlived her husband by twenty years and died in Perry on August 14, 1848, at the age of 79 years.
"Nathaniel Stoddard died in Perry on October 20, 1828, at the age of 70 years, and was buried beside his first wife Jane on the hillside on his property just off what is now an old woods road leading to Leach's Point on the east side of East Bay. The inventory of his estate shows that at the time of his death eh owned some 267 acres of land, two pairs of oxen, seven cows, four calves and yearlings, four swine, a horse, and twenty-four sheep, with the usual household goods, hay, grain, potatoes, etc., to say nothing of two notes of his fellow townsmen in the amount of $141.04, one of which was almost a year overdue. Nathaniel was evidently sympathetic to the troubles of his neighbors, and a real friend.
"The Eastport Sentinel, under the date of October 25, 1828, recorded his death thus: "Another Revolutionary Soldier Gone. Died, at Perry, of a short sickness, the 20th instant, Nathaniel Stoddard, aged 70 years. He was a provident and affectionate husband, a tender father, kind neighbor, and useful citizen, and has left a sorrowful widow, children, and grand-children, to lament his death. He early too a part in the Revolutionary struggle, and remained in the army to the end of the war."
He is a fifth generation descendant of Richard Warren, a passenger on the Mayflower. His parents were:
Nathaniel Stoddar
Birth 08 May 1727 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Death 24 Feb 1803 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Elizabeth Sprague
Birth 10 Mar 1724 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Death18 Dec 1785 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
No Find A Grave memorial had been found for his parents as of the date of this writing in December, 2013.
The line of descent from Richard Warren, Mayflower passenger, to Nathaniel Stoddard is as follows:
NATHANIEL STODDARD, son of
Nathaniel Stoddar and ELIZABETH SPRAGUE, daughter of
Priscilla Knight and JEREMIAH SPRAGUE, son of
Anthony Sprague and ELIZABETH BARTLETT, daughter of
Robert Bartlett and MARY WARREN, daughter of
RICHARD WARREN, Mayflower passenger
The following text is taken from "Nathaniel Stoddard – Revolutionary Soldier," by Thomas J. Abernathy, published in the Perry Maine 1818-1968 Sesquicentennial Historical Souvenir Book. The entirety of the following text until the cemetery directions, set forth last below, is taken verbatim from that article.
"Nathaniel Stoddard, one of the early settlers of Plantation No. 1, now Perry, Maine, was the sixth generation of his family in America. The first of the line, John Stodder, came to Hingham, in Massachusetts Bay, from England probably from London, in 1638, and the line came down through a second John, Jacob, Nathaniel, and a second Nathaniel, to the Perry settler. Merging into his generation were the family names of Bartlett, Beal, Bryant, Cockerill, Eames, Lewis, Pitts, Ripley, Russell, Sprague, Ward, Warren, and Wilson. Through his mother he was a descendant of Richard Warren of Mayflower fame, and of Anthony Eames, a prominent citizen of Hingham, who was the center of the big dissention over military matters that split the town wide open in 1644 and 1645, and which was the cause of family feuds which lasted in Hingham through generations.
"Nathaniel's grandfather, the first Nathaniel Stoddard, at the age of fifty-one years sold his home place and joined Captain Ebenezer Beal's company in Colonel Benjamin Lincoln's regiment which responded on August 15, 1757, to the request for militia to go to the relief of Fort William in the French and Indian War. He re-enlisted in Captain Edward Ward's company in Colonel Joseph Williams' regiment early in 1758, and was engaged in the fighting at Lake George under General Abercombie [sic] in July of that year. He died there on August 10, 1758, at the age of 53 years. The use of the word "died" in the record, rather than "killed" indicates that he was not a combat casualty, but was probably the victim of smallpox, which was prevalent among the troops.
"Nathaniel, in the sixth generation, was the eighth of twelve children born to Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Sprague) Stoddard, being born on June 18, 1758. As a boy he was probably trained for the trade of cooper, as were his father and grandfather before him. The family lived on North Street in Hingham, near Marsh's Bridge, not too far, incidentally, from the residence of Benjamin Lincoln, who knew the young man, and who as will be shown later, took somewhat of an interest in him, as the son of a neighbor.
"Nathaniel Stoddard's military record is a long one. He was undoubtedly engaged in some sort of military activity in the fall of 1775, soon after his seventeenth birthday. The writer of this summary has copies of two receipts, signed by him, one dated at Roxbury on November 1, 1775, acknowledging receipt from Major John Crane of two pounds four shillings, his pay in full for the month of September, and the other dated February 12, 1776, acknowledging receipt from the same source of six pounds twelve shillings as full pay for the months of October, November, and December, 1775. Major John Crane was the commanding officer of the United Train of Artillery, an artillery company from Rhode Island which was stationed at Roxbury Fort during the siege of Boston, and the amount for each month was the pay of a private soldier in that company, so it is possible that Nathaniel was serving under Major Crane at the time. No rosters of the company are known to exist, however, so this is purely a conjecture that cannot be verified. There was also a Nathaniel Stoddard enrolled as a member of Captain James Lincoln's company of Hingham militia, which assembled on several occasions in 1775 and 1776 for brief periods of service at Hull and elsewhere for the defense of the seacoast. It is unlikely, however, that Major Crane would have been paymaster for such a unit. The writer is inclined to believe that the senior Nathaniel Stoddard was the man enrolled in Captain Lincoln's company, and that the younger Nathaniel was actually serving under Major Crane at Roxbury. He did not continue such service into 1776, however, and made no mention of it in his later application for a pension, but this is reasonable inasmuch as the pensions were based on Continental service, and any service in 1775 would have been in the "Army of the United Colonies."
"We have it on the evidence of his own affidavit, signed by him on May 8, 1818, as part of his pension application, that Nathaniel Stoddard enlisted "sometime about the month of February, 1776", as a private in Captain Charles Cushing's company, made up mostly of Hingham men, in Colonel John Greaton's regiment, for the term of one year. Actually these enlistments were intended to expire on the last day of December of that year. Greaton's regiment, the 24th Continental, was one of the first regiments ordered out of the Boston area for New York as the British sailed away from Boston in March of 1776, and on April 21st of that year left New York by boat by way of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain to Canada under Brigadier General Thompson, arriving there about the middle of May. Captain Cushing's company did not reach the main American force in time to be present at the disaster at Sorel on the St. Lawrence River on June 8, having arrived at a point 23 miles south of that town when met by Colonel Greaton himself and ordered to return to Crown Point, according to a letter written on June 13 by Captain Cushing to his brother.
"The regiment remained at Mount Independence, the low promontory on the eastern side of the lake opposite Fort Ticonderoga where the New England regiments were stationed in order to keep them from fighting with the Pennsylvania regiments stationed at Fort Ti itself on the west side of the Lake. The regiment, along with those of Colonels Reed and Poor, received a special commendation on October 29, 1776, from General Gates for its promptness in crossing the lake and manning the old French lines at Ticonderoga on the approach of General Burgoyne and his army within three miles of the fort on the previous day. The affidavits says further than [sic] Nathaniel Stoddard was discharged at Mount Independence at the termination of his enlistment, which was presumably the end of December.
"On March 8, 1777, he again enlisted, this time for a three year term in the new regiment of artillery then being formed under the command of Colonel John Crane (who is buried in the cemetery behind the church in Whiting, Maine). He was enlisted by Lieutenant Joseph Andrews of Hingham for Captain Jotham Horton's company, which in May fell to the command of Captain David Briant and, after the latter's death following wounds received at the Battle of Brandywine in September, 1777, to Captain Henry Burbeck, who commanded it for the rest of the war. Nathaniel Stoddard served in the company during his entire three years with the regiment.
"The regiment and company both bave a good account of themselves throughout their existence. Briant's company bore the brunt of the British attack across Brandywine Creek on September 11, 1777, with the gun crews manning their pieces until actually over-run by the enemy before withdrawing, leaving their weapons behind them. Camptain Biant died of his wounds the following day, and Lieutenants Joseph Andrews and Florence Crowley were also wounded, the former fatally. One sergeant and one matross (private) of the company were killed, one corporal was taken prisoner, and one bombasrdier, two gunners, and four matrosses were wounded, three of them dying shortly afterward. The company saw action again at Germantown on October 4, with one man fatally wounded. The entire regiment shared the hardships of the winter at Valley Forge, and each of its companies received an extra month's pay in March for the zeal with which they had worked to erect the log huts in which they survived the winter. Nathaniel's pay as a gunner was eight dollars and sixty cents per month. The company seems to have gone through the winter without a single desertion, although one company in the regiment had eleven men out of a total enlisted strength of thirty-six who either deserted or were absent without leave in the month of March alone.
"The regiment took part in the battle at Monmouth Court House on June 28, 1778, and portions of it were in other engagements. Two of its companies took part in the Rhode Island campaign in 1778 and 1779, the other companies being generally stationed at various points in New York – at Fort Stanwix, at West Point, and at the other forts along the Hudson River. Captain Bubeck's company served principally at West Point during this period.
"Nathaniel Stoddard served his three years in Colonel Crane's regiment, being discharged on March 11, 1780. At that time he was described as being 22 years of age, 5' 7" tall, and of dark complexion. He returned to Hingham and spent the next twelve months in civilian life.
"His affidavit states that on March 29, 1781 he again enlisted for a three year term, this time in Captain Alden's company in Colonel Ebenezer Sprout's regiment. This was the old 2nd Massachusetts regiment, previously commanded by Colonel John Bailey. The explanation given in the affidavit is interesting. He says "I enlisted at the request of Major General Benjamin Lincoln and went into his family, where I remained until after the capture of the British army at York Town under Lord Cornwallis." The term "family" was regularly used in the Revolutionary War to refer to the commissioned and enlisted personnel which made up the group surrounding a general officer at his headquarters, and did not refer to his personal family as we ordinarily think of the term. Nathaniel Stoddard apparently served in his capacity as corporal as part of the enlisted group attached to General Lincoln's headquarters, and as such was undoubtably [sic] present at the siege of Yorktown. This encouragement to enlist, and the immediate assignment to General Lincoln's "family", is the evidence of the interest on the part of the General mentioned earlier in this summary.
"The affidavit continues: "When General Lincoln was appointed Secretary of War I returned to my duty as a corporal in Captain Alden's company and continued in that company until some time in the latter part of the year One Thousand, Seven Hundred, and Eighty Three, when General Lincoln came to West Point where I was then stationed, on his way home. General Lincoln wished me to take charge of his baggage and applied to General Knox who gave me an honorable discharge and I returned home". General Knox was in charge of the demobilization procedures for the bulk of the army, with activities centered at West Point. One can imagine the satisfaction with which Corporal Stoddard let it be known among his fellows, sweating out the months waiting for their discharges, that his friend General Lincoln, just relieved from his duties as Secretary of War, especially asked that his baggage be put in the good hands of Corporal Stoddard on its way home.
"There is nothing on record as to his activities in the next four years. The uncertainties of making a living for himself and family, now including a wife and three children, must have weighted heavily upon him as it did on most other young ex-service men in those days of hard times, scarce money, and high taxes. The cheap land and chances for a fresh start in the new Passamaquoddy townships then being developed by General Lincoln and his associates must have appealed to him, and on July 30, 1787, he paid over the five shillings consideration and in return received the deed for the one hundred acres which comprised lot number 7 on the east side of East Bay, on condition that within four years of the date of the deed he should build upon the premises "a house sixteen feet in breadth and twenty feet in length" and should also "clear up and improve six acres of the premises lying together so as to be fit for tillage, pasturage, or mowing". He appears to have arrived with his family on his new holdings in early November of 1787, after an eight day passage from Hingham in the sloop belonging to one Captain Dexter.
"Nathaniel Stoddard was twice married. He first married Jane Gardner, daughter of Simeon and Hannah (Cockerill) Gardner, of Hingham, on April 19, 1779, apparently while home on furlough. Any of his descendants who have tried to trace the family history must have been baffled by the statement in the History of Hingham, Volume III, that on that date he married 'Sarah Garner' [sic]. A search of the orginal [sic] Hingham town records suggests to the writer a solution which seems adequately to explain the confusion. These records show on April 4, 1779, a 'Declaration of Marriage Intentions' for Nathaniel Stoddard and Jane Gardner, but on April 19 there is a record of the marriage of Nathaniel Stoddard and Sarah Gardner. Sarah Gardner was sister of Jane, and was already married. The marriage entries for a considerable period of time are recorded together, in one handwriting, and in an ink of similar intensity for all entries in the series, and give the impression of having been made all at one time. It appears quite probable that the town clerk or other person making the entries, perhaps copying from other records, inadvertently made a slip, and put down the name of Jane's sister rather than Jane. Furthermore, the birth records show the first child Betsy, born on December 26, 1780, as the child of Nathaniel and Jane Stoddard. The entry in the marriage record is obviously an error. Incidentally, a third Gardner sister, Huldah, married Daniel Bosworth of Dennysville and her name is erroneously entered in one instance as "Huldah Stoddard.
"Jane Stoddard bore her husband eight children, as follows:
1. Betsy, born December 26, 1780, in Hingham.
2. Sally, born October 19, 1783, in Hingham.
3. Charles, born March 12, 1786, in Hingham.
4. Jane, born July 14, 1788, in Perry.
5. Nathaniel, born April 14, 1792, in Perry.
6. Daniel, born in September, year not recorded, in Perry.
7. Stephen, born March 17, 1800, in Perry.
8. Ichabod, born March 16, 1802, in Perry.
"Jane died on March 16, 1802, at the age of 44 years, at the birth of her last child, Ichabod. She was buried on the hillside just off the old Leach's Point road where her husband is also buried.
"Nathaniel lost no time in providing a mother for his small children by the simple procedure, very common in those days, of taking a second wife, which he did on October 21 of the same year, marrying Hannah (Perry records say Sally) Todd, daughter of Samuel and Ruth (Lincoln) Todd of Hingham. She was ten years younger than Jane, and bore him three children:
1. Samuel, born September 27, 1803, in Perry.
2. Benjamin, born July 19, 1810, in Perry.
3. Ezekiel, born July 13, 1813, in Perry.
"She outlived her husband by twenty years and died in Perry on August 14, 1848, at the age of 79 years.
"Nathaniel Stoddard died in Perry on October 20, 1828, at the age of 70 years, and was buried beside his first wife Jane on the hillside on his property just off what is now an old woods road leading to Leach's Point on the east side of East Bay. The inventory of his estate shows that at the time of his death eh owned some 267 acres of land, two pairs of oxen, seven cows, four calves and yearlings, four swine, a horse, and twenty-four sheep, with the usual household goods, hay, grain, potatoes, etc., to say nothing of two notes of his fellow townsmen in the amount of $141.04, one of which was almost a year overdue. Nathaniel was evidently sympathetic to the troubles of his neighbors, and a real friend.
"The Eastport Sentinel, under the date of October 25, 1828, recorded his death thus: "Another Revolutionary Soldier Gone. Died, at Perry, of a short sickness, the 20th instant, Nathaniel Stoddard, aged 70 years. He was a provident and affectionate husband, a tender father, kind neighbor, and useful citizen, and has left a sorrowful widow, children, and grand-children, to lament his death. He early too a part in the Revolutionary struggle, and remained in the army to the end of the war."
Inscription
Died Oct. 20, 1828, ae 71 yrs.
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