The eighth child of Elijah Fuller and Mary Millington, John spent the first 14 years of his life at Coventry, in the Colony of Connecticut, where he and his siblings were born. In 1774, their father moved the family about a hundred miles north to Shaftsbury, in a territory then known as the New Hampshire Grants, where he had purchased 100 acres. It was a period of growth and turmoil for the area, with settlers pouring in since the end of the French and Indian War 10 years earlier. There were border disputes and even several violent clashes with settlers from New York. Meanwhile, tensions between the American colonies and England continued to mount.

When the first shots of the American Revolution rang out in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775, John was just 14 years old. In January 1777, delegates from 28 towns in the New Hampshire Grants voted their collective independence as the new Republic of Vermont. On August 16 of that same year, a rebel force of about 2,000 Americans defeated a British detachment of General Burgoyne's army just 10 miles from the town of Bennington. From around then until 1782, or age 16 to 21, John served in a variety of militia companies raised in Bennington County, as did his father Elijah and older brothers Hosea and Solomon.* John's surviving record of service includes:

• Sixty days under the command of Capt. Isaac Clark, "for the defence of the frontiers and on Lake Champlain" from March to May 1778.
• Fifty days under the command of Capt. Tehan Noble, April to June 1779.
• One month and 24 days under the command of Capt. Noble, Col. Seth Warner's regiment, "in defence of the Northern Frontier" from April to June 1780.
• Two days under the command of Capt. Bigelow Lawrence, Col. Ebenezer Walbridge's regiment, in response to "the alarm at Cambridge and Saratoga" in July 1781. His brothers Hosea and Solomon served as well.
• Fifteen days under the command of Capt. Lawrence, Col. Walbridge's regiment, "for service done at Castleton in the Alarm" of October 1781. His brother Solomon served as well.
• Four days under the command of Ensign Josiah Perry of Capt. Lawrence's company, Col. Walbridge's regiment, "assisting the sheriff in Windham County" in September 1782.
• Five days under the command of Capt. William Simonds, in Col. Stephen Bradley's regiment, "to assist the Sheriff to go to Guilford" in October 1782.

After the war John began to settle down and build a life for himself. He and his wife Elizabeth were married around 1785 and had 12 children together, including seven sons and five daughters. While a number of their children later migrated west, as far as Wisconsin, John and Elizabeth remained in Bennington County, where John appeared on every federal census from 1790 to 1840. He bought numerous parcels of land in West Shaftsbury over the years and even owned some land in New York.

On August 14, 1832, in response to a new law passed by Congress, John appeared at the probate court in Bennington to apply for a pension. In his sworn statement, at age 71, he recalled other periods of Revolutionary War service not listed above, under captains Joseph Briggs, Jonas Galusha (a future governor of Vermont), and Joseph Safford, as well as a Lieutenant Edward Aikens of New York. John was placed on the pension roll on August 31, 1833, and died intestate eight years later, less than two years after Elizabeth passed away. Their youngest child, Nathaniel, was appointed administrator of his estate.

* It's unclear whether John's brother Nathaniel, who signed a will on June 1, 1777, at the age of 29, died then or later, of natural causes or as the result of military service. On February 7, 1782, the General Assembly of Vermont resolved that the state treasurer "pay unto the heirs of Nathl Fuller, late a prisoner in Canada, deceased, the sum of fourteen pounds, sixteen shillings, and six pence, being the ages due, and articles lost by said Fuller." It's possible that Nathaniel served early in the war, was captured, and later returned but died of illness contracted during his captivity. Further investigation is needed.

SOURCES:

Ancestry.com. "U.S., The Pension Role of 1835." Online publication - Provo, UT, USA.

Ancestry.com. "Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900." Online publication - Provo, UT, USA.

Ancestry.com. "Vermont Men in the Revolutionary War." Online publication - Provo, UT, USA.

Dorsey, Jean Muir. "Robert Fuller of Salem, Massachusetts and Some of His Descendants ; Benjamin Clark of Rhode Island and Some of His Descendants ; Peter Wright Families of Rhode Island and Vermont." United States, n.p, 1961.

Knapp, Chauncey L. "Rolls of the Soldiers in the Revolutionary War, 1775 to 1783." United States, Tuttle Company, 1904.