Person Page 1,021

Revolutionary War - private.

Captain of the largest company in Col. James Reed's regiment at Lexington April 19,1775 and at Bunker Hill, June 17. On June 21 his company numbered 59 men, 9 of them officers. He was stationed between Col. Reed's barracks and the ferry, a most important position. His company encamped on Winter Hill, numbering about 70 men from Keene NH and Swanzey.
He was promoted to the rank of Colonel in this year, as Oct 13, 1775 he receipted for L4 for each man in his regiment for coats furnished by the Colony of NH. He died June 13, 1792. His old regiment attended the funeral, the procession being 1 1/2 miles long. Drums were muffled and the dead march was played in a very solemn strain. His horse was saddled and bridled as it was in the army; his boots were hung beside the saddle. The military escort fired a salute. He was buried in Mt. Ceasar Cemetery in Swanzer near his old home.

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The following transcription was taken from; Historic homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts: With a History of Worcester Society of Antiquity, Vol.1, edited by Ellery Bicknell. Lewis Publishing Co. Worcester, Mass. 1907.

"Jonathan Priest Whitcomb, son of Joseph Whitcomb, born January 14, 1740, at Leominster, Massachusetts: married September 5, 1764, Dorothy Carter. She was born March 9, 1746: died October 22, 1827. He settled in Swanzey, New Hampshire, and kept the first store and the first tavern in the town. He served in the revolutionary war and was paid for eight and a one-half months service at Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the siege of Boston in 1775. He was captain of the largest company in Colonel James Reid's regiment at Lexington, April 10, 1775 and at Bunker Hill June 17. 1775. His company encamped on Winter Hill, numbering about seventy men from Keene, New Hampshire and Swanzey. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel in 1775. He had a difficulty with a Captain Marcy, who accused him of cowardice, but a clean and gallant war record was sustained by the court of inquiry. Colonel and Mrs. Whitcomb used to make horseback trips to Boston to buy goods, and on one occasion brought home some lilacs, the first they ever saw, which were planted on the old homestead. Colonel Jonathan died June 13, 1792, and his old regiment attended the funeral. His widow died at the home of her son, Nathan.
The children of Colonel Jonathan Priest and Dorothy (Carter) Whitcomb were: 1. Dorothy, born March 3 or May 23, 1765: died May 2, 1825; married Nathan Capron and had four daughters. 2. Jonathan, born September 20, 1766 or 67: married May 11, 1786, Miriam Willard: he died December 13, 1844; resided at Swanzey. 3. John, born March 22, 1768: died October 17, 1770. 4. Nathan Whitcomb, was born May 14, 1770. He settled at Swanzey and died there. He married October 23, 1791, Penelope White, of Milford, Massachusetts. She was born in 1771; died March 125, 1850. 5. John, born March 9, 1772; married May 7, 1795, Esther Morse, of Swanzey, daughter of Henry Morse; removed to Grafton, Vermont, and Saxtons River, Vermont, where in 1830 he bought the old Judge Baxter place; died 1875. 6. Ephraim, born June 4 or 9, 1774; died August 15, 1777. 7. Damaris, born April 29, 1777; died June, 1784. 8. Anna, born April 9, 1779: died June 17, 1784. 9. Ephraim, born February 26, 1782; married (first), in 1798, Dorothy Chamberlain: married (second) her sister, Charlotte Chamberlain, in 1817: he died March 1869, was a saddle-maker by trade. 10. Salome, born March 2, 1784: died March or May 30, 1785. 11. Salome, born April 25, 1786, married Amos Bailey."

Captain Joseph Whitcomb, grandson of John Whitcomb, who settled in Dorchester, Mass. as early as 1723, from Dorchester, England, was born in Lancaster, Mass. in 1700, and moved to West Swanzey, New Hampshire from Lancaster, in 1760, with five sons.
Captain Joseph built a saw mill and a grist-mill at West Swanzey, making privilege on which the Stratton mills and box and bucket shops now stand. He must of owned quite a tract of land. At the time the family arrived in Swanzey he was sixty years of age and a man of experience and respectability. His sons were at the time of their coming to Swanzey from eight to twenty-five years of age. Captain Joseph died November 12, 1792, at the age of ninety-two years.

History of Swanzey, Cheshire County, New Hampshire
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He was a Lt. in the Crown Point expedition in 1755, Company Four, Captain John Warner, Colong Samuel Willard's regiment.
In the conquest of Canada in 1758 he was a captain in Col. Timothy Ruggles' regiment.

Dorothy (Carter) Whitcomb was born March 9, 1746 in Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts to Jonathan Carter (1711-1799) and his wife, Damaris (Joslin) Carter (1714-1801). She was a great granddaughter of Reverend Samuel Carter of Lancaster, Massachusetts and great great granddaughter of the Rev. Thomas Carter, early Puritan leader of Woburn, Massachusetts. She married Jonathan Priest Whitcomb on September 5th, 1764 in Leominster, Massachusetts. They were early settlers at Swanzey, New Hampshire. Together they ran a tavern and inn. She passed on October 22nd, 1827 in Swanzey at her son Nathan's home.
The following extract was taken from; Whitcomb Memorial Ancestry and Descendants of Col. Jonathan Priest Whitcomb, by Jonadab Baker Whitcomb, Published privately, San Francisco, 1893.

"EXTRACTS. Extract from a letter written by a granddaughter of Dorothy Carter Whitcomb.

Mansfield, June 30, 1884.
Dear Sir:
My grandfather, Jonathan Whitcomb, died many years before my birth. My father, Nathan Whitcomb, took care of his mother for some years after his father's death. I can remember her quite well. Her name before her marriage was Dorothy Carter, from Leominster, Mass.: grandfather, I think, was from the same place; I have been told that he kept the first "Tavern" ever opened in the town of Swanzey; also, the first store. Grandmother often told me of the "terrible dark day!" when they had travelers staying over night, who wished to be called at daybreak; but no daybreak came. They were all alarmed greatly until the next day, when the sun rose clearly and all was cheer again. Grandfather had five children who grew up and settled in life: Jonathan, Ephraim, Nathan, Dorothy, Salome. My grandfather was colonel in the army of the old Revolutionary War. At the time of his burial, his regiment of soldiers came to his funeral. There was a procession of one mile and a half in length. Drums were muffled and the death march played in very solemn strains. Grandfather's horse was saddled and bridled, as it was in the army; his boots were hanging beside the saddle, and the horse was led behind the bearers to his master's grave. The military fired their guns over his open grave. My grandmother wore a long black silk cloak with a hood to it, and along fall of crape in front. I can't give you correct dates; I wish I could. I heard my grandma tell all about the funeral so often in my earliest days, that it has always seemed to me that I was at the funeral myself, although it occurred long before I had an existence. Grandmother had told me many things in regard to her early married life. They had no wagons, but rode on horseback altogether; ladies often rode on the same horse behind a gentleman, on what they called a pillion. She and my grandfather often rode to Boston, to buy goods, on separate horses. They brought to N.H. the first bunch of lilacs they had ever seen, in their saddlebags; they were set on our old place, near the old house where my father's family were all born-the place now owned by Mrs. Phineas Stone. Our old house is all taken away, and the new one, which my father built, Mrs. Stone now lives in.
My parents had ten children; three died in infancy; six brothers and myself lived to grow up. I was the youngest of the seven. I will give the names of my brothers: Leonard Whitcomb lived to be 74 years, and died at West Swanzey; Carter Whitcomb lived to be 85 years old, and died at Swanzey Center; Alva Whitcomb moved to Pa., and died there; Nathan Whitcomb moved to Fitchburg, Mass., and died there. Otis Whitcomb lived 86 years, and died in Swanzey (the father of eighteen children by one wife); Lyman Whitcomb lived and died in New Worcester, Mass.
As to my great-grandparents, I cannot give you any information at all; I wish I could. I did not live in Swanzey any after I was 16 years old. My father and mother moved back to Swanzey, and both died there. My mother's maiden name was Penelope white, from Milford, Mass.
Yours truly,
Eliza Bailey."