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There were many disagreements among the claimants, and some of the evidence furnished here and there in fragments of depositions relating to the evidence, found in the Archives, is of great interest. A memorial of Shubael Goreham to the General Court, presented April 17, 1741, states that several mistakes have been made in the list of No. 7, and petitions for authority to rectify such mistakes. He says that "Richard Taylor" and "Richard Taylor's heirs" appear; whereas, the latter item should have been "John Taylor's heirs." And again, two entries appear in the list 'William Gray is entered "for his father William;" and then "William Gray's heirs." Now, there were not two William Grays, but there was an Edward Gray. And another entered Joseph Crocker, where it should have been Josiah Crocker, etc., and so it is moved that the mistakes be rectified and that John Taylor, Edward Gray, and Josiah Crocker be placed in the list. But in November, 1742, another turn is given to the Crocker story by the following interesting deposition, which I give in full:
Ebenezer Goodspeed of Barnstable, being in the eighty-seventh year of his age, testifieth and saith that he being a soldier in the Narragansett wars so-called, under Capt. Thomas Howes, and he well remembers that Mr. Joseph Crocker, Decd. of said Barnstable was one of said Howe's soldiers, and I think it was the year of the Philip's war so-called begun, and I also remember said Crocker was out that year Saml Linnell was out in Pearces Fight, so called and he and the said Saml Linnell was the only English man of Barnstable that returned home from that fight, and he showed me his hat where it was shot through after his return from said Pearces Fight, and further I gave Col. Goreham, Joseph Crocker's name to return to the General Court some time ago, and I never heard or understood that Josiah Crocker of Barnstable was ever out in the said wars, and he was my neighbor and I should have known, if he had been out.
EBENEZER GOODSPEED.
Ebenr Goodspeed made oath etc. Nov. 13, 1742.
Jonathan Crocker testifieth to the same above as to Joseph Crocker and Saml Linnel, and also as to Josiah Crocker, Dec. 4, 1742. (York Registry of Deeds, v. 23, p. 105.)
It will be noted that Joseph Crocker's name stands in the list, as well as Gray's and Taylor's, but in the old partial list, in the Archives, the correction is made, and opposite "William Gray's," is written "Edward," while opposite "Richard Taylour's," is written the name "John." In the above lists I have made the corrections in regard to Taylour and Gray.
NARRAGANSET TOWNSHIP GRANTED TO CONNECTICUT
VOLUNTEERS IN THE NARRAGANSET WAR, NOW
VOLUNTOWN, CONNECTICUT
Connecticut rewarded her Narraganset soldiers many years before the final action of Massachusetts Colony.
In October, 1696, Lieut. Thomas Leffingwell of Norwich, and Sergt. John Frink of Stonington, moved the Court of Connecticut, "that they, with the rest of the English volunteers in the former wars, might have a plantation granted unto them."
The Court, in answer, then granted them a tract six miles square, to be taken up out of some of the conquered land, where it might be had without prejudice to any former grant. A committee of the grantees made choice of a tract.
October 14, 1697, Capt. Samuel Mason, Mr. John Gallop and Lieut. James Avery were appointed a committee to view the said tract.
Upon the report of the above committee, the Court, in October, 1700, confirmed their former grant to a committee of seven, viz.: Lieut. Thomas Leffingwell, Lieut. Richard Bushnell, Isaac Wheeler, Caleb Fobes, Samuel Bliss, Joseph Morgan and Manasseh Miner, and the rest of the volunteers in the Narraganset War.
At a meeting of the volunteers, July 1, 1701, Capt. Richard Bushnell was chosen clerk, to make a list of the names of those who were volunteers in the Narraganset wars. Lieut. Thomas Leffingwell, Lieut. James Avery, Sergt. John Frink, Richard Bushnell, and Deacon Caleb Fobes, were chosen a committee to receive and decide the correctness of the claims presented. On the next day the volunteers voted to grant to Capt. Samuel Mason an equal share with the others.
From the old Proprietors' Record Book at Voluntown I have secured two lists of the grantees or "Volunteers." The first list was made in the order of the enrolment of the names, and was copied for Hon. Richard A. Wheeler, of Stonington, in 1860, by Elisha Potter, then Town Clerk of Voluntown, and published by him some years ago, in the Narragansett Historical Register. The other list is that of the "Cedar Swamp Lots," so called. This list was copied for me by the Town Clerk, Mr. Charles E. Maine, of Voluntown, and I am assured that it is correct. I have compared these lists, and while there are some few discrepancies in the spelling, and some names in each list not in the other, the lists are otherwise identical. For the convenience of readers I have arranged the second list here according to the numbers drawn for Cedar Swamp Lots. Mr. Wheeler's list marks the names of those deceased. The restrictions of the Connecticut grant to "English" volunteers shut out the Indians, who formed a large contingent of their forces, and also the white men, who were pressed into the service. In Massachusetts, thirty years later, all who had any hand in the Narraganset campaign, both from Massachusetts and Plymouth, whether volunteers or "impressed," were made grantees. Connecticut's volunteers, in 1701, were found to be about one hundred and eighty.
ENROLLMENT LIST
A list of the Names of the English Volunteers in the late Narraganset War, as followeth:
1 Major Edward Palmes
2 Capt George Denison
3 Lieut. Thomas Leffingwell
4 Major Wait Winthrop
5 Rev. Mr. James Fitch
6 Sargt. John Frink
7 Capt. James Avery
8 James Avery
9 John Avery
10 Thomas Avery
11 Joshua Baker
12 John Wickwier
13 Ephraim Colver
14 William Potts
15 Edward Colver
16 Samuel Yeomans
17 John Lewis
18 John Fish
19 Samuel Fish
20 William Williams
21 George Denison
22 William Denison
23 Nathaniel Beebe
24 Henry Stephens
25 Edmond Fanning
26 Thomas Fanning
27 John Bennett (dec'd)
28 William Bennett
29 Thomas Rose
30 Philip Bill (dec'd).
31 Philip Bill
32 Deny Springer
33 Ezekiel Mayn
34 William Wheeller
35 Thomas Wooster
36 Gershom Palmer
37 Jonathan Armstrong
38 Samuel Stanton
39 Robert Stanton
40 Daniel Stanton
41 James Morgan
42 John Keene
43 John Latham
44 John Waterhouse
45 Joseph Morgan
46 Nathaniel Park
47 William Douglace
48 Manasseth Miner
49 James Willit
50 Rev. James Noyes
51 Capt. John Stanton
52 Joseph Stanton
53 Aaron Stark (dec'd)
54 John Stark (dec'd)
55 James York (dec'd).
56 Thomas Bell (dec'd).
57 Lieut. Thomas Miner
58 Richard Bushnell
59 Samuel Lathrop
60 Solomon Tracy
61 John Willey (dec'd)
62 Samuel Tubbs (dec'd)
63 Robert Park
64 Peter Spiser (dec'd)
65 Jonathan Rudd
66 Richard Cook (dec'd)
67 Thomas Park (dec'd)
68 Henry Elliott (dec'd)
69 Thomas Bliss (dec'd)
70 Isaac Wheeler
71 Peter Cross
72 Jonathan Gennings
73 Caleb Fobes
74 John Gallop
75 Adam Gallop
76 William Gallop
77 Nathaniel Cheesebro
78 Ephraim Miner
79 Joseph Miner
80 Samuel Miner (dec'd)
81 John Ashcraft (dec'd)
82 Joshua Holmes (dec'd)
83 Capt. Ebenezer Johnson
84 Joseph Wheeler
85 Sergt. Moses Johnson
86 Daniel Tracy
87 Edmond Fanning
88 William Roberts
89 John Denison
90 Mathew Griswold
91 Richard Lord
92 Stephen Dewolf
93 Richard Smith
94 John Smith
95 Francis Smith
96 Moses Huntly
97 Henry Bennett
98 Henry Peterson
99 Samuel Stephens
100 Henry Hall
101 William Champlin
102 Capt. Pembleton
103 Daniel Crumb
104 Nicholas Cottrell
105 John Pameter
106 Samuel Roger
107 John Hull
108 Daniel Kelsie
109 John Mintor
110 John Stephens
111 Ebenezer French
112 John Griswold
113 Nehemiah Smith
114 John Wheeler
115 Nathaniel Haiden (dec'd)
116 Joseph Hull (dec'd)
117 Samuel Sheather (dec'd)
118 John Charles (dec'd)
119 Samuel Frisbie (dec'd)
120 John Plant (dec'd)
121 Samuel Fox
122 Jacob Joy
123 Clement Minor
124 William Pendall
125 Daniel Stubbins
126 John Hough
127 Samuel Roberts
128 Joshua Abell
129 Thomas Rood
130 William Knights
131 Mathew Jones
132 Thomas Williams
133 Joseph Waterhouse
134 Richard Dart
135 Samuel Hough
136 William Hough
137 Abel More
138 Jeremiah Blake
139 John Plumb
140 Thomas Hungerford
141 John Packer
142 Samuel Packer
143 Nathaniel Holt
144 Robert Lord
145 John Woller
146 Richard Smith
147 Edward Dewolf
148 Aaron Huntly
149 James Murffey
150 Robert Holmes
151 Daniel Comstock
152 George Chappell
153 Thurston Reinerd
154 Hugh Rowland
155 John Lathrop
156 James Welch
157 Daniel Clark
158 Edward Shipman
159 Joseph Ingarum
160 Joseph Colver
161 William Billings
162 John Shaw
163 Stephen Richeson
164
165
166 Roger Orris
167 James Danielson
168
169 Ebenezer Billings
170 Jonathan Burtch
171 William Johnson
172 Samuel Richarson
173 Thomas Brand
174 William Champlin
175 John Babcock
176 Edward Larkin
177 Daniel Shaw
178 Thomas Renols
179 William Lees
180 Rev. Moses Noise
181 John Larabe
182 Joseph Northrop
183 Robert Old
184 Nathan Gillet
185 John Somes
TOWN CLERK'S OFFICE, VOLUNTOWN, December 23, 1860.
I hereby certify that the foregoing is a correct extract from the Records of Voluntown, except some of the spelling.
Attest ELISHA POTTER,
Town Clerk.
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