Thursday, March 3, 2016

John Bates in the Revolutionary War

John Bates 1834

John Bates, son of Jacob and Molly (Clark) Bates was born in Hingham, December 4, 1748, moved to Attleboro, Massachusetts with his parents, but later settled in Dudley, now a part of Webster, where he died on December 12, 1834 and was buried in the old Bates cemetery located in Thompson, CT.  He married Chloe Fuller (1747-1825) on February 17, 1770, in Attleboro and they had six children. She was a daughter of Noah and Mary (Cushman) Fuller, whose ancestors came from England in the "Mayflower." John Bates was a descendant of Clement Bates, an early settler of Hingham, Massachusetts, who arrived on the ship "Elizabeth" in 1635. The Bates' property, extending at one time the full length of Thompson Road from Connecticut to Webster, Massachusetts was purchased by John Bates during the years 1783/85. The original 18th century farmhouse where he lived still stands on Thompson Road and remains in the family to this day.  The dwelling was expanded around 1825 with the attachment of a handsome Federal Style house which served the dual purpose of tavern and home for John’s son, Alanson. As the "Fox and Hounds Tavern" it was a stop on the stage coach line that connected Providence, Rhode Island with Springfield, Massachusetts. A remnant of this road, covered with grass and flanked by two old stone walls, still exists, passing in front of the house. John Bates served as a private in the Revolutionary War and was in Captain Jacob Ide's Southwest Company, Colonel John Daggett's 4th Bristol County Regiment of the Massachusetts Militia. In an order dated July 5, 1778 given by Captain Ide to Ephraim Newel, Town Treasurer of Attleboro he was to be paid “for services on the alarm caused by the battle of Bunker Hill.” Although the history is incomplete, a company of about sixty minutemen went to Roxbury on June 17, 1776 and remained there for a fortnight. Said one of them, “While there a small party of us went around Cambridge side to look for the British, but soon the captain of a fort called out to us, that we had better not go in company, for the enemy would see us and fire at us; and sure enough, in a minute or two, a cannon ball came whizzing along close by us.” He also marched to Rhode Island on the alarm of December 8, 1776 (service 12 days). 

Webster history records that in 1783, "to the shore of our beautiful lake [Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg] came John Bates and his family, and his parents. The Squire was an energetic man and a very prosperous one. Besides keeping a public house, he sold hides, lent money for mortgages and acted as High Sheriff, settling many disputes that arose about him.”



Sources: A Sketch of the History of Attleborough: From Its Settlement to the Division; MA SOLS & SAILS, VOL 1, P 790 and from Worcester County, Massachusetts Memoirs p. 43
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