A Revolutionary Patriot

Now that I have written about my paternal grandparents and their Loyalist ties, I will venture on to my maternal side.  I am descended from nine Revolution Patriots that I know about.  I have recently found more about these ancestors because of the new Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) online records and from some great finds on footnote.com.  Today I will focus on John Bickmore of Maine.  Maine was a part of Massachusetts at the time of the revolution so John served with a Massachusetts unit.

I recently found the following document on footnote.com

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

I John Bickmore, aged fifty nine years, a citizen of the United States, born in Friendship in the District of Maine, now resident in Unity in the said District, upon oath testify and declare, that in January 1776, I enlisted as a private soldier in the war of the revolution, against the common enemy, upon the continental establishment, for the period of one year, in the years service, in Capt Fuller's company and Col Bond's regiment of the Massachusetts troops or line.  I continued in  this service until the last of November following, and then took my final and humble discharge from the Army at Mount Independence, lake Champlain.  I was discharged before the expiration of the period of my enlistment in account of the poor state of my health; and such was the state of my health, I was unable to return home to my place of residence in Friendship in the District of Maine, until the twenty eighth day of March 1777.  I served in this campaign more than eleven months, and was employed during that time principally at Lake Champlain and its vicinity.  My discharge is lost and not in existence to my knowledge.  From my reduced circumstances I am in need of assistance from my country for support.  And I hereby relinquish all my claim to my pension heretofore allowed me by the laws of the United States, if any; but I am not to my knowledge [?] on any pension list whatever.  I request that I may be placed upon the pension list for the District of Maine.  I enlisted by the name of John Bickmore Junior, my father being of the same name, but now deceased.  I am known only by the name of John Bickmore.

I really like that the document contains John's signature!!

John Bickmore is my 5th great-grandfather.  He was the son of John Bickmore and Anna (Wadsworth?) Bickmore.  He was married to Margaret Meserve(y) whom he wed in 1777.  I am descended through his daughter Dorcas who married Joseph Bither. 



Mount Independence, Lake Champlain, Vermont is a National Historic Landmark.  

Wording on the Mount Independence Monument:

MOUNT INDEPENDENCE
BASTION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR+

Fortification was begun in June of 1776, and
THE NAME MOUNT INDEPENDENCE WAS BESTOWED
FOLLOWING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
LIEUT. CoL. JEDUTHAN BALDWIN WAS THE CHIEF
CONSTRUCTION ENGINEER. HERE THE EXHAUSTED
AMERICAN ARMY, NORTHERN DEPARTMENT, WAS
STATIONED AFTER WITHDRAWING FROM ITS
DISASTROUS CANADIAN CAMPAIGN. BUILT ON A
ROCKY PLATEAU AND STOUTLY FORTIFIED, THE
POST WAS A NATURAL STRONGHOLD FACING ANY
APPROACHING FOE FROM THE NORTH. WITHIN ITS
RUGGED CONFINES THOUSANDS OF NEW ENGLANDERS,
MANY SUCCUMBING TO ILLNESS AND LACK OF
SUPPLIES, WERE QUARTERED. because OF ITS
COMMANDING POSITION AND FORMIDABLE BATTLE
WORKS, WHICH MADE IT MORE POWERFUL AT THE
MOMENT THAN IMPAIRED TICONDEROGA, IT CHECKED
FOR A YEAR A BRITISH THRUST SOUTHWARD, UNTIL
AT THE FALL OF ITS COMPANION FORTRESS
ACROSS THE CHANNEL IT WAS EVACUATED IN THE
EARLY MORNING DARKNESS OF July 6, 1777.  this
CRITICAL YEAR OF REPRIEVE GAVE THE AMERICAN
FORCES TIME TO ORGANIZE FARTHER SOUTH, MEET
AND DESTROY general Burgoyne AT SARATOGA,
WIN FRENCH SUPPORT, AND EVENTUALLY SUBDUE
GENERAL CORNWALLIS AT Yorktown, FULFILLING
THE PROPHECY OF THE MOUNTAIN'S NAME.
-------------------

erected BY
Vermont SOCIETY
SONS OF THE American REVOLUTION
IN OBSERVANCE OF THE
BICENTENNIAL YEAR OF INDEPENDENCE, 1976

It seems that Mount Independence was not a pleasant place to be in the time that John Bickmore served there. I am grateful that he made it through and for his service to our new country.

"During the American Revolution, the mount was a bare promontory on which all the trees had been cut. For sixteen months, it was alive with activity. Thousands of soldiers constructed fortifications and buildings with desperate haste. They lived in tents, huts and barracks, coped with miserable weather and disease, and prepared to meet the enemy. During the Revolutionary War, hundreds of soldiers from America, Britain and Germany died here from combat wounds, disease, poor diet and exposure. These dead lie in unmarked graves."