Benjamin Simonds

Benjamin Simonds (12 February 1726 – 11 April 1807) was a militia commander of Massachusetts during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. He was colonel of the all-Berkshire regiment of about five hundred men known as the “Berkshire Boys” during the American Revolutionary War. His regiment, the 2nd Berkshire County Regiment, notably fought in the Battle of Bennington in the summer of 1777.

Benjamin Simonds
Portrait of Benjamin Simonds by William Jennys
Born23 February 1726
Killingly, Connecticut Colony,
British America
Died11 April 1807(1807-04-11) (aged 81)
RankColonel
Commands held2nd Berkshire County Regiment
Battles/wars

Early life

Benjamin Simonds was born on 12 February 1726 in Killingly, Connecticut Colony, in British America. He was the son of Joseph and Rachel Simonds and was baptized at the First Congregational Church of Killingly (now the First Congregational Church of Putnam, Connecticut) on 6 March 1726.[1] His father Joseph Simonds, born 8 June 1689 in what is now Lexington, Massachusetts, was a cordwainer who married his first wife Rachel c. 1714.[2] Joseph Simonds was one of the first settlers of Londonderry, Province of New Hampshire in 1719 but by 1723 had moved to Killingly, Connecticut Colony where Benjamin Simonds was born.[3] Benjamin's mother, Rachel, died c. 1728. Joseph's second marriage was in c. 1729 to Mary and third marriage was to Hannah Abbe in 1738. Joseph remained in Killingly until about 1741 when he moved with his family to Ware, Massachusetts.[4]

Early military career

Benjamin Simonds’ military career began during King George's War in 1744. At the start of the war, Governor William Shirley ordered that a line of forts be built from Colrain to the Dutch settlements, the strongest and westernmost of which was called Fort Massachusetts.[5] Beginning in the summer of 1745, Fort Massachusetts was garrisoned and Benjamin Simonds was at that time a part of that garrison.[6] On 19 August 1746, Fort Massachusetts was attacked by an army of French soldiers and their Indian allies and surrendered the following day. On the first night after their capture, the party camped near the river at the spot where Simonds would eventually buy and build a house, known as the Col. Benjamin Simonds House. The French and Indians then took the members of the garrison captive to Fort Saint-Frédéric on Lake Champlain then to Montreal on 10 September 1746 before reaching Quebec on 15 September 1746.

The journey to Quebec was later described by the fort’s chaplain, Rev. John Norris, who mentions Benjamin Simonds, or “Brother Simon” as he called him, at several points in his narrative. Norris reported on 22 August 1746 that “the Indians also carry’d in their Canoes Br Simon & John Aldrich, and Perry’s Wife, down the River about ten miles.” On 23 August 1746, he reported that “the French still carrying Smeed’s and Scot’s Wives and Children, the Indians finding Horses for Brothers Simon and John Aldrich.”[7]

According to Nehemiah How, who wrote another captivity narrative, Benjamin Simonds was one of the captives from Fort Massachusetts who arrived at the prison in Quebec on 15 September 1746.[8] Only nine of the soldiers captured at Fort Massachusetts returned home and Benjamin Simonds and John Aldrich, both sick in the hospital at Quebec, were the last to return in October 1747. According to his petition dated 12 December 1749, Benjamin Simonds, after his return from captivity, was “unable to get Home till 14 days after, and was weak & low and unable for a whole month to provide for himself.” He was awarded £20, 9s. for his service.[9] During the Seven Years' War, Benjamin Simonds was again stationed at Fort Massachusetts where he was listed serving as a private in a company commanded by Captain Ephraim Williams from 14 October 1754 to 28 March 1755[10] and then again in a company commanded by Isaac Wyman from 29 March 1755 to 26 November 1755.[11]

Revolutionary War

Benjamin Simonds is most known for his leadership in the American Revolutionary War. On 30 August 1775, Benjamin Simonds was commissioned Colonel of the 2nd Berkshire County Regiment of the Massachusetts Militia.[12] It is reported that Col. Benjamin Simonds and his regiment fought at the Battle of White Plains on 28 October 1776.[13] The regiment was then stationed at Fort Ticonderoga from 16 December 16 1776 to 22 March 22 1777. On 13 August 1777, he met with Gen. John Stark and Col. Seth Warner in a council of war at the so called Catamount Tavern before the Battle of Bennington and commanded his Berkshire regiment in that engagement.[14] He was a Colonel until 1780.

Family

On 23 April 1752, Benjamin Simonds was married by Joseph Hawley in Northampton, Massachusetts to Mary Davis who was born 12 November 1730 in Brookfield, Massachusetts, daughter of Joseph Davis Sr. and Experience Willis.[15] Benjamin and Mary had seven daughters and three sons, all born in Williamstown, Massachusetts:

  • Rachel Simonds (1753 – 1802)
  • Justin Simonds (b. 1755, died young)
  • Sarah Simonds (b. 1757)
  • Marcy Simonds (1759 – 1834)
  • Joseph Simonds (1762 – 1838)
  • Prudence Simonds (1763 – 1844)
  • Ablina Simonds (1765 – 1846)
  • Electa Simonds (1767 – 1841)
  • Polly Simonds (b. 1771)
  • Benjamin Simonds (1773 – 1786)

Mary died 7 June 1798, and Benjamin Simonds married Anna Collins on 4 November 1798.[16]

Later years

Many years later, trustees requested that Simonds join the committee to build “West College,” in accordance with Colonel Ephraim Williams’ will. It was finished in 1791 and was named the “Free School,” until 1793 when Williams College officially received its charter.

Simonds died in 1807 and was buried in what is now known as Westview Cemetery in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Benjamin Simonds gravesite. From left to right, (small stone) Benjamin Simonds (13-year-old son), Simonds first wife, Mary, mother to all of his ten children. Next is Benjamin Simonds, and far right is Ana Simonds, his second wife. Simonds inscription reads, "This monument erected in memory of Col. Benjamin Simonds, one of the first settlers in Williamstown, and a firm supporter of his country's Independence. He was born Feb. 23, 1726, and died April 11, 1807."

References

[17] [18]

  1. Lorraine Cook White, ed., The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records, vol. 20, Huntington (1789-1850), Kent (1739-1852), and Killingly (1708-1850) (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1999), 357 (Vol. 1, p. 15 in the original vital records for Killingly, CT).
  2. Vital Records of Chelmsford, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849 (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1914), 139. "Joseph Simonds of Chelmsford...Cordwainer" and his wife Rachel sold land in Chelmsford to Isaac Barron, 16 Jan. 1716/17, Middlesex County, MA deed, 40:257-258. For the ancestry of Joseph Simonds, see Charles Hudson, History of the Town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts from Its First Settlement to 1868, Revised and Continued to 1912 by the Lexington History Society (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1912), 2:619-620.
  3. Edward L. Parker, The History of Londonderry, Comprising the Towns of Derry and Londonderry, N.H. (Boston: Perkins and Whipple, 1851), 80, 85-87, 325. In a deed dated 18 June 1723, “Joseph Simonds of Kellingly In ye County of N=London in ye Collony of Connecticut In N=Engld Cordwainr” sold to Joseph Parker of Chellinsford, Mass., all his "Estate Right" and "Title Interest…of In & unto ye above sd one hundred & twelve or ye 113th part Township calld Nutfield alias Londonderry Excepting wt has been sold by me as above sd & ye grant of some lots as above sd.", Rockingham County Registry of Deeds, Exeter, New Hampshire, Book 17, pp. 471-472. On 24 June 1723, Joseph Simonds purchased 80 acres in Killingly from Nathaniel Brown, Land records for the Town of Killingly, Connecticut, Book 2, pp. 153-4.
  4. Arthur Chase, History of Ware, Massachusetts (Cambridge: The University Press, 1911), 275-276.
  5. Arthur Latham Perry, Origins in Williamstown (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894), 79.
  6. Perry, Origins in Williamstown, 108-117.
  7. John Norton, The Redeemed Captive: Being a Narrative of the taking and carrying into Captivity The Reverend Mr. John Norton, When Fort-Massachusetts Surrendered to a Large Body of French and Indians, August 20th 1746 With a Particular Account of the Defence Made Before the Surrender of that Fort, and the Articles of Capitulation & c. Together with an Account, both entertaining and affecting, of what Mr. Norton met with, and took Notice of, in his travelling to, and while in Captivity at Canada, and ‘till his Arrival at Boston, on August 16, 1747 (Boston: Printed & sold [by Samuel Kneeland and Timothy Green] opposite the prison, 1748), 14-15.
  8. Nehemiah How, A Narrative of the Captivity of Nehemiah How in 1745-1747, Reprinted from the original edition of 1748, with introduction and notes by Victor Hugo Paltsits (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Co., 1904), 48-49.
  9. Emma Lewis Coleman, New England Captives Carried to Canada between 1677 and 1760, during the French and Indian Wars (Portland, Me.: The Southworth press, 1925), 2: 210.
  10. Robert E. MacKay, Massacchusetts Soldiers in the French and Indian Wars, 1744-1755 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1978), 403.
  11. K. David Goss and David Zarowin, eds., Massachusetts Officers and Soldiers in the French and Indian Wars, 1755-1756 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1985), 173.
  12. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, 17 vols.(Boston: Prepared and published by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Wright and Potter Printing Co., 1896-1908), 14:246, 8:241.
  13. Grace Greylock Niles, The Hoosac Valley: Its Legends and Its History (NY and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1912), 183.
  14. Niles, Hoosac Valley, 183.
  15. Vital Records of Brookfield, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Worcester, MA: Franklin P. Rice, 1909), 72.
  16. Vital records of Brimfield, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1931), 41.
  17. Perry, Bliss (1944). Colonel Benjamin Simonds, 1726-1807. Cambridge, Mass: Perry.
  18. "Battle of Bennington". Archived from the original on 25 December 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
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