GaspeeVirtual Archives |
Abel Easterbrooks The Gaspee Days Committee at www.gaspee.COM is a civic-minded nonprofit organization that operates many community events in and around Pawtuxet Village, including the famous Gaspee Days Parade each June. These events are all designed to commemorate the 1772 burning of the hated British revenue schooner, HMS Gaspee, by Rhode Island patriots as America's 'First Blow for Freedom' TM. Our historical research center, the Gaspee Virtual Archives at www.gaspee.ORG , has presented these research notes as an attempt to gather further information on one who has been suspected of being associated with the the burning of the Gaspee. Please e-mail your comments or further questions to webmaster@gaspee.org. |
The following entry was rediscovered
by
genealogist Pam
R. Thompson in the
Revolutionary War Pension File, #S21404,
for Ezra
Ormsbee, born 30 March 1751
in
Warren, RI, son of Ebenezer
Ormsbee (sometimes spelled Ormsby)
and Hannah Cole (Benjamin3,
Hugh2, James1)
Ezra applied for his pension
in Warren, RI, on 24 August 1833.
In
June
1772 when the English Revenue Cutter Gaspee
was burnt in
Providence River, I was one that went from
this town and helped do it.
Capt John Greenwood, James
Smith, Abner Luther, Abel
Easterbrooks,
Nathaniel Easterbrooks, Hezekiah Kinnicut
and myself went together in a
whale boat and we helped burn her. I mention
this merely as a
revolutionary incident and not as connected
with my pension claim. All
the above named persons who were with me in
burning the Gaspee have a
long time now decd.
|
Biographical
notes and random musings From the Ormsbee Genealogical Website, at http://www.ormsby.org/genie/Miscellaneous/Cole_connection.html In the Ormsbee
family
burying
ground on the still existing
Ormsbee farm near Porter Corners, Town of Greenfield,
Saratoga
Co., N.Y., are the graves of Ambrose Cole and his wife
Altheare
Cole. From a genealogy: "Descendants of James Cole of
Plimouth
1633" by E.B. Cole (1908), we find that this branch of
the
Cole family lived at Swansea, Mass., then moved to
Warren, R.I.,
and later to the Town of Greenfield, Saratoga Co.,
N.Y. as did
this branch of the Ormsbees. There were several
inter-marriages
between the Coles and Ormsbees, and between the Coles
and Easterbrooks
family. The Easterbrooks and Coles preceeded the
Ormsbees to
Greenfield,
and it was from Royal Easterbrook that Isaac Ormsbee
bought the
still existing farm in 1796. Not only were the
families inter-married,
but they seem to have been closely associated in their
migrations,
searching for better conditions after the
Revolutionary War.
According to information received in 2010 from D. Gibney, a descendant, an Abel Easterbrooks moved from Warren, RI to New Hampshire where fought in the Revolution and where his pension application is ultimately recorded. In 2014 Gibney relates that Thomas and Joanna Easterbrooks of Warren, RI had children that included John and Nathaniel Easterbrooks. This John Easterbrooks and his wife Joanna had Abel Easterbooks born 31Aug1748. This Nathaniel Easterbrooks had a son also named Nathaniel who was therefore first cousin to Abel, and fellow Gaspee raider. The town of Ludlow, where this Abel Easterbrooks died, is in mideastern Vermont, not an impossible distance from the Greenfield-Saratoga, NY area to where other members of the Easterbrooks family moved. If this is our man, he was first cousin to fellow Gaspee raider Nathaniel Easterbrooks. But our Abel (v. Abiel, Abial) Easterbrooks was possibly a different one born on 14Aug1753 to a William Easterbrooks, Jr. and Susannah Luther, his age fitting perfectly with the predominately young, teenaged crowd that later attacked the Gaspee in 1772. Note that Abner Luther, a fellow attacker who was also from Bristol-Warren, RI, was likely related. This Abel Easterbrooks MAY have been the one who married a Ruth Miller on 3Nov1774 and together had an Abiel Easterbrooks born in Warren, RI c1786. If this is our man, he was second cousin to fellow Gaspee raider Nathaniel Easterbrooks. We also find in the 1800 Federal census an Abiel Easterbrooks living in Herkimer, NY in 1800. Interestingly, the Upstate location of his home is along the route of what was to become the Erie Canal, a common migration destination of many Gaspee burners. |
The Gaspee Days Committee proudly recognizes Abel Easterbrooks as a Gaspee raider, one of the select group of true American patriots. We unfortunately do not know more about this man. |
Back to Top | Back to Gaspee Virtual Archives |