Gaspee
Virtual Archives
Research Notes
on Captain
Benjamin Lindsey (v.
Benjamin Lindsay)
The Gaspee Days Committee at www.gaspee.COM
is a civic-minded nonprofit organization that runs a list of many
varied
community events in Rhode Island, including the famous Gaspee Days
Parade
each June. These events are all designed to commemorate the
burning
of the hated British revenue schooner, HMS Gaspee , by Rhode
Island
patriots in 1772 as a proximate cause of the American Revolution. Our
historical
research center, the Gaspee Virtual Archives at www.gaspee.ORG
, has presented these research notes as an attempt to gather furher
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.
This web page presents research notes on Captain Benjamin Lindsey
only.
None of the information is considered authorative at the present time.
Evidence implicating Benjamin Lindsey
From: http://gaspee.org/StaplesGaspee.htm
p13
On the 9th day of June, 1772,
Capt.(Benjamin)
Lindsey left Newport in his
packet for Providence, about noon, with the
wind at North; and soon after, the Gaspee was under sail, in pursuit of
Lindsey, and continued the chase as far as Namquit Point, which runs
off
from the farm in Warwick about seven miles below Providence, now owned
by Mr. John Brown Francis, our late Governor.—Lindsey was standing
easterly,
with the tide on ebb about two hours, when he hove about, at the end of
Namquit Point, and stood to the westward, and Dudingston in close
chase,
changed his course and ran on the Point, near its end, and grounded.
Lindsey
continued on his course up the river, and arrived at Providence about
sunset,
when he immediately informed Mr. John Brown, one of our first and most
respectable merchants, of the situation of the Gaspee.
Captain Benjamin Lindsey is considered a Gaspee Raider
since he was the single individual who initiated the whole affair by
leading
the Gaspee aground off of
Namquid Point on the afternoon of June 9th, 1772.
But other than that, we really don't have any direct evidence that this
Lindsey was actually involved in the subsequent attack and burning of
the
Gaspee. He is not mentioned
further in any other first person accounts
by Bowen or Mawney.
To clear up points of confusion, it has been established that Ephraim
Bowen, a Gaspee raider who wrote the above story at 86, erred in naming
a Captain Thomas Lindsey. It was, from all other accounts, Captain
Benjamin Lindsey
(variously
spelt Lindsay) who commmanded the Hannah,
but Thomas was his partner and also probably commanded the Hannah from time to time.
There was one other similar
name in the story of the Gaspee Affair: John Linzee - Captain of
H.M.S. Beaver; he worked closely with Lieutenant Dudingston and
the Gaspee.
Biographical Information:
Left, Ad from the Providence Gazette of January 1768.
From the NEHGS website
we find the following in the Early
American Newspapers collection. In October 1763 ads began
appearing from Joshua Hacker and Benjamin Lindsey for their Providence
to Newport packet boat carrying passengers and freight on a twice
weekly schedule, and docking in Providence at Jenckes's wharf. By
March 1766 this partnership had dissolved, and a new partnership had
commenced between Thomas Lindsey and Benjamin Lindsey, whose boat in
Providence docked at Arnold's Wharf. In 1769 Thomas Lindsey
advertised that his wife Sarah had abandoned their marriage and that he
would no longer assume her debts. In 1774 it was noted that
Benjamin Lindsey had a store in Providence. Per the Newport Mercury of 15August1774
under "Shipping News", arrived from New York the ship Joseph, captained by Benjamin
Lindsey. We also note that Benjamin Lindsey
was Master of a Providence-based
privateersman, Victory, in
1777 (Field, Edward, State of Rhode
Island and Providence Plantations at the End of the Century: A
History. Boston, Mason Publishing Co. 1902, Vol II,
pp424-430).
From a NEHGS
site search we discover in the list of Pomfret (Eastern CT) cemetery
inscriptions (Vol 73 p116)
Here
lies ye body of Samuel son to Capt. Benjn Lindsey and Waltha his wife.
He departed this life Sept 13, 1778 aged 3 months and 12 days.
This makes a high liklihood that Walltha or Benjamin were from the
Pomfret area. Of note, there are no Lindsey or Lindsay families
among
the list of Providence taxpayers for 1770.
USGenWeb search of the
1790
Federal
census reveals no Benjamin Lindsey living in RI at that time,
There
were 3 Lindsey families living in Bristol, and 2 in Providence in
1790. From: http://www.geocities.com/~kenlindsay/bnjmn1.htm
Benjamin Lindsey was living in Providence,
Rhode
Island, in 1774. The 1782 state census lists 1 free white male,
including
head of family and 2 free white females 16 &m up; 2 free white
males
under 16. References: 1782 State Census of Rhode Island, page 46.
The Providence Gazette of
17May1783 briefly announced the passing of Capt. Benjamin Lindsey of
Providence. Unfortunately, his age or circumstances of his death are
not given.
Wiils were adminsitered in Providence probate under the name of
Benjamin Lindsey in both 1783 and 1805. His notice of estate was published
in July 1783 by Lemuel Allen and Weltha Lindsey. In April 1786 it
was advertised that his widow, Weltha, was bankrupt.
From RI Historical Cemeteries Database at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~rigenweb/cemetery/cemetery213.html
There are five Benjamin Lindseys listed, but none of these could have
been our Benjamin Lindsey. The lack of a RI burial would be expected if
our Benjamin Lindsey died at sea.
It appears that Benjamin Lindsey's
son, Benjamin Lindsey born in 1782, may have
been the proprietor of a shoe store in Providence in 1829.
According to an ad placed in the very first edition of the Providence Journal on July 21,
1829 (and reprinted in an 175th anniversary edition on July 21, 2004),
one Benjamin M. Lindsey had such a shop at No. 17, Arcade. The
Arcade is the very first indoor shopping mall in the world, and it
still
exists to this day.
One final note of interest. Wayne Tillinghast, in his well
researched article, "The Three Captains Joseph Tillinghast of
Providence". (Rhode Island Roots
30:57-86, June 2004) relates that the original partner for Joshua (or
Josiah) Hacker in 1762 packet boat enterprise was Captain Joseph Tillinghast, another
known Gaspee raider. We also note from newspaper ads that Joshua
Hacker (c1721-1794) was a cooper by trade from Newport, and that in
1767 he ran a daily packet from Newport to Providence in competition
with the Lindseys at the rate of 9 pence per passenger.
Other genealogical
alternatives below all discount the fact that we know our Benjamin Lindsey's
wife was named Waltha. The only reason we keep it is that both Benjamin
Lindseys served on privateers and died c1783.
From: The Ramsdell Genealogical Archive
http://www5.pair.com/vtandrew/ramsdell/archive.htm
Mary5 Ramsdell (John4, Jonathan3, Isaac2,
John1)
was born in Lynn, Essex, MA 25 July 1748. Mary died 26 January 1828 in
Lynn, Essex, MA, at 79 years of age.
She married Benjamin
Lindsey 12 December 1776 in Lynn,
Essex, MA. Benjamin was born 1 October 1744 in Lynn, Essex, MA.
Benjamin
died in 1782 at sea., at 37 years of age. Benjamin was "killed on board
a Privateer near the end of the Revolutionary War".
Mary Ramsdell and Benjamin Lindsey had the
following children:
i. Ralph6 Lindsey was born in Lynn,
Essex, MA
26 May 1778. Ralph died 12 June 1836 in Lynn, Essex, MA, at 58 years of
age. He married Joanna Mumford 1799 in Ashford, CT. Joanna was born 4
June
1774 in Kingston, RI. Joanna died 20 September 1855 in Lynn, Essex, MA,
at 81 years of age.
ii. Rebekah Lindsey was born in Lynn, Essex, MA
February
1780. Rebekah died 20 October 1795 in Lynn, Essex, MA, at 15 years of
age.
iii. Benjamin Lindsey was born in Lynn, Essex,
MA 13 October
1782.
From the World Genealogical
Database on Ancestry.com, we
have:
Name: Benjamin LINDSEY
Sex: M
Birth: 1 OCT 1744 in Lynn, Mass
Note: killed on board a
privateer near the close of
the
rev. war
Father: Ralph LINDSEY b: 2 AUG 1712 in Lynn, Mass
Mother: Abigail BLANEY b: 1715 in Lynn, Mass
Marriage 1 Mary RAMSDELL
Married: 12 DEC 1776
Note here that the term "late Revolutionary War" could be
construed
to mean after the defeat of the British at Yorktown in 1781 but before
the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1783. There were still
hostilities
going on after Yorktown, but the British were no longer an effective
force
on
land. If this is our Benjamin Lindsey, he would have been 27 years
old at the
time of the attack on the Gaspee, and old enough to have been
placed
in command of a packet sloop, the Hannah, but the Rhode Island
connection
presented here is weak. He must have moved back to his hometown
of
Lynn, MA sometime after the Gaspee attack. We could assume he
and
his wife Mary (Ramsdell) Lindsey raised their children in Lynn, but
that
eldest son Ralph met his wife in Rhode Island or in nearby Eastern
Connecticut. Mary Ramsdell Lindsey and her family may well
have travelled
frequently
back and forth between Rhode Island and Massachusetts. It was
common
for a woman of the time to return to her maternal family at the time of
impending childbirth, and this could explain the lack of consistency in
the families whereabouts during the 1790 Federal census. She was 35
years
old when widowed, and may have remarried.
That's all the evidence we have for now folks. If you
know more, please e-mail us at webmaster@gaspee.org.
Thanks!
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Originally
Posted
to Gaspee Virtual Archives 8/2002 Last Revised
5/2006 BenjaminLindsey.htm