Author: Robert Clyde Eager
Jonathan Carriel was born on 28 May 1734 in Sutton, Massachusetts. The Carriel family was originally from Salem, Massachusetts. Jonathan’s father, Samuel, was born in Salem in 1693, just after the famous witch trials had ended. Samuel had been a Cooper in Boxford, but now, in Sutton, the Carriel family would clear the land and be farmers. In a 1723 deed, where Samuel and the other men laid out the boundaries for each of their holdings. This was the world that Jonathan Carriel grew up in.
In November 1756, Jonathan married Elizabeth Greenwood, daughter of Elder Daniel Greenwood. It was also around that time that Jonathan, two of his brothers, and three of his cousins joined a group of other Sutton residents in colonial service during the French and Indian War. He and some of the other men from Sutton were part of the Crown Point Campaign to take Fort Saint Frederic. We don’t know how, but town records report that Jonathan’s older brother, Samuel Jr., was one of six soldiers from Sutton killed in service during 1756.
Jonathan and Elizabeth had the following known children:
- Jonathan Jr. was born on 21 August 1757 and married Sybil Stone.
- Peter was born on 17 March 1760
- David was born on 28 September 1764 and married Martha Leathers.
- Elizabeth was born on 28 September 1764 and married Benjamin Batchelder.
- Huldah was born on 5 April 1767 and married John Blanchard.
- Mary “Polly” was born on 20 June 1769 and married her cousin Timothy Carriel.
- Lydia was born on 25 September 1770 and married Isaac Goodenough.
- Sarah was born on 31 August 1772 and married Benjamin Woodbury.
- Anna was born on 9 September 1774 and married Enoch Marble Jr.
- Nathan was born on 5 January 1777 and married Mary “Polly” Walker.
By the time their youngest, Nathaniel, was born in January 1777, trouble had been brewing in the American colonies for quite some time. Sutton had a standing militia for general defense. Still, as tensions with Britain grew, communities like Sutton started adding Minute Companies, militiamen who would be ready to serve on a moment’s notice. Men from Sutton joined others around New England to march in response to the Lexington Alarm on 19 April 1775.
Following that action, Sutton and neighboring towns raised ten companies of volunteers, organized under Colonel Ebenezer Larned. This was the group that Jonathan joined on 24 April 1775 as a Lieutenant in Captain Arthur Dagget's company. Initially, Larned’s Regiment was stationed at Roxbury, and on June 17th, they witnessed the famous Battle of Bunker Hill. They formed a part of the right wing of the army, which stretched from Dorchester through Roxbury to Boston to prevent the British from breaking through and making a flank movement.
In August of that year, Captain Dagget died. Church records list the cause of death as camp disease. Jonathan was put in charge of the company with the temporary rank of captain. He was later commissioned as Captain on 21 February 1776 in Colonel Josiah Whitney's regiment. Various records indicate that he continued to serve with that regiment throughout 1776.
Unfortunately, there are few details in those records that can tell us much about the nature of his service. We can learn more from the pension applications for some of the men who served under him. The Pension Act of 1832 required applicants to give detailed accounts of where they served and the officers they served under. Many years after the war, as an old man, David White recalled, “I enlisted April 1st, 1776, in the Massachusetts State Troops for 7 months under [Captain] Jonathan Carriel … I went to Boston and was stationed at Point Shirley about 3 weeks and then went from there to Nantasket and served the remainder of the enlistment.”
Someone on behalf of Simeon Morse wrote, “He first went to Boston … At that time the greater part of the continental troops had marched for New York, but not the whole of them. He stayed at Boston but a short time and then he, with said company, were ordered to Nantasket, near the lighthouse about nine miles from said Boston, where he remained with said company until the expiration of seven months, the term of his enlistment.”
Amos Parsons added, “I was in the State service. We were at the Point during the summer. While we were there, a boat of ours with seven men took a British vessel loaded with provisions from the enemy. She was brought in and the provisions won by the American Army at Nantasket.”
Jonathan’s military service was over by 1777, and he returned to his home in Sutton. That year, he was appointed chairman of Sutton’s Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety, serving with several other returning officers and prominent citizens.
Jonathan’s wife, Elizabeth, died at the age of forty-four in January 1781. Five of their children, Mary, Lydia, Sarah, Anna, and Nathan, were under the age of twelve. His older daughters still at home, Huldah, aged 13, and Elizabeth, aged 16, would have been a big help.
In May 1783, Jonathan married 39-year-old Mrs Sarah (Bartlett) Hancock in Roxbury. Her two previous husbands had both died, leaving her two young daughters, now ages eight and eleven. She and Jonathan would have one child:
- Lucy was born in 1784 and married John Pierce.
No one knows when Jonathan died or where he was living at the time. September 1811 appears often in family trees as his death date, but it is never documented. It could be correct, but no town record or gravestone has been found to support it.
Searching for his final resting place, attempts have been made to trace Jonathan Carriel’s residence after the war. But the clues are few and difficult to follow. Having been born in Sutton, he was married there and raised a family with Elizabeth Greenwood. Their youngest child, Nathan, was born there in 1777. However, when Elizabeth died in 1781, she was buried in the Old Burying Ground Cemetery in Groton. After marrying Sarah Bartlett in her hometown of Roxbury in 1783, their child, Lucy, was also born in Groton a year later.
Soon afterward, he moved his family to Lincoln, Massachusetts. A deed in March of 1783 shows him selling several parcels, about 200 acres, in Groton. Another deed in December 1784 lists his residence as Lincoln. Jonathan appeared in the 1790 census for Lincoln as well. But then, that was the last record for him.
Sarah Carriel, Jonathan’s second wife, died years later, at the age of 84, in September 1827. She had been living with her youngest daughter, Lucy. Lucy’s husband, John Pierce, died in January of that year and was buried in Sutton’s Dodge Cemetery. When Sarah died eight months later, she was buried there as well. If there was a grave somewhere for Jonathan Carriel, she could have been buried next to him. Unless, of course, he was already buried next to his first wife, Elizabeth. She has a large, well-preserved marker in the cemetery in Groton. It identifies her as Elizabeth, the wife of Captain Jonathan Carriel. But there is no marker or cemetery record there for Captain Carriel.
And so, the mystery remains of whatever happened to Jonathan Carriel. Perhaps someday, some record or document will come to light. But as of now, there exists no death or burial record, no will or probate document, not even a family Bible entry to tell us how his story ended.
Sources:
- Secretary of the Commonwealth, Massachusetts Soldiers, and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Volume III, Massachusetts. Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1901, page 143
- Benedict and Tracy, History of the Town of Sutton Massachusetts from 1704 to 1876, Worcester, MA: Sanford and Company, 1878), pages 78, 616-617, 771-773.
- Vital Records of Sutton Massachusetts, Worcester, MA: Franklin P. Rice, 1907, pages 31-34, 224-226, 406, 412
- 1720 Deed "Suffolk, Massachusetts, US records," images, FamilySearch; Suffolk County (Massachusetts). Register of Deeds, image 536 of 573
- 1723 Deed "Suffolk, Massachusetts, US records," images, FamilySearch, Suffolk County (Massachusetts). Register of Deeds, image 127 of 588
- 1783 Deed "Middlesex, Massachusetts, US records," images, FamilySearch; Middlesex County (Massachusetts). Register of Deeds), image 64 of 272
- 1784 Deed "Suffolk, Massachusetts, US records," images, FamilySearch; Suffolk County (Massachusetts). Register of Deeds, image 662 of 841
- Goss and Zarowin, Massachusetts Officers and Soldiers in the French and Indian Wars, 1755-1756: Society of Colonial Wars in Massachusetts, 1985, page 34
- NARA, Pub No. M804, Revolutionary War Pension, and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, Pension Number: S19864, David White.
- Ibid. S5097, Simeon Morse
- Ibid. S21410, Amos Parsons
- 1790 U.S. Federal Census, Lincoln, MA, familysearch.org, image 370 of 77
- Find a Grave Memorial 83252053 - Elizabeth Greenwood Carriell
- Find a Grave Memorial 149848558 - Sarah Carriel
- Weaver, Ross, Historical Researcher – Worcester County, MA, email exchanges 2024-2025