Display Patriot - P-149378 - William DORR

William DORR

SAR Patriot #: P-149378

The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
 

State of Service: MA      Qualifying Service: Private
DAR #: A033108

Birth: 13 Jul 1757 Roxbury / Suffolk / MA
Death: 18 Mar 1840 Augusta / Kennebec / ME

Qualifying Service Description:
  1. 1775, served as a Fifer in the company of Captain Moses Whiting, commanded by Colonel Greaton, marched April 19, 1775, service 13 days
  2. 1775, served as a Private in the company of Captain Samuel Ward, 2nd Division, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Greene

Additional References:
  1. Rev War Pension file S/W24074
  2. Secretary of the CommonwealthMA Soldiers, and Sailors of the Rev War, MA. Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co, 1901, Volume IV, pg 685
  3. Dorr, James EdmundA Branch of the Dorr Tree: A Short Genealogy of One of the Dorr Family Trees, Washington State: unpublished manuscript,
    Gregg Johnson

Spouse: Jane Partridge
Children: Joseph; Ebenezer;
Members Who Share This Ancestor
Date Approved Society ACN SAR Member Info Lineage via Child View Application Detail
1940-12-05 NY Unassigned Russell Earle Farrell (59715) Joseph   
2022-05-20 WA 101788 Brian Patrick Dorr (222531) Joseph   
2024-09-20 OR 113078 Russell Scott Dorr (231088) Joseph   
Burial:
Mount Vernon Cemetery (C-0098741)
Location:
Augusta / Kennebec / ME / USA
Find A Grave Cemetery #:
2237155
Grave Plot #:
Grave GPS Coordinates:
44.317330 / -69.786500
Find A Grave Memorial #:
114889980
Marker Type:

SAR Grave Dedication Date:

Comments:
  • Upright stone for Patriot and wife, contemporary to their deaths.
  • Photos used with permission of Compatriot Mitchell Anderson, 229001, KYSSAR


Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:

The cemetery is located on the north side of Winthrop Street, west of North Chestnut Street



Author: Brian Patrick Dorr

William Dorr (age 17) was a fifer for the Roxbury Minutemen in the company of Captain Moses Whiting in the regiment of Colonel John Greaton under the command of General William Heath. His older brother Jonathan was a private in the same company. He marched on the alarm of 19 April 1775 and engaged the British Regulars between Lexington and present-day Arlington. Service of 13 days.

On 10 September 1775, William enlisted as a private in Captain Samuel Ward's company, 2nd Division, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Greene, for an expedition to Quebec under Colonel Benedict Arnold. Marched from Cambridge to Quebec. William and other expedition members kept a journal of the three-month trek through the wilderness.  

The Americans sieged the British Regulars at Quebec on 1 December 1775 and attacked on 31 December 1775. The doomed attack in a blizzard resulted in General Richard Montgomery being killed, Colonel Arnold wounded, and William "captured and held prisoner along with several hundred that same day."  William was confined in prison in the Recollects Monastery and later moved to the Dauphine Redoubt in Quebec (which still exists today).

While a prisoner on 1 January 1776, William was officially enlisted into the 3rd Massachusetts Regiment (also known as the 24th Continental Regiment) "in the company commanded by Captain Samuel Foster; in the regiment commanded by Colonel John Greaton." He was released from prison in August 1776, "returned by water to New York, and went afterward into the Jerseys and was freed."  

"About 10 October 1776, when because of health, having suffered much by fatigue and exposure, [William] was discharged from the service [by the Commander in Chief] at Kings Bridge, in the State of New York."

Other Dorr family facts & traditions:

  • William's father, Ebenezer Dorr II, was a member of the Roxbury Committee of Correspondence, a delegate at the Suffolk County Convention, which adopted the Suffolk Resolves (the first formal list of grievances against the Crown for violating rights of colonists), and a member of the Roxbury committee to establish, fund, equip, and train a militia.
  • William's older brother Ebenezer Dorr III is listed as a Son of Liberty in "An Alphabetical List of the Sons of Liberty who died at Liberty Tree, Dorchester," Colonel William Palfrey, 14 August 1769. Other notable names are Samual Adams, Captain William Heath, Paul Revere, and Dr. Joseph Warren (see Massachusetts Historical Society). Ebenezer III also rode the early morning of 19 April 1775 to alert the Minutemen.
  • William's 1st cousin 1x removed was Harbottle Dorr Jr., who opined and annotated in the margins on the contemporary events found in local newspapers between 1765 - 1776 (see Massachusetts Historical Society).
  • William named his firstborn son Richard Montgomery Dorr in honor of the general who fell at the Battle of Quebec.
  • William (age 16) participated in the Boston Tea Party.
  • William took his dog on Arnold's Expedition. The dog was reportedly eaten as the army was starving. Kept a small leg bone as a souvenir.

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