Display Patriot - P-171621 - Benjamin GUILFORD/GILFORD
Benjamin GUILFORD/GILFORD
SAR Patriot #:
P-171621
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.
Birth: 1730 Salem / Essex / MA Death: 30 Jun 1796 Danvers / Essex / MA
Qualifying Service Description:
ALSO PVT; CAPTs PRINCE, LINDSAY, GALLUSHA
Additional References:
The battle of April 19, 1775 : in Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville, and Charlestown, MA by Coburn, Frank Warren, 1853-1923, pg 74 of part 2
MA SOLS & SAILS, Volume 6, pg 434
SAR Patriot Index Edition III (CD: PP2210, Progeny Publ, 2002) plus data to 2004
Benjamin was a Private in Captain Asa Prince's company of Minutemen who marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775 where he served two days. He enlisted again on May 17, 1775 and had service for two months and 14 days. He then joined Captain Eleazer Lindsey's company of men who took the Oaths of Allegiance in Middlesex County, Massachusetts on July 6, 1775. He served as a Sergeant in Captain Eleazer Lindsey's company, Col. Samuel Gerrish's regiment and served in Capt. Eleazer Lindsey's company commanded by Lieut. Daniel Gallusha, Col. Woodbridge's regiment. Benjamin also served in Capt. Daniel Gallusha's 10th company of Col. Ruggles Woodbridge's 25th regiment.
The Gilford (Guilford) family faith was the Church of England. His mother and father left Boston, Massachusetts for Maryland for religious reasons during the Salem Witch Trials and eventually moved back to the Casco Bay Colony of Massachusetts because they were largely of the Church of England. They then traveled back to Salem and located in Salem Village which was later called Danvers on account of the French Indian War. During these travels, their son and future patriot Benjamin Gilford, was born in 1730 and in Danvers.
His father's name was William Guilford and mother Mary Benjamin of Salem Village. Patriot Benjamin married Lydia Sarah Goodale, also of Salem, on March 17, 1755. At the age of 45, he answered the Alarm that started the Revolutionary War of April 19, 1775. His first child Moses was born a year after the alarm on 25 Apr 1756. He signed a receipt for advance pay on August 3, 1775. And, there is an order for a bounty coat or its equivalent in money dated December 22, 1775.
As the disputes with the mother country worsened, the colonist began to arm the local militia and form special Alarm Companies of Minutemen who could turn out fully armed and equipped in a moment's notice. They were clothed in hunting frocks much the same way as they would be for hunting or shooting activity and showed early on they were not to be despised in skirmishes with the British. Whether among these bold few who aligned on Lexington Common or those at Bunker Hill and elsewhere, Benjamin the Minuteman was resolute determined to see liberty and freedom for his children.
His wife Lydia Goodale was born 10 Oct 1736 at Salem and died 1832 at Danvers. Benjamin died at the age of 66 in Danvers on June 30, 1796 and his wife Lydia lived to a ripe old age of 96 dying in 1832 in Danvers. Benjamin and Lydia had ten children all born in Danvers. The author of this biography descends through Benjamin’s son Levi who married Sarah Marston on 05 Jan 1797 in Danvers, Massachusetts.
Send a biographical sketch of your patriot!
Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.
Additional guidelines around the Biography writeup can be found here:
Send your submission1, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space 1Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.