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: VT
Qualifying Service: Patriotic Service / Civil Service
Author: Alan David Wilcox
Silas Hamilton was born in Brookfield, Worcester County, Massachusetts on 21 Feb 1735-6. He was the son of Lieutenant John Hamilton and Mary Wheeler, who had a number of other children: Reuben, John, Levi, Hannah, Mary, Marcy, and John.
Silas was a captain of militia in the French and Indian war (1754-1763), and participated in the ill-fated bloody attack on Ticonderoga, 8 Jul 1758.
We know from the History of Deerfield, Massachusetts, that Silas was a felt maker. In 1760, when he was about 24, he bought a half-acre lot from the Sequestered Land east of the Hitchcock house where he set up his shop.
When he was about 28, Silas married Hannah Hoyt on 22 Jul 1763 in Deerfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts. Hannah was born 06 Sep 1744 in Deerfield, and was almost 19 at the time. She was the daughter of David Hoyt and Mercy Sheldon. During their lives, they had children: Hannah, John, Persis, Mary, Mercy, Hoyt, Amos, and Silas. Persis died in 1775 at about four, and six years later they named another daughter Persis; similarly, Silas died in 1775 before he reached one year, and the next son was named Silas in his honor. Both Persis and Silas died within one week of each other, likely because of smallpox or some other disease at that time.
By 1768, Silas had a farm of 200 acres in Wisdom, which was north of the John Hawks farm. Seven years later, in 1775, Silas and Hannah moved to Wilmington, Vermont, and then to nearby Whitingham. He signed the Association Test around this time. He appears to have become a justice of the peace, and was the first representative from Whitingham to the Vermont Legislature in 1778. He was then a selectman and town treasurer from 1779-1790.
He was engaged in Shays Rebellion, arrested and tried in 1787; he was convicted of “Stirring up Sedition” and sentenced “to stand one hour in the pillory and be publickly whipped on the naked back with twenty stripes.” He was later pardoned.
Silas and his family moved to Oxford, New York, where he died 07 Aug 1816; he was buried in nearby Guilford, Chenango County, New York. Hannah, who died 09 May 1842, is also buried in the same Guilford Center Cemetery.
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