Daniel Holloway was born in 1755.

He served as a Private in Major James Keith’s Company of Colonel Michael Jackson’s 8th Massachusetts Line Regiment of the Continental Army. Daniel enlisted on 28 June 1780 for six months and was discharged on 6 December 1780. One muster roll for Daniel shows the locations of others in his unit at Dobbs Ferry and Fishkill, New York.¹ Also, the service summary for his regimental commander, Colonel Jackson, shows that he was encamped at Totowa Heights, New Jersey, or “Camp at Totway” during his term of service.² At this time, a large encampment of General George Washington and his Continental Army is shown at Totowa in July, and from October to November 1780.³ No major battles or engagements are noted for Daniel’s unit during this time.

Unusual ambiguity in one’s personal life was typical during the War, and before Daniel’s enlistment with the Continental Army, he served as a soldier in the British Army and came to America with British Major General John Burgoyne’s Army during the Revolutionary War.⁴

Based on town sketch history documents, after a year with Major-General Burgoyne’s army, he was taken prisoner by American forces, part of a prisoner exchange, released and later joined American forces.⁵ Aligning this local history remembrance with the locations of Major-General Burgoyne during this period of the Revolutionary War, Daniel was taken prisoner after the British defeat at The Battles of Saratoga in October 1777, and as such, was part of the “Convention Army” that included captured British troops who were marched to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and were encamped there for one year. During this year, about 1,300 prisoners escaped, and this often was because they became involved with local women while working on farms in the area.⁶ Daniel’s personal journey is a mixture of these known facts. 

The open question has been “how” Daniel, a former British soldier who surrendered in upstate New York, later joined the Continental Army and met and married Chloe/Maria Bates (with the other recorded first names of Mariah and Kezia) of central Massachusetts? The clues provided from the history of the Convention Army help to round out the narrative.⁷ Daniel was discharged from his service in Colonel Michael Jackson’s Regiment on 6 December 1780.

Daniel and Chloe Bates married several days later, on 28 December 1780,⁸ and their first child, Lydia Holloway, was born about 2 March 1781.⁹ Based on daughter Lydia’s birth date (calculated via gravestone inscription of death and time lived information), it appears that Chloe Bates was about six months pregnant on the date of her marriage to Daniel. 

He appears to fit the narrative of a prisoner of War, loaned out to a local farm in need of scarce labor, becoming romantically involved with a local young woman, who becomes pregnant, and he is prompted to join the Continental Army by her family to gain respect and perhaps meager pay to begin their new family. As Chloe Bates’ father, Samuel Bates was a Lieutenant in the Continental Army from Massachusetts during the War, he most likely helped to facilitate an unusual remedy to Daniel’s and his daughter Chloe’s not-to-unusual predicament. The Bates family may have been slightly accommodating to Daniel’s previous ties as a former enemy in the British Army, as Chloe’s grandfather, George Bates, was born in England. 

The narrative of Chloe Bates being six months pregnant at the time of her marriage on 28 December 1780 is shown by the calculation of her daughter Lydia Holloway’s birth from Lydia’s gravestone inscription, where her death is shown on 2 July 1858 at 77 years and four months, and this equates to an approximate birth date of 2 March 1781. The unsourced History of North Brookfield, Massachusetts document shows Lydia (Holloway) Potter’s death date as 2 July 1860.¹⁰ Given the two conflicting sources, the gravestone inscription is closer to being a vital record than a town history document, where the date of 1860 could be a mistake or a form of generous subterfuge by her descendants to hide the then-uncomfortable secret of a not uncommon marriage during pregnancy.   

Continuing with Daniel’s family story, shortly after his discharge from the Continental Army, Daniel Holloway married Chloe Bates on 28 December 1780 at Brimfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts.¹¹ Chloe was also born in Brimfield and was the daughter of Samuel and Eunice (Sherman) Bates.¹² The known children of Daniel and Chloe are:
•    Lydia was born in 1781 and married John Potter
•    Marcia or Marsha was born in 1785 and married Asahel Gillett
•    Samuel was born in 1786 and married Lucy Baker
•    Charles was born in 1795 and married Chloe Woodruff
•    A fifth child is mentioned, but without a name¹³

Daniel is mentioned as an early pioneer of the area, and his occupation is shown as “clothier,” as he owned a cloth mill in Stowell Corners, a hamlet in the town of Hounsfield, Jefferson County, New York.¹⁴ The US Census shows Daniel as the head of a family living in Stafford, Tolland County, Connecticut, in 1790. New York Tax Records from 1799 show him living in Litchfield, Herkimer County, New York, and similar records from 1800 show him living in Canandaigua, Ontario County, New York. Then, Daniel is shown in the 1810 US Census for Hounsfield, Jefferson County, New York. Daniel’s migration pattern at this time is similar to that of other pioneer families in the region. 

Thus, sometime before 1810, Daniel and his wife, Chloe, sometimes referred to as “Mariah,”¹⁵ came to Jefferson County, New York, to settle near other relatives of Chloe’s, who were early Jefferson County pioneers. They included her father, Samuel Bates Sr., and brother, Samuel Jr.¹⁶ Chloe is listed in the probate documents of her father, Samuel Bates Sr., who died in nearby Lewis County, New York, in 1820. The wording of the documents makes one assume that Chloe pre-deceased him as the “heirs” of Chloe are mentioned, but this is not definitive.¹⁷

Daniel’s sons Samuel and Charles would both serve during the War of 1812. Samuel served as a Private in Captain Elisha Camp's Company of New York 6th Artillery Militia Regiment and was engaged at the First Battle of Sackets Harbor on 19 July 1812, which was the first American victory of the War.¹⁸ The rank and role of Charles during the War of 1812 is unknown.¹⁹ During the American Civil War, five of Daniel’s 33 grandchildren would serve in the Union Army, with one dying in service; three of Daniel’s great-grandchildren would also serve. 

The Patriot died on 29 November 1837 at Hounsfield, Jefferson County, New York, and is interred at Sulphur Springs Cemetery at Hounsfield.²⁰ Buried with him is his wife, whose name appears as “Chloe Mariah Keziah (Bates) Holloway” on her record of memorial because her name evolved numerous times over the decades.²¹ Chloe’s inscription on her gravestone and cemetery record states, “HOLLOWAY, KEZIAH (BATES) WF DANIEL NO DATA OR STONE - SUL SPRS;”²² other fragmented documents of her life show her name evolution to “Keziah” and if his wife buried with him is “Kezia Bates,” then it could mean he married a sister of Chloe, named Keziah, but that Keziah is accounted for in a marriage to someone else. Of course, there is an undocumented possibility that Daniel married three times. 

Sources

1. U.S., Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783, shows a muster roll for Major Keith’s Company of Col. Michael Jackson’s regiment and lists Daniel Holloway in the remarks column next to some of the soldiers it shows their locations of Dobbs Ferry [NY] and Fishkill [NY]. 
2. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War, Michael Jackson service summary, page 681, it shows that during Daniel Holloway’s term of service that Col. Jackson was located at “Camp at Totoway” on 15 October 1780. 
3. Revolutionary War New Jersey, Revolutionary War Sites in Totowa, New Jersey, American Encampment Site Sign, July, October and November 1780. 
4. Child, Hamilton, Geographical Gazetteer of Jefferson County, New York, 1685-1890, 1890, page 507.
5. Emerson, Edgar C., Our County, and Its People. A Descriptive Work on Jefferson County, New York: self-published, 1898. Part III, page 250.
6. Ferling, John E., Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence, 2007. 
7. Ibid. 
8. Massachusetts, Marriages, 1633-1850, via Ancestry.com.
9. Find A Grave Memorial 65187765, Chloe Mariah Keziah (Bates) Holloway.
10. Temple, J.H., History of North Brookfield, Massachusetts, 1887, page 710. 
11. Massachusetts, Marriages, 1633-1850, via Ancestry.com, ibid. 
12. Massachusetts, Town, and Vital Records, 1620-1988, via Ancestry.com.
13. Geographical Gazetteer of Jefferson County, ibid.
14. Ibid. 
15. Ibid. 
16. Jefferson County, New York Pioneers, Jefferson County, NY, GenWeb Project, “Pioneer Samuel Bates Family.”
17. Jefferson County, New York Pioneers, ibid. 
18. Jefferson County, NY, GenWeb Project, Battle of Sackets Harbor Roster for Captain Elisha Camp’s Company, War of 1812. 
19. Our County and Its People. A Descriptive Work on Jefferson County, ibid, page 201.
20. Find A Grave Memorial 65187668, Daniel Holloway. 
21. Find A Grave Memorial 65187765, Chloe Mariah Keziah (Bates) Holloway
22. Jefferson County, NY GenWeb Project, Hounsfield Cemeteries, Bartletts Project.