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: 08 May 1724 Newbury / Essex / MA Death: 27 May 1798 Newbury / Essex / MA
Qualifying Service Description:
Captain of a Company of the minute men which marched in the Alarm of april 19, 1775 to cambridge, they served five days
A petition to the committee of Safety, dated at Cambridge, Mass, May 27, 1775, was signed by seven captains, and stated that theyhad chosen Moses Little , colonel and Lsaac Smith Lt colonel and requested that hese men be commissioned
Officer of the day when General washington took command oof the Army on July 3, 1775 (Shown in general order of July 2,1775)
Colonel of the 17th Mass, regiment from May to Dec 1775, from Jan 1, 1776 to Dec 31, 1776 he was Colonel of the 12th Regiment of the Continental Infantry
Battles of Lexington, Bunker HIll, Long Island and Harlem Heights
Additional References:
1st-11th Annual Reports DAR. Senate documents (United States Congress, Senate). Government Printing Office: Washington, DC
Osprey Publishing, "Trenton And Princeton 1776-77" Washington Cossing the Delaware, Copyright 2009, pg 21 - 23
Moses Little III was born on May 8, 1724 in Newbury, Essex County, Massachusetts. He was the son of Moses Little, Jr. and Sarah (Jaques) Little. In 1730 the family moved to their property in Turkey Hill. He was a surveyor for several years, and obtained grants of unoccupied crown lands lying within the present limits of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. He married in 1743 to Abigail, daughter of Joshua and Sarah (Coffin) Bailey of Newbury, Mass. They had at least seven children, perhaps as many as eleven: Michael (1746-1746), Josiah (1747-1830), Abigail Bayley (1749-1838), Lydia Atkinson (1751-1820), Elizabeth Wigglesworth (1754-1792), Anne (1757-1775), and Moses (1767-1857).
At the very start of the American Revolution, he was captain of a company of Minutemen from Newbury, and marched on April 19, 1775 to Cambridge and onto the battles of Lexington and Concord. On June 15, 1775, he was appointed colonel of the newly formed 12th Continental Regiment and led that regiment at the Battle of Bunker Hill. At the battle of Bunker Hill, he led three of his companies across Charlestown Neck under a severe fire from the British batteries and ships of war, reached the scene of action before the first charge of the enemy, and remained throughout the engagement. After the evacuation of Boston, he was present with Washington's army on Long Island, where he commanded Fort Greene, and was stationed at Flatbush Pass during the battle on August 27, 1776. He also took part in the battle at Harlem Heights, but did not accompany his men in the retreat through New Jersey because he was placed in command of an encampment at Peekskill, New York during the winter. In the spring of 1777, he was forced to return home on account of ill health and family business. In 1779, he declined the commission of brigadier-general and the command of an expedition raised by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to dislodge the British on the Penobscot.
He served in the general court of Massachusetts before and after the Revolution. On May 27, 1798 he passed away at the age of seventy-four. He is buried at Sawyer Hill Burying Ground in Newburyport, Essex County, Massachusetts. The town of Littleton, New Hampshire was named in his honor.
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All Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, Volume 9, page 870
The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume VI, Biographical Society, Boston, MA, 1904.
History of Newbury, Mass., 1635-1902, John J. Currier, University of Massachusetts/Amherst Library, 1902.
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