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.
Author: Stephen Renouf
Silas Morton was born on July 10, 1752 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the son of Silas and Martha Morton. Silas served as a Minuteman in a militia company from Plymouth, Massachusetts, at the siege of Boston, 1775-1776. On January 1, 1777, Silas was commissioned as a lieutenant in the First Massachusetts Regiment, commanded by Colonel John Bailey. Silas served in New Jersey as an orderly carrying dispatches for General George Washington. He served in Washington’s Army at Valley Forge. On July 16, 1779, he was present at the capture of Stony Point. He was at West Point at the time of Benedict Arnold’s treason, and he witnessed the execution of Major John André. In 1781, Silas was a lieutenant in the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment under Major Hugh Maxwell. Silas was at the siege of Yorktown, and received from the hand of the Marquis de Lafayette one of the dress swords captured from the British, which by an act of Congress were divided between the Americans and French for distinguished service at the siege of Yorktown. The sword was later given to the Smithsonian Institute. Silas was Adjutant of the Light Infantry when the British evacuated New York in November 1783. He was a brevet captain, and was a member of the Massachusetts Scoiety of the Cincinnati. After the Revolution, Silas Morton married Elizabeth Foster on January 5, 1792 in Kingston, Massachusetts. On July 12, 1828, Silas Morton was placed on the pension roll in Massachusetts at a rate of $320 per year. Silas Morton died on March 25, 1840 in Pembroke, 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.