Author: Jerry Ray Sayre
David Sayre was born 30 May 1736 on the family farm near Elizabethtown, Essex County. NJ. He was the 1st son of Daniel and Rebecca (Bond) Sayre. David was the great grandson of Thomas Sayre who was one of the founders of Southampton, NY in 1640.

David grew to manhood in Elizabethtown (later just Elizabeth), NJ and there he met and married Hanna Frazier, the 6th of 9 children and daughter of Ephraim and Rebeccah (Cutter) Frazier/Frazee. (source: “Sayre Family Genealogy” by T. M. Banta, 1901)

When the War came, David served in the Essex County, New Jersey Militia under Captain Richard Townly. (New Jersey Archives Docs # 243, 256, Trenton, NJ)

In July of 1776, New Jersey had to muster a militia unit of 2000 men that consisted of four battalions made up of thirty companies of sixty-four men each. Essex County furnished three companies led by Colonel Edward Thomas with the Essex men belonging to the first brigade. The Essex County militia was ordered to the northeast side of the Raritan River and later fought at the battles of Three Rivers, Van Nest’s Mills, Long Island, Trenton (1776), Assumpink, Princeton, Germantown (1777), Monmouth, Quinton’s Bridge, Hancock’s Bridge (1778), Connecticut Farms and Springfield (1780). (Source: William H. Shaw. History of Essex and Hudson Counties, New Jersey (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Everts and Peck, 1884)

After the Revolution, David Sayre took his family consisting of a wife and 11 children, first to Pennsylvania, then to what is now West Virginia, and finally across the river into Miegs County, OH where he passed from this life on 11 Jul 1825 in LaTart Falls. I have photos of his headstone and D.A.R. marker.

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: Patriot Biography Do's and Don'ts

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.