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: NH
Qualifying Service: Sargeant / Patriotic Service
I-89 to US-4 to Canaan Street, cemetery is on the south side of the street near Follansbee Road
Headstone is located in the western half of the cemetery a few rows back from the first two trees on right side of the main path in front of garage
Author: Dr. Barry Paul Lewis Jr
Ezekiel Wells was born in Colchester, Connecticut, on 8 July 1748.
Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, he left his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, and joined Colonel John Stark’s newly formed regiment in Captain Samuel Richards’s Company on 23 April 1775. He fought with Stark’s Regiment at the Battle of Bunker Hill and ended his service on 1 August 1775.
By 1 July 1776, Ezekiel lived in Canaan, New Hampshire, where he signed the Association Test. On 20 August 1776, he mustered with Captain Samuel Wetherbee’s Company, Colonel Isaac Wyman’s Regiment, which was sent to reinforce the Continental Army in Canada.
During the Burgoyne campaign, Ezekiel served as a sergeant in Colonel Jonathan Chase’s Regiment of New Hampshire Militia from 7 May to 16 June 1777 and responded to the alarms before the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga. He later served as a sergeant in Captain Joshua Hendee’s Company, Colonel David Hobart’s Regiment of New Hampshire Militia from 23 July to 26 September 1777, which participated in the Battle of Bennington on 16 August 1777.
On 29 September 1779, he was recruited from among the militia units and mustered for two months of service at Fort Washington on Peirce’s Island and Fort Sullivan on Seavey’s Island in defense of Portsmouth Harbor.
Ezekiel married Phebe Meacham on 25 November 1779 in Canaan, New Hampshire. Their known children are
Ezekiel Jr. was born in 1780 and married Polly Colby.
Phebe was born in 1782 and married Jacob Dow.
Sally was born in 1794 and married William Rogers.
Hannah was born in 1796 and married Chellis Goodwin.
Betsey Pierce was born in 1802 and died young.
Following the war, Ezekiel and his wife and children lived in Canaan, where he died on 7 December 1818, aged 70 years. He was buried in Wells Cemetery there.
Sources:
Batchellor, Albert Stillman, ed., New Hampshire State Papers, vol. 30, Miscellaneous Revolutionary Documents of New Hampshire Including the Association Test, the Pension Rolls, and Other Important Papers, New Hampshire. Manchester: The John B. Clarke Co., 1910), pages 22–23.
Hammond, Isaac W., ed., New Hampshire State Papers, vol. 14, Rolls of the Soldiers in the Revolutionary War, 1775, to May, 1777: With an Appendix, Embracing Diaries of Lieut. Jonathan Burton, New Hampshire. Concord: Parsons B. Cogswell, 1885, pages 39–40, 56 (no. 41), pages 183–184, 325.
Hammond, Isaac W., ed., New Hampshire State Papers, vol. 15, Rolls of the Soldiers in the Revolutionary War, May, 1777, to 1780: With an Appendix, Embracing Names of New Hampshire Men in Massachusetts Regiments (Concord, NH: Parsons B. Cogswell, State Printer, 1886), 1, 15, 138–140, 155, 692, 698.
Hammond, Isaac W., ed., New Hampshire State Papers, vol. 17, Part 1: Rolls and Documents Relating to Soldiers in the Revolutionary War, Part 2: Miscellaneous Provincial Papers, from 1629 to 1725, New Hampshire. Manchester: John B. Clarke, 1889, page 143.
[Phebe Wells, widow of Ezekiel Wells, certificate of pension W.15862], 14 February 1837, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives, Washington, D.C., reproduced in Ancestry.com, U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800–1900 [database online] (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2010).
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Comment: The subject as a Revolutionary soldier at Canaan, CT would certainly have been personally acquainted with Ethan Allen, investor, land speculator and New England militia commander for the Green Mountain Boys. (The New Hampshire Grants -were partly the cause of the the formation of Canaan, CT, into present, New Hampshire)