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: RI
Qualifying Service: Priivate
Birth: 1742 North Kingstown / Washington / RI Death: 19 Mar 1833 North Kingstown / / RI
U.S. Rev War Rolls, 1775-1783, Rhode Island 2nd Regiment, 1777-1780, 3rd Company of Foot under Capt William Humphry. Four months of duty
U.S. Rev War Rolls, 1775-1783 Crary’s Regiment, Rhode Island; U. S. Secretary of War letter acknowledging service (fold3.com image #14130716)
U.S. Rev War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900; Pension year 1818, Archive Publication Number M804, Archive Roll Number 2003
As of 30 Mar 21, Find-a-Grave has a memorial ID number listing Rathbun as an unknown burial
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
Author: Douglas Harold Nelson
Roger Rathbun was born into an old family from Rhode Island in 1741 in North Kingston, Washington County, Rhode Island, the son of Samuel Rathbun/Rathbone (1702-1786) and Abigail Eldridge Rathbun (1703-1773) also of North Kingston. He worked as a laborer. His father Samuel Rathbun left a Will proved February 1786 in North Kingston naming his son Roger Rathbun. His surname spelling includes Rathbun, Rathbone, and Rathburn.
At the age of 21, Roger enlisted in the French Indian War and served in Col. Rose’s Regiment in 1762 as recorded in the book “A List of Soldiers & Sailors in the Old French Indian Way, 1755-1762,” by Howard M. Chapin.
He married Mary Eldred/Elridge, daughter of Seth and Mary Eldred (SAR Patriot #P-333459) before January 25, 1764 and most likely in 1763 in North Kingston, Rhode Island. Roger and Mary’s first daughter (Mary) was born June 25, 1764. They were members of the Six Principles Baptist Church. There is also a recording of this family in The Rathbun-Rathbone-Rathburn Family Historian Biography Newsletter in Volume 2, Number 3, and Page 44.
As the conflict with Great Britain grew toward open revolution, the middle aged man of 41 years enlisted as a Private in Capt. William Humphry’s Company under Colonel Jeremiah Olney regiment in the Continental Army in the Rhode Island Line.
Rhode Island Tax List Census of 1774 lists Roger in North Kingston, Rhode Island. He again shows in the Rhode Island Census, 1740-1890, in the year 1782 still living in North Kingston. The 1790 and 1800 federal census also shows him living in North Kingston.
His wife Mary died November 2, 1805 at the age of 61. A year later he married his second wife Mary Card on October 23, 1806.
This military veteran applied for a Revolutionary War Pension on April 28, 1818 and his pension application was approved (Pension #8199) granting him $8 per month. He then applied for additional war pension money in 1820, at the age of 79, describing himself as “a laborer but is now so old he can do but little work and that he depends upon his pension for the support of family and his wife who is also old and infirm.” He signed this document with an X, his mark. Roger died at the age of 92 and left no Will or Deeds naming his children.
His son John T. Rathbone, from which this author descends, is shown in the 1850 federal census living with his son Norman Rathbone in Stephentown, Rensselaer, New York. John was born January 4, 1783. He traveled to Berlin, Rensselaer County, New York where he met and married Elizabeth Babcock on February 24, 1804.
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