Display Patriot - P-346811 - James WIMPENNY

James WIMPENNY

SAR Patriot #: P-346811

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: MA      Qualifying Service: Seaman

Birth: 1753 Chilmark / Dukes / MA
Death: 28 Dec 1778 Plymouth Harbor / Plymouth / MA

Qualifying Service Description:

Served on Massachusetts Privateer Brigantine "General Aronld", Capt James Magee


Additional References:
  1. History of Martha's Vineyard
    • Volume 1, by Charles Edward Banks, M.D, 1911, pg 409-410
    • Volume 3, by Charles Edward Banks, M.D, pg 512

Spouse: Eve XX;
Children: Mary;
Members Who Share This Ancestor
None*


*This means that the NSSAR has no applications for this Patriot on file.
Instead the information provided is best effort, and from volunteers who have either researched grave sites, service records, or something similar.
There is no documentation available at NSSAR HQ to order.


Burial:
Burial Hill (C-0072520)
Location:
Plymouth / Plymouth / MA / USA
Find A Grave Cemetery #:
310849
Grave Plot #:
Grave GPS Coordinates:
41.955492 / -70.666760
Find A Grave Memorial #:
n/a
Marker Type:
Old SAR
SAR Grave Dedication Date:

Comments:
  • Image taken and provided with permission of David Schafer (MA) member 159256
  • per FInd-a-Grave #19249514, the memorial is "in memory of seventy two Seamen who perished in Plymouth Harbor on 26 & 27 of Dec 1778 on borad the private armied Grig Gen Arnold"


Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
  • The grave site of Captain James Magee and sixty crew members of the "General Arnold" is located in the Eastern corner of Burial Hill Cemetery\
  • The closest cemetery entrance is located at the corner of the S. Russell Street parking lot
  • Enter the cemetery from the gate at the southern portion of the parking lot
  • The white marble obelisk is along the slope south of the parking area


Author: David Crandall Schafer

James Wimpenny was born in 1753 at Chilmark, Dukes County, Massachusetts, the son of William and Hannah (Clark) Wimpenny. He was the third child of five born to his parents; his siblings were Judith, Thankful, William, and Robert.1

The various town records of Martha’s Vineyard were compiled in The History of Martha’s Vineyard, Volume 3, and published by the Dukes County Historical Society in 1966. The history of the family of William and Hannah (Clark) Wimpenny reports their son James probably married Eve [surname unknown], who was a widow in 1790 and died on 18 January 1819. 

It is possible Eva was the mother of Mary, who married Timothy Ruggles of Rochester, Massachusetts. Their intentions were posted on 2 October 1813. The 1840 census for Tisbury, Dukes County, Massachusetts, lists Mary Ruggles, age 60-70, as the sole household member. The 1850 census of Tisbury again lists Mary Ruggles, age 74, birthplace Chilmark, Massachusetts. The 1853 death register of the Town of Tisbury reports Mary Ruggles, the birthplace of Edgartown and widow of Timothy Ruggles, died at age 84 at Tisbury on 22 July 1853.

Privateering was a long-established practice during wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, enabling privately held vessels to be granted letters of Marque to legalize their pursuit and capture of enemy vessels, cargo, and crew. On 1 November 1775, Massachusetts passed “An Act, for Encouraging the Fixing out of Armed Vessels, to defend the Sea Coast of America, and for the Erecting a Court to Try and Condemn all Vessels, that shall be found infesting the same.” It is estimated that more than two thousand American vessels engaged in privateering during the Revolutionary War, with about 600 commissioned by the Massachusetts General Court. Significant risk for success and tragedy followed privateering owners and their crews.

One of the greatest tragedies occurred aboard the Brigantine “General Arnold,” commissioned as a privateer on 11 May 1778 and mounting twenty cannon and a crew of 120 seamen commanded by Captain James Magee. Around noon on 24 December 1778, the “General Arnold” sailed from Boston with the vessel “Revenge” destined for the Carolinas. While in the midst of Massachusetts Bay, a mounting Nor eastern gale prompted Captain Magee to seek the safety of Plymouth Harbor. As described by seaman Cornelius Marchant, “the Gale continued to Increase, the brig dragged her Anchor and drifted on to Brown’s Shoal now so-called, where she bilged, but on account of the severity of the weather we could obtain no relief from the shore until the twenty-ninth when seventy-four of the Crew had perished, (due to hypothermia), heaped one upon another in almost every form; after being landed nine more died.”2 Of those lost, nine were reported to have been sons of Martha’s Vineyard, including James Wimpenny.3

Sources:

  1. The History of Martha’s Vineyard, Volume 3, pages 511-512.
  2. The History of Martha’s Vineyard, Volume 1, pages 409-410.
  3. Ibid, Volume 3, page 512.

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