Captain Joseph Cheever

Joseph Cheever was born in Chelsea, Dec. 1752, according to the family Bible and his gravestone in Maiden. He married, April 23 (or 20, according to the Bible), 1774, Sarah Low, of Boston, who was born Aug. 24, 1754, and died March 20, 1841, aged 87.

From DAR Ancestor #: A021296:

CHEEVER, JOSEPH

• Ancestor #: A021296
• Service: MASSACHUSETTS Rank: LIEUTENANT
• Birth: 12-14-1752 CHELSEA SUFFOLK CO MASSACHUSETTS
• Death: 11-23-1830 MALDEN MIDDLESEX CO MASSACHUSETTS
• Pension Number: *S22747
• Service Source: *S 22747
• Service Description: 1) LT CAPT.SAMUEL SPRAGUE COL.SAMUEL GERRIS 2) CAPT.DODGE,COL.BALDWIN,CAPT.COL.JACOB
• Residence: Created: 2008-02-27 08:48:55.0, Updated: 2008-02-27 08:48:55.0, By: CLINKO 1) City: CHELSEA - County: SUFFOLK CO - State: MASSACHUSETTS
• Spouse Number Name Created: 2002-03-27 23:17:13.16, Updated: 2002-03-27 23:17:13.16, By: Conversion 1) SARAH LOW

  ---

From The Sons of the Revolution site:

"JOSEPH CHEEVER, Chelsea ..... 1752 - 1830

Sergeant, Capt. Sprague's Company, which marched at the Lexington alarm; service fifteen days; also First Lieutenant, same Company, Col. Gerrish's Regiment, May-Dec., 1775; commanded his Company at the battle of Bunker Hill; a bullet passed through his hat; also Capt. Barnabas Dodge's Company of same Regiment (Twenty-sixth); served in the campaign of 1776; was in the battles of White Plains and Trenton; in command of his Company until mustered out in 1777; commission as Captain, signed by John Hancock in 1793, now in Malden Public Library. ---- Arthur Prescott Holden."

From The New England historical and genealogical register, Volume 38 By Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, New England Historic Genealogical Society

30. Joseph* Cheever (Nathan* Nathan* Thomas' Ezelier), yeoman, born in Chelsea, Dec. 3, 1752; married in Boston, April 23, 1774, Sarah Low.f He was a lieutenant in Sprague's company of Col. Samuel Gerrish's regiment! in the Revolutionary War, and was a revolutionary pensioner. He removed from Chelsea to Maiden. His descendant, Mr. Deloraine P. Corey, gives this account of him: "Joseph Cheever was born in Chelsea, December 14, 1752, according to the record in the family bible and his gravestone in Maiden. He married, April 23 (or 20, according to the bible), 1774, Sarah Low, of Boston. She was born August 25, 1754, and died March 20, 1841, aged 87. He was present at the battle of Bunker Hill as a lieutenant in Capt. Samuel Sprague's company of Col. Gerrish's regiment, and is said to have commauded the company during the engagement, the captain having been wounded early in the battle. He continued in the service, in the same regiment, which was re-organized under Col. Loammi Baldwin, and although he received no higher commission than that of first lieutenant during the war, he commanded his company during the year 1776, and was present at the battle of Trenton with forty-three men. He received his commission§ as captain from Gov. Hancock in 1793."

Administration on the estate of Joseph Cheever, of Maiden, gentleman, was granted Feb. 15, 1831, to his son Jacob Cheever, of Maiden, cordwainer, Sarah, his widow, declining to administer. Their children, all born in Chelsea, were:

i. Sarah, b. June 16, 1775; m. in Cheleea, Feb. 19, 1795, William Oliver, Jr., and d. in Maiden, [Oct. 13, 1805],

ii. Betsey, b. Nov. 20, 1776; d. in Chelsea, Sept. 12, 1791.

iii. Nancy, b. Jan. 29, 1779; in. [May 31, 1798] Aaron Waite ;|| d. [Dec. 27,1852]. l

iv. Sukey, b. May 29, 1781; m. [Sept. 7, 1797] Andrew Waite ;| d. in Charlestown, Dec. 2, 1857.

T. Hannah, b. Nov. 5, 1782; m. [June 14, 18011 Thomas Waite:% d. [Nov. 22, 1858].

vi. Lucy, b. Nov. 30, 1784; m. [March 15, 1803] Samuel Shute, of Maiden; d. [Sept. 24, 1872].

• According to the Church Records the date of the marriage was Dec. 24, 1791.

t Sarah Lee in the Boston records of marriages, Sarah Love in the iutentiona of marriage, Sarah Loe in the original return of the marriage.

% Coat Roll, Secretary's Office, Boston; Proceedings Mass. Hist. Soc., 1876-7, page 86 • Frothingham's Siege of Boston, App. 402.

} This commission has been presented to the Trustees of the Public Library, Maiden. See Maiden City Press, Jan. 5, 1884.

|| Register, xxxii. 195-6.

It Register, xxvi. 102; xxxii. 195-6. [table]

vii. Polly, b. May 17, 1786: m. [Nov. 3, 1805] William Raymond, of

Charlestown; d. in Maiden [Aug. 11, 1853], viii. Patty, b. June 1. 1788; m. William Skinner, of Lynn; d. in Lynn, ix. Harriet, b. Oct. 13, 1789; d. [June 6, 1808]. x. Joseph, b. Jan. 21, 1792; m. in Chelsea, Oct. 8, 1815, Phoebe Crowell;

d. in Bedford, Mass., Sept. 17, 1879. Left issue, xi. Jacob, b. Nov. 8, 1794; m. [Dec. 13, 1818] Lydia Swcctser, of Saugus;

d. in Maiden [Jan. 11, 1876]. Left issue

From A documentary history of Chelsea: including the Boston precincts of ...By Jenny Chamberlain Watts, William Richard Cutter, Massachusetts Historical Society

See Boston Public Library Monthly Bulletin, v. No. 1, January, 1900, for A Letter from Jesse Lukens to John Shaw, Jr., Prospect Hill, September 13, 1775, giving an account of the Battle of June 17th.

But about eleven o'clock on the 17th, when the British forces were seen coming over to Charlestown, Gen. Ward ordered the regiments of Colonels Stark and Reed of New Hampshire to reinforce Colonel Prescott, and orders were also issued for the recall to Cambridge of the companies at Chelsea. (Frothingham, 129,132.) If this order was received and obeyed, then those companies doubtless endeavored to reach the scene of the expected conflict. At this point I am happy to have the guidance of Deloraine P. Corey, Esq., a high authority, who writes to me, as follows: "I do.not think the companies at Chelsea were withdrawn on the day of the battle, as it was important to guard that shore, and the Malden company, belonging to Gardners regiment, was posted at Beacham's Point, known as Wormwood, Beacham's, Sweetser's, and Van Voorhies Point, on the Malden side on that day, and remained there during the siege. A portion of Gerrish's regiment [to which Capt. Sprague's company belonged] marched from Cambridge under Capt. Thomas Mighill, but were met on the way by Adjutant Christian Fcbiger, who led that portion into the battle, and arrived on the hill in time to do service. I am certain that Sprague's company was one of those that went with Febiger. Sprague was incapacitated, either before or during the battle, and his company was led on the hill by his Lieutenant, Jos. Cheever, who received a ball through his hat. I have good reason to keep this in remembrance, for if the ball had been a little lower, I would have lost my great grandfather.

"Capt. Sprague and Lieut. Cheever were commissioned together in Baldwin's regiment, which, as you know, was the successor of Gerrish's, but Sprague never appears as a commander. The company was at Valley Forge, and in service during the campaign around New York and New Jersey, and the returns are always signed by Lieut. Cheever as commander, and I think he made the final returns when the company was discharged."

The losses in Gerrish's regiment were three killed and two wounded. June 23, Gerrish's regiment, among seven others, was ordered to encamp on the hill.

At this time Captain Sprague was sixty-three years old and hardly capable of rapid marching, or severe field service. Though he was in command of the company, and as late as October 2, 1775, made a return, which gives the names of the Chelsea men of his company, in the 38th Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Baldwin (Coat Bolls, Ivi. 258), Lieutenant Joseph Cheever was in active command. Nor does historic fidelity permit the suppression of the fact, that he was complained of by his sergeant for neglect of duty as follows:

To Lieut. Colo01 Baldwin, Esq.:

this is to inform you that I Dwo

Now Complain of Capt. Samuel Sprague, For not going the Rounds, Last Sabbath Day, Night, if this had Been the First time that he had Neglected his Duty, he would have Been Excused Very Easy, But he Neglects this Part of his Duty a great Part of his time, if you think that he is Excusable, I would Beg your Forgiveness For Complaining of him. this from your Friend & Servant,

Nathaniel Hills, Serjant. Chelsea, Novem'br. 21st, 1775. Vol. 59, No. 908, Baldwin's Regt.

But Capt. Sprague's patriotism, courage, and fidelity were too conspicuous to be called in question by his subordinate. Doubtless, he was an old man: too old for exacting service.