Asa Seignor Beebe, Sr.

• Residence: Winhall, Bennington, Vermont, USA - 1810
  • Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: May 9 2017, 11:42:11 UTC

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• Religion: Episcopal
• Census: living with son Asa - Mexico, Oswego, New York, USA
• Residence: Winhall, Bennington, Vermont, USA - 1810
• Residence: Winhall, Bennington County, Vermont, United States - 1810
  • Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Mar 21 2021, 12:25:47 UTC

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GEDCOM Note

Asa was educated at Yale University, graduating 1759.  He thereby was certainly one of the earlier, better educated among our ancestors.
He studied theology and also medicine, and settled in his native township as a physician. He was also employed from 1766 to 1774 as lay reader to the Episcopal families in the village of Millington, in the same town, and to those of Middle Haddam, in a neighboring town.  

On the other hand, he was initially a Tory and paid for his misjudgment: Asa Beebe, a member of the class of 1759, had deep family roots in East Haddam, Connecticut. Although he also studied theology, he made the medical arts his profession. He practiced medicine in his hometown, but also served as a lay reader in the Anglican churches of Millington and Middle Haddam. When dissent against the king's government grew, Beebe became an outspoken supporter of Great Britain. In September of 1774, the local Sons of Liberty seized the good doctor and applied their own form of medicine to rid the colony of the loyalist contagion -- a good dose of tar and feathers [in September 1774]. Beebe's name drops from the public records after his public humiliation, and it was assumed that he "went to the British Provinces." Which, of course, we know he didn't, instead sticking around to sire seven more children, including his son Paphiras.

Although once tarred and feathered as a Tory, [Asa] was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was a member of the Vermont Governor's Colonial Council in 1796 and served as town Clerk of Winhall, VT, for 25 years. .... Virkus: "First Families", Volume IV, 1930, page 142: Asa (1730-1813), Winhdall [Winhall], VT. Sold cattle for Army during American Revolution. Whether he converted to the cause out of expediency or true belief, we do not know.  In any case, the Daughters of the American Revolution have authenticated him, describing him as having "furnished supplies for Army."

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Mar 25 2021, 20:36:21 UTC

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Ancestor #: A008447

Service Source: CT ARCH: REV WAR, 1ST SER, VOL 24, FHL #3557, PP 186, 187