Captain Jedediah Edgerton

A Patriot of the American Revolution for CONNECTICUT - VERMONT with the rank of PRIVATE. DAR Ancestor # A036126

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~edgerton/Jedediah1759.htm

Jedediah Edgerton served in the Connecticut Militia during the Revolution, and, like his father, advanced to the rank of Captain. He was later placed on the pension rolls of Rutland County, Vermont for his Revolutionary Service and was listed in the DAR Patriot Index. Following the War, Jedediah was a Captain of the Pawlet Militia, leading the infantry company. He was later succeeded in this position by his younger brother, Simeon Edgerton Jr.

Leaves from the Edgerton Family Tree (Chauncey T. Edgerton, comp.) provides the following description of Jedediah’s Revolutionary War service:

“In 1776 he [Jedediah] was living in Hebron, Conn. As a member of the militia he was called into service with the Revolutionary troops four times: The first time in August, 1776. He served around White Plains of New Rochelle for two or three months and was then released. The second time was in August or September, 1777, for duty at New London, Conn. He served about six months. In the fall of 1780 he was called out for the third time, together with his brother Jacob, for garrison duty at Castleton, Vermont. Jacob was released after two weeks; Jedediah served for two months more. He may have volunteered for this duty. In the spring of 1781, the family moved to Pawlet, Vermont. In that year both brothers were again called for service at Castleton. Jedediah again served for about two months. During that time he is believed to have done some duty at Fort Ann.”

Jedediah and Lucy Edgerton were original members of the First Congregational Church of Pawlet, having been received into the Church on December 8, 1787. Their four eldest children (sons Jedediah, Jacob, Curtis and Joshua) were baptized together at the Pawlet Church on August 3, 1788. The remaining children were also baptized at the Pawlet Church, each shortly after their respective births. In 1793, Jedediah Edgerton was listed among the members of the Church who signed a subsciption (“Dated at Pawlett, June 4th, 1793”) to engage the Rev. John Griswold as pastor. Jedediah Edgerton was listed with a subscription of 3 pounds. The total subsriptions (at 152 pounds, 19 shillings, 9 ducats) were to be paid “one half on the first day of January next, and the other in one yeare from the first payment, to paid in neet cattle, or wheat and Indian corn.”

About 1803, Jedediah left Pawlet and removed to Moriah, in Essex County, New York, where he was active in town politics and a deacon of the Congregational Church. Jedediah’s father, Simeon, had previously (November 11, 1779) bought land in nearby Crown Point, which he deeded to Jedediah in 1808. Jedediah later passed on this property to his younger brother, Simeon Edgerton II.

Hiel Hollister’s Pawlet for One Hundred Years (1867, pg. 184-5), gives the following biographical account of Jedediah Edgerton:

“EDGERTON, Capt. JEDEDIAH, settled on the Silas Reed farm. Thence, in 1803, removed to Moriah, N.Y., and was deacon of the Congregational church in that place. He raised a numerous family, none of whom settled in this town. Losing his wife, he married the widow of Enos Clark, of Middletown, and lived in that town until her death. In extreme old age, he went to live with his son, Dr. Joshua Edgerton, in western New York, where he closed his exemplary life in 1848, aged 86. His son, John L. Edgerton, is well and widely known as a teacher and lecturer on natural science. One of his grandsons, William U., was a physician in Caldwell, N.Y., where he died in early life. Another grandson, Joseph R., was in the 38th congress from Indiana.”

• Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via son Curtis Edgerton by SmartCopy: Nov 29 2014, 23:13:58 UTC