Captain Nathan Caswell, II

MILITARY:

"In the Revolution he served in:

Capt Young's Co, Bedel's Regt Feb to June 1776;

Capt Jeremiah Eames Co of Scouts July 1776 to Apr 1777;

Capt Richardson's Co, Bedel's Regt 11 mos, 22 days beginning in Apr 1778;

July 10 1779 chosen captain for the defence of the northern frontier" [LTHp115]

Title: [LTH]History of Littleton

Abbrev: [LTH]History of Littleton

Note:

NH, Vol. III - Genealogy, James R. Jackson, Ed., Genealogy compiled by George C. Furber; Cambridge, Mass.: University Press, 1896,1905

Page: p.115

After his marriage to Hannah Bingham, he lived in Hebron, Connecticut, and in Orford from 1765 to 1770.

In the Revolution he served in Captain Young's Co. Bedel's Regiment from February to June 1776; in Captain Jeremiah Eames' Co. of Scouts from July 1776 to April 1777; in Captain Richardson's Co. Bedel's Regiment, 11 months and 22 days, beginning in April 1778.

On July 10, 1779 he was chosen as captain for the defence of the northern frontier; town clerk, 1788, 1791; selectman, 1788 to 1791 inclusive; moderator, 1790, 1791; treasurer, 1791. He moved in 1803 to Canada and died and Compton, Province of Quebec in 1824.

source: History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Edited by James R. Jackson, Volume III, 1905, page 115.

EARLY SETTLEMENT

The original grantees of Chiswick were most of Groton, Conn. Of the forty-five, twelve were Averys and a majority of the others were their uncles and cousins. The charter seemed to have been a family affair, with James Avery as principal manager. This James Avery was a man of some importance in his day. He was interested in the charters of Landaff and other towns in Grafton county, "for speculative purposes only." His method was to associate a sufficient number of his relatives to secure the charter from Gov. Wentworth, paying the small fee required therefor, and then to dispose of the charter either to those who proposed to become actual settlers or to another set of speculators. None of them ever settled within the limits of the territory covered by the charters, on the backs of which their names appeared.

Of the grantees of Apthorp, COL. MOSES LITTLE, of Newbury, Mass., was the leading spirit. He was a man of high character and of great executive capacity. He had acquired a landed interest in New Hampshire and was the owner of many thousand acres in Maine and Vermont. He commanded a regiment at the battle of Bunker Hill and acquired a reputation for bravery and skill as an officer. Advancing age and failing health compelled him to withdraw from the army before the close of the war, but he continued to serve his county in many ways.

Of his associates, COL. ISRAEL MOREY, of Orford, was for a time the most active in the township. He was a man of affairs, and for many years one of the most prominent in the Upper Connecticut valley. About the time the charter of Chiswick was issued, Col. Morey emigrated from Hebron, Conn. to Orford, N.H. He was accompanied among others by a man who was destined to become the first settler of Littleton. NATHAN CASWELL was at that time a little past his majority, short of stature, of sanguine temperament, and undoubted courage. He was well fitted physically and mentally to endure the hardships and privations incident to frontier life. Mr. Caswell was born in New London Connecticut in 1740. When quite young, he was apprenticed to a tailor, with whom he served his time, and was married to Hannah Bingham when about twenty years of age. He lived at Hebron, Conn., for a short time before coming to New Hampshire. When Col. Morey became interested with the Littles in Apthorp, he induced Caswell to make the first settlement in the town. In April 1770, Caswell broke up his home in Orford, and, accompanied by his family, then consisting of a wife and four children, set out for his new home in the wilderness with all his worldly possessions packed upon the back of a horse. One night was passed at Bath, where the horse was left and the journey resumed the following day. He reached the barn built by Avery about nightfall, on the eleventh day of April. He found unmistakable evidence of the recent presence of Indians, but it was too late to think of retreating to a place of greater security that night. They dare not kindle a fire, but, cold and weary, the mother and children made their couch upon the wild grass, while the father, flint-lock in hand, kept watch and ward at the open door of the hut until morning dawned. These first hours of the settlement of the town were signalized by an important event. During the night Mrs. Caswell gave birth to a male child. This child was appropriately christened Apthorp, and in accordance with the custom then prevalent the proprietors gave him a lot of land, which his father located on the Connecticut river, and which is now known as the Hudson place. An examination in the morning revealed further indications of the presence of Indians in the valley, and the family decided to join the settlers in Lisbon until the dangers surrounding their new home should disappear. Accordingly a dug-out was hewn from the protrate form of a giant pine, and the family, together with a scant store of household goods, were placed in it. They floated down the river to the Salmon Hole in Lisbon (then Gunthwait), where they joined the settlers in the fort, which was situated on the rising ground a few hundred yards northwest of the landing place. Their journey down the Ammonoosuc must have been a perilous one as the river was high and filled with floating ice.

A few days later Caswell returned to Apthorp, and found the hut burned to the ground by the Indians. As they had evidently left the region, the work of re-building was at once entered upon and in a short time a cabin stood upon the site of the barn. The family returned and here made their home, until the hostile attitude of the St. Francis Indians, during the Revolution, forced them for a time to seek safety within the walls of the fort at the mouth of the Upper Ammonoosuc, in Northumberland. Soon after the war Caswell sold his meadow farm to Ephraim Bailey, son of General Jacob Bailey, of Newbury, VT and moved to the Hudson place, on the Connecticut river, where he continued to reside until the infirmities of advancing age compelled him to make his home with his children. For a time he lived with Nathan Jr. in Stratford, but passed the last years of his life with Apthorp and his married daughters, who lived in Canada.

...

In 1784 the years in which Apthorp was divided and Littleton and Dalton created, there were but twelve polls and eight families in Littleton. These were the Caswells, Peleg Williams, Caleb Hopkinson, Luke Hitchcock, Mr. Nash, Samuel Learnard, and John Chace. Robert Charlton and John Wheeler were unmarried. In that part of the town which was subsequently incorporated into Dalton, there were but two families, Walter Bloss, who lived near the Sumner farm, and Moses Blake, at the ferry, above John's river.

There are no reliable data respecting the number of inhabitants of Apthorp. The number of polls in 1783 was nine, and in 1784 twelve. Mr. Caswell's family consisted of fourteen persons. There were four in the family of Peleg Williams, whose daughter was espoused by Caleb Hopkinson about this time. Nothing certain is known of the remaining families, but it is probable that the population at no time exceeded forty.

Source: Gazetteer of Grafton County, N.H., 1709-1886 by Hamilton Child,Syracuse, N.Y.: H. Child, June 1886, page 630