Ezekiel Cheever

DAR Information:

http://services.dar.org/public/dar_research/search_adb/default.cfm

CHEEVER, EZEKIEL Ancestor #: A021293 Service: MASSACHUSETTS Rank(s): COMMISARY, GENERAL Birth: (BAPTISED) 5-15-1720 CHARLESTOWN MASSACHUSETTS Death: (ANTE) 1793 BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS Service Description: 1) ALSO DEP COMMISSARY GENERAL OF ARTILLERY

Spouse Number Name

Created: 2002-03-27 23:17:13.16, Updated: 2002-03-27 23:17:13.16, By: Conversion 1) SARAH PHILLIPS Created: 2002-03-27 23:17:13.16, Updated: 2002-03-27 23:17:13.16, By: Conversion 2) SARAH WEAVER GOOCH

Revolutionary War service From:

http://www.goordnance.army.mil/hof/1990/1997/cheever.html

Mr. Ezekiel Cheever was born in Charleston, Massachusetts in 1720. He received his basic primary education in his hometown, and became a professional sugar baker. For three years in the 1750s, Mr. Cheever served his community as a town selectman. In the events leading up to the Revolutionary War, he was a member of the Sons of Liberty in Dorchester, Massachussetts, and played an active role in the public meetings opposing the landing of East India Company Tea in Boston.

He was appointed Captain of the Watch to observe and protect participants in the Boston Tea Party, who dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor in protest against the British Paliamentary Tea Act in December 1773. This action brought on passage of the series of so-called Intolerable Acts by the British Parliament, which led directly to the Revolution.

Mr. Cheever was named Commissary of Artillery Stores in August 1775, his title being changed to Commissary of Military Stores four months later. In that capacity, he was the senior American civilian responsible for Ordnance equipment for the next six years. He worked closely with COL (later Major General) Henry Knox, the Army’s artillery chief and de facto Master General of Ordnance, in receiving, inventorying, issuing, and frequently moving Ordnance stores about for the Continental Army. His operations were placed at Springfield, Massachusetts during part of the war, and the facilities he helped set up and utilize on that site later became the forerunner of the national armory placed there in 1794. As effective head of the civil branch of the Ordnance Department (the term which was used by GEN Washington, MG Knox, and the Continental Congress in referring to our vital, but then unofficial, branch of the Army), Mr. Cheever cooperated with MG Knox and the Congressional Board of War during its several reorganizations until his retirement.

Mr. Cheever died in Boston in 1793 at the age of 73. His standing as an exemplar to the many Ordnance civilians who have followed him over 220 years was recognized several years ago with the creation of the Ezekiel Cheever Award for contributions to Army Ordnance.

From:

http://www.newenglandancestors.org/database_search/msc.asp?f=RESEARCH\DATABASE\MSC\Content\EZEKIEL%20CHEEVER.htm&page=&anchor=

He was born at Charlestown 9 May 1720, and baptized there 15 May 1720 [i] ; died after 1793. [ii] Ezekiel was a son of Ezekiel and Elizabeth (Jenner) Cheever. [iii] She died at Charlestown 26 August 1761. He married (1) at Charlestown 17 July 1743 to Sarah Phillips. [iv] He married (2) Sarah (Weaver) Gooch. [v]

Ezekiel served as a Commissary of Military Stores, 17 August 1775 to 1 January 1781. [vi] He is listed among the officers in Metcalf’s Original Members and other Officers eligible to the Society of the Cincinnati 1783-1938. [vii] He is also mentioned as an “Eligible Non-Member” of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati in the New England Historical and Genealogical Society Register (January 1946) 100:62.

The following sketch for his service in the Revolutionary War appears in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (3:380).

Ezekiel Cheever, Commissary of Artillery; receipt dated Cambridge, April 6, 1776, given to Lieut. Samuel Carr for cordage; also, Deputy Commissary General; Continental Army pay accounts for service from Jan. 1, 1777, to Dec. 31, 1779; also, Commissary in charge of ordnance stores; pay roll for July, 1777, certified at Boston; service, 1 mo.; also, Deputy Commissary General; Continental Army pay accounts for service from Jan. 1, 1780, to Dec. 31, 1780, at Springfield.

Children:

i. Ezekiel, b. 29 April 1744. He filed his marr. int. at Boston 14 November 1769 to Elizabeth Hewes.

ii. Jonathan, b. 13 August 1745; d. 27 May 1747.

iii. Joshua, b. 26 October 1747; d. 23 April 1748.

iv. Sarah, b. 15 July 1751.

v. Elizabeth, b. 2 December 1752.

vi. Abigail, b. 25 May 1754.

vii. Grace, b. 26 August 1756. She marr. Samuel Whitman.

viii. Jonathan, b. 20 July 1758.

ix. Joshua, b. 22 April 1761.

[i] Thomas Bellows Wyman, The Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, in the County of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1629-1818. (Boston, Mass., David Clapp & Son, 1879), p. 209.

[ii] DAR Patriot Index. (Washington, D.C., NSDAR, 1994), p. 549.

[iii] ibid.

[iv] ibid., p. 210.

[v] DAR Patriot Index. (Washington, D.C., NSDAR, 1994), p. 549.

[vi] Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution April, 1775, to December, 1783. (Baltimore, Maryland, Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., 1982), p. 152.

[vii] Bryce Metcalf, Original Members and other Officers eligible to the Society of the Cincinnati 1783-1938 (Strasburg, Va., Shenandoah Public House, 1938), p. 82.