John Catlin, Jr.

John Catlin [Jr.], oldest child of John and Margaret Catlin, leaned toward Loyalist tendencies, while all of their other sons served as soldiers for the patriot cause.

John Catlin, Jr. had been given land in Litchfield by his father. Information about John Catlin, Jr.[1732-1780's/90's] is rare, and the historical records contain many gaps about this man. If it wasn’t for land records and John Catlin, Jr.’s regular court visits, it would have been almost impossible to learn of his travels. According to a 19th century book though, he married Sarah Landon. Likely, this marriage occurred in the mid to late 1750s. The couple’s children were James, Asa, Wait, John, and Anna, and they were likely born between the mid 1750s and 1770. John Jr. had the almost-life-long habit of being called to court for debts, not being present for the hearings, and subsequently losing the court cases. On September 2, 1767, John Catlin, Jr. recorded the last of his Litchfield County land records. He sells to his brother, Alexander Catlin, land containing a house and barn. The next record for John Catlin, Jr. is a court case that identifies he has moved to Canaan, Connecticut by September 1769. In 1771, he loses a court case to Robert Livingston, Jr. of Manor Livingston, New York where he is ordered to pay 36 pounds, 16 shillings in New York money. This case is notable in that John Jr. was being sued by a member of the 18th Century equivalent of the Rockefeller family.

Sometime between 1771 and 1777, John Catlin, the oldest of the Catlin brothers, moved from Canaan to the Connecticut town of Salisbury. He would be 45 years old by mid-summer, and, if this chronicler is correct, still had at least one very young child at home. More than likely at this time, John Catlin was keeping a secret that his oldest son, James, had joined the British Army in Canada. In the spring of 1777, John was himself enrolled in the Seventh Alarm Company of the Fourteenth Regiment of Connecticut. And now John Catlin was being drafted to fight.

Based on documents and background history, John Catlin was the man chosen to be drafted by Captain Chittendon to represent the Seventh Alarm Company of the Fourteenth Regiment. However, on April 26, 1777, John Catlin, “duly draughted [drafted], warned and ordered to muster and march to join and assist the Continental Army . . . until the first day of January then next, pursuant to special act of the General Assembly of this state for that purpose . . . did not muster.” While this chronicler has no firm proof as to why John refused to serve, circumstances at least provide a clue. John almost certainly would have known that his oldest son James had gone to Canada to serve with the British. Baring that reason, he was almost 45 years old, and men 45 or older were not required to serve. Lastly, of course, he simply may not have wanted to serve.

When last we heard of John Catlin of Salisbury, Connecticut he had just been fined 10 pounds for his failure to muster. With court costs of an additional three pounds, his personal cost was one pound more than the yearly pay of a common soldier at the time. We know that John Catlin remained in Salisbury, Connecticut for some time, as his last court record on file dates to 1782. But then the records for this family become sparse. In fact, this chronicler has no reliable evidence for the whereabouts of John Catlin past 1782. It is only later in the 1800s that we learn that John Catlin was “a loyal subject, who suffered great losses in property, and received many personal insults and abuses, during the late American Revolution due to his loyal attachment to his majesty’s person and government.” Only the record of his failure to report for muster indicates any loss he may have suffered, but if research is any indication, he was not as rich as his brothers, and the fine of a year’s wage may have been disastrous for the man.

Ref.: "The Catlins Remembered", by Gary R. Catlin, Chapter II 1768-1800, page 1-16; Self-published 2011