Descendants of Captain Samuel Bliss, Sr.

 

 

NOTE: The below HTML series of pages has a lot of material. However, this PDF contains more recent updates, more information, and several pictures. Its size is about 5 MB with 176 physical pages.

 

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Generation No. 1

 

1.  SAMUEL "CAPTAIN"⁷ BLISS was born 7-25-1730 in Rehoboth, Bristol Co., MA, and died 4-17-1816 in Rehoboth, Bristol Co., MA.  He married (1) HANNAH CARPENTER 1-12-1755 in Rehoboth, MA, daughter of JOTHAM CARPENTER and MEHITABLE THOMPSON.  She died 2-20-1757 in Rehoboth, MA.  He married (2) KEZIAH WILMARTH 6-2-1757 in Rehoboth, Bristol Co., MA, daughter of NATHANIEL WILMARTH and MARY PERRY.  She was born 1-5-1721/22 in Rehoboth, Bristol Co., MA, and died Bef. 1793 in Rehoboth, Bristol Co., MA.  He married (3) LYDIA PERRY 1-3-1793 in Rehoboth, MA.

 

Notes for SAMUEL "CAPTAIN" BLISS:

Captain Samuel Bliss commanded a company of eight day minute men April 19-27, 1775, afterwards a company of eight months men in Col. Timothy Walker's regiment. (On its roll were the Bliss names of Charles, Nathaniel, David, Elisha, Allen, and Samuel Jr.) He was in Captain Slade's Company three years, and was General Washington's steward at Morristown, in the winter of 1777. It is said he was a man of considerable influence and was much respected for his patriotism and other excellent traits.

 

Captain Bliss's descendant Etta M. (Bliss) Kendrick joined the Daughters of American Revolution (DAR) in 1919 by listing him as an ancestor.

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From Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, Vol. I-XVII.  Boston, MA, USA: Wright and Potter Printing Co., 1896:

 

Bliss, Samuel, Rehoboth. Captain of a company which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775; service, 8 days; also, Col. Timothy Walker's (Bristol Co.) regt.; list of officers; commissioned May 24, 1775; also, returns for supplies, etc., for his company, dated Roxbury, June 8-July 25, 1775; also, muster roll dated Aug. 1, 1775; engaged April 28, 1775; service, 3 mos. 11 days; also, company return dated Oct. 6, 1775.

 

According to a sworn statement by Samuel, when applying for a pension, he enlisted in the “War of the Revolution as Searjeant in the Continental Establishment, for the term of three years in the Sixteenth Massachussetts…Regiment, commanded by Col. Henry Jackson.” Additional records, such as The History of Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, page 156, indicate he served in Capt. Slade’s Company. (It would appear that Samuel received the honorary moniker of “Captain” after the war, commemorating his minute-man service rank.)

 

In April, 1777, Capt. Jackson was ordered with his company to Rhode Island, and was on duty there some weeks. He had been commissioned by Congress on the twelfth of January, 1777, colonel of an additional continental battalion, and on his return from Rhode Island he recruited, in Boston and vicinity, the sixteenth Massachusetts Regiment, called the Boston Regiment, which at once took a high rank for its soldierly appearance and excellent discipline, demonstrating its valor on several hard-fought battle fields….

 

The Boston Regiment left Boston on the 7^th of October, 1777, to join the main army near Philadelphia, and took part in the battles of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, Quaker Hill, R.I., August 29, 1778, and Springfield, N.J., June 23, 1780.

 

The above two paragraphs are from page 112 of:

New England Historical and Genealogical Register Volume 46, 1892 #znr46

By New England Historic Genealogical Society Staff

Published by Heritage Books, 1997

ISBN 0788406515, 9780788406515

518 pages

 

http://dictionary.sensagent.com/16th+massachusetts+regiment/en-en/

16th Massachusetts Regiment

Active:  1777-1781

Allegiance:  Continental Congress of the United States

Type:  Infantry

Part of Massachusetts Line

Nickname:  Henry Jackson's Additional Continental Regiment

Battles/wars:  Battle of Monmouth, Battle of Rhode Island

Notable commanders: Colonel Henry Jackson

 

Philadelphia campaign, 1777–1778

Brandywine – Paoli – Germantown – White Marsh – Matson's Ford – Crooked Billet – Monmouth

 

Northern theater after Saratoga, 1778–1781

Rhode Island – Wyoming Valley – Carleton's Raid – Cherry Valley – Stony Point – Penobscot expedition – Sullivan expedition – Newtown – Springfield – Groton Heights

 

General George Washington, by the spring of 1777, was on the lookout for a particular set of men with whom to surround himself. He realized his immediate vulnerability in respect to his papers and other belongings of military and historical import. To remedy the situation he sent two letters. In April he sent one to Alexander Spotswood, “Headquarters, Morris Town,” requesting that a set of men be selected to become his personal guard, because “in the Course of the Campaign, my Baggage, Papers, and other Matters of great public Import, may be committed to the Sole care of these Men.” In May he sent a four-page letter to “Captn Gibbs at present in Philadelphia” requesting that a butler or steward be provided.

 

See also Soldiers of The Revolution at http://www.angelfire.com/ri/reaspage/revwar.html

 

Marriage Notes for SAMUEL BLISS and KEZIAH WILMARTH:

Samuel and Keziah were married by Rev. John Greenwood.

 

[Keziah was married under the surname of Carpenter. There are conflicting beliefs as to whether her own surname was Wilmarth or Carpenter. There is some tertiary evidence that Keziah had been married to Abiah Carpenter prior to her marriage to Samuel Bliss, Sr. Included in this kind of evidence is:
DAR Patriot Index, Centennial Edition: Bliss Patriots in the Revolutionary War
http://www.usgennet.org/family/bliss/pats/dar2.htm (under Samuel Sr.)

-and-

http://genealogyofnewengland.com/f_c5.htm#85]

 

Marriage Notes for SAMUEL BLISS and LYDIA PERRY:

From: VITAL RECORDS OF REHOBOTH, 1642-1895

Marriages, Intention, Births, Deaths.with supplement containing the record of 1896,

Colonial returns, lists of the early settlers, purchasers, freemen, inhabitants, the soldiers seving in Philip's War and the Revolution. By JAMES N. ARNOLD; Providence, R.I.

Narragansett Historical Publishing Company 1897.

 

"Lydia and Capt. Samuel BLISS, married by Shubael Peck Esq., Jan. 3, 1798." (The date of "1798" is most likely in error, perhaps a misreading, as their daughter Lydia was born in 1794.)

 

Children of SAMUEL BLISS and KEZIAH WILMARTH are:

            i.          Molly⁸ Bliss, b. 1-29-1758.

            ii.          Susie Bliss, b. 12-29-1759.

2.         iii.         Samuel Bliss, b. 9-4-1761, Rehoboth, Bristol Co., MA; d. 3-15-1837,
                        Gilboa, Schoharie Co., NY.

3.         iv.         Esther Bliss, b. 3-4-1764; d. 5-10-1848. (See the statement Esther
                        made in support of her brother Samuel’s Revolutionary War
                        pension claim.)

            v.         Leepha Bliss, b. 7-11-1766.

 

           

Child of SAMUEL BLISS and LYDIA PERRY is:

            vi.         Lydia⁸ Bliss, b. 2-17-1794.