American Seymour Genealogy

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====== 75. Major Moses Seymour ======

75. MAJOR MOSES<sup>5</sup> SEYMOUR (//[[026.moses|Moses]]//<sup>4</sup>,
//[[008.John|John]]//<sup>3</sup>, //[[003.John|John]]//<sup>2</sup>,
//[[001.Richard|Richard]]//<sup>1</sup>), of Litchfield, Conn., born at
Hartford, Conn., 23 July 1742, died at Litchfield, 17 Sept. 1826 in 85th year;
married at Litchfield, 7 Nov. 1771, MOLLY<sup>5</sup> MARSH, born at Litchfield,
24 Nov. 1752, died there 17 July 1826, daughter of Col. Ebenezer<sup>4</sup>
(John<sup>3</sup>, John<sup>2</sup>, John<sup>1</sup>) and Deborah (Buell).

His education was obtained in the common and grammar schools of Hartford. The
grammar school was an exceedingly good one endowed by Governor Hopkins. He early
left school to learn the business of furrier and hatter as an apprentice. About
the year 1765 or 1766, he removed to Litchfield where he carried on the same
business in conjunction with that of general merchandising and farming, until
the beginning of the Revolutionary War, when he gave up the greater part of his
own business and devoted himself almost exclusively to military and public
affairs.

Speaking of Litchfield in those days, Kilbourn in his history, page 113, says:
"Litchfield was the home of a remarkable number of highly educated and leading
men, some of whom were already distinguished and others who were destined to act
an important part in their country's history. Indeed, no town in the State could
boast of a community more refined, intelligent or patriotic. Within our present
town limits resided Oliver Wolcott, Andrew Adams, Reynold Marvin, Taping Reeve,
Isaac Baldwin, Samuel Lyman, Isaac Baldwin, Jr., Elisha Sheldon, John Pierce,
Jr., Dr. Adam Little, Lynde Lord, Rev. Timothy Collins, Rev. Judah Champion, Dr.
Samuel Hopkins, Dr. Reuben Smith, Moses Seymour, Timothy Skinner, Abram Bradley,
William Stanton, Ambrose Collins, Elijah Wadsworth and Ephraim Kirby, all of
whom and many more were conspicuous as public men and patriots. To this goodly
company. were soon added Oliver Wolcott Jr., Ashbel Baldwin, Ezekiel Woodruff,
Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, Julius Deming, Senator Uriah Tracy, Aaron Burr and Dr.
Daniel Shelton, all of whom became residents here before the close of the war.
Sixteen of the above number were graduates of Yale College, and one, Judge
Reeve, of the College of New Jersey; three were members of the State Council;
four were members of the National Congress or became such; seven were captains
of the Revolutionary Army, and four arose to the rank of general officers; two
became Chief Justices and two, Governors of the State." .... Of the ladies of
the town, their melting into bullets the leaden statue of George the Third, is a
matter of common history, and one incident only will be added. Mrs. Chauncey
Goodrich was a daughter of Governor Wolcott and a sister of Oliver Wolcott, Jr.
Of the people of the town of Litchfield, there were in attendance upon Congress
and other duties at the National Capitol, Senators Tracy and Allen, Goodrich and
Governor Wolcott. At a reception of Mrs. Washington's, Mr. Liston, the then
British Embassador, who was thoroughly English in his ideas, said to Senator
Tracy, "Your countrywoman, Mrs. Goodrich, would be admired even at St. James."
Senator Tracy retorted, "She is admired even on Litchfield Hilt"

It was in such a community and surrounded by persons of such character and
ability, that Major Moses Seymour began his public career, and it is no small
tribute to his own attainments that he so quickly obtained and retained
recognition as a leader. As early as 1774, he became identified with the town as
one of its officers, and continued almost uninterruptedly in some public office
until his death. In 1789, he was elected Town Clerk, an office to which he was
annually re-elected for thirty-seven years. He also served as a member of the
House of Representatives from Litchfield from 1795 to 1811. He was greatly
interested in securing for this State that portion of Ohio called "Western
Reserve," and subsequently creating the "School Fund" from the sale of those
lands.

In May, 1775, the General Court of Connecticut reorganized its military
department. The troops in the towns of Litchfield, Goshen, Torrington and
Winchester were constituted a regiment by themselves, called the Seventeenth
Regiment, which regiment subsequently became a part of Connecticut's quota of
the Continental Army. Of this regiment, Jedediah Huntington was appointed
colonel and Moses Seymour captain of a troop of horse attached to the regiment.
At this time Connecticut had no cavalry regiments as such, but there was
attached to each infantry regiment a troop of horse.

At the Lexington alarm in April, 1775, all of the Connecticut regiments east of
the Connecticut River were ordered out and hurried forward to Concord. At the
same time the regiments west of the Connecticut River were ordered to be in
readiness to march at a moment's notice. August 11th, 1776, when the British
troops were concentrating around Long Island and New York, at the urgent request
of General Washington, Governor Trumbull and the Committee of Safety of
Connecticut ordered all the regiments west of the Connecticut River to proceed
at once to New York and place themselves under the immediate command of General
Washington. The Seventeenth Regiment in which Moses Seymour was Captain of a
troop of horse, in obedience to this command, marched immediately to New York
and were participants in the Battle of Long Island, August 27th, 1776, being in
General Parson's Brigade in General Spencer's Division, and also in the attack
on Fort Washington in November of the same year, where many of them were
captured and for a long time held in confinement as prisoners of war.

During the Fall of 1776, the Council of Safety detached the several companies of
light horse from the various infantry regiments to which they were attached, and
formed a regiment of Cavalry or Light-Horse, which was placed under the command
of Colonel Elisha Sheldon of Litchfield. In this troop, Captain Seymour
commanded a company, and during November and December, 1776, was with his
company under Colonel Sheldon protecting General Washington's retreat through
New Jersey.

In the following year, April, 1777, the British having attacked and burned
Danbury, Captain Seymour hastened from Litchfield with his troop of horse, and
followed and overtook the foe in their retreat just below Bethel, and repeatedly
attacked and pursued them until their re-embarkation at Norwalk. In the Fall of
1777, General Wolcott, upon a requisition from General Gates, sent all the
unemployed regiments and troops in Connecticut an exhortation rather than a
command to join him "in going Northward" to the assistance of General Gates. In
explanation of his conduct to Governor Trumbull, he frankly admits that "it was
without law or precedent," but that he deemed the crushing of Burgoyne of the
utmost consequence, not only in the cause of the Revolution, but particularly so
for the protection of New England. In obedience to this summons, Captain Seymour
with his company of light horse-joined General Wolcott, and fought through the
Battle of Bemis Heights, Stillwater and Saratoga, taking a conspicuous part in
the entire campaign· Returning one day from a skirmish with the British troops,
Captain Seymour came across an English officer, who had been wounded and left on
the field by his countrymen. Captain Seymour not only relieved his necessities,
but finally took him into his own tent and cared for him. Soon after the officer
inquired of Captain Seymour the result of the day's fighting, and on learning
that the ·British had been repulsed, he remarked, "Then the contest is no longer
doubtful, America will be independent."

So far as the writer has been able to discover, it was through Captain Seymour
that the world was given the following story:

The officers of General Gates' Army gave an entertainment to General Burgoyne
and his staff after the surrender at Saratoga. During the supper, being pressed
for a toast, General Burgoyne finally arose amid expectant silence and said,
"America and Great Britain against the world."

In July, 1779, when Governor Tryon made his attack on New Haven and Fairfield,
Captain Seymour, again with his company of light-horse, went from Litchfield to
the defence of these places. During the entire war, Litchfield was a military
depot of supplies of considerable importance, and a station where prisoners of
war were kept confined. It was constantly kept guarded by a considerable
military force. It was on one of the main lines of communication between
Philadelphia and Boston after the capture of New York. The seacoast was
practically at the mercy of the English Navy, and everything was removed inland
as far from the coast as practicable in order to be secure from a Naval attack
and the incursion of the English landing from their ships of war.

This military depot was first under the command of General Joseph Trumbull, who
was alike the first Commissary General of the Committee of Safety of
Connecticut, and of the Continental Congress. Ashbel Baldwin, Oliver Wolcott,
Jr., and General William Richards of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, were at various
times the quartermasters and commissary generals under General Trumbull and his
successors in command of this depot.

During the entire war, when not engaged as hereinbefore described, Captain
Seymour was stationed at Litchfield as Assistant-Deputy Quartermaster General
and Assistant-Deputy Commissary-General in charge of these supplies and the
prisoners of war there confined. There was confined in his own house for some
time the loyal Mayor of New York, David Matthews, and the latter's letters to
his wife and others, printed in Force's Archives give a pleasant picture of both
Major Seymour and his wife. He says, "Ever since my arrival here, I have been at
the house of Captain Moses Seymour, who together with his wife, have behaved in
the most genteel, kind manner, and have done everything in their power to make
my time as agreeable as possible. They have nothing of the Yankee about them. He
is a fine merry fellow, and she is a warm protestant (puritan?), and if it was
not that the thoughts of home were constantly in my mind, I might be happy with
my good landlord and his family to whom I wish you could send some tea, if it
were possible, as there is none to be bought here."

Governor Franklin, New Jersey's traitor governor, and Mrs. Theodosia Provost,
wife of Colonel Provost, a distinguished British officer, who subsequently
became the wife of Aaron Burr, were among the most noted prisoners confined at
Litchfield. There was at one time a large body of Hessian troops, who had been
captured, also detained there.

Captain Seymour was employed, not only in storing and guarding supplies, but in
the purchase of them, and in the superintendence of their transportation to
whatever point they might be ordered by competent authority. In the early part
of the war, probably 1776, he built a large addition or shed attached to his
house for storing of provisions and ammunitions of war, which remained until the
house was torn down in 1859.

In September, 1781, we find him with his dragoons guarding a train of wagons
loaded with supplies for the French Army, from Litchfield to Fishkill. In the
Comptroller's office in Hartford is a. very interesting document, given by
Jujardy N. Granville, who was the French Commissary General in the Army of
Rochambeau, in which the General not only acknowledges the receipt of certain
supplies, but "Certifies beside, that the said Captain Moses has taken a. great
care for the security of our convoy and baggage while he stay with us, till this
place. Dated at Fishkill, September 22nd, 1781." In 1783 he retired with the
rank of Major.

Of Major Seymour's personal appearance, one well acquainted with him wrote about
the time of his death, "In personal appearance, he was little above the ordinary
height, somewhat slender but otherwise well proportioned, with a countenance
marked by a quick piercing eye and by a mouth expressive of uncommon
cheerfulness. His habits were regular and temperate, and the first glance at him
discovers a happy air of health, bodily activity and strength. His dress was
studiously neat, plain and carefully adjusted. He pertinaciously adhered through
life to the queue, small clothes, shoe buckles, with white top boots, which
belonged to the style of the last century."

About the year 1800, bitter controversies arose among the Presbyterians, and
Major Seymour took refuge from them in the Episcopal Church, to which he
continued warmly devoted through life.

He died at Litchfield in 1826, having reached the ripe old age of eighty-five
years. He lived to see his country independent and prosperous, his children
respected and honored; one a United States Senator from Vermont, one a Canal
Commissioner of the State of New York, constructing the Erie Canal with DeWitt
Clinton, two high sheriffs of their native county, and his only daughter the
wife of a distinguished Episcopal clergyman.

Will of Moses Seymour of Litchfield, dated 27 Feb. 1821, proved 17 Oct. 1826,
named wife Molly and six children, viz.--Clarissa, Marsh, Moses Seymour, Jr., Ozias
Seymour, Horatio Seymour, Henry Seymour, and Epaphroditus Seymour. Charles
Seymour was a witness. Codicil dated 11 May 1826 stated that his son Moses had
deceased and directed that his children should receive their father's share;
Samuel Seymour was a witness.

[The foregoing account of Major Moses Seymour is substantially that compiled by
his great-grandson, the late Morris W. Seymour, of Litchfield, who was greatly
interested in the history of the family and justifiably proud of the
achievements of his forbears. Major Moses lived in what came to be known as the
"Old Seymour Homestead" on South Street in Litchfield. On his marriage to Molly
Marsh in 1771, they went to live in this large, comfortable, frame house built
in 1735 either by Colonel Ebenezer Marsh, Sr., Molly's father, or by Thomas
Grant, and here in this house they thereafter lived until they died, and here
all their children were born. The house, which was demolished in 1855, was plain
to bareness, but had an engaging air of simplicity and solidity. A reproduction
of a daguerreotype made of the house shortly before it was demolished, is
included in this volume, also portraits by Ralph Earl (1751-1801), of Major
Moses, Molly Marsh his wife, their son Moses, and their daughter Clarissa, who
married the Rev. Truman Marsh. The originals of these portraits, except that of
Moses Seymour, Jr., hang in the long parlor of the Chief-Justice Seymour house
on South Street, Litchfield.  -- //G. D. S.//]

^ Children: ^^^
| | i. | CLARISSA<sup>6</sup>, b. 3 Aug. 1772; d. at Litchfield, 2 Sept. 1865; m. 22 Oct. 1791, her cousin, REV. TRUMAN<sup>6</sup> MARSH, b. at Litchfield, 23 Feb. 1768, d. there 28 Mar. 1851, s. of Ebenezer<sup>5</sup> (//Col. Ebenezer//<sup>4</sup>, //John//<sup>3</sup>, //John//<sup>2</sup>, //John//<sup>1</sup>) and Lucy (Phelps). He was graduated from Yale in 1786; ordained Deacon and Presbyter by Bishop Seabury, successively in March and June 1790, became Rector of St. John's, New Milford, and continued there until 1799; then Rector of St. Michael's, Litchfield, until 1810. Seven children. |
| 147. | ii. | [[147.moses|MOSES]], b. 30 June 1774. |
| 148. | iii. | [[148.ozias|OZIAS]], b. 8 July 1776. |
| 149. | iv. | [[149.horatio|HORATIO]], b. 31 May 1778 |
| 150. | v. | [[150.henry|HENRY]], b. 30 May 1780. |
| 151. | vi. | [[151.epaphroditus|EPAPHRODITUS]], b. 8 July 1783. |

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