Showing posts with label Ebenezer Francis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ebenezer Francis. Show all posts

Saturday, October 10, 2026

Diary of Reverend Enos Hitchcock, June 4, 1777

Receivd of Paymaster twenty pounds— paid Colo Francis1 six pounds, my proportion of the Stores together with 21b. 8s 6d paid before; paid Colo Littefield 2lb., 8s. 6d. Expenses on the Road paid Capt. Porter 30 Dollars which I borrowed to send Home—cool westerly wind—fair Day—a Pickeril sent us two feet & ¾ ft long2—

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1 Ebenezer Francis, of Beverly, Mass., commanded one of the fifteen battalions which were assigned to Massachusetts by Congress Sept. 16, 1776. He was a gallant officer, respected alike by friend and foe. "No officer so noticed for his military accomplishments and regular life as he was."

2 As our Chaplain was a fisherman himself, we must not scrutinize his measurements too closely. Fish stories carry their own ethics in every generation.

SOURCE: Amos Perry, The Town Records of Rhode Island, Publications of the Rhode Island Historical Society, New Series, Vol. 7 (1899), pp. 110-1

Diary of Reverend Enos Hitchcock, Sunday, June 8, 1777

Divine Service at ½ past ten A. M. Mr. Plumb prd. Exod: 15, 3, present Colo Marshals— Brewers & Francis's Regts; at ½ Six P. M. prd. myself Ps: 119: 115, fair and pleasant, but something warm and dry—

SOURCE: Amos Perry, The Town Records of Rhode Island, Publications of the Rhode Island Historical Society, New Series, Vol. 7 (1899), p. 111

Diary of Reverend Enos Hitchcock, June 10, 1777

Wrote Home pr. Post No. 5, & to Revd Fisk—dined on Fish, fair & pleasant, purchased two tickets Nos. 57111669 & 70 jointly with Capt. Greenleaf.2
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2 Captain Moses Greenleaf, of Newburyport, Mass., our parson's partner in the lottery business, was a gallant soldier. Commissioned as Lieutenant early in 1775, in December he was made Captain to raise a company for the Continental line. This was mustered in the Eleventh Massachusetts, under the splendid Ebenezer Francis. The company suffered severely in the hottest of the battle of Hubbardston. The brave Greenleaf was in many hot fights during the whole revolutionary struggle, yet never wounded. He was (MS. in Massachusetts Historical Society, Greenleaf Papers, Rogers' Notes) "about six feet high, broad shouldered, erect and well-proportioned, with dark-brown hair, a high and open forehead, piercing dark-hazel eyes, and a large aquiline nose. His step was measured and firm, and his whole bearing martial and commanding. His character, which was formed in the field and camp, remained unchanged through life. He was altogether a soldier, and nothing but a soldier." The picture of this complete soldier and our earnest devoted clergyman participating in lotteries is not without interest for every generation.

SOURCE: Amos Perry, The Town Records of Rhode Island, Publications of the Rhode Island Historical Society, New Series, Vol. 7 (1899), p. 112