Jonathan Chase was born in Newbury, Massachusetts on 18 August 1723, the great-grandson of Aquila Chase, who was the first to pilot at the mouth of the Merrimac River. His grandfather, John, had been a soldier in the French and Indian War, and his father was the Town Constable of Newbury. Jonathan was a farmer and a family man in West Newbury, Massachusetts. He fathered 10 children with Joanna Morse, his wife of 55 years (married 1744) until Jonathan’s death in 1799. Joanna died in 1807. Their children were: Jonathan; Stephen; Eliphalet; Anna; Abigail; Eliphalet (2); Hepsibah; Molly; Joshua; Hannah.
Jonathan was a member of the Newbury Militia, and on 19 April 1775 he answered the alarm delivered by Paul Revere and William Dawes the night before. On that fateful April morning on the green at Lexington, he was ready to defend his home, his land, his family, and his means of support from the oppression of King George III. He did so on that day and continued for five more days of fighting. Jonathan witnessed firsthand “…The shot heard ’round the world…” and the birth of a new nation.
References and Notes
NSSAR Patriot Index, SERV:Pvt MA ANC #110231, ANC #122222.