Jonathan Hunter was baptized in the First Congregational Church of Rochester, Plymouth County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, March 26, 1737, being the son of Jonathan Hunter (d. 1762) and his wife Hopestill (Hope) Hambling (Hamblin), who were married in Rochester, November 27, 1729. Jonathan’s siblings were: Silva (Sylvia) (b. 1730) and David (b. 1732). At the age of 10 years, Jonathan accompanied his parents and several Wareham, Plymouth County families who removed to Sharon, Litchfield County, Colony of Connecticut. Wareham had been set off from Rochester in 1739.
Jonathan served in the French and Indian War (1754-1763) as a Private in Captain Samuel Dunham’s Company of the Connecticut Provincial Troops that responded to the alarm to relieve Fort William Henry in August, 1757. On April 7, 1759, he entered the service as a Corporal in Captain Samuel Elmore’s (Elmer’s) 7th Company of the 3rd Regiment of the Connecticut Troops under the command of Colonel David Wooster for the 1759 Crown Point Campaign against the French, under the overall command of Major General Jeffery Amherst. Jonathan was discharged from this service on December 2, 1759.
Soon after his father died, Jonathan and his brother David removed to Stillwater, Albany (now Saratoga) County, Province of New York. Later he lived for a time in Ticonderoga, Albany (now Essex) County, Province of New York, where his son Timothy was born in 1770. In March of 1776, Jonathan enlisted as a Private for one year in Captain Job Wright’s Company, Colonel Goose Van Schaick’s 3rd New York Regiment of the Continental Line. In April 1777, Jonathan enlisted for three years as a Sergeant in Captain Aaron Austin’s (Aorson’s) Company, 3rd New York Regiment of the Continental Line, then under the command of Colonel Peter Gansevoort. During this enlistment, Jonathan was with his regiment during the three week siege of Fort Stanwix in western New York State by St. Leger’s British forces in August 1777, and with General Sullivan in his expedition against the Indians in 1779.
From September through November, 1779, he was on sick leave at Easton, Northampton County, Pennsyvlania and he continued on sick leave at Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey until he was honorably discharged at Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey on April 24, 1780.
In the 1790 U.S. Census enumerated in Vermont in 1791, Jona (Jonathan) Hunter was listed as a Head of Family in Bridport, Addison County, Vermont with one free white male of 16 years and upwards and two free white females. In 1800, Johnathan (Jonathan) was enumerated in the U.S. Census as a Head of a Family residing in Shoreham, Addison County, Vermont with one free white male of the age of 45 years and over, one free white female of 26 thru 44 years, and one free white female of 45 years and over. In 1810, Jonathan was enumerated in the U.S. Census as a Head of a Family still residing in Shoreham, but then, with one free white male of the age of 10 thru 15 years, one free white male 45 years and over, one free white female 26 thru 44 years, and one free white female 45 years and over.
On June 14, 1820, Jonathan filed a sworn declaration with the County Court for the County of Addison in the State of Vermont which states in part that he served in the Revolutionary War. The date of his original pension declaration was April 13, 1818, and the number of his pension certificate was 10,813. He owned 23 acres of land in Shoreham with a poor house thereon, he was by occupation a farmer, he had no family, he had for the past two years been unable to work, and he resided in the family of his grandson on whom he was dependent for support. On November 7th, 1820, he sold his property in Shoreham.
In 1823, Jonathan was residing in Fairfield, Franklin County, Vermont with his son Timothy. He died the following year.
References and Notes
1790 U.S. Census of Bridport, Addison County, Vermont.
1800 U.S. Census of Shoreham, Addison County, Vermont, page 81.
1810 US Census of Shorham, Addison County, Vermont, page 105.
Bartley, Scott Andrew. “Vermont Families in 1791 Volume 2 Genealogical Society of Vermont Special Publication Number 5”, pages 122-124.
Brownson, Lydia B. (Phinney) and Maclean W. McLean. “Thomas Gibbs of Sandwich Mass. (ca. 1615-1693)” in the “New England Historical and Genealogical Register” Vol. 123 (April 1969), page 141.
“Ledgers of Payments, 1818-1872, to U.S. Pensioners Under Acts of 1818 Through 1858 From Records of the Office of the Third Auditor of the Treasury, 1818-1872”, page 27, titled “Vermont.”
MacIntire, Susan Holt and Sanford Stowell Witherell. “A 1992 Supplement to the 1984 Genealogical Register of the Early Families of Shoreham, Vermont 1761-1899” (1992), pages 368-369.
“Rolls of Connecticut Men in the French and Indian War, 1755-1762. – Volume II. 1758-1762”, The Connecticut Historical Society (1905), pages 147 and 153-156.
Sedgwick, Charles F. “General History of The Town of Sharon, Litchfield County, Conn. From Its First Settlement” (2nd Edition, 1877), page 141.
U.S. Federal Military Pension File No. S.39739.
“Vital Records of Rochester Massachusetts To The Year 1850 Volume I – Births”, The New England Historic Genealogical Society (1914), pages 6 and 187.
“Vital Records of Rochester Massachusetts To The Year 1850 Volume II – Marriages and Deaths”, The New England Historic Genealogical Society (1914), page 187.