Seth (Pomroy) Pomeroy (1706 - 1777)

Born 20 May 1706 in Northampton, Hampshire, Province of Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 19 Feb 1777 at age 70 in Peekskill, Westchester, New York, United States

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Biography

Major General Seth (Pomroy) Pomeroy served with Hampshire County, Massachusetts Militia during the American Revolution.

Seth (Pomroy) Pomeroy is an NSSAR Patriot Ancestor.
NSSAR Ancestor #: P-271636
Rank: Brigadier General

Seth (Pomroy) Pomeroy is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A090416.

General Seth Pomeroy (1706-1777), Blacksmith, Gunsmith, Patriot and soldier. Commissioned as Captain in the 3rd company of Snowshoe Men in 1732. Commissioned as Major in King George's War and participated in the capture of Louisbourg. Colonel in French and Indian War and took part at the battle of Lake George. Delegate from Northampton to First and Second Provincial Congresses. Major General in Massachusetts Militia and fought at Bunker Hill. Commissioned as the first Brigadier General of the Continental Army. Died at Peekskill, N.Y. in 1777.

General Seth Pomeroy was born 20 May 1706 in Northampton, Massachusetts. He was the son of Ebenezer Pomeroy and Sarah King.

A second generation Northampton family, he was gunsmith by trade; a smith did everything from pulling a tooth, to making and repairing farm equipment, horse-shoeing, making bells and firearms. Seth Pomeroy was an 18th century military hero. He was named Captain to command three companies of Hampshire County Minute Men if and when a break was made with England. In 1745 he fought as a Major against the French and Cape Breton Island on the St. Lawrence River, and helped capture the fort they had spent 20 years building. Ten years later, as a Colonel, he again fought them, this time at Crown Point. In 1774, at 68 years old, he was promoted to General and helped to train men in Boston. He was in Northampton when the British Colonials threatened Bunker Hill and was summoned to take a command at the historic spot . Fought at a volunteer with the troops. He refused to command them on the grounds that he was too old.

"On Bunker Hill, General Putnam was busily building fortification on that hill. He was using stragglers that managed to cross Charlestown neck in spite of the naval bombardment, and a few men who wandered back from Breed's hill. While there two famous volunteers arrived: 69 year Seth Pomeroy and Dr. Joseph Warren, President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress." ^[1]

General Seth Pomeroy married Mary Hunt 14 December 1732 and they had nine children:

1. Seth Pomeroy
2. Quartus Pomeroy
3. Medad Pomeroy
4. Lemuel Pomeroy
5. Martha Pomeroy
6. Mary Pomeroy
7. Sarah Pomeroy
8. Child Pomeroy
9. Asabel Pomeroy

He served in King George's War, The French and Indian War as well as the Revolutionary War attaining rank of Brigadier General.

David Correira in his essay Seth Pomeroy: The Forgotten General describes his appointment as a leader in the Continental Army as follows^[2]:

Meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress was attempting to create a unified army and so was trying to decide who would lead the Continental forces. George Washington was named the commander-in-chief along with four major generals. On June 22, 1775 the Continental Congress demonstrated the high regard they held for Seth Pomeroy when they named eight brigadier generals and put him at the top of list in seniority. Pomeroy effectively would be the sixth highest ranking officer in the new Continental Army.

In January 1777, possibly at the plea of George Washington personally, Seth Pomeroy took the field again at the head of militia of Massachusetts. More confusion surrounds his actual title whether it be colonel or general when in fact it does not matter. Pomeroy did not care much for rank but rather for duty. Duty required him to serve his country once again. Against the better judgment of his wife, family and physician he took off at the head of the militia to aid Washington in New York. Marching south, his age finally caught up to him and his body could take no more. ^{[3] [4]}

He passed away in Peekskill, New York on February 19, 1771.

Seth Pomeroy Monument

W. Gedney Beatty designed the monument erected in memory of General Seth Pomeroy in the cemetery at Peekskill, New York commemorating the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill:

"The Pomeroy Monument is entirely of granite, and stands over 27 feet high. The total weight, exclusive of the foundation is twenty tons. The design is throughly classical, the column being of a modified Tuscan type. The shaft is of polished Quincy granite in one piece, from Massachusetts, the State in which Gen. Pomeroy was born, while the polished ball which surmounts the shaft as the emblem of war is of dark red New Brunswick granite, giving the effect of a rusted cannon ball. The rest of the monument is of white granite from Barre, Vermont. Inscriptions are placed on all four sides of the monument, as follows:

Right - Ensign 1743, Captain 1744, Major at Louisbourg 1745, Colonel at Lake George 1755, Brigadier General 1775: Bunker Hill, 1775.

Left - Peekskill, Feb. 11, 1777 - I go cheerfully, for I am sure the cause we are engaged in is just, and the call I have to it is clear, and the call of God. - Seth Pomeroy.

Rear - Erected by the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York, in the year 1898." ^[5]

The monument was create to celebrate national patriotism during the War of 1898 with Spain. ^[6]

General Pomeroy's Sword

John Duey recovered the sword of General Seth Pomeroy and safely kept the treasure for forty years then returned it to the Pomeroy family in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1907. ^[6]

Research Notes

Certain sources have Pomeroy's death occurring on February 17 or February 19. ^{[7] [8]}

Sources

1. ↑ Donald N. Moran. The Battle of Bunker Hill Valley Compatriot Newsletter, March 1985.
2. ↑ David Correira, "Seth Pomeroy: The Forgotten General", Early America Review, Summer/Fall 2011.
3. ↑ David Correira. EarlyAmerica.com Seth Pomeroy: The Forgotten General [1]
4. ↑ Journals of the Continental Congress, Volume 2, 103.
5. ↑ The New York Times. published June 15, 1898.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} John J. Curran. Peekskill's African American History: A Hudson Valley Community's Untold Story. The History Press, 2008. p62.
7. ↑ Mary Theresa Leiter, Biographical Sketches of Generals of the Continental Army of the Revolution (Cambridge: University Press, 1889), 77.
8. ↑ Louis DeForest, ed. The Journals and Papers of Seth Pomeroy, New Haven, Ct, 1926. p163.

• Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed 25 July 2016), "Record of Seth Pomeroy", Ancestor # A090416.

• Early Northampton. Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution. Betty Allen Chapter, Northampton, 1914. p 116. GoogleBooks

• Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (Wright & Potter Printing Co., Boston, 1896); Vol. 12, p. 517

• Colonial Soldiers and Officers in New England, 1620-1775. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2013).; [2]

• Wikipedia: Seth_Pomeroy Wikidata: Item Q1772523, en:Wikipedia

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9605466/seth-pomeroy : accessed 11 November 2021), memorial page for MG Seth Pomeroy (20 May 1706–10 Feb 1777), Find A Grave: Memorial #9605466, citing Old Van Cortlandtville Cemetery, Van Cortlandtville, Westchester County, New York, USA ; Maintained by Edmond Spaeth (contributor 12019967) .

• Samuel Adams Drake, The Taking of Louisburg 1745, Boston Mass.: Lee and Shepard Publishers, 1891 (reprinted by Kessinger Publishing ISBN 978-0-548-62234-6).

• Ronald Longaker Roberts. The Hosmer Heritage: Ancestors and Descendants of the Emigrant Thomas Hosmer. South Lake Tahoe, CA: 1984. p 147.

• History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts (Louis H. Everts, Philadelphia, 1879); Vol. 1, p. 175

• James Russell Trumbull. History of Northampton, Massachusetts Volume II (Northampton: Press of Gazette Printing Co, 1902), 364. Ibid, 166;

• W.J. Wood, Battles of the Revolutionary War, 1775-1781 (Chapel Hill: De Capo Press, 2003), 30-31.

• American Pomeroy Historic Genealogical Association

• Diane Lederman. Southampton honors Pomeroy family by dedicating anvil-shaped monument July 2, 2012. (Masslive.com : accessed 24 Aug 2016)

• https://www.masshist.org/bh/essay.html

• AMERICAN POMEROY HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL ASSOCIATION Eltweed Pomeroy tree