Stephen Betts (1756 - 1832)

Born 15 Jul 1756 in New Canaan, Fairfield County, Connecticut Colony

Ancestors

Husband of Ruth (Church) Betts — married 29 Jan 1760 in Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut, British

Died 28 Nov 1832 at age 76 in New Canaan, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States

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Biography

Major Stephen Betts served with 2nd Connecticut Regiment (1777), Continental Army during the American Revolution.

This profile is part of the Betts Name Study.

Stephen Betts was born on July 15, 1756 in New Canaan, Fairfield County, Connecticut, son of Isaac Betts (~1725– ) and Elizabeth Griffith (1730–1779). had a sister, Ann Betts

He was married to Ruth (Church) Betts 04 January 1784.^[1] Military: 1st Lieutenant 7th Connecticut, 6th July to 23d December 1775; 1st Lieutenant 19th Continental Infantry, 1st January to 31st December, 1776; Captain 2d Connecticut, 1st January, 1777; transferred to 3d Connecticut, 1st January, 1781; wounded at Yorktown, 14th October 1781; served to close of war; Brevet Major, 30th September, 1783.

Stephen Betts enlisted in July 1775, served as Sergeant, Ensign, Second Lieutenant and First Lieutenant in Captain Joseph Hait’s company, Colonel Charles Webb’s Connecticut regiment. On Jnuary 1, 1777, he was commissioned Captain and served to the end of the Revolutionary War in Colonels Charles’s Webb’s and Samuel B. Webb’s Connecticut regiments. On October 10, 1783, he was commissioned Brevet Major in the United States Army. During his service in the Revolution he was in the battles of Trenton, Monmouth and at the siege of Yorktown and surrender of Cornwallis. Stephen Betts was issued bounty land warrant #139 for 300 acres on 18 May 1789. Stephen Betts was allowed pension on his application executed April 28, 1818, while a resident of New Canaan, Fairfield County, Connecticut where he had resided since the close of the war and was still living in 1828. Capt. Stephen Betts was a member of one of two traveling Masonic Lodges at West Point, American Union No. 1. Among the other members were Col. Samuel Wyllys, Major Jonathan Heart, Lt. Robert Allyn, Dr. John Simpson, Dr. Jedediah Ensworth, Col. Rufus Putnam, Lt. Isaac Tiffany and others of the Connecticut Line.

Stephen died on November 28, 1832 in New Canaan, United States, aged 76.

Sources

1. ↑ Marriage: "Connecticut, Vital Records, Prior to 1850"
   citing Marriage, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States, Compiled by Lucius A. and Lucius B. Barbour, housed at State Library, Hartford, Connecticut; FHL microfilm 008272227.
   FamilySearch Record: QPQH-PTPT (accessed 9 July 2023)
   FamilySearch Image: 3Q9M-CS56-6SG7-7 Image number 08801
   Stephen Betts marriage to Ruth Church on 4 Jan 1784 in Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States.

• DAR Lineage Books
• Betts, Frederic H., 1888. Thomas Betts, of Guilford and Norwalk, and his Descendants. (based on the work of Caroli Wyllys Betts, deceased) page 54
• DAR Lineage Book (Daughters of the American Revolution); Vol II; A009780.
• Connecticut. Adjutant-General’s Office. Record of Service of Connecticut Men In the I. War of the Revolution, II. War of 1812, III. Mexican War. Hartford: [Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co.], 1889. pp. 79, 104, 306, 334, 354, 367, 374 & 633.
• “Deaths”, Connecticut Courant, Hartford, Connecticut, 18 December 1832, p. 3, col. 4.
• Connecticut Vital Records to 1870 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) From original typescripts, Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection, 1928. Norwalk, pp. 14-17.
• Edwin Hall, The Ancient Historical Records of Norwalk, Conn.; with a Plan of the Ancient Settlement and of the Town in 1847. New York: Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman & Co., 1865. p. 259.
• Gary L. Heinmiller, Membership in American Union Lodge No. 1 during the Revolutionary War. (http://www.omdhs.syracusemasons.com/sites/default/files/history/American%20Union%20Lodge%20No.%201%20-%20Membership.pdf)
• Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution April, 1775, to December, 1783. Washington, D.C.: The Rare Book Shop Publishing Company, 1914. p. 102.
• Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 15. Fold3.com(http://www.fold3.com/image/13928087/). Connecticut. Stephen Betts, Pension S37749.
• Rev. Charles M. Selleck, Address by Rev. Charles M. Selleck at the Centenary of St. Paul’s Church, Norwalk, Conn., July 15, 1886. Norwalk: The Hour Printing Office, 1886. pp. 26-27.

Acknowledgements

Biographical information compiled by V. Allen Gray