Isaac Stearns Sr (1732 - abt. 1818)

Born 27 Feb 1732 in Littleton, Middlesex, Province of Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Husband of Rebeckah (Jewett) Stearns — married 26 Feb 1767 in Hollis, Hillsborough, New Hampshire Colony

Descendants

Died about 1818 at about age 85 in Monkton, Addison, Vermont, United States of America

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Biography

Corporal Isaac Stearns Sr served with New Hampshire Militia during the American Revolution.

Isaac Stearns Sr is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A10936.

Isaac was the third child of Samuel II and Keziah Robbins Stearns. His siblings, in order of birth, were: Samuel III (1732), Peter I (1734), Isaac (1736), Joseph (1738), Ruth (1741), Keziah (1743), Ebenezer (1744), Phoebe (1746) and John (1750). Sometime before John was born (1750), the family moved to Hollis, New Hampshire, where membership in the Congregational Church was not required as it was in Massachusetts Bay. Isaac was still in his teens, when he became a soldier for Hollis NH in the British Colonial Forces. In 1755 he served in the expedition against the French forts at Crown Point on the West Shore of Lake Champlain. Soldiers on the Crown Point expedition would have learned about the land on the east bank of the lake claimed by both the Yorkers and as New Hampshire Grants by Governor Benning Wentworth.

In 1758 Isaac participated in England's final siege to take Louisbourg in Nova Scotia, from the French. ^[1]. The siege failed; however it did contribute significantly to the culmination of the Seven Years War after which France ceded Canada to the British.

In 1767 he married Rebecca Jewett. He had become a successful farmer in Hollis, New Hampshire, where he and Rebecca gave birth to several offspring. In 1774 the town of Hollis listed Isaac and his brother, Joseph as well as their father Samuel Jr as landholding taxpayers. This was the last tax collected in Hollis under the authority of the King. ^[2]

During this time, just before the onset of the Revolutionary War, his younger brothers Ebenezer and John became early settlers in New Haven, in what is now Addison County, Vermont. Unfortunately, records of their efforts were non-existent or were destroyed in conflicts with Indians warring on behalf of the French, or were otherwise lost. After the War, Isaac's older brother Peter who had achieved the rank of Lieutenant, settled his family in the Republic of Vermont in the region of Hinesburg, Monkton, and Shelburne.

Isaac was among the “Minute Men” from Hollis who responded to the alarm “on the 18th of April in seventy-five” and marched to Lexington, the first battle of the American Revolution. He enlisted at Cambridge for eight months in a new company under Captain Reuben Dow, Col Prescott’s Regiment, subsequently participating at “Bunker Hill” where the Americans were defeated by the British but gained important confidence. The descriptive roll of Dow’s Company lists Isaac Stearns, age 38, light complexion, 5 ft 5 in.^[1], pgs 148-155 </ref>

In 1777, he signed up for the Ticonderoga "alarm" for a period of eight months, pledging to be ready to fight in defense of the newly won independence of the United States of America. During this period, he removed to Monkton, Republic of Vermont, where he became prominent in town and church affairs. Vermont was admitted as the fourteenth state in 1791. Isaac Stearns died there in 1818.

ISAAC STEARNS (187), b., 1736, son of Samuel and Keziah (Robbins) Stearns, of Hollis, N. H.; md., Feb. 26, 1767, Rebecca Jewett, of Hollis, N. H. They settled in Monkton, Vt., where he d., 1818, aged 82; eight children. ^[3][4]

The 1790 Federal Census shows an Isaac Stearns, possibly Jr, residing in Monkton VT. ^[5]

It is interesting to note that Isaac and three of his brothers (Peter, Ebenezer and John) did finally settle their respective families in the region across the lake from Crown Point— in adjacent towns, Monkton, New Haven, Hinesburg. I have not been able to locate the burial places of Peter, Isaac or Ebenezer Stearns. John's grave is in North Ferrisburg Cemetery near the boundary between Ferrisburg and Monkton.

(Note: There are five Stearnses listed in the 1800 fed census as residents of Monkton, Addison County: Isaac p95, Joseph p97, John p98, Ebenezer p97; also Ebenezer Jr p97.)

8 Children of Isaac and Rebecca Jewett Stearns

• REBECCA STEARNS, born in Hollis, Dec. 16, 1767; md. Mr. Pomancy, of Ferrisburg, Vt.; had four sons and six daughters.
• (Sarah) SALLY STEARNS, born in Hollis, Nov. 9, 1769; md. (1), Mr. Tibbets, and md. (2), Mr. Gaige; had five sons and two daughters; d., Adams, Jefferson Co., NY
• PHOEBE STEARNS, may have been born in Monkton, Jan. 1771 (twin-Lois) Phoebe Stearns d. of a casualty.
• LOIS STEARNS, may have been born in Monkton, Jan. 1771 (twin-Phoebe) md. Nathan Williams, b., 1772; had four sons and two daughters; d., Oct. 1, 1846.^[6][7]
• (Anna) aka SUSAN STEARNS, born in Hollis, Mar. 10, 1772; went to Ohio.
• ISAAC STEARNS JR., born in Hollis, Feb. 17, 1773; had two wives; d., 1823, in Monkton, Vt.
• NATHANIEL STEARNS, b., 1774; md., had three children; d., 1840. He was blind for forty years before his decease.
• REV. AMOS STEARNS, b., 1776; a Baptist clergyman; moved to Argyle, Washington Co., NY.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Worcester, History of the Town of Hollis (see Sources), p 99-98, French War from 1754-1763.
2. ↑ Worcester, History of the Town of Hollis pg. 137
3. ↑ Stearns Genealogy and Memoirs by Avis Stearns Van Wagenen 1901, p.101
4. ↑ Cutter, Richard, NEW ENGLAND FAMILIES, Volume1, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913. Pg. 386.
5. ↑ United States Census, 1790, database with images, FamilySearch (accessed 16 November 2016), Isaac Stearns, Monkton, Addison, Vermont, United States; citing p. 13, NARA microfilm publication M637, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 12; FHL microfilm 568,152.
6. ↑ m. Nathan Williams at Monkton, Dec. 1, 1799 (source: Vermont vital records, Town of Monkton)
7. ↑ p.517 Town of Monkton Nathan Williams, born in 1772, came to Monkton very early, and married Lois, daughter of Isaac Stearns.

• Jewett, Frederic Clarke, History and Genealogy of the Jewetts of America, Volume I, The Grafton Press, New York, 1908. Pgs. 116-7.
• History of Addison County Vermont, edited by H.P. Smith,
• Worcester, Samuel Thomas. History of the Town of Hollis, New Hampshire (A. Williams & Co., Boston, 1879)