It’s Patriots Day tomorrow, and I’m giving a sermon tomorrow telling the stories of three Cohasset Revolutionary War heroes and heroines, all of whom would have attended services in our 1747 meetinghouse. These three were Persis Tower Lincoln Hall, Briton Nichols, and Noah Nichols.
Due to the time constraints of a sermon, I have to give shortened versions of their life stories tomorrow. I had hoped to post fuller versions of their life stories here, but the research took much longer than I had planned and I’m out of time. Instead, I’ll put a timeline of Noah Nichols’s life after the jump — just to get the information on the web where it’s publicly accessible.
So… just in time to commemorate Patriot’s Day, here’s the life of Captain Noah Nichols….
Noah Nichols timeline
N.B.: There were at least two other Noah Nichols in Mass. at about this time. Most importantly, there was a Noah Nichols/Nickols (1746-1824) who lived in Scituate, and who also served in the Revolution. The Scituate Nickols served as a private, not an officer.
1754 January 8
Noah Nichols [Jr.] born to Noah [Sr.] and Elizabeth Nichols, in what was then Hingham 2nd precinct (which would become Cohasset in 1770).
Noah Sr. had been a corporal in the French and Indian war (Victor Bigelow, Narrative History of Cohasset [1898], p. 279). Noah Sr. was a constable of Hingham in 1760 (this was before Cohasset split off from Hingham as a separate town), and lived near King St.
(History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts, vol. III [Cambridge: University Press, John Wilson and son, 1893], p.87-88. N.B.: Unfortunately, the baptism/christening records from 1753-1754 are missing from the First Parish in Cohasset records.)
Noah [Jr.] was one of 13 children: Elizabeth (dau., 1751-1814); Lucca (dau., 1752-1783); Noah (1754-1833): Bela (son, 1755-1831); Susannah (1757-1851); Adna (son, 1758-1844); Ambrose (son, 1760-1833); Mary (dau., 1762-1806); Thomas (son, 1763-1825); Jerome (son, 1765 – ?; prob. died in childhood); Ebenezer (son, 1768-1835); James (son, 1770-1816); Nathaniel (son, 1772-1849). See: History of the Town of Hingham, vol. II Genealogy; Massachusetts Vital Records.
1750s – childhood
Noah learned how to write; we know because some of his handwritten payroll records for the Revolution are still in existence. His handwriting was clear and readable.
1770 July 19
Noah’s older sister Elizabeth married Daniel Burrell (1754-1773), a widower, in Cohasset.
1771
In the first Cohasset tax assessment after the town incorporated, Noah Nichols Sr. assessed for real estate worth 74 pounds 8 shillings. This was well below Thomas Lothrop, who owned real estate valued 383 pounds 2 shillings; but he was also 31st wealthiest out of 123 property owners who were Cohasset residents.
(Victor Bigelow, A Narrative History of Cohasset,Bigelow, p.)
1771 October 3 [Noah age 17]
Noah Nichols (Sr.) died, leaving his wife Elizabeth pregnant, with 9 other children at home.
(Mass. Vital Records.)
1775 mid-March
Given the birthdate of their first child, Noah and Abigail Lincoln are having sex, well before getting married.
1775 December 15 [Noah age 21]
Susannah, first child of Noah and Abigail Lincoln, born in Cohasset (Mass. Vital Records). Susannah was baptized 15 Feb. 1777.
(1st Parish records).
1776 February 28 [Noah age 22]
Noah Nichols [Jr.] and Abigail Lincoln are married in Cohasset by Rev. John Brown of First Parish.
(First Parish records.)
1776 March
Noah served for five days with the Hingham town militia: “Company marched from Scituate to Hingham March 24, 1776, on an alarm subsequent to the taking Dorchester Heights.” [This may have been the Noah Nichols/Nickols who lived in Scituate].
(Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, a Compilation from the Archives prepared and presented by the Secretary of the Commonwealth [Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1903], p. 430.)
1776 July 11
Noah Nichols in military service at Ticonderoga, as detailed in this military dispatch:
“Head-Quarters, July 11, 1776
“Captain Williams, with all the blacksmiths that came with him from Crown-Point, to proceed as soon as possible to Skenesborough. Lieutenant Bowman and the armourers to remain at Ticonderoga. Lieutentant Beal, with the house-carpenters, and Mr. Noah Nichols, with the wheelwrights, are to remain at Ticonderoga, under the direction of Colonel Baldwin, Chief Engineer. Mr. Richard Tillock, with the thirteen ship-carpenters under his direction, are to proceed immediately to Skeneborough. Lieutenant Curtis, with his gang of ship-carpenters, are to remain at Ticonderoga, under the direction of Commodore Wynkoop…..”
(Peter Force, American Archives, Fifth Series: A Documentary History of the United States of America [July 4, 1776 to Sept. 3, 1783], volume I [Washington, D.C.: M. St. Clair and Peter Force, 1848], p. 653.)
1776 November 9
Noah is commissioned a captain, to serve in Col. Ebeneezer Stevens’ Battalion of Artillery, heading the artificer’s company. The battalion included “Captains Stephen Buckland’s, Nathaniel Donnell’s, and John Winslow’s Companies of Crane’s Continental Artillery Regiment (recruited from Massachusetts and Connecticut) and Captain Noah Nichols’ Artificer Company.”
(W. T. R. Saffell, Record of the Revolutionary War, 3rd ed. [Baltimore: Charles C. Saffell, 1894], p. 160; Robert K. Wright, The Continental Army [Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, U.S. Army], p. 329, 339.)
What was an “artificer”? According to Erna Risch, Supplying Washington’s Army (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, US Army, 1981), p. 152: “Whether in constructing barracks at a post, building or repairing boats, or maintaining a wagon train in working order, the Continental Army needed artificers both in the field and at posts. When none were available, soldiers had to be detailed from the line. This frequent necessity distressed Washington, since the strength of the force he could put in the field was thereby diminished. Employing artificers at daily wages would have imposed a heavy financial burden; instead, the Continental Army initially resorted to raising companies of artificers. Such companies of skilled civilian workmen were raised by master artisans to perform specific tasks, such as the building of barracks or the construction of bateaux. The master artisan served as the foreman or superintendent of the company….”
Given his rank, Noah Nichols would have been considered a “master artisan.” We know from other sources that he was a wheelwright (much needed for an artillery corps), as well as a cartwright and a housewright.
1777 February 2
Noah recruits three Cohasset men to serve in his company: his brother Bela Nichols, Jonathan Bates, Melzar Joy, and James Stoddard.
(Saffell, p. 160.)
1777 Feb 15
Noah and Abigail are mentioned three times in the First Parish records:
a. as persons who “owned the covenant,” that is, formally joined the church;
b. in meetings of the church, the following terse listing: “1777. Feby 15. Noah Nickols and his Abigail his wife.” This probably represents the time when Noah and Abigail publicly confessed their sins before owning the covenant; and
c. as the parents of Susanna (b. 15 Dec 1775), who was baptized that same day.
(First Parish records.)
John Adams later wrote that Rev. John Brown was a Unitarian — thus we can claim Noah and Abigail as Unitarians, or at least as proto-Unitarians.
1777 June-October
Some details of action seen by Noah’s company are given in an entry on Ebenezer Burrill in Howard Kendall Sanderson, Lynn in the Revolution, Part II (Boston: W. B. Clarke Company, 1909), pp. 236-237.
“Early in 1777, probably in March, [Ebenezer Burrill] enlisted once more, this time for three years or during the war. He was assigned to Captain Noah Nichols’s company of artificers, and served under Major Ebenezer Stevens in General Henry Knox’s artillery brigade. With his brother Alden, who had enlisted at the same time, he marched for Ticonderoga, where he was stationed when the news came of the invasion of Burgoyne. Upon the appearance of the British army the garrison was obliged to fall back to Albany [in July], and Burrill was in the retreat….”
1777 July 6 [Noah age 23]
A private of Noah Nichols’ company, William Smith, was taken prisoner by the British.
(Saffell, p. 160.)
1777 July
Given the birth of his daughter Elizabeth nine months later, Noah must have been home some time this month.
1777 September-October
Returning to Edward Burrill, we learn that Noah’s company was at the Battle of Saratoga: “…[Ebenezer] was in the battles preceding the capture of General Burgoyne and was present at the surrender, after which he was again stationed at Albany….”
(Sanderson, p. 237).
1778 January 5
Noah was in Albany, according to a muster roll of officers in Major Ebenezer Stevens Corps of Artillery.
1778 March
Noah was in Albany, according to a muster roll.
(Entry for Noah Nichols, 14 Mar 1778, “United States, Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783”, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL65-K6DY .)
1778 April 11
Noah’s daughter Elizabeth was born in Cohasset.
1778 June 28
Noah was perhaps at or near the Battle of Monmouth, N.J.
1778? at an unknown date
During the Centennial celebration for Cohasset in 1870, Hon. Thomas Russell spoke of his memories of Noah Nichols: “Many of you remember the veteran Noah Nichols…. You have heard his story of Washington ordering him to repair the wheel of a gun-carriage while on a forced march, of his request for permission to stop while mending it, and of the general’s abrupt refusal. ‘It was the hardest thing I ever did,’ the old man would add, ‘but I did it.'”
(Thomas Russell, centennial address [May, 1870], in Duane Hamilton Hurd, ed., History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts [Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Cop., 1884], Chapter XIX: Cohasset, pp. 219-220.)
1779 May
Noah was based in Pluckemin, New Jersey.
(Entry for Noah Nichols, Jan 1779, “United States, Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783”, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL65-8T9L .)
(2) 1779 July
Noah was based in Chester, Penna.
(Entry for Noah Nichols, Jul 1779, “United States, Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783”, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL6Y-VB2B .)
(2) 1779 September 3
Noah was at West Point, along with Melzar Joy and James Stoddard.
(Entry for Noah Nicholls, 03 Sep 1779, “United States, Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783”, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL6Y-VBLF .)
(2) 1779 September
The officers of the artificer companies were complaining about their pay and privileges: “…The officers commanding the companies of enlisted artificers, meanwhile, also were complaining of the treatment accorded them…. They complained also that their pay, which at first had appeared generous, had not been raised in proportion to the depreciation of money that was occurring in 1779. Moreover, since these officers belonged to no state unit, they received no part of the allowance the states made for their regular officers, nor did they have any prospect of sharing in the land provisions which the states were making for their officers and soldiers in the Continental Army. Since these companies of artificers had all been raised before Greene became Quartermaster General, he referred the complaints to Congress and enclosed a petition signed by captains and lieutenants of companies of artificers recruited in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York….” Congress waited until November to take action on this problem.
(Erna Risch, p. 155.)
1779 December 16
The officers serving under Noah Nichols still have not received their commissions.
(Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789, vol. XV. 1779, September 2-December 31 [Washington: Government Printing Office, 1909], p. 1388-1389.)
1779 December
Noah was in Morristown, N.J.
(Entry for Noah Nichols, 14 Dec 1779, “United States, Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783”, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL6Y-S2WB .)
1780 January
Payrolls for his troops indicates that he was in Morristown, N.J.
(Entry for Noah Nichols, Aug 1779, “United States, Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783”, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL6Y-35MX .)
1780 March 26 [Noah age 26]
Noah’s daughter Elizabeth, now almost 2 years old, was baptized at First Parish by Rev. John Brown.Presumably, Noah was present for this event.
(First Parish records.)
1780 April 3
Noah resigned his officer’s commission.
(Francis B. “Alphabetical List of Officers of the Continental Army,” Historical Register of the Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, April 1775 to December 1783 [Washington, DC, Rare Book Shop Publishing Co., Inc., 1914], p. 414.)
1780s on
Noah resumed working as a wheelwright, cartwright, and housewright. Some insight into his work may be found in the account books kept by his brother Ambrose, who was in the same line of work, outlined in the finding aid for that account book, now in the collection of the University of Massachusetts Amherst:
“Ambrose Nichols Account Book, 1809-1830. 1 volume (0.25 linear ft.) Call no.: MS 210
“A cartwright from Cohasset, Massachusetts. Account book includes the types of activities and services Ambrose Nichols performed (working on wagons, wheels, sleds and carts, mending roofs, plowing, raking) and a few entries recording the means by which debts were paid….
“Background on Ambrose Nichols: Ambrose Nichols (1760-1833) was the seventh of thirteen children born to Noah and Elizabeth Nichols of Cohasset, Massachusetts. Ambrose, whose father was a farmer, learned the trade of cartwright, following in the footsteps of his older brother Noah, who was both a wheelwright and house carpenter. Ambrose married the former Sarah DeCarteret in 1790, and together they had eight children.
“Scope of collection: The account book, roughly 75 pages, details the prices paid Ambrose Nichols for various kinds of work. Although he principally worked on wagons, wheels, sleds and carts, he also mended roofs, worked on houses, plowed, raked, and did odd jobs for local farmers. The accounts begin when Nichols was 49 years old [in 1809] and run until he reached 70, just three years before his death. They are arranged in a haphazard manner in the book, with only a few entries giving the means by which the debts were paid. Many of the names in the accounts overlap with the farmers and mariners for whom the Cohasset farmer Job Cushing (MS 207) also did work.”
(University of Massachusetts Amherst, Ambrose Nichols Account Book, 1809-1830, 1 volume (0.25 linear ft.) Call no.: MS 210, findingaids.library.umass.edu/ead/mums210.pdf)
1781 December [Noah age 27]
Noah’s son Daniel Burrell born in Cohasset; John Brown’s baptism record is dated 23 Dec 1781.
(First Parish records.)
1784 July?
Noah’s son William born in Cohasset, and was baptized 31 July 1784.
(First Parish records.)
1787 August [Noah age 33]
Noah’s son Isaac born in Cohasset, and baptized 26 Oct 1788. Rev. John Brown notes that Isaac is the “son of Noah and Nabby”; Nabby being a nickname for Abigail.
(First Parish records.)
1787 September [Noah age 33]
Noah receives some back pay for his military service: “Noah Nichols appears as a Captain on an account rendered against the United States by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for amounts paid officers and men of Capt. Jeduthan Baldwin’s regt. on account of depreciation of their wages for the first three years’ service in the Continental Army from 1777 to 1780. Account exhibited by Committee on Claims in behald of Mass. against U.S., Sept 21, 1787.”
(Entry for Noah Nichols, 21 September 1787, “Massachusetts, Revolutionary War, Index Cards to Muster Rolls, 1775-1783”, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGKC-WVCV .)
1790 Jul 25 [Noah age 36]
Noah’s son Isaac died.
(Mass. Vital Records.)
1790 [Noah age 36]
The first U.S. Census found Noah living in Cohasset with 3 White males (presumably Daniel and William), 3 White females (presumably Abigail, Elizabeth, and Susannah).
1791 December 15 [Noah age 37]
Noah’s daughter Abigail born in Cohasset, and baptized by Rev. Josiah Shaw 12 August 1792.
(Mass. Vital Records; First Parish Records.)
1794 October 11 [Noah age 40]
Noah’s son Isaac Lincoln born in Cohasset, and baptized by Josiah Shaw 8 Nov 1795.
(Mass. Vital Records; First Parish Records.)
1797 September 15 [Noah age 43]
Noah’s son Lazarus born in Cohasset.
(Mass. Vital Records.)
1800 [Noah age 46]
The second U.S. Census found Noah living in Cohasset
with 2 White males (presumably Isaac and Lazarus; Daniel would have been old enough to be on his own), and 3 White females (presumably his wife Abigail, and his daughters Elizabeth and Abigail).
1804 April 11 [Noah age 50]
Noah’s daughter Elizabeth (age 26) married Stephen Locke in Watertown, Mass.
1806 June 24 [Noah age 52]
Noah’s daughter Susannah (age 31) married John Owen in Brunswick, Maine.
1806 December 8 [Noah age 52]
Noah’s mother Elizabeth Beal Nichols died in Cohasset; her death was recorded by Rev. Jacob Flint.
(First Parish records.)
1809 [Noah age 55]
Noah’s son William Nichols (age ~25) married Betsey Underwood in Boston.
1810 [Noah age 56]
The third U.S. Census found Noah living in Cohasset with 2 White males (sons Isaac and Lazarus), and his wife Abigail.
1812 Dec 2 [Noah age 58]
Noah’s daughter Abigail (age 21) married Charles Locke in Cohasset, the marriage performed by Rev. Jacob Flint. She died in Lexington, Mass., in 1880.
(First Parish records.
1815 May 29 [Noah age 61]
Noah’s son Daniel Burrell (age 33) married Elizabeth Gowen in Boston, the marriage performed by a Baptist minister, Rev. Thomas Baldwin. Daniel’s occupation was tailor. By 1822, Daniel was living in Boston.
1818 [Noah age 64]
Noah appeared on a pension list, with payments commencing 31 March 1818.
(Microfilm: Ledgers of Payments, 1818-72, to U.S. Pensioners under Acts of 1818 through 1858 from the Records of the Office of the Third Auditor of the Treasury, Roll 2, Volume B, Revolutionary War Pensioners Under Act of 1818, 1818-32 [Washington: The National Archives, 1962], Massachusetts, page 55.)
1820 [Noah age 66]
I was unable to find Noah on the fourth U.S. Census, but his son Daniel was recorded as living in Cohasset.
1823 April 13 [Noah age 69]
Noah’s son Lazarus died in Cohasset.
(First Parish records.)
1820s-1830s [Noah in his 70s]
“Many of you remember the veteran Noah Nichols, who was accustomed in his old age to shoulder his fire-lock, ‘And show how the fields were won.’…”
(Thomas Russell in Duane Hamilton Hurd, pp. 219-220.)
1829 [Noah age 75]
Noah’s son Isaac Lincoln (age ~35) married Betsy Smith in Woburn, Mass.; he worked as a railroad crossing guard, and died in 1878.
1830 [Noah age 76]
The fifth U.S. Census found Noah living in Cohasset with 2 White females ages 70-80 — presumably Abigail, and who was the second woman?
1833 June 23 [Noah age 79]
Noah Nichols died in Cohasset; Rev. Jacob Flint wrote in the First Parish records: “June 23. Noah Nichols [died] in his 79th year.”
(First Parish records.)
1846 January 29
Noah’s wife Abigail died in Cohasset (age 91).