I remember my first time visiting Lexington and Concord as a child. Even at that time I knew some of the stories about my ancestors in the American Revolution. One was my maternal fourth great-grandfather Capt. Jonathan Poor (1737-1807) of Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts. The published set of the Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution recorded that he was Captain of a militia company under Col. Samuel Gerrish’s 2nd Essex County regiment that “marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775” and served six days.
The Battle of Lexington, William Barnes Wollen
It is fairly obvious that even though the brave men of Newbury marched to answer the Lexington alarm, they were not anywhere near Lexington Green that morning 250 years ago today. The distance between Newbury and Lexington is a little over 40 miles, and it is a 52-minute drive by automobile. Chances are, they may have joined the fight at some point when the British were retreating to Boston along the Battle Road. The brave men who met the British regulars on Lexington Green and Concord Bridge were local men. So, when you learn your ancestors marched on the Lexington Alarm, do a quick search on the mileage between the two communities to evaluate this reality yourself.
Other members of my maternal lineage also took part in the American Revolution, from the first shots of the Revolution rang out at Lexington Green through the surrender at Yorktown. Even as a child, I wanted to learn more about my Patriot ancestors to keep their memory alive.
Currently, I have joined the New Hampshire Society of the Cincinnati, the Massachusetts Sons of the Revolution, and the Order of Founders and Patriots. I currently serve as the State Historian for the Massachusetts Sons of the American Revolution and two other groups. On occasion, I will be asked if I have an ancestor who was at Lexington Green or Concord Bridge. I will answer in the positive that, in fact, I do. This may seem to contradict what I previously stated above; however, I had not shared my paternal ancestor's story yet.
My paternal grandparents immigrated from New Brunswick, Canada, settling in East Boston in 1923. My father was born nearly a century ago in October 1925 and was the first male American-born Lambert in my direct lineage. In the late 1930s, my family lived in Charlestown, not very far from the shadow of the Bunker Hill monument. My father never knew he was not the first of his family to ascend the hill.
Over the past thirty years, I have had great success in researching the ancestry of my paternal ancestors. One of my paternal fifth great-grandfathers from Canada was named Thomas Berry. I discovered that his widow, Rebecca, had applied to the New Brunswick House of Assembly in 1850 and 1851 for a pension based on her late husband. It stated he was “an old soldier of the Revolutionary War of America.”
I initially thought it was strange that I now had an American Revolutionary War veteran moving up to Canada. Then I soon realized that Thomas Berry was not an American soldier—or even a Loyalist soldier—he was a British Regular. A Redcoat! A Lobster Back!
I was able to learn more details about his unit and his place of origin from two Crown Land grants found at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. In 1819, his memorial petition for land states, “That he was born in the County of York, Old England and left his native Country in his Majesty’s service and was discharged from the same at the expiration of the first American War – hath resided in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick ever since.”
An earlier memorial in 1809 reveals the details of which unit in the British Army he served: “Thomas Berry of Peticoodicack, pleads to intercede with you to befriend him in helping to get himself land on Coverdale river on Petticoodiack, he states he served His Majesty in the 38th regiment of foot in the American War.”
Not realizing at that point where the 38th Regiment of Foot served, I turned to the respected two-volume work of John M. Kitzmiller II, In Search of the “Forlorn Hope” (Salt Lake City, UT: Manuscript Pub. Foundation, 1988). From this publication, I learned that during the American Revolution, the 38th Regiment of Foot (also known as the 1st Staffordshire Regiment) and humorously nicknamed “The Pump & Tortoise” was stationed in North America during the Revolutionary War. They were amongst the regiments that arrived in Boston in 1774. The 38th Regiment is recorded as marching to Lexington and Concord, and they also took an active role during the Battle of Bunker Hill later that year. At the end of the war, when the unit arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, some of the regiment chose to settle in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. This is where Thomas would settle, which became Albert County, New Brunswick, and where his daughter Sarah (Berry) Kelly, my fourth great-grandmother ancestor, was born in 1793.
Today, as I march alongside my fellow compatriots of the Massachusetts Sons of the American Revolution at the Concord parade, I will pause and remember an ancestor who was there at Lexington and Concord in 1775. Today, I will remember and reflect upon the potential fears of a young man, my own ancestor, going into battle in a land far from his own home. I truly wonder what he would think of his own fifth great-grandson marching with his enemies a quarter of a millennium later.
These Revolutionary War veterans all need to be remembered, and so do their stories—not just now, but for future generations. It is said that time heals all wounds. I am honored to be a descendant of American Patriots—and yes, even a Redcoat of His Majesty George III’s troops who served on the other side of Lexington Green.
Learn More:
Free Download: Getting Started with Revolutionary War Records
Webinar Recording: Researching Colonial Ancestors During the American Revolution