Pirum Ripley, Seaman

Pirum Ripley. Pirum Ripley or Pyrum Ripley was born on 22 November 1762 in Duxbury, MA to William Ripley (1735-1766) and Lydia Hunt and lived in Norwich at the beginning of the Revolution. According to Pirum Ripley’s pension application #S-23388, he enlisted at New London in February 1778 for nine months on the 20 gun Oliver Cromwell as a common sailor under Captain Timothy Parker. According to the 1896 Yearbook of the Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, he enlisted at age 16 as a “powder boy.” They sailed from Boston and captured the British ship Admiral Keppel of 20 guns and sent her into Boston. After a stop in Charlestown, SC, the Oliver Cromwell was dismasted in a gale in the Gulf of Florida near the Bahamas. On the return voyage to New London, she captured a merchantman Brig and sent her into Boston. Ripley was discharged 1 October 1778. He is listed in the Frigate Confederacy Riggers’ Returns 1778-1779. After working on the ship’s construction, Pirum Ripley then enlisted on the Confederacy as a sailor on 1 January 1779 for six months. After sailing to Philadelphia, the Confederacy “made frequent sails” taking a 24 gun ship into Philadelphia and on another occasion took a schooner of ten guns bringing her into Philadelphia. She also on another occasion took a sloop which afterward proved to be neutral rebel. In October 1779, Ripley left the ship while lying at Chester. He served 10 months, four over his enlistment terms. Ripley next enlisted as a private for six months in the Continental Army in General Pearson’s Brigade of the Fourth Connecticut Regiment under Col. John Durkee at Nelson’s Point on 1 July 1780, three of which were spent in Norwich. He was transferred to Captain Buell’s Company of Light Infantry in Colonel Herman Swift’s Regiment of General Perry’s Brigade. They marched to New Jersey and “moved about from place to place.” They returned for Winter Quarters at the Highlands in New York. Ripley was discharged on 31 December 1780. He moved to New Lebanon, NY during that winter where he enlisted on 1 April 1781 for nine months in Colonel Marinus Willet’s New York Regiment. They marched to Saratoga. While at the garrison there, he was employed in parties scouting for Tories and Indians. On 1 April 1782, Ripley enlisted again at New Lebanon in Captain Gray’s Company of Colonel Willet’s Regiment for nine more months. Before that enlistment was up, he enlisted again on 1 January 1783 and served until January 1784 when he was discharged at the Schnectady Barricks. During his last enlistment, Pirum Ripley “marched up the Mohawk River as far as Fort Stanwix and built two block store houses. It was written, “he with other Marines made a march across the State of New York in midwinter to the Defence of Oswego.” On one occasion during this enlistment he and two companions traveled for three days with no other food than one cracker divided among them. Pirum Ripley married Hannah Plumb or Plum on 6 June 1785 and fathered twelve children including son Tyrannus born in 1787 who married Rebekah Howe, son William Plum Ripley who married Cynthia Spencer, daughter Rebecca born in 1796 who married Walter Blout and daughter Laura born in 1808 at Richmond, NY who married Daniel Wallace. After the war, Ripley lived at New Lebanon, NY about three years, then Coxsackie County, NY, then Middleburg, Schoharie County, NY, then Richmond, Ontario County, NY and then to Livonia, Livingston County, NY. Ripley relocated yet again to be with children in Silina, Washtenau County, MI in October of 1836. Finally, he moved back to New York on 3 June 1839 to live with his daughter Rebecca Blout in Franklinville, Cattarauges County. Ripley is described as a man of extensive reading who had an excellent memory and a man of most interesting conversation, as well as, a faithful member of the Baptist Church. Pirum Ripley’s pension application describes him as “having become infirm, and having but a small property, and no real estate, he prays for a pension which will enable him to live comfortably.” He died in Franklinville on 23 March 1844 and is buried there with his wife at Mt. Prospect Cemetery. A Piram Ripley Society was organized under Miss Elizabeth H. Blount in Washington, DC; where in 1899 the society which bears his name placed a tablet on the old house at No. 3051 M Street in Georgetown.