Continental Navy

William Blodget. Son of Dr. Benjamin Blodget (1717-1781) and his first wife Mary Slatterlee, William Blodget (or Blodgett) was born 8 June 1754 in Stonington, CT and named after his oldest sibling who had apparently died sometime during the previous ten years. William’s thirty-two year old mother Mary died shortly after his birth on 26 August 1754, followed in death within weeks by his older siblings Benjamin and Anna. William’s father Dr. Benjamin Blodget was quickly remarried to Abigail Swan on 20 March 1755 at Stonington by Rev. Joseph Fish, the same minister who had married his parents eleven years earlier. In addition to William and his surviving sister Mary, the doctor’s household included seven children by his second wife. Continue reading →

Samuel Chandler. A list of accounts prepared in 1810 by the Treasury Department under the act of 27 March 1792 regarding settlements with Army and Navy veterans of the Revolutionary War published by Gales and Seaton in “American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive of the Congress of the United States from the First Session of the First to the Second Session of the Seventeenth Session of Congress, Inclusive” (1834), includes an amount of $1.84 settled on 7 February 1794 for Samuel Chandler- chaplain of the Continental Navy frigate Trumbull. Interest on the comparatively tiny sum was authorized to commence beginning 20 November 1780, suggesting that date as his last in service on the vessel. The monies may be related to several days of unpaid wages, however the sum is not divisible as the daily increment of a chaplain’s stipulated salary of twenty dollars per month. Continue reading →