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Private John Gay, Jr.

Private John Gay, Jr. (1750 - unknown), of English heritage, marched on Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 and is named on the 1775 Muster Roll. He later enlisted in the Continental Army and served from 1777 - 1781 under Colonel Israel Putnam. 

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Private Nicodemus Gigger*

Private Nicodemus Gigger (1751 - 1804), of African and Indigenous heritage, enlisted as a private out of Sudbury in Colonel William Prescott’s Regiment on October 7, 1775. Little is known of Gigger’s service, but Prescott led the colonial forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, and later saw action defending New York City and at Saratoga.

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Fifer William Goodenow

Fifer William Goodenow (1759 - 1838), of English heritage, was born in Natick, the son of Elijah and Deborah. He married Phebe (Man) in 1782, and had at least 4 children. Seven people are recorded as living in his household in the 1790 Natick census.

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Private Nathan Jenison (Jennison)

Private Nathan Jenison (1754 - 1783), of English heritage, was one of six children of Robert Jennison of Natick.  He married Sarah Dowse in May 1773 at the age of 19. 

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Captain John Jones

Captain John Jones Jr. (1743-July 4, 1776) was the son of Colonel John Jones and Hannah Morse. He married Betsey (or Betty) Hapsgood in 1769. Jones was born on the family homestead in Dover, but his christening was recorded in Natick as his father John Jones  was heavily involved in Natick town affairs as surveyor and justice of the peace, and was also a deacon in the church.

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Sergeant Henry Loker Jr.

Only the Bunker Hill Muster Roll, recently conserved by the Natick Historical Society, provides the evidence that Henry Loker, Jr. (1724 - 1813), fought in the Revolutionary War. 

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Private Plato Lambert*

Plato Lambert was a Black veteran of the Revolutionary War who was born in Framingham on December 1, 1737.  As an enslaved infant, Plato Lambert was taken away from his family and gifted or sold to Martha Nichols of  Framingham.  This was a common practice in colonial Massachusetts.

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Captain James Mann

Captain James Mann (1747 - 1824), of English heritage, married Lydia Chickering of Dover in January 1775. A few months later, in April 1775, Mann responded to the alarm at Lexington. On June 17, 1775, he led a company of Natick men under Colonel Samuel Bullard to the Battle of Bunker Hill.

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Private Eliakim Morrill

Eliakim Morrill (1753 - 1824) of English heritage, was born in Wilmington, Massachusetts and responded to the alarm of 19 April in Lexington from there. He was married in Natick in 1781 and appeared on the Natick roll for the alarm to Rhode Island, serving ten days.

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Private Samuel Morse Jr.

Private Samuel Morse, Jr. (1750 - 1830), of English heritage, marched to Lexington on the alarm of April 19, 1775 in a five day enlistment. His name appears on the Bunker Hill Muster Roll for June 17, 1775. He also served from July 28 - 31, 1780 in response to an alarm at Rhode Island. 

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Private Jonas Obscow*

Private Jonas Obscow (1739-1805) was of Indigenous heritage. He was born in Natick and married Mary Speen in 1764. They had several children together. He enlisted in May of 1775 and served under Captain Joseph Morse in Colonel John Patterdson’s regiment. His name appears on an order for a bounty coat or its equivalent dated November 21, 1775.

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Private Joseph Paugenit*

Joseph Pocknet/Paugenit (unknown - 1777), of Indigenous heritage, was baptized in Natick on November 10, 1754. He enlisted on April 24, 1775 from Framingham in the Company of Captain Thomas Drury, in Colonel John Nixon’s Regiment.

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Private Samuel Paugenit*

Samuel Pocknett/Paugenit (unknown - 1777), of Indigenous heritage, may have been baptized in Natick along with his kin, Joseph Paugenit. Samuel served in Captain Bailey’s Company of the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment under Colonel John Bailey.

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Private Alexander Quapash*

Private Alexander Quapash (1741 - 1776), of Indigenous heritage, was born in Yarmouth, Wampanoag lands, in 1741. He later moved to Dedham and married Sarah David, an Indigenous woman of that town. David died just before the war began in 1774.

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Private Thomas Sawin Jr.

Private Thomas Sawin Jr. (1752-1856), of English heritage, was 23 years old when he responded to the alarm on April 19, 1775. He also marched on Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 and continued to serve through the fall and winter of 1775 - 76.

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Private Henry Smith

Private Henry Smith of Natick, son of Timothy and Esther, was born around 1752. He married Mary (aka Molly) Fuller of Boylston in 1791. According to Henry’s son, Amos Smith, Henry was wounded at Bunker Hill when a musket left a “furrow” on his head.

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Private Jacob Speen*

Private Jacob Speen (1754-unknown), of Indigenous and possibly African heritage, was 21 years old when he enlisted in the Massachusetts Militia and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. In October 1775, a record lists his name on an “order for bounty coat or its equivalent in money” out of Cambridge Camp. That order places Speen in close proximiy to General George Washington’s military headquarters during the Siege of Boston.

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Private Caesar Thompson*

Private Caesar Thompson (unknown-1799) was enslaved by Samuel Welles of Natick, a wealthy landowner who had settled in Natick due to the availability of land. In 1775, Welles sent his “negro man” to serve in the campaign on Canada (the unsuccessful mission to capture Quebec led by General Benedict Arnold). 

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Private John Ting(s)

Private John Tings served in Captain Joseph Morse’s company in Colonel Rufus Putnam’s Regiment and in several other companies and regiments. He was also listed in Continental Army pay accounts from January 1777 to the end of 1779 as well as in Natick Town records for payment for six months service in 1780 in the Continental Army.

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Private Daniel Travis

Private Daniel Travis (1742 - 1800), of English heritage, was the son of Joseph and Sarah. He married Thankful Wadkins of Hopkinton in 1766. He marched on the alarm of 19 April 1775 in Captain Joseph Morse’s Company and Colonel Samuel Bullard’s Regiment.

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