A
Portland Revolutionary War Veteran (part 1)
by Doris Sherrow, November 2000
Samuel Cooper
was born in 1745, the second of John and Susannah Cooper’s
five children. They lived somewhere in the Pacousett area of Marlborough
Street — research has not yet determined quite where. When Samuel
turned 21, he married Martha Stow and set up housekeeping nearby.
They had a baby girl, Olive, in 1767, and probably a couple more
children, and a baby they named John, before Samuel was called
to service in the early part of the Revolution. He had been an ensign
in the Train Band (the early National Guard), and departed for
Boston as a second lieutenant in the Second Connecticut Regiment in May
of 1775.
Three of the letters he wrote to his family
survived to be published in the Connecticut Magazine of 1906, where
they were described as letters from a soldier from Chatham. The creator
of the article, Charles H. McKee, didn’t seem to know much
more about Cooper, though he may have been a descendant. His interest
was largely in Cooper’s character and the obvious affection he expresses
for his family:
Roxbury July 18 1775
To my Dear wife & Children
I Received yours [your letter] which I Prize next to your Person ~ the welfare of our family I understand is good ~ you tell me John is fat & Rugged which I Rejoice to hear & Prize above gold ~ the Rest of our Children I Don’t mention be Cause I Left them well~I shall give you but a Short Detail of affairs for I Expect this will not arrive … the State of the army is such that I Cant tell when I Shall Come home but I have In Couragem’t of Comeing in about a month but not Certain ~I want you to Send me two Pair of Linen Stockings for I have had two Pair Stole~The Rest are all wore out~I Did not Receive in Your Last Letter to me what I Expected but hope to in the next ~ Dear maddam I Rejoice that I am able to acquaint you that I Enjoy a good State of Health & god be Praised our Company is harty — the Dangers we are to Encounter I no not but it Shall never be Said to my Children your father was a Coward~Let the event be what it will, be not troubled, make your Self Easy~ in Due time I hope to Return home in Peace & Enjoy the pleasures of worthy wife & Loving Children & Subscribe my Self your Loving Husband & fatherSamll Cooper
On July 23, 1775, Cooper again wrote from Roxbury:
Dear maddam
My Respects to you & Children ~ hoping they are all well and will Continue So till I Return ~ I wrote to you that I Should Come home this Summer but the General has given orders that no officer Shall Leave the Camps & I would have you be Content for I mean to Comply with orders ~ Let the Event be as it will ~ Send to Shipman & get Some Cloth & Send me a Shirt or two and the Jacoat I wrote for ~ I have sent by Dill [his brother, Deliverance Cooper] to Stop my house Comeing for fear he will forget it I mention it hear [here] I shall but a word ~ Dear wife I am able to acquaint you that I Enjoy my health Exceeding well and hope in Due time to See you again ~ tell our Little Children that Dadde has not forgot them & that they must Learn their books well ~ I have Sent them Some Paper to make them Bonets ~ from your Ever Loving Husband ~ Samll Cooper ~ This I Part with a Kiss
A week and a half later, the tide had turned, and Cooper wrote on August 2,
Loving wife & Child[ren]
I have one moment this morning to write to Let you that we have not had no Battle this night & matters Seem to be a Little more Easy & no firing ~ Some Regulars kild at Cambridge yesterday ~ Dear wife be not Concerned for me but take Special Care of our Children ~ I Cant write no more for want of [time?] this is only to Let you no that things move Easy this morning ~ from your friend & Husband ~ Sam’l Cooper
I have Sent in toms Letter two Ribbands ~ Do with one as you Please ~ this is olives [his daughter, then 8].
Samuel Cooper stayed with his regiment in the Cambridge area for the next few weeks. Then plans were drawn up for an invasion of the British-held Quebec, and on September 13, 1775, despite the fact that it was late in the year to be heading north, Cooper and several others from Portland became part of the 1100 men who started toward Quebec.
(TO BE CONTINUED…)
