Samuel Hitchcock, A Soldier of the Revolution; Week 6: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

This week's ancestral biography is on Samuel Hitchcock, my gggggg grandfather. Recently, I tied Samuel and other Hitchcock's into my tree through the help of another cousin, Bob, who is also researching the tree.  Bob found an online tree on Ancestry.com, told me about it, I check out the online tree, made a couple of contacts, and now we have our first found ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War. For years, I have found Samuel Hitchcock in local records but had no strong connection; only a hunch.  Now I have a connection.  I hope that the connection and sources will be strong enough to allow me entrance into the Son's of the American Revolution or SAR; which is a lineage society of male descendants of an ancestor who fought in the Revolution.

Samuel Hitchcock was born in 1760 in Ossining, New York.  He was a son of David Hitchcock (1733 - 1825) & Rachel Knapp (     - 1807). Samuel is supposedly descended from Edward Hitchcock, who immigrated from England and settled in New Haven, Connecticut around 1635.

In March 1776 Samuel was mustered into the Second New York Regiment as a Private.  The Regiment was commanded by Captain Jacob Wright under Colonel Phillip Cortland. Samuel finished his third term of his enlistment in June 1783 and was mustered out.  In Samuel's pension records, it states that his pension for his service in the war amounted to $8 per month to commence on the 25th of March 1818.

Samuel married Mary Schlippe (1760 - 1827).  Mary was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to the colonies. They had the following children:

• James (1785 - 1858) married Peggy Meneely
• Joel (1787 - 1853) married Freelove Dyer
• Rachel (1789 -     ?) married Stephen M. Conger
• Jeremiah (1790 -    ?)
• Isaac (1796 - 1882) married Nancy Meneely
• Nathaniel (1799 -    ?)
• Nicholas (1800 - 1870) married Sarah

Shortly before brother Isaac was born Samuel and Mary moved the family from Westchester County up to West Troy; now Watervliet.  Not much more is known about Samuel.  According to his gravestone, Samuel died on 4 October 1831.  He was buried in the Gibbonsville Cemetery in Watervliet. In 1918 the Watervliet Arsenal purchased the land where the Gibbonsville Cemetery was located and removed all of the internments to Albany Rural Cemetery.  A photo of Samuel Hitchcock's grave is below.