The Gaspee Raiders
Natalie Robinson lists John Kilton as a Providence resident who was a raider, but
says her evidence is a "dubious source" [Robinson.] Unfortunately Robinson did
not give citations for her assertion.
There in fact was a John Kilton, born about 1749, died 28 Feb 1824, in Rhode Island, buried in the Coventry Cemetery with his wife Sarah Brayton. ca 1751 - 1 Dec. 1832 . [RI Hist Cemeteries Index.] This appears to be the John Jenckes Kilton (ca. 1749- 28 Feb 1824) who is the Gaspee Raider.
Transactions of The Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry in the Year 1861 (Providence: Knowles, Anthony & Co. 1862. p147-148) lists a Caleb Kilton and says of Caleb's father --- John Jenckes Kilton --- that he " was one of those who opened the great drama of the American Revolution, by the destruction of the Gaspee, in 1772. During the war that followed, in common with his fellow-citizens, he was frequently in active service in the field. He was in Sullivan's expedition to the island of Rhode Island, in 1778,--and in the battle which followed the retreat of the Americans, the barrel of his gun was heated, by repeated discharges, to such a degree as to compel him to desist from reloading it. He used to relate, that a soldier near him on that occasion, was struck by a spent musket ball on his front teeth with such force as to displace four of them. Nothing dismayed, added the ball and the four teeth to the next charge in his gun, with the wish, expressed in terms more forcible than pious, that the redcoats might derive some advantage from them. [John Jenckes Kilton]... resided in Providence in 1772, but removed to Scituate before the birth of Caleb [in October 6, 1781]."
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