Joseph
Barney IV (1755-1836): Revolutionary War Service
This short
paper focuses on the Revolutionary War service of Joseph Barney IV, my 4th
great grandfather. In 2025, we are
beginning to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Revolutionary War
events and these milestones were the inspiration for me to focus on my
ancestors who served in the Revolutionary War. The intent of these papers is to
preserve the military history of these ancestors in detail that is greater than
the general genealogical documents I retain.
Before we
get to Joseph’s Revolutionary War service, below is a short background to
provide some familial and historical context.
Joseph
Barney IV was born on November 28, 1755 in Rehoboth, Bristol County,
Massachusetts to Joseph Barney III and Lois Martin. The Barney family had roots in Rehoboth, in
southernmost Massachusetts near Providence, Rhode Island, since Lt. Joseph
Barney (his great grandfather) moved from Salem to Rehoboth in the 1690’s.
Joseph
married Experience Simmons on October 8, 1774 in Rehoboth, just prior to the
outbreak of the Revolutionary War, but when all signs pointed to escalating conflict
following the Boston Tea Party in 1773, the Quartering Act of June 1774, and
the meeting of the First Continental Congress in September 1774. After living in New Hampshire for some time
during and after the war, the family migrated to Vermont and are found there in
the 1790’s, shortly after Vermont became a state in 1791. Joseph died in Rutland, Vermont in 1836.
The Barney
Family is one of the many families with deep roots in Massachusetts, who moved
westward through New England during and after the war.
The
following are the highlights of Joseph Barney IV’s military service in the
Revolutionary War. According to his
pension declaration, Joseph enlisted in the Continental Army at Rehoboth on
July 1, 1776, perhaps knowing that the Continental Congress was meeting in
Philadelphia to consider a Declaration of Independence. He served the five months, between July and December,
as a sergeant in Captain Nathaniel Carpenter’s Company, Colonel Simson Cary’s
Massachusetts Regiment. Joseph’s soldier
number, so helpful for research with the National Archives and other resources,
was S12114.
The moniker
“minute man” is very prominent in the hand-written recitals of military service
in his pension declaration so perhaps he liked that term. Minutemen were basically New England militia
companies, organized and trained, and ready to go at a minute’s notice.
The
highlight of his first enlistment was fighting in the famous “Battle of Harlem
Heights” in Manhattan on September 16, 1776.
This was General Washington’s first successful battle of the war and
historically noted for raising the morale of the struggling Continental
Army. The battle was part of the New
York and New Jersey campaign and fought in the northwest corner of Manhattan
along the Hudson River. General William
Howe commanded the British.
Joseph and
Experience’s first child, Jeremiah, was born in October of 1776 in Richmond,
Cheshire County, New Hampshire. It’s
unclear from the record why Experience might have moved to New Hampshire;
however, it is worth noting that Richmond is just over the border from
Massachusetts. Five more children
followed, all born in Richmond, and Joseph and Experience appear in the 1790
census as living in Richmond seven years after the conclusion of the war.
Joseph’s
namesake, Joseph Barney V, and my third great grandfather, was one of those
five children, and born in Richmond in 1780.
Joseph’s
next enlistment appears to cover the years 1777-1779 with Colonel Archibald
Crary’s Regiment of Rhode Island. This
includes service in the August 1778 “Rhode Island Expedition” with General
Sullivan in an attempt to dislodge the British from Newport.
This enlistment
was the last of Joseph’s service in the war.
The next chronological entry in his pension file is the application for
a pension, executed in July 1832 in Rutland, Vermont, and approved by the U.S.
Government on January 9, 1834. Joseph
had less than three years to enjoy his hard-won pension, as he died on November
23, 1836 in Rutland.
Joseph
Barney IV is buried in West Street Cemetery in Rutland Vermont, in Row 6, on
the west side of the cemetery. The grave
has a new marker stone, installed in 2021, from the U.S. Veterans
Administration through the committed and dedicated work of the Vermont Old Cemetery
Association (VOCA) to ensure veterans have an appropriate headstone. His name is also listed on a large granite
marker near the cemetery entrance which lists veterans buried in the cemetery
from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the Civil
War.
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Written
by Patricia A. Clark, May 2025