Introduction: America 250 Celebration – Melissa Davenport Berry again writes about people whose ancestors were Revolutionary War patriots descended from Mayflower passengers. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I resume my series on “‘Patriot to Passenger’: Revolutionary War Vet to Mayflower Passenger” following the research compiled by past Elder Historian-General Muriel Cushing of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (GSMD), known as the Patriot to Passenger Bridge Project. The project’s list is a continuous effort to publish the names of Revolutionary War Patriots who descend from Mayflower passengers or married into Mayflower lines.

Micah Chapman

My first subject is Captain Micah Chapman (1735-1792), son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Sprague) Chapman and a descendant of Pilgrims John Alden and William Mullins.

Micah married Elizabeth Howes (1738-1820), daughter of Judah and Susanah (Hedge) Howes.

The couple left descendants including a son, Isaac Chapman, who married Hannah Bassett, a direct descendant of Pilgrims John Alden and William Mullins.

Below is a photo of the military appointment of Micah Chapman. The document was issued by the Council of Massachusetts Bay, appointing him as captain in the Second Company of Militia, First Regiment, for the town of Yarmouth, Massachusetts. It is dated 20 April 1775 and signed by Perez Morton in his capacity as Deputy Secretary for the Council.

In the spring of 1775, after reports that British troops had entered Marshfield to protect local Loyalists, Captain Micah Chapman led his Yarmouth minute men out. The threatened conflict ended without bloodshed and became known as the “Almost Battle of Marshfield.”

Thereafter, Micah and his men went on to distinguish themselves in many other battles and skirmishes.

Below is a photo of a document, dated 1 July 1781, appointing Micah Chapman as “Captain of the Sixth Company in the First Regiment of Militia in the County of Barnstable whereof Enoch Hallet, Esq., is Colonel.” Signed by John Hancock in his capacity as “Governor and Commander in Chief in and over the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

Author and historian Edward Rowe Snow noted in one of his “South Shore Gleanings” columns titled, “Good Epitaphs,” that Micah’s unique grave marker symbolizes his role in the American Revolution. It shows him “dressed in full uniform regalia, for on the tombstone he is seen in wig, waistcoat, buttons and blouse.”

Here is a photo of Micah’s gravestone located in Dennis Village Cemetery, Dennis, Massachusetts.

Edmund Sears

Many in the Sears family fought under Micah, including four sons born to Captain Edmund Sears and Hannah (Crowell) Sears: Joshua, Elkanah, Edmund, and Christopher.

Capt. Sears was the son of Paul and Marcy (Freeman) Sears and a descendant of Pilgrim William Brewster through his daughter Patience, who married Gov. Thomas Prence.

Capt. Sears participated in the Boston Tea Party, helping to throw casks of tea, possibly from the ship Dartmouth, into the harbor.

Diane Rochelle, chair of the 250th Anniversary Celebration, printed this passage in the Dennis Historical Society Newsletter:

“Captain Edmund Sears sailed home from England, laden with cargo, on December 16, 1773. Nearby, colonists dressed as Native American Indians were aboard British vessels throwing boxes of tea, owned by the East India Tea Company, into Boston Harbor. He joined them in tossing 342 tea boxes overboard and then rode his horse home to the East Precinct.”

According to the Dennis Historical Society, family history relates that Capt. Sears went straight to the “bowfat” (a corner or niche cupboard) and without saying a word to anyone, seized the teapot and caddy, throwing them into the garden with a crash. His astonished wife is said to have whispered to her children “your poor father has come home crazy.”

He then proclaimed that from that time henceforth none of his family were to drink tea or wear upon their persons any articles of British manufacture.

I found an article in the Boston Herald from 1963 covering the Boston Tea Party Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who hosted an event celebrating the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. One of the speakers, Etta Howes Handy, shared a similar story.

This article reports:

Miss Etta H. Handy of Boston, descendant of Edmund Sears, repeated the oft-told tale learned at her grandmother’s knee, of the manner in which Capt. Sears broke up his wife’s tea party.

Her great-grandmother was entertaining neighbors at tea when her husband suddenly appeared, dressed as an Indian, his face painted. He marched into the room, seized the teapot, opened the window and threw its contents out.

Then, he strode into the kitchen, swept the tea off the pantry shelf and again, dumped it out the window. Not one word did he utter – leaving his wife and her guests sitting astounded – in shocked silence.

The Howes Family

One of Captain Sears’s sisters, Deborah Sears, married Thomas Howes. Their son Moody Howes (1724-1806) was a patriot who served in the 7th Regiment of the Dutchess County Militia under Col. Henry Ludington in New York.

Moody descended from Pilgrims William Brewster, John Howland, and John Tilley. He married Hannah Snow, daughter of John and Hannah (Merrick) Snow and a descendant of Pilgrim Stephen Hopkins and 2nd Sarah Ellis.

Seth Benedict Howes (1815-1901), famous billionaire circus owner, entrepreneur, and showman, was the grandson of Moody and Hannah.

Below is a newspaper article on Seth and his famous residence, “Morningthorpe Manor,” also known as the “Castle on Turk Hill,” a Tudor-style castle located in Brewster, New York.

According to this article the family traces its lineage back to 1065 in England, and King Henry VIII granted the family a coat of arms in 1519. The family moved to Morning Thorp Manor, the ancestral homestead in England, in 1663.

Thomas Howes, from another branch of the family, came to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1635. Thomas’s grandson Moody came to Southeast, a town in Putnam County, New York, and took up farming – and that is where his grandson Seth was born.

To be continued…

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Note on the header image: patriot to passenger #2. Credit: Melissa Davenport Berry.

Related Articles:

• ‘Patriot to Passenger’: Revolutionary War Vet to Mayflower Passenger (part 1)
• ‘Patriot to Passenger’: Revolutionary War Vet to Mayflower Passenger (part 2)
• Second Boston Tea Party Held—in 1956!
• Unsung Revolutionary War Heroes: The Corps of Artificers (part 1)
• Unsung Revolutionary War Heroes: The Corps of Artificers (part 2)