{"id":104235,"date":"2025-09-12T10:52:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/?p=104235"},"modified":"2025-10-30T14:31:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T18:31:42","slug":"gorhams-rangers-revisited-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/gorhams-rangers-revisited-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Gorham\u2019s Rangers Revisited (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry explores America\u2019s colonial history, focusing on Captain John Gorham and his Native American Rangers. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com<\/a>, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

John Gorham, a whaling captain and merchant from Yarmouth, Massachusetts, established Gorham\u2019s Rangers, a distinguished and effective ranger unit in colonial North America recruited during the summer of 1744 at the outset of King George\u2019s War, pursuant to Governor William Shirley\u2019s directive to reinforce the British garrison stationed at Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n

Gorham\u2019s Rangers were tasked with supporting British authority in Nova Scotia, a region then primarily inhabited by French Acadian and Mi\u2019kmaq populations. The unit was under the command of British colonial officers and initially comprised of 60 men, all Native Americans who possessed significant expertise in scouting, as well as recognized proficiency in both waterborne operations and frontier guerrilla warfare.<\/p>\n

They carried out amphibious raids on Acadian and Mi\u2019kmaq settlements located along coasts or rivers, using large, modified whaleboats. Gorham reported they \u201cbehav\u2019d with Courage & Faithfulness against our Enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Below is a newsclip from 1744 mentioning Capt. Gorham and his Indian Rangers.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Pennsylvania Journal (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 18 October 1744, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article reports:<\/p>\n

Last Monday Capt. Smithurst in the brigantine Boston paquet boat, one of the Boston Guard de Costos, arrived here from Annapolis Royal [then-capital of Nova Scotia], from which place she sailed 17 days ago, as convoy to a transport vessel carrying Capt. Gorham and his company of Indian Rangers, raised here for the succor of that garrison. Upon the arrival of these soldiers, they found the garrison had been many days besieged by a party of regular troops [French] detached from Louisbourg.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sources indicate that Gorham\u2019s company included six Abenaki members. Among them was \u201cCaptain Sam,\u201d purported to be Jerome Atequando, a Pequawket (Abenaki) sachem serving as the group\u2019s main guide, translator, and negotiator.<\/p>\n

The company also included individuals identified as Wampanoag and Nauset Indians from Cape Cod, primarily originating from communities such as Mashpee, Herring Pond, Yarmouth, Aquinnah on Martha\u2019s Vineyard, and other southeastern New England Indian settlements.<\/p>\n

Several individuals had been members of the Indian ranger companies that participated in Dummer\u2019s War<\/a> two decades earlier, a regional conflict in which the colonies of Massachusetts and New Hampshire fought the Abenaki.<\/p>\n

By the early 1760s, the Rangers\u2019 ranks had shifted to recent Scottish and Irish immigrants. Despite this change in composition, the unit continued to utilize the tactics introduced by its original Native American members.<\/p>\n

John Gorham was the first of three prominent American rangers \u2013 himself, his younger brother Joseph Gorham, and Robert Rogers \u2013 to earn commissions in the British Army. For readers exploring family lineage and wondering what does once removed mean<\/a> in genealogy, Gorham\u2019s extensive family connections across generations offer a fascinating glimpse into how colonial ties and ancestry intertwine through time.<\/p>\n

Brian D. Carroll in \u201c\u2018Savages\u2019 in the Service of Empire: Native American Soldiers in Gorham\u2019s Rangers, 1744\u20131762,\u201d published in the New England Quarterly<\/em>\u00a085 no.3 (2012), notes that the Gorham family had a long history as rangers which began under Colonel Benjamin Church<\/a>, a carpenter, military officer, and ranger during America\u2019s colonial era, especially during King Philip\u2019s War. He was a principal aide to Governor Josiah Winslow of Plymouth Colony. You can read more on Col. Church and view his memorial marker here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:
Illustration: Colonel Benjamin Church. Credit: New York Public Library.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Carroll states:<\/p>\n

The Gorham family was active in colonial New England\u2019s military affairs. John and Joseph\u2019s great-grandfather, John Gorham I<\/a>, had been a commander for Plymouth Colony during King Philip\u2019s War.<\/p>\n

Their grandfather, John Gorham II, led English and Wampanoag troops during King William\u2019s War; he commanded first a company and then, later, a battalion, and he was Benjamin Church\u2019s second-in-command during campaigns against the Abenaki.<\/p>\n

John and Joseph\u2019s father, Shubael Gorham, was a veteran provincial officer of Queen Anne\u2019s War. Numerous uncles and cousins served as officers throughout the colonial era, some recruiting and commanding Indian soldiers. With the exception of the Churches, no other family was more responsible for the development of New England\u2019s Native American soldiery and the American ranger tradition than were the Gorhams and their kin. Other related family members included cousins Richard Silvanus, William Bourne, and Melatiah Bourne.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Gorham family and their kin who fought in the rangers descend from Mayflower<\/em> passengers John Howland and Elizaberh Tilley.<\/p>\n

Rev. Dr. Paul Sturtevant Howe<\/a>, a descendant of the Gorham family, conducted research on their lineage and identified a Yarmouth branch that established themselves in Cape May, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

For years he studied Plymouth history and its laws. While sleuthing, Rev. Howe came across a big find: Colonel John Gorham\u2019s \u201cWast Book<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

An article entitled, \u201cLost Colony of Mayflower Descendants: How an Entire Community of \u2018First Americans\u2019 Grew Up in a Village in Southern New Jersey, and for Two Centuries Their Illustrious Ancestry Was Unknown to Them,\u201d written by Lawrence H. Eldredge and published in the Springfield Republican<\/em> in 1926, offers some great information.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 21 November 1926, page 41<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article reports:<\/p>\n

In 1745 the French fortress at Louisburg, on Cape Breton Island, was overthrown by a force of 3600 men under Colonel William Pepperell<\/a> and a fleet of 100 New England vessels and a British squadron under Commodore Warren. Colonel John Gorham was on this expedition and while at Louisburg he wrote out the history of his family in the now famous \u201cWast[e] Book\u201d [a \u201cwaist book\u201d was carried in the pocket of one\u2019s waist, or waistcoat]. The \u201cWast Book\u201d has been published in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record and in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Canadian archives house Gorham\u2019s account book as well as other materials relating to the ranger unit. I have compiled a list of sources readers can view at America-Archives<\/a>. The purpose of this series is to assist readers in tracing their ancestors who served in Gorham\u2019s Rangers, as well as to examine the historical context surrounding their involvement.<\/p>\n

GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> feature thousands of articles dating back to 1744, and FamilySearch has military records, which I will explore in future posts.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned\u2026<\/p>\n

Create a free account<\/a> at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.<\/p>\n

Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> map showing John Gorham\u2019s Point, Halifax, Nova Scotia, by M. Harris, 1750. Credit: Nova Scotia Archives; Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n

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