Beriah Sprague

Bef 1754 - Abt 1805  (~ 50 years)

• Name	Beriah Sprague
  Born	Bef 11 Aug 1754	Lebanon, New London Co., CT, USA
  Christened	11 Aug 1754	Lebanon, New London Co., CT, USA
  Gender	Male
  Military	Revolutionary War   [1]
  	DAR Patriot Index.      Private, Connecticut.
  Died	Abt 1805	prob. Washington Co., NY, USA   [2]
  Notes	"Sprague Families in America", by Dr. Warren VincentSprague, Page 479.     Beriah Sprague marched fromLebanon "for the Relief of Boston in the Lexington Alarm"April, 1775; service 15 days.  Enlisted in Capt.Clark's Co., May 7, 1775; discharged December 18,1775.  He was a tax payer and grand juror inWhitingham, Vermont, in 1781; later removed to Hartford,NY., where some of his children were born. From Jim Kallal, correspondent, note of May 3rd, 2006 From Jim Kallal, correspondent, note of May 3rd, 2006I have discovered microforms of original early censusrecords judged to be the Patriot Beriah and his first bornBeriah Jr. ===== 1790 First U.S. Federal Census Granville Township, Washington County, New York [Comment: While the geographical extent of this township in1790 has not been determined by me, a Granville townshipstill exists in modern Washington County. Today, WashingtonCo is bounded on the east by Vermont; and on the west byLake George, Warren and Saratoga counties. For this first census, there were no printed forms; theenumerators supplied everything, even their own paper; theywere paid 2c per person, which seldom covered theirexpenses; and were instructed to post the results in twopublic places. Citizens who saw and could read weresupposed to report errors or omissions. Failure to answerthe census taker was subject to $25 fine to be splitbetween enumerator and government. This census began on 2 August 1790 and because of laggingreturns the end date was extended by Congress until 1 March1792. Returns were not all dated; during that periodVermont was admitted to the Union; also there were peoplecounted who had not been born or present in 1790.] Microform copy, date not found, shows this entry: Beriah Spragen 1/3/3. Interpretation: 1 free white male 16 and over [Beriah Sr, age ~36]3 free white males under 16 [Beriah Jr age ~13; Phineas ~?;Samuel Bliss age ~4]3 free white females [spouse Elizabeth age ~33; Anne age~7; Unknown ~?] Granville Totals Free white males 16 and over:            503Free white males under 16:           564Free white females:                1,093Slaves:                           NoneOther persons                      None ===== 1800 Second U.S. Federal Census Westfield Township, Washington County, New York The microform copy of page 576 shows this annotation: Quote: Town of Westfield (Now Port Ann) :Unquote [Comment: Evidently a town name change occured that was notknown to the census taker; sometime later this record wasannotated. Archived as Westfield Township in theAncestry.com database. A Fort Ann Township exists today inWashington County; the geographical boundaries in 1800 areTBD. Modern day Hartford Township is just south of FortAnn; Samuel Bliss migrated from Hartford to St Lawrencesometime before 1810.] On a page 591 these entries appear, separated by a fewlines: Berriah Sprague           2,=,1,=,=     =,=,1,=,= Berriah Sprage 2[sic]           2,1,1,1,=     1,1,=,1,= Interpretation: The first entry is Beriah Jr I14905. He and his wife areunder 26 yrs and they have two sons under 10 years, likely,Nathan and Darius. The second entry is Beriah I115464. He and his wife areunder 45 yrs and they have 4 sons, one of whom is SamuelBliss, and 2 daughters in the household. [Comment: There were 9 Sprague surname householdsenumerated in Washington County NY in 1800. Relationshipsof the other 7 are TBD. Why were these men in this county?From other research, have learned that after the Britishtroops and sympathizers were pushed out of this area duringthe Revolution, Congress was eager to get this strategicarea at foot of Lake Champlain populated. So one inducementwas to offer veterans land grants to immigrate into thisarea. I know that Fort Ann had former military withdocumented records of military land grants. Furtherresearch is needed, but I suspect that Beriah Sr came herebecause of land offered for his Revolutionary War service;also it was getting crowded in Mass so westward land rushbegan.] [Comment: Re current database birthplace for Beriah Jr.Above census info plus scrutiny of existing databaserecords make Beriah Jr database birth place of Moriah mostunlikely in my view. Whitingham to the SE where his sisterAnne was born is much more likely.  I opine thatBeriah migrated to Moriah after his dau Eliza was born.This is consistent with the statement made in theSupplement notes about Beriah moving his family to Moriah.] ===== 1810 Third U.S. Federal Census Fort Ann Township, Washington County, New York Barah Sprague           3,2,1,=,=     1,1,=,=,=      2,= Believe this the entry for Beriah Jr. [Comment: Appears the enumerator entered the children andnot the adults.The entry 2 on the far right is for "otherfree persons except Indians not taxed." It is possible thatone of these is Beriah's younger brother Ichabod Ward.Alternatively, these could be hired hands or householdservants, since the last column with no entry is designatedfor "slaves". There were 14 Sprague households enumeratedin Washington County in 1810. No record discovered to attribute to Beriah Sr; his deatharound 1805 reasonable. However, I find it far-fetched tobelieve that Beriah traveled 100s of miles after 1800 todie in Cayuga County. Death in Washington county seemslikely. It is possible that Beriah Jr never moved from the firstcensus to the third census; the political names andboundaries may have just changed around his home place.]   [2]
  Person ID	I115464	Sprague Project
  Last Modified	10 Apr 2019

  
  

  Father	Phineas Sprague,   b. 5 Sep 1717, Lebanon, New London Co., CT, USA ,   d. 20 Jan 1772, Lebanon, New London Co., CT, USA  (Age 54 years)
  Mother	Sarah Dyer,   b. 30 Sep 1733, Lebanon, New London Co., CT, USA ,   d. Aft 1772  (Age 39 years)
  Married	Abt 1751  [3]
  Family ID	F42564	Family Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family / Spouse	Elizabeth Bliss,   b. 19 Aug 1757,   d. Aft 1799  (Age 42 years)
  Children	+ 1. Beriah Sprague, Jr.,   b. 9 May 1777, prob. Whitingham, Windham Co., VT, USA ,   d. 17 Nov 1857, Moriah, Essex Co., NY, USA  (Age 80 years) + 2. Annah Sprague,   b. 6 Jul 1783, Whitingham, Windham Co., VT, USA ,   d. 3 Apr 1849  (Age 65 years) + 3. Phineas Sprague,   d. Bef 1828   4. Daniel Sprague,   d. Yes, date unknown   5. Betsy Sprague,   d. Yes, date unknown + 6. Samuel Bliss Sprague,   b. 2 Jan 1786, Hartford, Washington Co., NY, USA ,   d. 10 Mar 1854, Fowler, St. Lawrence Co., NY, USA  (Age 68 years) + 7. Ichabod Ward Sprague,   b. 18 Aug 1797,   d. 7 Jul 1873, Sandy Creek, Oswego Co., NY, USA  (Age 75 years)
  Last Modified	2 Feb 2013
  Family ID	F42437	Family Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map		Born - Bef 11 Aug 1754 - Lebanon, New London Co., CT, USA Christened - 11 Aug 1754 - Lebanon, New London Co., CT, USA  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Sources

  [S72] DAR Patriot Index, Pvt., CT, page 2762. [S513] Correspondent: Kallal, James J., note of May 3rd, 2006. [S422] Correspondent: Long, Joan Place, Joan Place Long, correspondent in GenServ Data Base LONC9HA.