Mercy Tillinghast and Solomon Drowne's Sons in the American Revolution
The Mercy Tillinghast in my line was born about 1706, presumably in Providence, Rhode Island, to Benjamin Tillinghast and Sarah (Rhodes) Tillinghast. She married [1st] Stephen Arnold (1710-1743) in 1738 in Providence.
After his death, she married [2nd] her sister’s widower Solomon Drowne (1706-1780). Both of the sons born to this marriage fought in the American Revolution.
Solomon Drowne was born March 11, 1753, in Providence, Rhode Island. He married Elizabeth Russell (1757-1844) November 20, 1777, in Holliston, Massachusetts. He was a doctor, graduating from Rhode Island College (now Brown University) in 1773 before receiving degrees from the College of Philadelphia (now University of Pennsylvania) and Dartmouth College.1
Before graduating, he witnessed the burning of the Gaspee. He served as a surgeon in the Continental Army (NSDAR Ancestor #A033823) at various posts in various states from 1776-1780. Apparently he gained the favor of numerous dignitaries and allies of the American cause. In 1780, he was working aboard the privateer sloop Hope when he wrote his diary that would later be published.2
He was officially discharged from the 1st Rhode Island Regiment in June 1783, receiving the Badge of Merit.
Dr. Solomon Drowne died February 5, 1834, at his estate, Mount Hygeia, in Foster, Rhode Island, and is buried in the Drown Lot of the historical Foster Cemetery.
His younger brother William Drowne was born April 17, 1755, in Providence. Solomon wrote him often, and a number of the letters are now part of the papers in Brown University’s collection.
William was reportedly at the Battle of Bunker Hill, hunkering down with the troops at Roxbury (he was in Massachusetts at the time his brother wrote him about the Gaspee) and is often said to have reached the rank of Captain.
What I have found to be documented for William is the following:
In 1777, he’s listed in the military census of Rhode Island. In April 1778, he was on the roster of Col. Jabez Bowen’s command of the Rhode Island militia as a Lieutenant. In 1781, he was captured by the British while aboard the Belisarius, which was under the command of Captain Munro. They were taken to New York and held in the old prison ship HMS Jersey until his release in 1783.3 He wasn’t well when he was released and returned home. He died August 9, 1786, in Providence and is on the Foster Historical Cemeteries list. He had no known children.
Dr. Solomon Drowne and his wife Betsey had a son in 1793 who they named after his brother. William Drowne (Jr) went on to write an agricultural husbandry guide edited by his father in 1824.
Appleton’s Cyclopedia has quite an impressive entry for him, but I can’t prove the veracity of all of the claims of his proximity to famous names.
It wasn’t his first diary, he also had one of his time in New York City in 1772.
The Belisarius was renamed the HMS Belisarius and used by the British Navy to capture American ships until 1783. A list of those imprisoned on the HMS Jersey from 1781 to 1783 is found here.
More information on the lineages associated with the Tillinghasts and my relation to them can be found in My Lineage from the Roots Up, vol. 1
