#muster rolls

[gracehosborn]

Finding one of my direct ancestors on a Revolutionary War muster roll while looking through the US, Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 collection for a completely different roll (for TAI) is the most surreal experience I’ve had recently. His surname is misspelled, but it’s consistent with other documents I’ve found.

Source: Page 2, subfolder 334 of Folder "15th Regiment (1777-1778)," Virginia troops, US, Revolutionaty War Rolls, 1775-1783, National Archives Manuscript Publication M246, Record Group 93, National Archives and Records Administration. Digitized to Fold3 by Ancestry.com.

[Image: Muster Roll of Captain William Grimes' company of the 15th Virginia Regiment of Foot [Continental Army] for July 1, 1777. Highlighted in a blue square on the far left under "Privates" is "John Bibby." Surname, Bybee, is misspelled].

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Did you know that homer also liked to make lists of soldiers on ships and where they're from and who their dad is and all that boring stuff ?

Did you know that this was common practice of commissioned officers on every ship in existence?

[rwwinton]

My soul deeply desires this type of project to include all the muster rolls for the entire war but I can’t even comprehend how difficult that would be. I can barely understand how this project is even so thoroughly worked (it’s still a WIP, bottom of the page shows the date of the last update). The people working on this are incredible. It’s completely searchable.

[minutemanworld-blog]

This is a 1776 muster roll, enlisting a group of men in the Continental Army. The date on it is July 9 1776, just 5 days after the Declaration of Independence was signed. 

The men agreed to a term of service that would last through January 1 1777

The men are from Groton, which is one of the towns that responded at Lexington & Concord, and some of the men who signed this muster roll fought that day.

I love these types of documents because they focus on the lives of ordinary men. What I find interesting is that these men agree to provide their own weapons and gear, and that there's no discussion of pay. Also I find it interesting that two men who signed weren't literate enough to write their own names--and New England had a very high literacy rate for the time period.

Transcript

We the Subscribers do hereby severally inlist ourselves into the Service of the MassachusettsState, to continue in Service till the first Day ofJanuary next, unless sooner dismissed: And each of us do engage to provide ourselves with a good Fire Arm and Bayonet, Cartridge Box, Knapsack and Blanket, a Wooden Bottle or Canteen, and to do Duty in Either of the New England States: And we engage faithfully to obey such Orders as we shall receive from Time to Time from the Officers that are or shall be appointed over us, and to be subject to such Regulations as are provided for the Continental Army.        Dated this        9          Day

  Uriel Whitney     July 9 David Jenkins Sr Daniel Willard SR William Kemp 22 Moses Chase 22 Thomas Tarbell 23 Henry Swan 23 Oliver Farnsworth 27 Moses Ames 28 Thomas Nichols 28 John Trowbridge 28 Joseph Frost Amos ames Junr. 29 Lemuel Parker Jun. Aug  8 Ephrm: Russell  19 Abel his X mark Laken 20 Lemuel Parker Sept 1 Jonathan Tarbell         1 Simeon Nutting Valintine his X Mark Whitman William Hall. Jr John Westcut