|
Benjamin
Hilton Jr.
Benjamin Hilton, Jr. was baptized in September 1749. He was the son of Benjamin and Mary Price Hilton. He was known as Benjamin Jr. to prevent confusion with his well-known father.
This
innkeeper's son grew up on Albany's southside, was
listed as a private in an Albany militia company
in 1767 and later served on the city night watch.
In September 1774, he was one of the founding members
of St. George's Masonic Lodge in Schenectady.
Benjamin
Jr. helped out at the family establishment where
he came into frequent contact with English speakers
and began to identify with the royalist perspective
on colonial life.
Although
he contributed three shillings for the relief of
Ticonderoga in May 1775, he would not follow his
neighbors down the road to Revolution. About that
time, he was appointed lieutenant of a new militia
company but refused to serve. Losing his father as
he was coming of age, Benjamin Jr. already had begun
to express his feelings of opposition to the crusade
for American liberties. His letters to prominent
Tories were not appreciated! In January 1776, the
twenty-seven-year-old was placed under house arrest.
In June, he refused to sign the Association and subsequently
was deported to Hartford, Connecticut. His inflamatory
written rhetoric made his freedom in Albany impossible.
Even the support of his uncle, revolutionary stalwart
John Price, could no longer save him.
In
November 1779, a New York newspaper announced that
he had married Susannah Griswold at Hempstead Plains.
In
1781, he was again denounced as a loyalist. In 1784,
he settled in Wolfville, Nova Scotia where he resumed
Masonic activities.
During
the 1790s, he sold his family's Albany real estate.
We seek information on the rest of the story of Benjamin
Hilton, Jr.
~ ~ ~
Sources: The life of Benjamin Hilton, Jr. is CAP biography
number 1876. This profile is derived chiefly from
family and community-based resources.
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
|
