User:Ksherin/Captain James Buxton

{{Infobox military person Continental Army }} Captain James Buxton, 1745-1817, Smithfield, Providence County, Rhode Island Colony, was a Revolutionary War Captain from the border of the towns of Smithfield in Rhode Island, and Uxbridge, in Massachusetts. James Buxton was a commisioned military officer who attained the rank of captain in the American War for Independence. He served in Colonel Benjamim Tupper's 11th Massachusetts Regiment, 1777-1779 at Valley Forge and the Battles of Saratoga; He also served in the 10th Massachusetts Regiment and the 15th Massachusetts Regiment. He commanded a company of men at West Point, and the Hudson River Chain. He was promoted to the rank of Captain on March 16, 1781, in the Continental Army, and the order was signed by John Hancock; He was discharged in 1782 and held the ranks of Ensign, Second Lieutenant, Lieutenant, and Captain during this period. He is listed as having signed an oath of allegiance at Valley Forge in 1778 in Colonel Tupper's regiment. Again we find James Buxton listed as a Second Lieutenant in a listing of Commissioned Officers in the American Revolution in 1779 also with Colonel Tupper's Regiment,
 * name=James Buxton
 * birth_date=1745
 * death_date= 1817
 * image=
 * caption=
 * nickname=
 * birth_place=Smithfield, Rhode Island, Rhode Island Colony, Great Britain {{flagicon|Great Britain}}
 * death_place=Smithfield, Rhode Island, USA {{flagicon|Rhode Island}}
 * allegiance=United States of America {{flagicon|United States}}
 * branch=Massachusetts Militia
 * serviceyears=1777-1782
 * rank=Captain, 1781-1782, Second Lieutenant, 1779,  Lieutenant (United States}Lieutenant]].1780-1781, Ensign, 1777-1779
 * unit= 11th Massachusetts Regiment and 15th Massachusetts Regiment and 10th Massachusetts Regiment, which included Captain Buxton's Company
 * commands=
 * battles=Battles of Saratoga Valley Forge Hudson River Chain West Point
 * awards=
 * relations=
 * laterwork=Farmer Landowner Martial Music

Brief Bio
James Buxton was born at Smithfield, in Providence County, Rhode Island Colony, in 1745 to Benjamin Buxton and Charity Maule. He grew up in Smithfield, which was an early Rhode Island Colony agricultural community,. He may have had access to local libraries in Smithfield and in nearby Quaker City and Ironstone in Massachusetts. James married Esther Southwick in 1773 and they had 9 children. He was a farmer, a soldier, and a landholder, at Smithfield, which then extended from Providence to the Massachusetts border, where James and Esther resided..

He enlisted and served in the local Militia in nearby Worcester County, Massachusetts in January of 1777. Ensign James Buxton is later found listed, in Colonel Tupper's regiment, among many soldiers who took an oath of allegiance to the USA at Valley Forge on Feb. 3, 1778. He was in the roster as a Commissioned Officer in the Battle at Saratoga. It is known that he commanded a company of men in Colonel Benjamin Tuppers 11th Massachusetts Regiment.

He served in the militia and the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War from 1777-1782 and held the ranks of Ensign, Second Lieutenant, Lieutenant, and eventually Captain. He returned to Smithfield after he was discharged from active military service. An Ensign at that time was a Commissioned Officer in the Continental Army and was the Equivalent of the rank of a Second Lieutenant. This is the rank that James Buxton held at Valley Forge from December of 1777 to June of 1778. James Buxton can also be found in the listing of soldiers in the volume of papers, Vol. 1-16 of George Washington, at the University of Virginia Library of the Revolutionary War papers. Buxton can also be found referenced serving in the 10th Massachusetts Regiment, the 15th Massachusetts Regiment, and additionally referenced as commanding Buxton's Company.

Colonel Benjamin Tuppers Commands, 1777-1782
We know that Captain Buxton served with Colonel Benjamin Tupper who commanded the Massaschusetts 11th Regiment at Valley Forge. Here is a brief history of the commands held by Colonel Tupper during the American Revolution. It is highly likely that James Buxton, who was from the Massachusetts border town area continued to follow Colonel Tupper in at least until 1779 while with the Massachusetts 11th. Another record disclosed that Captain Buxton enlisted with the Massachusetts 11th in January of 1777 in Worcester County, given his border town location. Records indicated he also owned land in Worcester County, in Uxbridge.

Benjamin Tupper was promoted to colonel during July 1777. Later that year, Col. Tupper served under Gen. Horatio Gates at Saratoga. Col. Tupper and his 11th Massachusetts Regiment wintered at Valley Forge with Gen. Washington during the winter and spring of 1777 and 1778. It is during this period that we can confirm that Ensign James Buxton is rostered with Colonel Tupper and signed the Oath of Allegiance to the USA and the Continental Army in May of 1778 in the 4 Division of the 11th Regiment of Colonel Tupper. This is verified by the Valley Forge Muster Roll Project. .

During 1778, Col. Tupper served with Gen. Washington at the Battle of Monmouth; during the action, Tupper's horse was killed under him. During 1780 he, Colonel Tupper, served in the Departments of the [[Continental Army|Highlands Department]] and was in charge of the Great Chain across the Hudson River at West Point. He served in the northern frontier of New York during the rest of the war as commanding officer of the 10th Massachusetts Regiment, and then the 6th Massachusetts Regiment. Buxton later served in the Hudson River command, and it was during this period tha he received his commission as a Captain. The bulk of this service record appears to have been with the Hudson River Chain, at West Point. This latter reference is also based in War archives.

Death and Afterwards
James Buxton returned to Smithfield after the War and continued to serve as a a farmer. He was given 300 of acres of land in Worcester County, Massachusetts, for his service in the War, (likely in South Uxbridge near his farm). He saw the new village of Slatersville being built by John Slater (industrialist) and his brother Samuel Slater, a template for the The Rhode Island System of Mills and Villages powered by water power and streams. He died in 1817 in Smithfield, Providence County Rhode Island, USA. He is buried in the Buxton family cemetery at the state line on Buxton Street. His reported cause of death was "paralysis" at the age of 72.

There were apparent connections to martial music in his history and fife and drum corps were prominent in this period. A local fife and drum corps at Uxbridge has been named in his honor. The area of his families farm is also known for apple orchards. The Buxton family was prominent in Slatersville and the local church was said to have "long been a Buxton church".



Buxton family In Colonial Massachusetts and Rhode Island
The Buxton family originally came to the American colonies and settled in Essex County Massachusetts Colony in the 17th Century. A branch of the family, likely James's father, Benjamin Buxton's father, Samuel, moved from Salem and settled in the border area of Smithfield, Rhode Island sometime before the 1740's. The area where the family first settled is known as Buxton Street, in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Congregational Church in North Smithfield, Rhode Island originally a religious denomination established in the New England colonies by the Puritans, "was long known as a Buxton church". The church on the Village green is today visible in the historic article about the village of Slatersville, Rhode Island.

Buxton family and nearby Ironstone, Massachusetts
The Buxton family, from just across the border in Slatersville, Rhode Island, was prominment in this community in the 18th century including Captain James Buxton who fought in the Revolutionary War. A re-creation of a Fife and Drum Corps at Uxbridge has taken the name of Captain James Buxton. This fife and drum corps has performed widely throughout the Eastern US.

Significance of Captain James Buxton in Regional Historic Record
Captain James Buxton had an honorable record of five years of military service in the American Revolution, 1777-1782, as a Massachusetts militia man including commanding a company, in Colonel Benjamin Tuppers 11th Massachusetts Regiment, in the Battles of Saratoga,  Valley Forge, and Hudson River campaigns, three commissioned battlefield promotions, elevation to the rank of Captain, and an award of 300 acres of land for service to his country. His Commission as a Captain in the Continental Army was signed by John Hancock in 1781.

Captain James Buxton is recognized in the New England region by a fife and drum corps named in his honor. The area where Captain James Buxton lived and died has national significance to the earliest industrialization of the United States, known as the Blackstone River Valley. James Buxton's ancestral land is at the geographic center of this region.

DAR references
Numerous citations in the archives of the DAR, Daughters of the American Revolution, from Numerous US states relating to Captain James Buxton; Here is an example Mrs. Ella S. Anderson Freeman. DAR ID Number: 149020 Born in Thompson, Conn. Wife of Clarence E. Freeman Descendant of Capt. James Buxton, as follows: 1. Grovenor T. Anderson (1838-1911) m. 1863 Nancy A. Buxton (b. 1839). 2. Daniel S. Buxton (1812-96) m. 1st 1834 Lydia Dudly (1812-67). [p.7] 3. Otis Buxton (1775-1873) m. 1807 Salome Buxton (1786-1886).
 * The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume, 15 page 7

4. James Buxton m. 1771 Esther Southwick (parents of Otis). James Buxton (1745-1817) commanded a company in Col. Benjamin Tupper's regiment, Massachusetts troops. He was born and died in Smithfield, R. I. Also No. 127831. View full context

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buxton, Captain James} Category:1745 births Category:1817 deaths Category:Rhode Island militiamen in the American Revolution Category:Massachusetts militiamen in the American Revolution Category:People from Smithfield, Rhode Island Category:People from Rhode Island