Daniel Hosmer, Jr. ( 1747-after 1834)
Marian and Agnes Wilder were the daughters of
James Lewellyn Wilder, the son of
Francis L. Wilder the son of
James Marvel Wilder the son of
Grace Hosmer Wilder, the daughter of
Daniel Hosmer Jr. was the great great grandfather of James Lewellyn "Lew" Wilder. He was probably born in Concord, Massachusetts and lived most of his life in Lincoln, Massachusetts--a community broken off from Concord--before moving to Temple, Maine in 1810 and finally adjacent Farmington, Maine in 1830, according to his application for a soldier's pension. Daniel Hosmer married Hannah Baker in 1768. Her father and mother, Jacob Baker and Grace Billings Baker, ran Baker Farm, in Lincoln. It is possible that he lived as an old man with his daughter and son in law, Grace Hosmer Wilder and Abel Wilder, and their family in Temple, Massachusetts. It seems likely that his grandson, James M. Wilder would have known Daniel. Grace Hosmer Wilder's ancestors, the Baker family and Billings family, farmed in the Lincoln area very near Walden Pond (less than a half mile away) for several generations.
Daniel Hosmer was born Jan 28, 1746. His year of death is unknown, but seems to have been after 1834 or 1835. Daniel was the son of Daniel Hosmer, of Lincoln or perhaps Concord, (Lincoln was originally part of Concord) MA, and Bethia Conant, of Concord. Daniel Hosmer’s family traces back to the same ancestor as Lucy Hosmer Wood, although Daniel and Lucy would have been relatively distant cousins, and I have no idea if they knew each other. Through his mother’s family, Daniel was a descendant of two of the more noteworthy men of old New England, Roger Conant, the founder of Salem MA, and Giles Corey, the only man in North American history to have been pressed to death as a punishment of suspicion of being a witch, during the Salem witch trials of 1692.
While little is known of his life, his activities of the day of April 19, 1775, and that of his brothers in law and father in law Jacob Baker (Hannah’s brothers and father) are colorfully described in his brother in law Amos Baker’s “The Last Survivor”, a deposition that Amos, Hannah’s brother, made as an old man of 90 in 1850. At the time he had gained an element of celebrity as the last survivor of the Battle of Concord, and is considered to have been remarkably lucid at the time of the deposition. Hannah’s brother Nathaniel also had an unusual experience the night prior to the battle, as Dr. Samuel Prescott, one of the men who had ridden with Paul Revere to spread the word of the British move on Lexington and Concord, encountered Nathaniel coming back home late at night on the road from where he had been courting his fiancé. Prescott asked him to help spread the alarm to the minutemen in Lincoln. (By coincidence, Samuel Prescott was also a distant relative of Grandpa Wilder, they were both descended from John Prescott, the immigrant ancestor who founded Lancaster, MA).
Daniel Hosmer was a member, along with his Baker brothers in law, of the Lincoln Minute Men, under Captain William Smith. Smith was the brother of Abigail Smith Adams, more commonly known today as the wife of President John Adams--Abigail Adams.
In Amos Baker’s deposition, he mentions how he and his brothers and brother in law (Daniel) marched with the Lincoln minutemen, and were among the front line that faced the British at Concord Bridge. Daniel may have been an ensign in the Massachusetts militia, but this hasn’t been verifed, This may refer to his son, alson named Daniel. The younger Daniel appears to have lived in Temple, ME, which would tend to point to a connection to Grace Hosmer Wilder, who, with Abel, also lived in Temple ME, a small town even today (2007).
The following link is to a biographical sketch of Daniel Hosmer, Junior, created by Rick Wiggins of the Lincoln Minutemen reenactment group.
A Biographical Sketch of Daniel Hosmer, Jr.
Email Correspondence Concerning Daniel Hosmer, Jr and the Bakers
Daniel Hosmer Jr. and Hannah Baker Marriage Entry
A Sons of the American Revolution Application from a Descendant of Daniel Hosmer Jr.
Daniel Hosmer Jr. was a member of Nixon's Regiment, and was present with the regiment at the Battle of Bunker Hill. His complete known record for the Revolution is shown at the link below.
The Revolutionary War Record of Daniel Hosmer, Jr. of LIncoln, Massachusetts