Stories from a Stony Land - The Revolutionary Generation

We have come to the fourth generation of the Strait clan in America, and the question is...do we have our first soldier?  Did a direct line descendant fight in the Revolutionary War?  Maybe.  My Dad's notes are somewhat mixed.

Samuel Strait, the designee for Generation number Four, has a birth date listed as sometime in 1750.  The death date is unknown.  I don't think this means he is a vampire.  Dates don't become completely solid until the 7th generation.

His name does not appear in the Rhode Island census of 1774, but is in the military census of 1777 as residing in Coventry, and that he was between 16 and 60, and able to bear arms (wow, that would make me still eligible if the same standard existed today).  In the United States census of 1790 he is listed at Coventry as 1-3-2 (no, I'm not quite sure what that means).

On May 20, 1784 he had a deed from his father of 25 acres in Coventry adjoining Fones Potter, Spink Tarbox and Thomas Strait.  On September 28, 1787 he was deeded five more acres from his brother Thomas.

On January 12, 1795, with his wife Patience releasing her dower rights, he sold to Thomas Nichols of Coventry "two thirds of the land where I now live."

The next part is what is uncertain.  My Dad lists it as part of the information he discovered, but a Gerald Strait has a note on the page disputing that is referring to OUR Samuel Strait.  Gerald's note is dated December 13, 1987.

The History of Rensselaer County, NY (1880) p. 436, states Samuel was a Revolutionary soldier, and a schoolfellow of Nathaniel Greene.  Confirmation is lacking, except for his name as a private in Captain Samuel Wall's Rhode Island alarm company dated at July 1, 1778, as shown in military papers at Rhode Island History -see reference 2-325.

The only reference to his death is some division of his lands that occurred in 1852.  Did he live that long?  I doubt it.  It was probably some division of his lands after more immediate family had passed, possibly including his children,

There are six children mentioned, but the order of birth is uncertain.  Three of them are listed as triplets!  The triplets were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, with Abednego passing very young, but with Meshach living to the age of 94!  The designated heir to the fifth generation is established as Reuben, born sometime in 1776.