Person:John Nickson (1)

Sketch of General Nixon^[2]

Gen John Nixon was a son of Christopher Nixon who went to Framingham about 1724, where seven children were born of whom John was the oldest. At an early age, being but a mere boy, he entered the army, and at the instigation of older persons he left unlawfully, but clemency was shown him and he was allowed to return to the ranks. His subsequent career proved him to be a true soldier.

In 1745, when he was but twenty years old, he was in the Pepperell Expedition to Louisburg, and lieutenant in Captain Newell's company at Crown Point in 1755. Later in the war he served as captain. At one time, when operating against the French forces, he was led into an ambuscade and only forced his way out with the loss of most of his men. As before noticed, at the beginning of the Revolutionary War he served as captain of a company of minute men. April 24, 1775, he received the commission of colonel. He fought and was wounded at the battle of Bunker Hill. He went with the army under Washington to New York and was promoted August 9, to brigadier general. His promotion to the rank of general of brigade was on recommendation of Washington, who stated to Congress that Nixon's military talents and bravery entitled him to promotion. In his new position he had, for a time, command of two regiments and a force of artillery at Governor's Island, New York Harbor. August 27, he left there, and subsequently operated with the army in the northern campaign in New York State against Burgoyne. When it was decided to advance against the latter, General Gates ordered Nixon and two other commanders to make the attack. A cannon ball passed so near his head that the sight and hearing on one side were impaired. After the surrender of Burgoyne, General Nixon and some others were detailed to escort the prisoners to Cambridge. About that time he had a furlough of several months, in which time he married his second wife. General Nixon was on the court martial -- with Generals Clinton, Wayne and Muhlenburg, and of which Gen Benjamin Lincoln was president -- for the trial of General Schuyler for the neglect of duty in the campaign of 1777, by which Ticonderoga was surrendered. The trial was at the request of General Schuyler, and by it he was fully acquitted with the highest honors. In 1777, General Nixon's brigade had head-quarters for a time at Peekskill, N.Y., and for a time in 1777, at Albany. On Sept 12 1780, he closed his military career by resigning his commission as general, and retired to private life. He married for his first wife Thankful Berry, Feb. 7, 1754; and for his second, Hannah Gleason in 1778, the widow of Capt Micajah Gleason, who was killed at the battle of White Plains, N.Y., in 1776. He had nine children, of whom five were daughters. One of them, Sarah, married Abel Cutler, the father of the late C. G. Cutler, Esq. of Sudbury.

About 1806, he went to Middlebury, Vt. At the time of the battle of Lake Champlain he was living with a daughter at Burlington; and on hearing the sound of the cannon on the lake, he wanted a horse brought that he might go and witness the fight. General Nixon died at Middlebury, 1815, at the advanced age of ninety. When he was thirty years old he bought a tract of thirty-two acres of land of Josiah Browne on the northern side of Nobscot Hill, where he was living at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War. After he retired from the army, he lived for a time at Framingham and kept tavern at Rice's End. He afterwards returned to Sudbury, and was admitted to the church there May 22, 1803.

Although Mr Nixon was pre-eminently a military man by nature and experience, and had known much of the hard fare and the rough companionship of the army, yet he was a man of affable address and quiet demeanor. He was of light complexion, medium size and cheerful disposition. He was a decided man and a great lover of children. One of his grandsons informed the writer that the old man used to take his grandchildren on his knee and sing war songs to them; one that he remembered was as follows:-

"Oh, why, soldiers, why, should we be melancholy, boys? whose business 'tis to die. Through cold, hot and dry we are always bound to follow, boys, and scorn to fly."

A briefer article is available at wikipedia:John Nixon (military). At the time of writing, it contains errors.

From a Sudbury Ma. newspaper article, not dated:

Nixon Makes First Public Reading of Declaration of Independence

  We have been fortunate to learn that the first public reading of theDeclration of Independence took place by Col. John Nixon in Philadelphiaon July 8, 1776, following the tolling of the Liberty Bell.  Nixon wasthen with Washington's army, and it must have been shortly after theevent that he was elevated to the rank of General and put in charge ofthe army fort on Governor's Island, in New York Bay.

1. ↑ Baldwin, Thomas W. Vital Records of Framingham, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1911)
   149.

   Nickson, John, s. of Christopher and Mary, Mar. 1, 1727.
   [Note: other children of Christopher and Mary are listed under Nickerson.]

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Hudson, Alfred Sereno. The history of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1889. (Boston: R.H. Blodgett, 1889)
   pp. 410-11.
3. ↑ no date on article it is from a Sudbury paper. Newspaper article on the Nixon's.