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- F. John Watson (add)
- M. Bethia (add)
- Ebenezer Watson1744 - 1777
- H. Ebenezer Watson1744 - 1777
- W. Elizabeth Seymour (add)
m.
Facts and Events
References
- ↑ wife, Hannah Bunce Watson, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
includes sources, last accessed Jun 2025.
... The Connecticut Courant, then the oldest and largest newspaper in the Thirteen Colonies with a circulation of 8,000, remained open. In December of that year [1777] the owner and publisher, Ebenezer Watson, died of smallpox.
His widow, Hannah Bunce Watson, already caring for five children under the age of 7 and with little printing training, took on the additional burden of publishing the Courant. She made the Courant employee George Goodwin a business partner, and used the paper to support the war effort against the British. ...
- ↑ Connecticut Courant (Lebanon, Connecticut)
Dec 1777.
On Tuesday last departed this life after a distressing sickness, Mr. Ebenezer Watson, Printer, in the 34th year of his age. A gentleman of a most humane heart, and susceptible of the tenderest feelings for distress, in whatever manner discovered — Jealous of the rights of human nature, and anxious for the safety of his country, his press hath been devoted to the vindication of rational liberty. The Governor’s company of Cadets, of which he was an Ensign, in token of respect for the deceased, attended the funeral in their uniforms. He has left a melancholy widow, with five young children, and a numerous circle of friends to lament his death.
- History of First Company Governor's Foot Guard, Hartford, Connecticut, 1771-1901
61.
... Ebenezer Watson was born in Bethlehem, Litchfield County, Conn., in 1744, the son of John and Bethia Watson and was one of eleven children.
He was the proprietor of The Courant for some years.
He was twice married, first to Elizabeth Seymour, and second to Hannah, daughter of Aaron Bunce of Lebanon.
Mr. Dwyer finds in the diary of Major French, of the 22d Royal Regiment, a prisoner of war in Hartford in 1776, that " Watson a printer," on May 20 of that year, in company with one Tucker, before 5 o'clock in the morning, rang " the meeting and school bells " to raise a mob to send the British prisoners — then on parole — to jail. The matter was settled by the Town Committee.
Mr. Watson was one of the instructors in the art of singing in the South Church, and at his death one year's rent of his house and lot was abated in recognition of his services to the church.
He was chosen Ensign of the Guard in 1777, and died a few months later. He was buried in the Center Church yard with military honors, probably the first Foot Guard funeral.
In 18S7 his descendants placed in the old burial ground a new monument to his memory, a facsimile of the original which had crumbled away ...
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