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Millicent Baldwin
b.16 Nov 1750 Waterbury, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
d.27 Dec 1824 Morris, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States
Family tree▼ (edit)
m. 12 Nov 1747
Facts and Events
[edit] Millicent (Baldwin) (Lewis) (Porter) Camp"Melicent (Baldwin) Porter, one of the cross-bearers of the Revolution and a standard-bearer as well, was born at Waterbury, Conn., November 16, 1750. In physique she was large and strong and of a noble and dignified presence Her eyes were blue, her complexion fair, her hair light brown, which, at the time of her death, when she was seventy-four years old, retained its youthful color. … Colonel Baldwin, the father of Meliccnt Porter, was a large landholder, and previous to the war had been entrusted with many offices of responsibility. Melicent, his daughter, received a common school education, and also attended the private school of Mr. Badger, who was noted for his careful training in deportment. She was early taught the Westminster catechism and was evidently instructed in the inalienable rights of the individual both in politics and religion. In 1770 Melicent Baldwin, when twenty years old, became the wife of Isaac Booth Lewis, and removed with her husband to New Jersey at the time when the mutterings of discontent against British oppression were rife in the land. … Out from this camp at Valley Forge came the soldiers who in June, 1778, were to fight and win the battle of Monmouth, over the British forces who were retreating from Philadelphia with New York as their objective point. The heat at this season was so intense that many soldiers in both armies died from the heat alone. It is recorded 'that the tongues of the soldiers were so swollen that they could not be retained in their mouths,' and the distress for want of water was so great that the men tried to relieve it by holding bullets in their mouths. On that day, a w aterbury woman, 'Milicent,' the daughter of Lieut.-Col. Jonathan Baldwin, helped to feed the soldiers of Washington's army, cooking for them from morning until night all the provisions that she could procure. At the time of the battle of Monmouth, Melicent Baldwin Lewis was the widow of Isaac Booth Lewis, and was living in New Jersey, within sound of the firing, probably at Mendham, the home of her husband’s father. No record of the place or circumstance of Mr. Isaac Booth Lewis's death lias been found. The date alone was recorded by his wife in her family Bible as April 29, 1777, more than a year previous to the battle in which she figured. Soon after the battle of Monmouth, Mrs. Lewis's Lather, Lieutenant-Colonel Baldwin, journeyed on horseback from Waterbury to New Jersey to escort his widowed daughter and her two young children to his own home. The little party set forth on the return journey, Colonel Baldwin carrying one child with him on his horse, Mrs. Lewis, the other with her on her horse. They came to a river ford which was so swollen that the horse of Mrs. Lewis in the midst of the stream lost its footing and went down with the current. Mrs. Lewis first threw her child to a place of safety upon the river bank and later effected her own escape. The child was four years old at the time and her name was Melicent. Returning to Waterbury—as patriotic a town as any in Connecticut if we may believe our records—Mrs. Lewis found herself in a military atmosphere well calculated to keep alive the patriotic spirit which she had shown in New Jersey, and which was evidently appreciated by one of its soldiers, for not long after her return, on December 23, 1778, she became the wife of Major Pltineas Porter. … Col. Phineas Porter died and Mrs. Melicent Porter was married a third time, in May, 1808, when fifty-eight years old, to Mr. Abel Camp. She died in References
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