My Connections to Jacob Nutter

Sunday, November 01, 2009

My Connections to Jacob Nutter

As I mentioned in the last post, Jacob Nutter is one of my great, great, great, great, great grandfathers. According to his coast guard enlistment records he was born in 1747 to Valentine and Mary Nutter in Portsmouth NH. Valentine was a carpenter and shipwright. Jacob was orphaned during his teen years when his mother died in 1765. Valentine had died earlier in in 1756 or 57. William Earl Treadwell of Portsmouth was granted guardianship of Jacob on Jan 18, 1765. We don't know much about what Jacob did or what happened to him until his enlistment in the Coast Guards in 1775 at the coastal defenses at Kittery Point ME. He must have taken to the seafaring life early on because his enlistment record shows his occupation as "mariner" by 1776.

The following image is from "A Return of the Number & Names, Age in the Mattross Company under the Command of Capt. Titus Salter Stationed at Ft. Washington as Mustered by Major George Gains Feby 17th 1776", from Footnote.com (see their add at the top of this page). By the way, a mattross worked on a cannon crew and in this case the cannons were positioned to protect the channel of the Piscataqua river downstream of Portsmouth. Click on the image to see more.

You can also see that by February of 1776, Jacob lists his town of residence as Kittery. We are not sure when he married his wife Rebecca but it was apparently in the early 1770s as their first child was born and baptized in 1774.

Jacob's militia service included a couple of stints at Kittery point in 1775 in Capt. Shapleigh's company and also Col. Edward Cutts. Then, for some reason he went across to the south side (NH side) of the Piscataqua River to serve under Capt. Salter at Fort Washington. Militia enlistments were for short duration. The next image, also from Footnote, shows Jacob Nutter, assigned to Gun #9 at Fort Washington, a 32 pounder with a crew of 7 under Capt. John Williams.

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Overview

The hellhole of Mill Prison England where hundreds of American sailors are held for high treason and most probably the noose; John Paul Jones' bloody but victorius battle between Bonhomme Richard and Serapis; the Captain Queeg-like French captain of the American Frigate Alliance whose insanity finally drives the crew to mutiny; this is the story chronicled in Jacob Nutter’s journal covering the span of 1776 to 1780 during America’s battle for independence. This journal is actually fictional as Nutter documented very little of his experience during these 4 years; rather this is a compilation written from Nutter's perspective based on first hand accounts of others, historical documents and the many books written about this important part of America's early navy.

Jacob Nutter was my ancestor. He enlisted on the privateer Dolton in Portsmouth NH in November of 1776, expecting to cruise for 3 months with a crew of 120, capturing British merchant ships. Instead, on Christmas Eve 1776, off the coast of Spain, the Dolton was taken by the HMS Raisonable. Nutter and the Dolton's crew were taken to Plymouth England where they were committed to Mill Prison for piracy and treason. In early 1779, after nearly two years of imprisonment Benjamin Franklin obtained a prisoner exchange and roughly 100 of the Mill Prison inmates were set free and sent to France. Most had no money, no clothes and no way home and therefore enlisted on American ships then recruiting mariners. Nutter enlisted on the new American Frigate Alliance, commanded by Pierre Landais, as a quartermaster thinking that this ship would soon be returning to America with supplies for the war. Instead, Franklin re-assigned the Alliance to John Paul Jones' small flotilla. The Alliance participated in the famous battle between Jones' Bonhomme Richard and the HMS Serapis. Due to Landais' poor conduct during the battle he was subsequently removed from command by Jones when the flotilla arrived in the Netherlands. In early 1780 after cruising along the coast of France and Spain, and after a near mutiny by the crew, Alliance made her way to L'Orient France. While Jones basked in his glory in Paris, the crew remained at L'Orient suffering for want of clothing, food and money. In Jones' absence Landais made his way to L'Orient and convinced much of his former crew that he was rightful commander of the Alliance. After a showdown between Jones and Landais in which the Alliance was nearly fired upon by a French fort to prevent her departure, Alliance finally made sail for America. During the 2 month cruise home, the crew mutineed when Landais informed them he would cruise to Philadelphia instead of Boston. Landais began acting irrationally and the officers were forced to take command. Finally, in August of 1780, Alliance raised the American coast and Jacob Nutter was home after nearly four years away from his family and country.

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Sunday, November 01, 2009