Biography
ANYONE DELVING into the history of Long Island in the American Revolution is bound to come across the name of Ebenezer Dayton. Born in Coram March 17, 1744 he was by trade a peddler, traveling about the island selling his wares. On February 5, 1776 he was commissioned as Quartermaster of Col. Josiah Smith's regiment of Minute Men, and served with distinction.
After the Battle of Long Island, the British over ran the Island, plundering and looting the homes and farms of the inhabitants, forcing the majority of the patriot residents to flee to Connecticut for safety. In September 1776 Dayton made three trips from Southold to Milford, Conn., bringing off his family and belongings. Subsequently he settled in Bethany.
The house in which he lived was moved to a new location in 1929 and remodeled, during which several interesting discoveries were made. A cornerstone was found bearing the date 1730. In a secret closet there was a handmade dagger wrapped in oilskin, with a pewter hilt, apparently made from a bayonet; also a gold ring well over 100 years old.
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Many of the patriot refugees engaged in privateering, making whaleboat raids on the Island, and attacking British ships On the Sound. The families of the privateers were very proud of them for taking action against their country's enemies. Their popularity waned eventually, when they began to attack patriots as well as loyalists in search of riches.
Dayton acquired a small schooner, the Suffolk, and early in 1778 was commissioned as a privateer by Governor Jonathan Trumbull at New Haven. In June he sailed around Long Island into the Great South Bay and at Blue Point captured three sloops the Dispatch, the Polly, and the Jane and the pettiaugre Lively, all loaded with stolen food and supplies for the British in New York City. Taking aboard their cargoes, Capt. Dayton sailed back to New Haven and filed claims, called "libels". The prizes were awarded in court on July 6, 1778 and Capt. Dayton took his loot to his home in Bethany.
In November, 1778 he led another raid with a privateer sloop and four whale-boats from New London to the Great South Bay. He met and overtook a British brig loaded with tobacco, but instead of returning to New London he stayed in the vicinity too long, and was overtaken by a British vessel and captured. It is not known whether he escaped or was exchanged for a British prisoner.
Ebenezer DAYTON. Phoebe and Stephen JETT were in Natchez by 1783 and received a land grant from the Spanish government for a lot in Natchez.
Concerned about so many English-speaking American emigrants to the Natchez District, who were not Catholic, the Spanish issued a religious edict in 1795. It declared “that if nine persons were found worshiping together, except according to the forms of the Catholic Church, they should suffer imprisonment.” They sent a man named Ebenezer Dayton to spy on the Baptists, pretending to be in sympathy with them as he was Presbyterian, and Dayton reported that their pastor, Richard Curtis, Jr. continued defend his right to preach the gospel and obey God rather than man. The Spanish Governor, Manuel Gayoso, arrested Curtis in April 1795, and forced him to sign a pledge not to preach. At the urging of his congregation, Curtis continued to preach, so Gayoso sent an armed posseto break up the house church in August 1795, but this time Curtis fled to South Carolina.~Research by by Robert C. Rogers and the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board.
Ebenezer died in New Orleans April 14, 1802 of yellow fever, aged 58 years. His wife was Phebe Smith, daughter of Joshua Smith of Coram, whom he married Aug. 16, 1772. She was born June 16, 1749, and died in New Orleans of yellow fever Mar. 18, 1827, aged nearly 78 years.
Additional notes: Husband of Phebe Smith Dayton. Father of Jonathan Dayton, Smith Dayton, Phebe Dayton Stiles, and Ruth Dayton Hickworth. He became Quartermaster in Pennsylvania. That must be why he is buried in Pennsylvania.