Continental soldier; born in
York, Me., Oct. 6, 1764.
He and
Lemuel Cook, another of the late survivors, were born the same year, and died the same month.
They were the last survivors of the soldiers in the
Revolutionary War. When William was four years old the family removed to
Plantation Number Three, at the
mouth of the
Penobscot (now
Castine). There, on a farm, which his descendants occupied, he continued to live until his death, May 2, 1866, excepting a short interval of time.
He was a witness to the stirring scenes of the
Massachusetts expedition to
Penobscot in 1779, and aided (by compulsion) the
British in the
construction of
Fort George, on the peninsula.
After the destruction of the British fleet, his father, who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the crown, retired to
New Castle, where he remained until the close of the war. At the age of fifteen, having acquired a man's stature, William entered the
Continental army.
He enlisted in a regiment of
Massachusetts militia commanded by
Col. Samuel McCobb,
Capt. Benjamin Lemont's company, as a volunteer for six months. That was in the spring of 1780 or 1781; and he was honorably discharged about Christmas, the same year, at Cox's Head, at the mouth of the
Kennebec River.
He received an annual pension of $21.60 until 1865, when an annual gratuity of $300 was granted by Congress to each of the five Revolutionary soldiers then supposed to be living.
Only four of the number lived to receive this gratuity.
William Hutchings and
Lemuel Cook were the last.
In 1865, when over 100 years of age, he
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468]
received an invitation from the city authorities of
Bangor to join in the celebration of the Fourth of July there.
He accepted it. A revenue-cutter conveyed him from
Castine to
Bangor.
The guns of
Fort Knox, on the
Penobscot, gave him a salute of welcome as he passed.
At
Bangor multitudes rushed to get a glimpse of the veteran as he was escorted through the streets.
Senator Hamlin delivered an oration on that occasion, and at the close
Mr. Hutchings responded at some length to a toast.
“My friends told me,” he said, “that the effort to be here might cause my death; but I thought I could never die any better than by celebrating the glorious Fourth.”
