Jacob Anguish in Prison
A Soldier of Butler's Rangers Loses His Foot in a Hartford Dungeon
Jacob Anguish, a soldier in Butler's Rangers during the American Revolution, seems to have been aptly named; he lost a foot to gangrene.
When Jacob Anguish discovered that his family had been captured by Native forces that were allied with the French and Americans, as described here, he joined up once more with Butler’s Rangers to serve at the infamous expedition against the Wyoming Valley, where British regulars, rangers and Indians attacked an American settlement. To the horror of many then and since, a large number of the defenders were killed while attempting to retreat across a river; the incident is still remembered with very strong feelings.
Anguish was eventually reunited with his family, for he is listed between March 13 and April 21, 1781 among "unincorporated Royalists at Machiche", near Montreal, Quebec. He was then living with a wife, a boy and a girl over the age of ten, and a girl under ten. In October of 1781, Captain Walter Butler arranged for the transport to Niagara of Butler’s Rangers families from "Maskies"; the move took place in the spring of 1782.
Meanwhile, Jacob Anguish’s frozen foot seems to have developed gangrene. Nonetheless, the aptly-named Anguish apparently trudged all over New York and Canada on the injury for at least two years. Eventually, the surgeon at Fort Niagara insisted on cutting off his leg. In 1784, Jacob Anguish petitioned British Lieutenant-Colonel De Peyster for a pension, since he was "Utterly incapable of maintaining himself and his wife". He wrote that he feared that "they must therefore be reduced to the greatest Misery unless His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief, should take their Case into consideration & be graciously pleased to make some small Provision for them". (The petition was signed with his mark; Anguish was evidently illiterate.)
Lt-Col. Butler himself endorsed the petition, writing that "I hereby certify the truth of the above representation' & altho' I could not be a Witness of his sufferings in the Dungeon, I think it necessary to observe that when he joined me at Tioga, his limb was still swelled to an enormous size."
Find out about the end of Jacob Anguish's life here.
Sources:
- An Annotated Nominal Roll of Butler's Rangers 1777-1784 with Documentary Sources by Lt-Col William A. Smy (2004)
- Butler’s Rangers, The Revolutionary Period by E.A. Cruikshank (Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, 1893)
- Early Settlers in Niagara (Ontario Genealogical Society)
- Petition of Jacob Anguish to Lt-Col. De Peyster (No 99 in the collection of MSS "Susquehanna Settlers" at Hartford, Connecticut. Copy in the archives of the Niagara Historical Society Museum at Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario)
- Register of St. Paul’s Church at Fort Erie, 1836-1844 (Ontario Historical Society Papers and Records, Vol. 27, 1931)
