A Name of Respectability: William Hare (1731-1773)

Map of the Country of the Six Nations, 1771
Source: New York Public Library

The frontier settlements of the Mohawk Valley region of New York were home to a significant number of families that remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution. The Hare family, for example, had eight members who "joined the British Standard" and served in either Butler's Rangers or in the Indian Department.

Warrensburg Patent, 1738. Source:
Montgomery County Clerk's Office

The patriarch, John Hare settled in the vicinity of Fort Hunter in what is now Montgomery County sometime before his daughter Catharine was baptised at Fort Hunter on 15 Jul 1739. It is possible that the family was one of the twelve Irish Protestant families that William Johnson (1715–1774) had recruited and brought to America in 1738 to settle on land owned by his uncle, Captain Peter Warren of the Royal Navy.

Hare researchers have tended to focus on three of John's sons: Captain Peter Hare (1748–1834), who served as a company commander in Butler's Rangers during the Revolutionary War, Captain John Hare (c. 1734–1777) of the Indian Department who was killed at the Battle of Oriskany, and Lieutenant Henry Hare (c. 1740–1779) of the Indian Department who was hanged as a spy at Canojaharie. However, a fourth brother, James Hare, also served with the Indian Department for seven years as a Volunteer. In addition, John Hare's son William (1764–1832) enlisted as a Volunteer in Butler's Rangers as did Henry's son John (1766– ?).

Also with the Rangers were Lieutenant John Hare (1760– ?) and Peter Hare (1762–1797), sons of William Hare and Elizabeth Clement.

William Hare (c.1731–1773), the eldest child of John Hare, saw action several times during the Seven Years War, first as a Corporal in the New York Provincial Regiment, then as a Lieutenant in Roger's Rangers, and finally as a Lieutenant in the British Indian Department.

In 1755, William appears on the muster rolls of Captain William McGinnis's company of the New York Provincials, along with his father and two brothers. At the Battle of Lake George on September 8, 1755, McGinnis's company and Nathaniel Folson's company of New Hampshire Provincials were dispatched from Fort Edward to reinforce William Johnson's forces to the north. McGinnis and Folson encountered and captured the French baggage train, then ambushed a body of withdrawing French militia accompanied by Abenaki, Kahnawake Mohawk, and Kanesatake Mohawk warriors.

Illustration from Tuttle's Popular
History of the Dominion of Canada

William McGinnis was mortally wounded during this engagement and the company was taken over by his brother Robert McGinnis. William Hare was promoted to Corporal in September 1755 but does not appear on the muster rolls in 1756.

William was appointed a Lieutenant in Captain Harry Isaac Wendell's company of Roger's Rangers upon its formation on 25 Mar 1758. In April 1758, William was slightly wounded during a raid on German Flatts by Indigenous warriors allied with the French. In August 1758, he led a detachment of the Rangers at the Battle of Fort Frontenac.

On 9 Oct 1758, William married Elizabeth Clement at Schenectady. Elizabeth is believed to be the daughter of Peter Clement (b. 1681) and his second wife, Anne Vedder. According to their marriage record both William and Elizabeth were de woostyn (of the wilderness).

Upon Captain Wendell's resignation in May 1759, William left Rogers' Rangers and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Indian Department on the recommendation of Sir William Johnson on 31 May 1759. William was with Johnson at the Battle of Fort Niagara in July 1759 and during the Montreal Campaign the following summer.

Plan of the Fort and Attack on Niagara, 1759
Map reproduction courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal
Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library

William is named a number of times in the journal¹ kept by Johnson in 1759. On 11 Aug 1759, soon after arriving at Oswego, Johnson wrote that he had sent "Captain Fonda, Lieutenant Hare, an interpreter, and others to Onondaga, to call the young men of that nation here, to go upon service." At the end of the month, William was present at Johnson's meeting with the Seneca and Onondaga at Oswego. In early September he was sent to the Cayuga to attend the Ceremony of Consolation for the sachem Ottrawana's daughter, and to return with their warriors. Later that month, William was placed in command of one of two scouting parties sent to Fort La Galette (Oswegatchie) on the St Lawrence River.

William was discharged on 8 Nov 1760, the same day as John Butler who seventeen years later was given permission to raise a regiment of rangers based at Fort Niagara.

William and Elizabeth's first child, John, was baptised at Schenectady on 27 Feb 1760. Their second child, Peter, was baptised there on 1 Jan 1762.

Sir William Johnson in 1763, based
on a lost portrait by Thomas McIlworth

William again served with the Indian Department during Pontiac's Rebellion (1763-1766) and held the rank of Captain. Letters in The Papers of Sir William Johnson show that William was one of the leaders of the 1764 expedition against the Delaware at Kanestio and along the Susquehanna, Chemung and Tioga Rivers commanded by Captain Andrew Montour. In a letter dated Diogoa [Tioga] April 7th 1764, Monture, Hare, and John Johnston reported to Sir William Johnson that they had moved "against our Enemy at Kanisteo and Along the Susquehanna Destroying & Burning All their Towns Villages and Settlements With there Creatures Such as Horses, Cattle..."

Elizabeth Clement is believed to have died in 1764. On 13 Jun 1765, William married Rachel Quackenbush at Stone Arabia. The marriage record notes that both William and Rachel were widowed.

In his 1845 History of Schoharie County and Border Wars of New York, American historian Jeptha Root Simms wrote:

The name of Hare was one of respectability in the Mohawk valley, before the revolution. Members of the Hare family were engaged for years in sundry speculations with Maj. Jelles Fonda, who, as already observed, carried on an extensive trade with the Indians and fur traders at the western military posts; his own residence being at Caughnawaga.

Petitions signed by William and other traders show that he was licensed to trade at Niagara in 1766 and in 1767. Frontier traders such as William were mainly interested in furs, but would also trade for ginseng. In 1769, William wrote to Jelles Fonda, a merchant at Caughnawaga: "I have given a Notice to all the sinecas Nation to Bring on all the Roots they Can possibly get which they have promised to Do." In the same letter William requested blankets, beads, rum and muskets, as well as foodstuffs and "2 pair Womens Cloath shoes."

William is also named in several letters written by British trader Ferrell Wade to Sir William Johnson in the summer of 1771. Wade and his partner, Peter Keiuser, traded rum, blankets, knives, kettles, and other goods for furs with the Mississauga at Toronto. Billy Hare, as Wade called him, may have been similarly engaged.

George Catlin, "Portage around the Falls of Niagara at Table Rock,"
c. 1847. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington. As a trader at
Niagara, William Hare would be familiar with scenes such as this.

William Hare died of an illness in 1773. A letter dated 3 Jul 1773 to William Johnson from his son-in-law Daniel Claus refers to William's death.

William's sons would later join Butler's Rangers. John was commissioned a Lieutenant on 25 Dec 1779. He was with Captain William Caldwell at the raid on Wawarsing on 12 Aug 1781. Lieutenant John Hare, aged 28, appears on the 30 Nov 1783 "Return of Loyalists" at Niagara, the 20 Jul 1784 "List of Persons Who Have Subscribed Their Names in Order to Settle and Cultivate the Lands Opposite to Niagara, the 1785 "Return of the Loyalist Settlers at Niagara," and the 1786 Niagara Provisioning List. His date of death is not known.

Peter Hare attempted to join his brother at Niagara in 1780, but was "forced" instead to enlist in the King's Rangers commanded by Major James Rogers. A year later Governor Frederick Haldimand ordered that Peter be transferred to Butler's Rangers. He appears on the 1783 Niagara Return and is recorded as having been a Volunteer on the 1784 List. Peter appears on the 1785 Return, the 1786 Provisioning List, and the 1787 "List of Disbanded Troops at Niagara." Peter was granted 200 acres in Saltfleet Township in 1792 but the land reverted to the Crown in 1797 following his death.

It is not known when Rachel Quackenbush died or if she remarried after the death of William. It is also not known if she came to Canada like her stepsons, or remained in New York.

¹ The journal covers the period from the surrender of Fort Niagara on 25 Jul 1759 to 14 Oct 1759. Although none of Johnson's journals have survived, excerpts from two of them were printed in William Stone's 1845 The Life and Times of Sir William Johnson and reprinted in Volume 13 of The Papers of William Johnson, published in 1962.

Sources:

Cash, Sherri Goldstein. “Roots in the Valley: Ginseng and the New York-Iroquois Borderlands, 1752–1785.” New York History, vol. 99, no. 1, Fenimore Art Museum, 2018, pp. 7–37. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26905088

Crowder, Norman. Early Ontario Settlers: A Source Book. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1993. ancestry.ca/search/collections/48451/

Hamilton, Milton W. Sir William Johnson, Colonial American, 1715-1763. Port Washington, New York: Kennikat Press, 1976. archive.org/details/sirwilliamjohnso00hami_0/

Library and Archives Canada. Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865. RG 1 L3

Loescher, Burt Garfield. The History of Roger's Rangers, 4 vols. San Francisco, 1946. archive.org/details/historyofrogersr01loes

New York Colonial Muster Rolls, 1664-1755, vol. 1. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1999. ancestry.ca/search/collections/48344/

Simms, Jeptha Root. History of Schoharie County And Border Wars of New York. Albany: Munsell & Tanne, 1845. catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008731951

Smy, William. An Annotated Nominal Roll of Butler's Rangers 1777-1784. Welland, Ontario: Friends of the Loyalist Collection at Brock University, 2004.

Smy, William A., editor. The Butler Papers: Documents and Papers Relating to Colonel John Butler and His Corps of Rangers. Brock University Library Archives & Special Collections, 1994. dr.library.brocku.ca/handle/10464/9242

Stone, William L. The Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, 2 vols. Albany: J. Munsell, 1865. catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000361699

Sullivan, James, ed. The Papers of Sir William Johnson, 14 vols. Albany: University of the State of New York, 1921. ancestry.ca/search/collections/20216/

The Documentary History of the State of New-York, vol. 1. Albany, 1849. catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009115618