Lt. Jonas Butterfield, Whitcomb’s Battalion N.H. Rangers
Jonas Butterfield was born April 27, 1740 in Westford, Massachusetts. He was the son of Benjamin and Kezia (Patterson) Butterfield. He married Jane Hazleton in Westmoreland, New Hampshire on November 10, 1766.
The Continental Congress passed a resolution on October 15, 1776 authorizing the famed Benjamin Whitcomb to raise two independent companies of 50 men each to serve as Rangers in the Continental Army. Whitcomb was to command the first Company himself and be Captain Commandant in overall command of the two companies as well. He was given the freedom to select the Commander of the Second Company and selected George Aldrich who he knew from Rogers’ Rangers. Subsequently, Captain Whitcomb was promoted to Major and this new body of men became known as Major Whitcomb’s Independent Corps of Rangers.
Jonas Butterfield was commissioned as a Captain in Whitcomb’s Rangers on December 14, 1776. Lieutenant Butterfield participated in all of the Ranger’s engagements until he was discharged from service on February 17, 1780.
Lieutenant Jonas Butterfield died March 18, 1795 in Westmoreland, New Hampshire.
Sources: Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army, (Baltimore, 1914), 138; The State of New Hampshire, Rolls of the Soldiers in the Revolutionary War, Volume XVI, (Manchester, 1887), 46, 174, 203, 302, 362; Selected Wartime Service Records of Lieutenant Jonas Butterfield.
