Lt.Jonathan Cilley (1762-1807), 1st Regiment, N.H. Continental Line – Original Member
Jonathan Cilley was born March 8, 1762 in Nottingham, New Hampshire. He was the third child and second son of Joseph and Sara (Longfellow) Cilley. At 15, he was captured at the retreat from Ticonderoga, but soon thereafter released since he was not a soldier. When he came home he asked to be pressed into service and was commissioned as an Ensign in the 3rd New Hampshire Regiment on 4 August 1777. He became a Lieutenant on 5 July 1780 and was was transferred to the 1st New Hampshire Regiment on 1 January 1781 and served to the close of war.
Jonathan Cilley was an original member of the New Hampshire Society of the Cincinnati, joining at the first meeting at Folsom Tavern on 18 November 1783, along with his father General Joseph Cilley who was the first Vice-President and second President. Jonathan Cilley served as Vice-President from 1799-1802.
He moved to Hamilton County, Ohio where he died on March 21, 1807.
Sources: Frederic Kidder, History of the First New Hampshire Regiment in the War of the Revolution (Albany, 1868), 120; Selected Wartime Service Records of 1st Jonathan Cilley.
