1st Lt. Thomas Lyford, Whitcomb’s Battalion, New Hampshire Rangers
Thomas Lyford, Jr. was born May 12, 1743 in Exeter, New Hampshire. He was the son of Thomas, Sr. and Anne (Conner) Lyford.
Thomas Lyford, Jr. was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in Captain Jeremiah Clough’s Company of the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment on May 27, 1775. His residence is given as Sanbornton, New Hampshire.
On January 1, 1776, Second Lieutenant Lyford was promoted to First Lieutenant in the 8th Continental Infantry (the temporary designation for the 2nd Regiment, New Hampshire Continental Line). In the fall of 1776, Captain Benjamin Whitcomb was ordered to the frontiers of the Upper Connecticut River. He was authorized by an October 15, 1776 congressional resolution to raise a company of rangers for this task to serve from “October 14, 1776 to the last day of December, 1779.” First Lieutenant Lyford transferred to Whitcomb’s Battalion of Rangers on November 4, 1776. Initially, Whitcomb’s company consisted of 35 officers and men. Subsequently, Captain Whitcomb was promoted to Major and given command of another Ranger company formed by Captain George Aldrich of Westmoreland. This new body became known as Major Whitcomb’s Independent Corps of Rangers. In this formation, Thomas Lyford, Jr. was the First Lieutenant and ranking Lieutenant. First Lieutenant Thomas Lyford, Jr. served until November 1, 1780. During the war, his residence changed to Canterbury in Rockingham County, New Hampshire.
First Lieutenant Thomas Lyford, Jr. was one of the first residents in Cabot, Vermont. He settled there in 1788. His lot now includes Cabot Village, along the Winooski River. He took up the profession of a millwright and built the first house in the village in 1794. In 1802, he applied and was granted bounty land.
First Lieutenant Thomas Lyford died in Cabot, Vermont in 1805.
Sources: Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army, (Baltimore, 1914), 361; Adjutant-General of the State of New Hampshire, Report of the Adjutant-General of the State of New Hampshire, Volume II, (Concord, 1866), 268, 366; Pension Application for First Lieutenant Thomas Lyford, Jr.; B. L. Wt. 1913-200; Selected Wartime Service Records of First Lieutenant Thomas Lyford, Jr.
