Captain Thomas Captain Nash

  General Notes:

GEN: "It is related, that when Fairfield was burned, in the time of the Revolution, Col. Whiting, the Commandant, having withdrawn GEN: the Americans to the Round Hill, north of the village, called for a Captain and 30 men to volunteer for the purpose of GEN: reconnoitering the enemy -- that Captain Nash immediately stepped forth, followed by more than 100 men. the Colonel would GEN: allow only 30 to go. However, more fell in after they left the Hill. Captain Nash advanced to the fence north of the street, GEN: near where the meeting-house now stands, and ordered his men to lie behind the fence in the tall vegetation, until the enemy GEN: were near the center of the street, when, as he gave the word, they were to rise and fire, load and fire, and then run. They GEN: did with such effect, and so unexpectedly, that none of his party were injured, until they began to ascend the rising ground GEN: towards the north, where one was killed. Afterwards, when a squad of the enemy approached to burn his house at Green's Farms, GEN: he alone, or with but little help, dragged the company field piece to a rising ground near the house, loaded it with grape, GEN: and fired upon them. They, suspecting he had a company to sustain him in so daring an act, retreated, and thus his house was GEN: saved. It is yet standing. GEN: At another time, being on a scout in the night, with only 3 men, he discovered a whale boat secreted on the shore, which he GEN: thought indicated an enemy near. He therefore stove in the boat, and search for the foe. Perceiving a faint light from the GEN: window of a cabin in a cornfield, he ordered his army of 3 to pass rapidly round the cabin, making all the noise they could GEN: with their muskets against the building, by which the inmates deemed themselves surrounded by a real force. Captain Nash then GEN: approached the window and told them to hand out their arms, and he would spare their lives. They complied and handed out 16 GEN: muskets, which he secured and told them to lie down until morning, when it appeared that he and his 3 men had surrounded and GEN: taken 15 Tories and one British soldier. GEN: But in the changes and turmoils of those times, he did not succeed in preserving the fine estate he had inherited, but spent GEN: his later days in straitened pecuniary circumstances. His end was one of sadness, being afflicted with a malady which so GEN: affected his mind, that restraint became necessary, and he was confined to his room, where he was found dead under his bed on GEN: the morning of January 29, 1815." The Rev. Sylvester Nash, 1853

Thomas married Mary Burr, daughter of William Burr and Unknown. (Mary Burr was born in 1750 in Fairfield, CT and died on 20 May 1784 in Fairfield, CT.)

Thomas next married Mary Nichols.