Jim’s 5th great-grandfather on his mother’s side, known as Corporal Eleazer Spafford/Spofford of Rowley, Massachusetts when serving as a Patriot in the Revolutionary War. Around 1778, Eleazer Spofford and his wife Mary Flint and their first six children moved to Jaffrey, New Hampshire. He was a prominent business person and deacon of the First Congregational Church of Jaffrey which met in the town’s meeting house in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. He and Mary had 10 children in total, of which the 6th, Abner Spofford (1778-1859), is Jim’s ancestor who, with his wife Betsey Litch, had 8 children and were the first of this line to move to Tecumseh, Michigan. (I have written about this family in another blog “Sometimes you really luck out”, with great photos of Abner and Betsey’s daughter Harriet Spofford Hoag Webster (1816-1898). If you didn't follow that, Harriet is a granddaughter of Eleazer and Mary.
Revolutionary War Service
Eleazer Spofford appeared to provide his service to the Revolutionary War in two ways, the first was as a corporal in Colonel Daniel Spafford’s Massachusetts Militia under Captain Eliphalet Spafford and Colonel Samuel Gerrish.
(Source: Fold3, US, Massachusetts, Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War, 1775-1801 https://www.fold3.com/publication/1430/us-massachusetts-soldiers-and-sailors-in-the-revolutionary-war-1775-1801 : accessed Mar 17, 2026), database and images, https://www.fold3.com/publication/1430/us-massachusetts-soldiers-and-sailors-in-the-revolutionary-war-1775-1801; p. 670 of Volume 14-page 13361 of digital source)
The second of his service was as a member of the Committee on Safety for the town of Jaffrey, New Hampshire in 1779. It appears to have been an annual post for several men elected to the committee that would have had a variety of functions, such as helping to run the town under wartime conditions, monitoring supplies, soldiers, and enforced loyalty and monitored dissent.
(Source: Archive.org, History of the town of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, from the date of the Masonian charter to the present time, 1749-1880: with a genealogical register of the Jaffrey families, and an appendix containing the proceedings of the centennial celebration in 1873, by Daniel B. Cutter (1881), Republican Press Association, https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofj00cutt/page/134/mode/2up; page 135)
Summary of His Life
The following summary of his ancestry and life was found in the History of the Town of Jaffrey, New Hampshire (see link above) on p. 476:
A Fun Find
While I couldn't find any images of Eleazer or his wife, Mary Flint, I did find a photo of the actual shoes (!!) that Mary Flint wore at her wedding on 24 January 1765! When searching the internet looking for anything about Eleazer Flint, I found the following description and photo of her shoes:
I think I need to take a trip to Deerfield, Massachussetts some day to see, in person, the wedding shoes Jim's great-great-great-great-great-grandmother wore at her wedding over 250 years ago, before her husband served as a Patriot!
