Notes for David CHAMBERS

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Notes for David CHAMBERS

Of Cranberry in 1807. Supposedly a captain of militia during the American Revolution. Not to be confused with Colonel David Chambers.
*****
Incorrect parents!
From http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.chambers/1784/mb.ashx [3/2009]:
Revolutionary War Record of David Chambers (1748-1842)

of Cranbury, Middlesex County. — who married Ruth dark

His Pension Affidavit. In applying for a pension, July 31, 1832, David Chambers of "Cranberry" (Cranbury) recorded in an affidavit his military services in the Revolutionary War. (A photostat copy is enclosed here with, together with a typed transcript thereof for convenient reference.) In that affidavit, written in the customary third person form, he stated:

"That ... in the year 1775 he was appointed a Captain in Militia service and obtained a Commission as such, .... and that he served as a Captain of the Militia from that time until the conclusion of the Revolutionary War ...."

He also listed a number of marches that he made with his company, and some contacts that they made with the British army in 1776, 1777, and 1776, while he was serving under Colonels "Hyre" (Hyer) and Neilson.

Other Information. While the affidavit of Capt. David Chambers needs no confirmation, it may be of interest to note some other references to his services. In "A History of Union and Middlesex Counties, N.J., with Biographical Sketches..." (Philadelphia, 1882):. p. 492, "Middlesex Men in the Revolutionary War" includes David Chambers in a list of 6l Captains. Page 476 reports a British raid Oct. 25, 1779, led by Lt. Col. Simcoe; and page 479 reports, "David Chambers of South Brunswick, captain in the 3rd Middlesex Regiment, was plundered of articles of slight value". A similar item on pages 786 ff lists Capt. David Chambers as a claimant (L l4 - l6 - 7).

The Colonelcy Error. Since David Chambers of Cranbury, South Brunswick, served throughout the Revolutionary War as a Captain in a Middlesex regiment, it is obvious that he could not have served from June 1776 to May 1779 as Colonel of the Third Regiment of Hunterdon County Militia, etc. As shown in Part II above, that colonelcy was held by David Chambers of Amwell; and the Colonel's period of service was contemporaneous with several incidents mentioned in the affidavit of Captain David Chambers. The widely held, but erroneous, idea that David Chambers of Cranbury, husband of Ruth dark, was the Hunterdon colonel was apparently first stated by Rev. Eli F. Cooley, D.D., and his son in their book, "Genealogy of Early Settlers of Trenton and Ewing", published 1883, which gives the ancestry, marriage, and list of children of the younger David (of Cranbury). Dr. Cooley's error vas a natural one to make. The actual colonel had. sold his large plantation In Amwell and had left New Jersey and gone West shortly after the War, some 60 years before Dr. Cooley began and 100 years before the book was published; whereas Captain Chambers had remained in the State and, as mentioned below, had become a colonel after the Revolution and long before Dr. Cooley wrote. Naturally the Cooley book was later regarded by applicants for DAR or SAE membership as authoritative. Indeed, no one would now venture to question its correctness, except on the basis of incontrovertible evidence. The affidavit of Capt. David Chambers as to his own actual service is such evidence; and it must overrule even Dr. Cooley's book. It is now certain that the Hunterdon colonel was not David of Cranbury (the husband of Ruth Clark), but was David of Amwell (the father of Joseph Gaston Chambers) as indicated in Parts I and II above.

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