John Dane

Quick Facts

Date of Birth:

1740

Date of Death:

November 16, 1777

John Dane (born 1740) was originally from Newburyport, Massachusetts but moved his family to New Hampshire by the time the British invaded upstate New York in 1777. He and his wife, Mary, were the proud parents of three boys and one girl, ranging in ages from 15 to 5.

While New Hampshire’s three Continental regiments formed part of the American Northern Army from the start and served in the Battles of Hubbardton (July 7) and Fort Anne (July 7-8), the state’s militia remained mostly inactivated. New Hampshire militia were finally raised in August under the command of General John Stark – principally because of Vermont’s concerns for its safety – and his troops formed the core of those who won the decisive August 16 Battle of Bennington.

Two more New Hampshire militia regiments were raised in early September for a term of three months, and John decided to answer the call to arms “for the defense of American Liberties.” John was enlisted as a private soldier in Captain McDuffee’s company of Colonel Stephen Evans’s Battalion which joined the Northern Army at Bemus Heights on October 7 – just in time to fight in the Second Battle of Saratoga that afternoon.

It isn’t clear as to when and how it happened, but John was stricken, apparently in the battle, and died weeks later on November 16. While military records confirm his death, family records add the reason: he “died of sun stroke at the Stillwater fight.”

Mary never remarried and moved her family back to Massachusetts.