| Notes |
- He was our Revolutionary War ancestor.
Aunt Dorothy (Dorothy Curtiss Klus) was a great great great great
granddaughter. Therefore, my mother (Kathryn Louise Curtiss Herriman)
was the same--lineal descent.
He was the oldest son. He married Elizabeth Beal of nearby Weymouth. He spent the last years of his life in Phelps, where he died January 22, 1821.
In early manhood, he migrated with his wife and family to Boston, where he became manager of the farm of Thomas Hutchinson, the last of the colonial governors, and during the closing years of the colonial period, he held a government position under the Hutchinson administration. He continued in the service during the Revolutionary War, and for a considerable period of time served as barrack-master and commissary manager on Castle Island, in Boston Harbor, for Colonel Revere's Corps. of Artillery.
The official record, as quoted in the "Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Warof the Revolution", Vol. XIII, page 745 reads: "Salisbury, William. Account dated Boston, January 1, 1782, rendered by said Salisbury against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for services as Deputy Commissary for Colonel Revere's Corps. of artillery at Castle Island from April 1, 1779, to December 31, 1779, 9 months, by order and under direction of the late Board of War."
He remained in the service on the Island under Governor John Hancock, and was pronounced a capable trustworthy official, especially shown by his continuous service through shifting administrations of government. An account against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for barrack-master and commissary services has been a matter of record, dated October 1, 1788. It covers a period of five years and nine months, from January 1, 1783, at four pounds per month, or a total payment of 276 pounds, English sterling.
At the conclusion of his government service, following the constructive period in which his children and their families had migrated to Conway, a new settlement in the western part of the state, he and his wife joined them in their pioneer movement.
He followed farming, for the Conway Civil records, 1765-1834, state that the cattle of Captain William Salisbury are to be identified by two holes in the right ear. As they grew older they followed their sons Stephen and John to Phelps, New York. Several years were passed in the log house on the farm of their youngest son John, who then moved to a newly built frame house a few yards toward the south, where his wife died at an advanced age.
The remaining years of his life were spent in the home of his son Stephen, north of Melvin Hill in Phelps, who had erected a new frame house north of his original log structure. He survived his life partnet four years, and when death came to him he was sitting in front of the open fireplace one Sunday evening, after the members of the family had gone to church. He looked at the blazing logs with his hands resting upon the top of his cane, waiting for his customary bedtime when the clock struck nine. But when the clock had signaled the hour and its resonant tones had died away, there was no response from the occupant of the old arm chair. He was found by the attendant in the room, stepping to his side, to have fallen upon the last great sleep, in the ninetieth year of his earthly pilgrimage.
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1731 - 1821 (89 years)