Are you interested in joining the Daughters of the American Revolution or Sons of the American Revolution? Well, here is your first Revolutionary War ancestor; Isaac Gage (1st). Why aren’t I calling them Sr and Jr? Because they never appeared to use those suffixes in records, so I try to keep them straight (for me and you) by identifying them as 1st and 2nd.
Isaac (1st) is first identified on Isaac’s (2nd) Pelham, New Hampshire transcribed birth index which also identifies Olive ____ as his mother. Keeping the research close to Pelham, New Hampshire, we conveniently find a transcribed index of marriages recording an event for Isaac Gage (1st) and Olive Abbot on 13 April 1780. This transcribed record was done at the same time (1905) as the transcribed birth index, presumably from the original records (not digitized).
In the same collection of transcribed indexes is a record of death for Captain Isaac Gage on 27 September 1813 in Orford, Grafton County at the age of 53 (b. abt. 1760).
This leads to a probate record in Grafton County in 1813 for Isaac Gage who died intestate and left wards (minors): Maria, Bersheba, John, Moses, and Aaron. Son, Eben, petitioned for administration of the estate with Abijah Stone (relative of Ruth’s?) and Johnathan Pool (son-in-law) as his sureties on 1 November 1813. The probate record names Olive Gage as his widow who petitioned for her dower rights (one-third of his estate). Olive was also awarded guardianship of Maria, Moses, and Bersheba. John and Aaron are not mentioned. This is a small mystery because Moses would have been 19 and Aaron 17 at the time of their father’s death, making John the only candidate to have still been a minor in 1813. I suspect an error in identifying the correct minor son. Other names associated with this probate are Isaac Gage and Hannah Gage who sign with Olive Gage, Abijah Stone, and Johnathan Pool as heirs (of age, so at least 21) identified by Eben Gage, the administrator.
Back to the transcribed birth indexes, we find additional records for children of Isaac Gage and Olive____, all in Pelham; Eben, Rebecca, Olive, Moses, Aaron, Maria, and Bathsheba (Olive’s mother was Bathsheba so this is likely the correct spelling). Birth records for Hannah and John have not been found but they are included because they are mentioned as heirs or wards in Isaac’s probate. We even find a transcribed record of birth for Isaac (1st) on 10 February 1761 which names his parents James Gage and Rebecca ____ (spoiler alert: Rebecca Kimball).
The 1810 Census finds Isaac Gage in Orford, Grafton County, New Hampshire with tick marks that can be associated with the following family members:
| Tick mark | Name |
| 1 male (45 or over) | Isaac Gage (1st) named as head of household |
| 2 females (45 or over) | Olive Abbot Gage and an unidentified woman (most likely the mother of either Isaac 1st or Olive) |
| 2 males (16-25) | Isaac (2nd) and Moses |
| 2 females (16-25) | Rebecca and either Hannah or Olive |
| 1 male (10-15) | Aaron |
| 2 females (10-15) | Bathsheba and Marie |
| 1 male under 19 | unknown male, maybe John |
Census’ are even less useful prior to 1810 and we do find prospective Isaac Gage’s but these are inconclusive for connecting to our Isaac. He may have been in either Hillsborough or Rockingham County before Orford and the Gage family are numerous in these two counties.
What about that Captain’s rank? Well, the index of death is the only record identifying him as “Captain” Isaac Gage, the matching probate record for Isaac who died in the same year indicates it must be the right Isaac by the identification of widow, Olive, and several of the named children. Isaac did serve in the Revolutionary War on the side of the future United States. He was a 16-year-old private in Major Amos Gage’s company out of Pelham, New Hampshire. Amos was a kinsman as were many other Gages in that (and other) company. Amos raised his company on 29 September 1777 in response to the battle at Saratoga and joined the Continental Army there as re-enforcements just in time to see the surrender of British General John Burgoyne on 17 October. It is possible that Isaac (1st) achieved the rank of Captain in the local militia after the end of the war, but nothing has been found to explain this suffix on his death record.
Genealogical Summary:
Isaac (1st) Gage was born 10 February 1761 in Pelham, New Hampshire to James Gage and Rebecca Kimball. He married Olive Abbot on 13 April 1780 in New Hampshire (most likely Pelham). He died 27 September 1813 in Orford, Grafton County, New Hampshire.
At the age of 16, he joined with other Pelham volunteers to answer a call for re-enforcements for the battle of Saratoga in 1777. He served as a private in his Great-Uncle Amos’ company.
Isaac (1st) and Olive had the following children:
- Ebenezer (Eben) Gage b. 9 March 1783. Birth record names him as Eben and he uses this moniker most of the time. The probate record names him as both Eben and Ebenezer in the role as administrator of his father’s estate. Some other records also name him as Ebenezer.
- Rebecca Gage b. 24 May 1788. She was the wife of Johnathan Pool by the time of probate (signed as one of Eben’s sureties for the probate).
- Olive Gage b. 16 September 1790. She was unmarried at the time of probate.
- Isaac Gage b. 8 October 1792 (our ancestor)
- Hannah Gage whose birth record has not been found, but she signs as an heir of Isaac’s in his probate and is unmarried at that time.
- Moses Gage b. 23 July 1794
- Aaron Gage b. 29 July 1796
- Maria Gage b. 6 June 1798. She is a minor at the time of her father’s death.
- Bathsheba Gage b. 3 May 1800. She is a minor at the time of her father’s death.
- John Gage b. bef. 1809. His birth record has not been found, but he is mentioned in the probate records as a ward or minor. His birth year is calculated based on the 1810 census.
Our Many Pasts 