Abel Danforth

Abel Danforth was an eighteen-year-old Billerica soldier who died in the army at Crown Point in the summer of 1776. He was born in Billerica on March 13, 1758, a son of Benjamin Danforth and his wife Mary Frost, one of a large family that included his brothers Benjamin and Samuel and his sister Mary.

Hazen's list of Billerica soldiers places him with the men who served in 1776, the year the northern army fell back from Canada to Lake Champlain. The town clerk recorded his death on July 14, 1776, "at Crown Point in ye Army."

His name is on the Revolutionary War plaque that the Billerica Historical Society placed on the Meeting House Site Memorial on the Town Common in 2001 (dedicated on October 27 of that year), which names the fourteen Billerica soldiers known to have given their lives in the war.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 37: Abel, son of Benjamin Danforth (12), b. 1758, d. in the Army at Crown Point 1776
2. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850, deaths p. 353: Abel, s. Benjamin and Mary, July 14, 1776, "at Crown Point in ye Army"
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 244: list of Billerica soldiers in the Revolution ("Danforth, Abel, 2, *")