Tombstone Tuesday ~ Captain Alexander Todd, d. 1807, Revolutionary War Veteran

This tombstone was photographed at the Riverside Cemetery, 

on Route 3A, Hooksett, New Hampshire.

This tombstone is located just inches behind the Mitchel family tombstone, and so I found it was difficult to photograph.  Check out the Find A Grave entry for this tombstone, and you will see that someone else had the same difficulty getting a good angle!  I was intrigued by the DAR flag waving in front of the more modern tombstone, and then I noticed the older slate stone behind it.  

In memory of

CAPT. ALEXANDER TODD

Born December 

25, 1731

and died June

14, 1807

The story of Captain Alexander Todd is a wonderful story of the inter-connected nature of the towns of Nutfield and the surrounding towns, and about the Scots Irish and their affinity for military service.  Alexander Todd was born in Londonderry, removed to Chester (a small part of Chester was a section of the Nutfield grant) which became the town of Hooksett, New Hampshire. 

from A Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New Hampshire for the year ending June 1, 1866, Volume II,  pages 216 - 217.

"Captain Alexander Todd, born Jan. 2, 1730, was the son of Andrew Todd of Londonderry, who came to that town from the north of Ireland, in 1720.  Andrew Todd was in the French and Indian war of 1746 as a captain; in the campaign of 1755 in "the Seven Years' War" as major, in Col. Gilman's regiment of reinforcements, and was colonel of the 8th regiment of the Provincial Militia in 1767.  About this time he moved to Peterborough, where he died Sept. 15, 1777, in the 80th year of his age.  His eldest son, James, born August 1, 1724, was captain of the 3d company in the same regiment, and died probaby soon after of hemorrhage of the lungs.  Alexander, his second son, settled upon a farm in Chester, now known as the "Todd Farm", and situated on the west bank of the Merrimack, i that part of "Old Chester" or "Cheshire" now Hooksett.  He was an ensign in the campaign of 1755, in Capt. John Mooer's company, Col. Blanchard's regiment; again held that office in Capt. John Shepard's company, Col. Meserve's regiment, in the campagin of 1756; was lieutenant in Capt. Herculese Mooney's company, Col. Meserve's regiment, in the campaign of 1757; was probably in Col. Lovewell's regiment of 1759; and was captain of the 2d company in Col. Goffe's regiment in teh campaign of 1760.  After the close of the war, in 1760, Capt. Todd removed to Londonderry, and resided until his death upon the homestead of his father, being probably in ill health, contracted in the war.  He died of consumption, aged about 45 years.  A younger son, John, was lieutenant in Capt. Amos Gage's company, Col. Meserve's regment, in the campaign of 1757, and was drowned at Amsokeag Falls, in the spring of 1759, at a narrow passage of very swift water, through a cleft seemingly in the rock, known ever after as the "Todd Gut".  Thus this "Scotchman from the north of Ireland" furnished four officers for "the Seven Year's War" for the defense of his adopted country, having doubtless imbibed the military spirit from his friends who had experienced the one hundred and five days of excruciating horrors at the siege of Derry." 

There are several discrepancies in this story.  The birth date was off by a year and a few days, and Captain Alexander Todd was not 45, but about 75 when he died.  A typo?  A misreading of numbers?  And no mention of his Revolutionary War service, but there was a DAR flag marker at his grave with a Revolutionary War veteran flag holder.

An online genealogy of the Todd family of Londonderry, New Hampshire has Captain Alexander Todd's birthday at 2 June 1730.  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mcmurtriecfr/richard/todd/tf4.htm

The book Londonderry, New Hampshire Vital Records 1722- 1910 has Alexander Todd, son of Andrew and Beatrice, as "Jan. 2, 1730-31" but it doesn't list whether this was a birth, baptism or christening.


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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ Captain Alexander Todd, d. 1807, Revolutionary War Veteran", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 1, 2015 (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/09/tombstone-tuesday-captain-alexander.html :  accessed [access date]).