Captain James Buxton

Captain James Buxton, 1745-1817, Smithfield, Providence County, Rhode Island Colony, was a Revolutionary War Captain from the border of the towns of Smithfield in Rhode Island, and Uxbridge, in Massachusetts. James Buxton was a commisioned military officer who attained the rank of captain in the American War for Independence. He served in Colonel Benjamim Tupper's 11th Massachusetts Regiment, 1777-1779 at Valley Forge and the Battles of Saratoga; He was promoted to the rank of Captain on March 16, 1781, in the Continental Army, and the order was signed by John Hancock; He was discharged in 1782 and held the ranks of Ensign, Second Lieutenant, Lieutenant, and Captain during this period. He is listed as having signed an oath of allegiance at Valley Forge in 1778 in Colonel Tupper's regiment. Again we find James Buxton listed as a Second Lieutenant in a listing of Commissioned Officers in the American Revolution in 1779 also with Colonel Tupper's Regiment,
Brief Bio
James Buxton was born at Smithfield, in Providence County, Rhode Island Colony, in 1745 to Benjamin Buxton and Charity Maule. He grew up in Smithfield, which was an early Rhode Island Colony agricultural community,. He may have had access to local libraries in Smithfield and in nearby Quaker City and Ironstone in Massachusetts. James married Esther Southwick and had 9 children. He was a farmer at Smithfield.
He enlisted and served in the local Militia in nearby Massachusetts in January of 1777. Ensign James Buxton is later found listed, in Colonel Tupper's regiment, among many soldiers who took an oath of allegiance to the USA at Valley Forge on Feb. 3, 1778. He was in the roster as a Commissioned Officer in the Battle at Saratoga.
He served in the militia and the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War. He served from 1777-1782 and held the ranks of Ensign, Lieutenant, and eventually Captain. He returned to Smithfield after he was discharged from active military service. An Ensign at that time was a Commissioned Officer in the Continental Army and was the Equivalent of the rank of a Second Lieutenant. This is the rank that James Buxton held at Valley Forge from December of 1777 to June of 1778. James Buxton can also be found in the listing of soldiers in the volume of papers, Vol. 1-16 of George Washington, at the University of Virginia Library of the Revolutionary War papers.
Colonel Benjamin Tuppers Commands, 1777-1782
We know that Captain Buxton served with Colonel Benjamin Tupper who commanded the Massaschusetts 11th Regiment at Valley Forge. Here is a brief history of the commands held by Colonel Tupper during the American Revolution. It is highly likely that James Buxton, who was from the Massachusetts border town area continued to follow Colonel Tupper in at least until 1779 while with the Massachusetts 11th. Another record disclosed that Captain Buxton enlisted with the Massachusetts 11th in January of 1777 in Worcester County, given his border town location. Records indicated he also owned land in Worcester County, in Uxbridge.
Benjamin Tupper was promoted to colonel during July 1777. Later that year, Col. Tupper served under Gen. Horatio Gates at Saratoga. Col. Tupper and his 11th Massachusetts Regiment wintered at Valley Forge with Gen. Washington during the winter and spring of 1777 and 1778. It is during this period that we can confirm that Ensign James Buxton is rostered with Colonel Tupper and signed the Oath of Allegiance to the USA and the Continental Army in May of 1778 in the 4 Division of the 11th Regiment of Colonel Tupper. This is verified by the Valley Forge Muster Roll Project. .
During 1778, Col. Tupper served with Gen. Washington at the Battle of Monmouth; during the action, Tupper's horse was killed under him. During 1780 he, Colonel Tupper, served in the and was in charge of the Great Chain across the Hudson River at West Point. He served in the northern frontier of New York during the rest of the war as commanding officer of the 10th Massachusetts Regiment, and then the 6th Massachusetts Regiment. Buxton later served in the Hudson River command, and it was during this period tha he received his commission as a Captain. This latter reference is also based in War archives.
Death and Afterwards
James Buxton returned to Smithfield after the War and continued to serve as a a farmer. He was given 300 of acres of land in Worcester County, Massachusetts, for his service in the War, (likely in South Uxbridge near his farm). He saw the new village of Slatersville being built by and his brother Samuel Slater, a template for the The Rhode Island System of Mills and Villages powered by water power and streams. He died in 1817 in Smithfield, Providence County Rhode Island, USA. He is buried in the Buxton family cemetery at the state line on Buxton Street. . His reported cause of death was "paralysis" at the age of 72.
There were apparent connections to martial music in his history and fife and drum corps were prominent in this period. A local fife and drum corps at Uxbridge has been named in his honor. The area of his families farm is also known for apple orchards. The Buxton family was prominent in Slatersville and the local church was said to have "long been a Buxton church".
Buxton family In Colonial Massachusetts and Rhode Island
The Buxton family originally came to the American colonies and settled in Essex County Massachusetts Colony in the 17th Century. A branch of the family, likely James's dad, Benjamin Buxton,'s father, Samuel, moved from Salem and settled in the border area of Smithfield, Rhode Island sometime before the 1740's. This fife and drum corps has performed widely throughout the Eastern US.
Significance of Captain James Buxton in Regional Historic Record
Captain James Buxton had an honorable record of five years of military service in the American Revolution as a Massachusetts militia man including the battles of Saratoga, and Valley Forge, and Hudson River, three commissioned command advancements, elevation to the rank of Captain, and an award of 300 acres of land for service to his country. His Commission as a Captain in the Continental Army was signed by John Hancock in 1781.
Captain James Buxton is recognized in the New England region by a fife and drum corps named in his honor. The area where Captain James Buxton lived and died has national significance to the earliest industrialization of the United States, known as the Blackstone River Valley. James Buxton's ancestral land is at the geographic center of this region.

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