WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 47 



August 6, 1744. The date of his death was July 8, 1836, 

 according to the American Almanac for the year 1837, where 

 the following notice of him appeals under the head of " Amer- 

 ican Obituary," though his Christian name is erroneously 

 given as William : — 



July 8. — At Hawley, Mass., aged 92, William \_yosepM'\ Longley, 

 who was one year in the French war, and 5 years in the revo- 

 lutionary war (p. 304). 



William was an elder brother of Edmund Longley, who 

 was born at Groton, on October 31, 1746, of whom a bio- 

 graphical sketch appears in the American Almanac for the 

 year 1844, under the head of "American Obituary for 1842," 

 as follows : — 



Nov. 29. — In Hawley, Ms., Edmicnd Lofigley Esq., aged 96. 

 He erected the first framed house in H. (then called No. 7,) and 

 removed his family into it in 1781. He was sent for many years 

 to the General Court ; was the first Plantation and Town Clerk ; 

 held the offices of Town Clerk, Selectman, and Treasurer ; was a 

 Justice of the Peace for nearly 50 years, and was both a soldier 

 and an officer in the revolutionary war (p. 313). 



At Groton 15th inst, William Blodgett, formerly of Tyngsboro', 

 a revolutionary pensioner, at the age of 90 years and 8 months. 

 His descendants were 6 children, 37 grand-children, 23 great- 

 grand-children, and one of the fifth generation. He entered the 

 army at the age of 16 years, and was one of the number to guard 

 Burgoyne's Troops at Winter Hill ; he afterwards shipped on board 

 a Letter of Marque on a trading voyage in 1782. On his return 

 home in the brig Iris, of Boston, they captured at the mouth of 

 James river, in Virginia, an English brig mounting 16 guns, with 

 about 100 prisoners, among whom were 30 Americans in irons. 

 On the 2d day after the battle, they encountered a storm which 

 drove the American brig and the prize both on shore, and dashed 

 them in pieces, and all was lost except the crews, which were saved 

 by the inhabitants. He next entered the service of his Savior, and 

 remained in his service about 60 years, and as he entered the 

 threshhold of eternity, he repeated the following lines : 



