Zopher Hawkins

Zopher is buried in a cemetery near his home on Long Island.

Quick Facts

Significance:

Zopher Hawkins was just a young man when he experienced the horrors of war first hand as a captive of British allied natives.

Place of Birth:

East Setauket, Suffolk County, NY

Date of Birth:

January 24, 1757

Place of Death:

Setauket, Suffolk County, NY

Date of Death:

October 26, 1847

Place of Burial:

Setauket, Suffolk County, NY

Cemetery Name:

Hawkins Family Cemetery

Zopher Hawkins was born on January 24, 1757 to Samuel and Mary (Green Hawkins) on Long Island in New York. He was the middle of five children. On November 21, 1776, he was 19 years old and enlisted as a private at New Haven, CT in the 4^th NY Regiment Continental Army.

He spent his first winter as a soldier in with his company at Fiskill, NY. In spring of 1777, Hawkins regiment moved from New York, to New Jersey, to Pennsylvania, and back to New York to participate in the Battle of Saratoga. From their, the regiment moved back to New Jersey and participated in the Battle of Monmouth. The next two years of his service become murky, although he recalled frequently being along the frontier and engaging in skimishes with the Natives and their British Loyalist allies. He likely was remembering the Battle of Newtown, which was part of the larger Sullivan-Clinton Campaign against the Six Nations Confederacy. 

In fall of 1780 he band his company spent the winter at garrisoned Fort Schuyler (Stanwix). On March 2, 1781, a wood chopping party was sent out under Corporal James Betts with a covering party to protect the woodchoppers for a total of sixteen men plus the corporal. They were attacked by Mohawk warrior Joseph Brant and his Loyalist forces, killing William Morpeth, who attempted to resist, and captured the rest of the party including Hawkins.

Brant understood the value of fear, and keeping his enemies on edge, uncertain and scared. When the captives had been led about three miles from the fort, Brant stopped them, cut the shoe buckles off each of the men’s shoes, and lined them up in the snow. When a rescue party came out from the fort, other than the dead guard, the only trace of the others they found was their shoe buckles lined up in the snow. It was Joseph Brant’s way of reminding those in the fort that he was always out there watching them, and they would never know when or where he might strike at them again. 

Hawkins was taken to the area of Fort Niagara and was kept as a prisoner by members of the Haudenosaunee untll about 1783. During to this time, according to family account, he was taken in by the Natives, took a Native wife, and was allowed to hunt and fish with little supervision while amongst them. After the Treaty of Paris was signed, he made his was back home to Long Island. By some accounts he escaped while on a hunting expedition and was chased for several days, hiding multiple times to escape recapture. Upon his return he was supposedly was more concerned about the state of the family livestock than explaining what had happened to him during the past three years. 

At age 43, he married Julianna Bayles and became father to Moses, Mary, Ruth, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Samuel. In July of 1790, Hawkins was issued 600 acres of bounty land in Hannibal, NY. In October of 1832, he applied for and received a veteran's penision in Suffolk County, NY. In 1851, his estate in Brookhaven, NY was valued at $2,200 for 70 acres of land. 

Hawkins died at the age of 91 in 1847. He is buried in a family cemetery and the inscription on his headstone reads:
He served his country faithfully in the Revolution and was a captive among the Indians for 3 years.
He lived a quiet and peaceful life, was happy and resigned in death.

Below: An image of Hawkins signature on his 1832 pension deposition.