Captain Joel Scudder^[1]

1746 - Aft 1776  (> 30 years)

• Name	Joel Scudder
  Prefix	Captain
  Birth	8 Nov 1746	West Hills, Suffolk, New York   [2]
  Christening	1 Jan 1747	Huntington, Suffolk, New York   [3]
  Gender	Male
  Death	Aft 26 Sep 1776	New York
  Person ID	I279	Scudder
  Last Modified	14 May 2015

  
  

  Father	Captain Timothy Scudder, II,   b. 1696, Cow Harbor, now Northpoint, Huntington, Suffolk, New York d. 25 Apr 1788, Northport, Suffolk, New York (Age 92 years)
  Mother	Mary Whitehead,   b. 24 May 1700, Northport, Suffolk, New York d. 1746, New York (Age 45 years)
  Marriage	5 Feb 1727	Huntington, Suffolk, New York   [4]
  Family ID	F145	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Sarah Brush,   b. 25 May 1747, Huntington, Suffolk, New York d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	20 Sep 1770	Huntington, Suffolk, New York   [2]
  Children	1. Tredwell Scudder,   b. 1 Jan 1771, Islip, Suffolk, New York d. 31 Oct 1834, Islip, Suffolk, New York (Age 63 years)   2. Jesse Scudder,   b. 23 Apr 1773, Huntington, Suffok, New York d. 12 Mar 1863, Huntington, Suffolk, New York (Age 89 years)   3. Sarah Scudder,   b. Est 1773, New Jersey d. Yes, date unknown   4. Dr. Joel Rowland Scudder,   b. Abt 1774, West Hills, Suffolk, New Jersey d. Yes, date unknown   5. Hannah Scudder,   b. Est 1775, New Jersey d. Yes, date unknown   6. Nancy Scudder,   b. Est 1776, New Jersey d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F156	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	3 Mar 2024

  
  

• Notes

  During the Revolutionary War, Joel was a second lieutenant in Captain Timothy Carll's Company, 1st Suffolk County Regiment, Colonel William Floyd commanding. He died aboard the British prison ship, "Jersey," off Brooklyn. He was one of the men chosen by the Huntington Committee of Safety to be 2nd Lieutenant of one of the three Huntington companies of militia, First Company, on September 11, 1775. On April 5, 1776 Joel was promoted to Captain in the 1st Regiment, Suffolk County Militia. A report from William Boyd states: "The Minute Men and those to be Enlisted into the Continental Service to be taken from the above list of officers (including Joel Scudder). The Regiment is about two- thirds furnished with bayonets and others are getting them as fast as they can get them made; they are furnished with a half pound of powder and two pounds of ball per man, and a Magazine in the Regiment to furnish them with about as much more when it shall be wanted; they are pretty industrious in fixing their accoutrements, and I hope in a short time they will be tolerably prepared." On August 27, 1776, Joel Scudder was with his Huntington militia company and fought in the Battle of Long Island. Along with many others who were the victims of Washington's first major defeat, they were herded aboard prison hulks hastily assembled in the Wallabout, an indentation in Long Island near Brooklyn. There were eight prison ships altogether, including the infamous Jersey. The Jersey was once a stately 64-gun ship-of-the-line of the Royal Navy, now reduced to a stinking derelict housing American soliders and seamen. Her two tiers of gun ports, now empty of canon, were only twenty inches square and spaced ten feet apart. The air inside the hull was almost suffocating, for the ports let in little air and less light. Aside from the British captain, mates and seamen, about thirty British or Hessian soliders acted as guards. The food was meager and without fresh meat or vegetables; putrid pork and biscuits crawling with maggots. The water was slimy and stagnant. As might be expected, malnutrition, scurvy, dysentery and fever carried off hundreds each week. Every day on the shores of Wallabout Bay burial parties of emaciated prisoners interred the previous night's quota of bodies. These deadly prison hulks remained at their moorings for nearly seven years. It has been estimated that 11,000 Americans died in them during the Revolution. All were dumped into shallow graves in the mudflats ashore. .

  
  

• Sources

  [S1520] Timothy Scudder II and Mary Whitehead, Scudder Searches. [S25] Timothy Scudder I, of Northport, Suffolk County, New York (Long Island), Vol. II, No. 2, p. 13. [S26] International Genealogical Index (R). [S25] Timothy Scudder I, of Northport, Suffolk County, New York (Long Island), Vol. II, No. 2, p. 12.