Gaspee Virtual Archives
Research Notes on Abner Luther

The Gaspee Days Committee at www.gaspee.COM is a civic-minded nonprofit organization that operates many community events in and around Pawtuxet Village, including the famous Gaspee Days Parade each June. These events are all designed to commemorate the burning of the hated British revenue schooner, HMS Gaspee, by Rhode Island patriots in 1772 as America's 'First Blow for Freedom'®.  Our historical research center, the Gaspee Virtual Archives at www.gaspee.ORG , has presented these research notes as an attempt to gather further information on one who has been suspected of being associated with the the burning of the Gaspee. Please e-mail your comments or further questions to webmaster@gaspee.org.

This web page presents research notes only on one of the known Gaspee Raiders, Abner Luther.

While blissfully preparing for Christmas 2005, we were presented with the following surprise e-mail from Pam R. Thompson who was doing some genealogical research of her own.

I found the following curious entry in the Revolutionary War Pension File, #S21404, for Ezra Ormsbee, born 30 March 1751 in Warren, RI, son of Ebenezer Ormsbee (sometimes spelled Ormsby) and Hannah Cole (Benjamin3, Hugh2, James1)  Ezra applied for his pension in Warren, RI, on 24 August 1833.
 
". In June 1772 when the English Revenue Cutter Gaspee was burnt in Providence River, I was one that went from this town and helped do it. Capt John Greenwood, James Smith, Abner Luther, Abel Easterbrooks, Nathaniel Easterbrooks, Hezekiah Kinnicut and myself went together in a whale boat and we helped burn her. I mention this merely as a revolutionary incident and not as connected with my pension claim. All the above named persons who were with me in burning the Gaspee have a long time now decd."
 
I do not find any of these names on your lists of participants.
We have long known that people from the Bristol and Warren, RI area participated in the attack, but we have only known of the names of Simeon Potter, and possibly Thomas Swan.  In fact, we only know the names of about half of the 64 men alleged to have participated in the attack on the Gaspee. This gives us a first hand list of an additional seven men to investigate to be patriots of the forthcoming American Revolution.
Biographical notes and random musings

A search of our own site lists some incidences of "Luther".  Gaspee raider Amos Sylvester of Scituate, RI had a daughter that married a John Luther of Johnston, RI, and there is a Seth Luther household listed in the 1770 Providence taxpayers list.  We also know that his fellow Gaspee raider from Warren, Hezekiah Kinnicutt, had married a Lydia Luther, and that many of Hezekiah's neighbors in the 1800 Federal census had the surname of Luther.

We get two hits on Abner Luther from the NEHGS site.  The first is the 1782 census of Warren, RI listing Abner Luther as head of household with a total of three persons.  There are also listed in this census a William Luther. Ebeneezer Luther, Fradrick Luther, and a Mary Luther.  The second hit is on a 1780 list of American prisoners of war from Rhode Island held at Forton Prison in England.  The names of Abner Luther (as well as an Isreil Luther and an Amos Luther) is listed amongst crewmen of the brig Angelica, 16 guns, William Davis, Captain,  taken 30May1778 by the Andromada, 28 guns. There is no record of a pension file for any Abner Luther based on Revolutionary War service. Those who were solely in the Privateer service would not have been considered eligible.

Alas, there is no Abner Luther listed in the RI Historical Cemeteries Database, and perhaps he died elsewhere or at sea sometime after the 1782 census.  At the LDS site, we do get several area Abner Luthers including ones born in 1732, 1750, and 1758.  We'll discount the 1758 as having been too young to be in the raid by 1772.  And all incidences point to the Abner of 1732 having died at the ripe old age of 104 in 1836.  But for this to be true, he would have been a relatively well-known figure in the Warren-Bristol area in 1834 at which time Ezra Ormsbee indicated that the others he knew from the Gaspee attack "...have a long time now decd."  Therefore, our most likely candidate is the Abner Luther born in Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts (the adjoining town to Warren, RI) on 27June1750 of parents Edward and Sarah (Sweet) Luther.  One record indicates that he married c1776 a Sarah Harte, born c1752.  The only Abner Luther showing up in any later Federal Census data was an Abner Luther in Argyle, NY in 1800. This leap-of-faith logic is not enough on which to hang one's hat, however.

The Gaspee Days Committee proudly recognizes Abner Luther as a Gaspee raider, one of the select group of true American patriots.  We unfortunately do not know more about this man.

That's all the evidence we have for now folks. If you know more, please e-mail us at webmaster@gaspee.org.  Thanks!
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Originally Posted to Gaspee Virtual Archives 1/2006  Last Revised 1/2006     AbnerLuther..html