Tobias, Job, 1759 - 1800
Job Tobias was born circa 1759 at Mashpee. He was both a soldier and sailor during in the American Revolutionary War and had a somewhat complex military service record.
Job Tobias was a seaman aboard the sloop Republic , under the command of Captain John Foster Williams, beginning June 25, 1776 for just under 5 months, discharging in Boston on November 18 of the same year. He would have been about 17 or 18 years old. He next enlisted at Pembroke on December 8, 1776, in Stetson's 8th Company of Col. Gamaliel Bradford's 14th Regiment of the Massachusetts Line. After several years he was drafted internally to Lt. Colonel John Brooks' 7th Regiment, Corps of Sappers and Miners on June of 1779. He was described as: age, 20; standing 5 foot 9 inches tall with black hair and a black complexion. After a little more than a year and a half under the direct command of Captain Zebulon King, he appears to have deserted from West Point, NY in January of 1781, was apprehended March 14 at Haverstraw, NY and promptly court martialed on March 21, 1781 on the charges of desertion and re-enlisting. It seems he re-enlisted as a private in the Rhode Island Regiment. Found guilty, his sentence was 100 lashes. He stayed with the 7th Regiment for the remainder of the war.
Directly after the war, he served as a landsman in the US Navy from June of 1783 to August of 1783, appearing in the return of officers and men on board the Alliance Frigate August 20, 1783. The short service, 2 months, began in just outside of Providence, RI where the Alliance departed for Chesapeake Bay in order to load a shipment of tobacco for transport to Europe. The vessel struck a rock and seeming seaworthy continued on its southward route. After the cargo was loaded, Job Tobias was discharged and the frigate was underway, only to take on water and return to the East Coast.1
Several years after returning from military service, Job Tobias became involved in political affairs at Mashpee. He was one of 23 community members to sign an October 31, 1788 statement in support of the appointment of Reuben Fish and John Percival as guardians to the Mashpee, thereby inserting himself into the middle of a long-standing dispute between the tribe and the Rev. Gideon Hawley. Hawley, in a response to the petition, questioned Tobias’ standing in the community and suggested that his signature was suspect because he was supposedly "gone to sea on a foreign voyage several weeks before it (the petition) is said to be signed”.
On December 31, 1830, Isaac Wickham and fellow Mashpee, Nathan Pocknet, provided affidavits in support of the heirs of other veterans (Job Tobias, Jabez Jolly, Jacob Keeter, Isaac Swift, Simon Popmonet, and James Keeter) in their efforts to obtain some pension or bounty funds from the United States government. All except James Keeter had died prior to the establishment of the Revolutionary War Pension Records and Bounty Land Warrants Act.
In a December 1831 application for bounty land by the heirs of Job Tobias, Joseph Tobias, his son, testified to his father's service during the war concluding that his father died while at sea about 31 years earlier in about the year 1800. A year later, Gideon Hawley, Jr. provided additional testimony regarding the military service and residency, of not only Job Tobias, but also Simon Popmonet, Jacob Keeter, and James Keeter, including a remembrance of the return of the men whilst on furlough. Their bounty funds request came to a conclusion in March of 1833, when William Gordon of the Department of War, Bounty Land Office came to the determination that the heirs of Isaac Swift, Job Tobias, Jacob Keeter and James Keeter were all entitled to 100 acres each of bounty land. In the case of Simon Popmonet, unfortunately his name not found among those of the Massachusetts Line entitled to bounty land.
Massachusetts. Secretary of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War. Vol. 1-17. Boston, MA, USA: Wright & Potter Printing, 1896-1908, page 806, Ancestry; Rhode Island, Vital Extracts, 1636-1899, Vol. 12: Revolutionary and Newspapers: Marriages, Deaths, Revolutionary Rolls, Ancestry; Wikipedia; Remonstrance of Mashpee Proprietors and Others to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1788.10.31.00; Petition of Gideon Hawley to the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1789.01.00.00; Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Vol. 1, Ancestry; Revolutionary War Pensions, Massachusetts, Job Tobias, Fold3; Revolutionary War Pensions, Massachusetts, Isaac Wickham, Fold3; Revolutionary War Service Records, Job Tobias, Fold3; Revolutionary War Pensions, Massachusetts, Peter Sears, Fold3.
- 1. There was enough damage to the vessel that it never made the voyage to Europe.