Richard FALLEY, Jr.

1740 - 1808  (68 years)

• Name	Richard FALLEY  [2, 3]
  	He served as ensign in Capt. Park's company, Col. Donaldson's regiment: also as Lieutenant in the same company and regiment, in 1775. Later in the year a report was made by a committee appointed to consider the expediency of appointing him as an armorer, setting forth that he was a complete master of the business, recommending that he be employed in said capacity and be allowed 40 shillings per month in addition to his pay as ensign. He went to Boston with a company of seventy men on hearing of the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775. He took part in the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, and was a witness to the surrender of Gen. Burgoyne to Gen. Gates at Saratoga, October 17, 1777. In a list of officers dated 1776, his name appears as first lieutenant in Capt. Jedediah Southworth's company, Col. Lemuel Robinson's regiment. As first lieutenant, with other officers in Capt. Josiah Smith's company, he was granted beating orders by the Provincial Congress on April 11, 1776, for enlisting men to serve in a regiment to fortify the town and harbor of Boston. He was further granted beating orders for Hampshire County, Mass. Mr. Falley was the son of Richard and Anna (Lamb) Falley, and was born in Cushing, Jan. 31, 1740; died in Westfield, Mass., Sept. 3, 1808. He married Margaret Hitchcock at Westfield, Dec. 24, 1761 or 1762. She was born may 25, 1741; died in Volney (now Fulton), New York, Feb. 11 or 18, 1820. At the age of sixteen he was a drummer in the French and Indian war, and at the capture of Fort Edwards, on the Hudson, was made prisoner by the Indians, adopted by an Indian chief, taken to Montreal, and was finally bought by a woman for sixteen gallons of rum, and by her was sent home to Westfield. He lived in the old Mt. Tekoas homestead in Westfield, and in a secluded ravine close by, unobserved by the British soldiers, he made the celebrated Falley muckets for the American army. One of the muskets, with "R.F." engraved on it, is still extant, and was presented to President Cleveland a few years before his death. The old foundations of the gun factory are still standing. Nearby is the site of the Falley glassworks. Mrs. Thomas B. Mosely of Westfield, a descendant of the Falleys, owns a solid glass rolling pin, a wine glass and goblet, all made in the Falley glass factory nearly 150 years ago. The old gunmaker lies in the ancient moss-grown Mechanic street cemetery inWestfield, where Gen. William Shepard, another Revolutionary patriot, is buried. A few years ago a fund was raised to put the cemetery in repair, to which fund his great-granddaughter, Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, made a contribution. A few months before her death Miss Cleveland visited the Isle of Guernsey, seeking information concerning the Falley family. The name is Norman-French, and was originally spelled Failley, but later was corrupted to the present form of spelling. During her absence in Europe I wrote Miss Cleveland at her New York address for additional information concerning her family, but no reply was made to my communication. Lieutenant Falley was for many years superintendent of the armory at Springfield, Mass., and was noted as a man of powerful physique and great strength. One of his chief claims to fame is that he was the great-grandfather of President Cleveland. All his children were born in Westfield or Springfield. [1]
  Suffix	Jr.
  Birth	31 Jan 1740	St. Georges River (Now Cushing), Maine   [1, 3]
  Gender	Male
  Fact	Son of Richard Falley and Ann Lamb   [1, 3]
  Death	03 Sep 1808	Westfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, USA   [1, 3]
  Person ID	I21661	Main Tree
  Last Modified	17 Jan 2019

  
  

  Family	Margaret HITCHCOCK,   b. 25 May 1741, Springfield, Massachusetts d. 20 Mar 1820, Volney (Now Fulton), New York (Age 78 years)
  Married	24 Dec 1761 or 1762	Westfield, Massachusetts   [1]
  Marriage	14 Jan 1762	Springfield, Massachusetts   [3]
  Children	1. Margaret FALLEY,   b. 25 Nov 1766, Westfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts d. 10 Aug 1850, Black Rock (near Buffalo), New York (Age 83 years)  [Birth]
  Family ID	F10131	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	30 May 2022

  
  

• Sources

  [S10331] Frank Burton Miller, Soldiers and Sailors of the Plantation of Lower St. Georges Maine Who served in the War for American Independence. [S00087] Edmund Janes Cleveland and Horace Gillette Cleveland, "The Genealogy of the Cleveland and Cleaveland Families", (Name: Name: Hartford, Conn.1899;;). [S5405] Gar Boyd Roberts, "Ancestors of American Presidents", (New England Historic Genealogical Society - 2009).