Transcribed by Coralynn Brown

(I) Jonas Addoms, whose family seems to have come originally from Connecticut, was born Feb. 13, 1716, old style, and died July 1, 1757. He was a physician, lived in New York City, and held office in the custom house in that city for some years.
He married, July, 1736, Elizabeth Sexton, who died at the age of ninty-two years, May 2, 1807, and was buried at the home of her son, Major John Addoms, at Cumberland Head, Plattsburgh.
Children:
Major John (see forward).
Jonas, whose numerous descendants still live in New York.
Sarah (Sally).
Betsey.

(II) Major John, son of Jonas and Elizabeth (Sexton) Addoms, was born in New York City, Sept. 9, 1737, and died at Cumberland Head, June 8, 1823. He located in Dutchess county, N.Y. about 1765, where he was granted a tract of land. This deed or grant of land, with the seal of King George upon it, is still (1910) in possession of the family and is treasured as a valuable heirloom. Upon this land he settled, had a number of slaves, but upon the death of his first wife returned to New York City. At the beginning of the revolutionary war he entered the Continental army as a captain, and served under Generals Washington, Putnam and Lee. He was promoted to the rank of major, and also rendered valuable aid to his country as a civil engineer and surveyor. In the commissary department is services were also of great value, and were invariably rendered without any pay throughout his connection with the army. He was one of the army officers present at the execution of Major Andre, and just before the execution Major Andre's hat was removed and handed to Major Addoms, who held it during the entire execution. He had command of the artificers who commanded the cheaux-de-frise on the Hudson river. At the time he was superintendent of mechanics and superintended the laying of the cable chain across the Hudson river, which was to prevent the British from getting by. The committee of safely of the Provincial Congress had ordered this construction. At the old home of the Thownsends at Oyser Bay, a piece of this cable may be seen.
Major Addoms served in the army until the troops were disbanded at the close of the war. In 1786 he became one of the first settlers and incorporators of the town and village of Plattsburgh, N.Y., and for his share in the corporation received sixteen hundred acres of land. He built a residence on Cumberland Head in 1790, six miles from Plattsburgh, and settled there with his family and slaves. Adjoining his land were the homesteads of General Woolsey and General Mooers, also the Commodore McDonough farm of two hundred acres granted to that hero of the battle of Plattsburgh by the state of Vermont. On the Addoms homestead is the old fort erected by General Izard for use during this famous battle. The first cannon ball fired by the British fleet during this battle struck near Major Addom's home; the spot where it struck was noticed by one of his slaves, Old Pete, who afterward got the ball, which is now among the family relics.

Major Addoms was educated as a surveyor and engineer, but evidently gave little time to manual labor, depending upon the products of his land and his slaves, tw of whom, Caesar and Hannah, remained with the family after the emancipation of 1827, and were buried at Cumberland Head, although not in the family burying-ground.
In politics he appears to have been a staunch Federalist, and he is rather to be likened to Washington and Jefferson in his character, than to the typical Puritan pioneers. The Addoms strain of character is marked by independence, pride, aristocratic reserve, speculative intellectuality and great originality.
His children, especially his daughers, had a very high, aristocratic bearing. Major Addoms was interred in the old famikly burying-ground near his home. His grave has recently been marked by a monument with inscriptions of his rank furnished by the United States government at the request of the Daughter of the American Revolution of Plattsburgh. His widow applied for a pension in 1837, and this was received.

Major Addoms married (first) Nov. 7, 1763, Charity (Martha) Smith, who died in 1775. Of their six children:
Richard died young.
Jonas went to the West Indies, and died there.
Richard (2), died young.
Martha, married ____ Coe.
Elizabeth, married General Benjamin Mooers.
Major Addoms married (second), June 8, 1778, Mary Townsend, of Oyster Bay, Long Island.
Children:
Mary, married Robert, son of Simon R. Reeves, and moved to Peoria, Illinois.
John Townsend, born at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. 1781, removed with his father to Cumberland Head in 1791, married Harriet Young, and lived in West Plattsburgh, where the descendants of his daughter, Julia Collins, still (1910) reside.
Phebe, died young.
Charity, married ____ Barlow, went to New Orleans, and died there.
Charles, who never married, was eccentric, lived in Canada and accumulated a large amount of property.
Phoebe, who married one of the Barlow brothers.
Sarah, see forward.
Harriet, married Horace Boardman.

(III) Sarah, daughter of Major John and Mary (Townsend) Addoms, was born at Cumberland Head, Dec. 7, 1791, died there Aug. 1, 1849, and was buried in the family burial-ground. She married Luther Hagar, (See Hagar V.) The Addoms homestead, where she was born, was a colonial manor house, with apartments for slaves, now remodeled and occupied by her great-grandson, Harry L. Hagar. (See Hagar VIII).

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