Wesley Johnston
Aug 25, 2025

I finally have identified the 1767 owner of the land wherein 1777 the Battle
of Bennington was fought: Ed: Collins.

Here is the battlefield map overlaid on the Walloomsac Patent lot map. I
worked with Bob Bass who has the Battle of Bennington Facebook page to make
sure it is aligned as accurately as possible. (He supplied the lot map.) The
entire battlefield (including the Tory breastwork where our Lake ancestors
fought) is on lot 3.

[1756159637199blob.png]

And here is the 1767 survey map for a land transaction showing the detail
for these same lots (it is map 126-400 on my web page if you want to see
the whole map). The red T is about where the Tory breastwork was. North is
roughly to the top left in this image.

[1756160051429blob.png]

Christopher Lake and James Parrot both gave depositions in the Upper Canada
land petition of the Wilcox family that the battle was fought on the land
of Hazard Wilcox. Presumably, they meant the place they were: the Tory
breastwork. So, either Wilcox purchased all or part of lot 3 from Collins
or else Wilcox was a tenant on the land. Lot 3 is huge, probably more than
a mile long.

There remains the possibility that either the north or south encircling
force of the Patriots crossed over part of the Lake-Van Corlaer patent,
but it looks now like the family patent was probably just outside the range
of those forces, with both remaining on the Walloomsac patent.



Wesley Johnston
Oct 3, 2025

Thanks to the research that I did and verified with Battle of Bennington
Facebook page owner Bob Bass and later with White Creek Historian Ted Rice,
we now know that the entire British defensive position (including the
so-called "Tory Redoubt") was on lot 3 of the Walloomsac patent. The only
owner of that lot I have found had died a few years before the battle. So,
we still do not know whose land the battle was on, but it was definitely
on lot 3 of the Walloomsac patent.