Charles Cushing

Brigadier General Charles Cushing was the son of Hon John Cushing and Mary Cotton, and the grandson of Hon Lieutenant Colonel John Cushing and Deborah Loring, Rev Josiah Cotton and Hannah Sturtevant.

Charles married Elizabeth Sumner, the daughter of Increase Sumner and Sarah Sharp. They were married 25 Aug 1768 and had nine children:
* Daughter Cushing 1770-1770
* Son Cushing 1771-1771
* Elizabeth Cushing, Mrs Elisha Doane 1772-1841
* Mary Cushing, Mrs Eli Ashmun & Mrs Stephen Codman 1774-1846
* Charles Cushing 1775-1849
* Sarah Cushing, Mrs Charles Paine 1777-1859
* Lucy Cushing, Mrs Henry Sheafe 1780-1858
* William Cushing 1782-1783
* Harriet Cushing 1784-1807

Occupation: Sheriff & Military Officer
Education: Graduated from Harvard College in 1755

Charles was educated as a lawyer and appointed first Sheriff of Lincoln County, which office he held both before and during the Revolution, and also for many years after. He resided at Pownalboro The fact of his occupying responsible public stations from the age of 26 to his death continuously both under the royal and republican governments, a period of 50 years, is sufficient proof of his ability, faithfulness and integrity. He was a gentleman worthy of his distinguished ancestors.

Military: Revolutionary War. In 1776, when the Maine Militia was reorganized, was appointed to command the Eastern Regiment,with the title of Colonel. In January 1777, he was made Brigadier for Lincoln Co. He made himself especially obnoxious to the loyalists by his vigilance in the discharge of his duties as sheriff and military officer, and towards the close of the war, in 1781, he (then a Brigadier General) was seized at night by a loyalist party under John Jones; a violent Tory, taken from his bed, compelled to hurry on his clothes and was carried away to the British army at Castine, where he was retained for some time as a prisoner. His functions as Sheriff and Brigadier General seem to have ceased soon after this time when he removed to Boston and he next appears as Clerk of the Courts in Suffolk and Nantucket Counties in 1783, which office he held to his death, in 1810.

Cushing, Charles. List of brigadiers elected for the various counties in Massachusetts; said Cushing appointed Brigadier for Lincoln County, January 31, 1777; also, list dated Pownalborough, June 3, 1778, of men raised to serve in the Continental Army, agreeable to resolve of April 20, 1778, as returned by said Cushing, Brigadier for Lincoln County; also, list dated Pownalborough, August 20, 1778, of men raised in Lincoln County to serve as guards over troops of convention, magazines and public stores, under Gen. Heath, as returned by said Cushing, Brigadier for Lincoln County; also, list dated Pownalborough, August 20, 1778, of men raised by said Cushing, Brigadier for Lincoln County, to march to Providence to join troops under Col. Wade and Col. Jacobs.

Jonathan Robert De Mallie, Garden State Historian