Joseph Cilley, son of Capt. Joseph Cilley of Nottingham, was born in 1734; died 1799. He was engaged in the attack upon Fort William and Mary, in 1774; appointed Major in Col. Poor’s regiment by the Assembly of N. H. in 1775; he was not present in the battle of Bunker Hill, as his regiment was engaged in home defence. He was made Lieut. Col. in 1776, and April 2, 1777, was appointed Colonel of the 1st. N. H. Reg. of three years’ men, in place of Col. Stark, resigned. He fought his regiment bravely at Bemis’s Heights, near Saratoga; and two weeks later was among the bravest of the brave, when Burgoyne made his final attack before surrendering his entire army of six thousand men. So fierce was the battle, that a single cannon was taken and retaken five times; finally, Col. Cilley leaped upon it, waved his sword, and “dedicating the gun to the American cause,” opened it upon the enemy with their own ammunition. He was with Washington’s army at Valley Forge, 1777–8; was at the storming of Stony Point; at Monmouth he was one of the heroes in retrieving Gen. Lee’s retreat; was at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and in other hard-fought battles of the Revolution. After the war he was Major-General of the 1st Div. N. H. militia, and as such headed the troops which quelled the insurrection at Exeter in 1786, with his own hand arresting the leader in the midst of his armed followers. Gen. Cilley was a man of great energy and industry, of strong passion, yet generous and humane. He was repeatedly elected representative, senator and councillor. Thomas Bartlett was born Oct. 22, 1745; married Sarah, daughter of Gen. Joseph Cilley; was town-clerk twenty-six years; selectman thirty years; was the first representative from Nottingham to the General Court in 1784; was one of the Committee of Safety which managed the colonial affairs of New Hampshire during part of the Revolution; was captain of the 5th company of “six weeks” men at Winter Hill in 1775; was Lieut. Col. in Col. Gilman’s regiment, in 1776; Lieut. Col. in Col. Whipple’s regiment at Rhode Island, in 1778; also was Lieut. Colonel under Stark at the capture of Burgoyne. In 1780 he was Colonel of a regiment at West Point, when Arnold betrayed that fort. In 1790 he was appointed Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and retained that office till his death in 1805. He was Major-General of first division of New Hampshire militia from 1799 to 1805, in which office he was preceded by Gen. Joseph Cilley, and followed by Gen. Henry Butler. Henry Butler was a son of Rev. Benjamin Butler, the first settled minister in Nottingham, and was born April 27, 1754. He was captain of a company in Col. Thomas Bartlett’s regiment at West Point, in 1780. He held many town and state offices; was the first postmaster in Nottingham, when Gideon Granger was Postmaster-General; and was Major-General of the first division of New Hampshire militia from 1805, for several years.