Biography
At Saratoga, Francis Tufts picked up the Continental flag from a fallen standard-bearer and led his company into battle with it. Gen. Horatio Gates noticed, and he was made an ensign on the spot. After the war he ran a distillery in Boston, on the lane that came to be called Tufts Street.
Service Record
Town: Lancaster; Boston · Dates: 1756 – 1823
Born 8 May 1756 in Lancaster, Mass.; died 18 Aug. 1823 in Boston; distiller. (Tufts Kinsmen, Vol. I, p. 160, family no. 41-4)
Private and sergeant under Capt. Isaac Hall and Capt. Ephraim Wheeler, Col. Jackson’s Regiment; later adjutant. (Tufts Kinsmen, Vol. I, p. 160, family no. 41-4)
At the Battle of Saratoga he recovered the Continental flag from a fallen standard-bearer and led his outfit into battle waving it; noticed by Gen. Horatio Gates and promoted to Ensign; promoted Lieutenant 1779. (Tufts Kinsmen, Vol. I, p. 160, family no. 41-4)
After the war lived on Essex Street, Boston, below the Liberty Tree near Kingston Street, where he set up a distillery; the lane became Tufts Street. Buried in tomb 109, Granary Burying Ground. His army dispatch case was found by a junk dealer and turned over to the Massachusetts Historical Society. (Tufts Kinsmen, Vol. I, p. 160, family no. 41-4)
Family Connection
Family number 41-4 in Tufts Kinsmen, Vol. I. Parents are not named in the extract seen.
Spouse(s)
Not found in the sources checked (Brooks 1855 Register of Families; Wild; Find a Grave data on file; Tufts Kinsmen Vol. I extract).
Authoritative IDs / Index Numbers
| Source | ID / status |
|---|---|
| Perseus person index (auth=) | auth=tufts,francis. This is a name-level key shared by every Francis Tufts in Perseus, not a personal ID. Use it with the passages cited on this page. |
| Find a Grave memorial | 21755667 (dates and family checked) |
| Brooks, History of Medford (1855) register no. | Checked, no entry confidently matched |
| Tufts Kinsmen, Vol. I family no. | 41-4 |
| Mass. Soldiers and Sailors | Not yet checked for this page |
| DAR ancestor no. | Note: Pending further work. |
| FamilySearch ID | Note: Pending further work. |
| Geni profile | Note: Pending further work. |
| WikiTree ID | Note: Pending further work. |
| Town / vital records | Medford VRs not yet checked by volume and page |
Only IDs confirmed against dates and family are given as matches. “Not yet checked” means the source has not been searched; “Checked, not found” means it was searched without a match.
⚑ Unverified
No other source on this site has yet been checked for this man.
Pictures
Find a Grave
Find a Grave memorial 21755667. As given there (secondary; not checked against original records): Died 18 Aug 1823; birth not given (inscription “67yrs”). Granary Burying Ground, Boston, Tomb 109. Children William Tufts (1797–1855) and Elizabeth Andrews Tufts Draper (d. 1867).
From Cutter’s Memoirs (1910)
Cutter lists a Francis among the children of William Tufts and Mary Francis, with no dates, noting only that he “married ____ Francis” (vol. II, p. 1199).
⚑ Unverified
Cutter gives no birth date or place, so it is not known whether his Francis is the Lancaster-born Francis Tufts (1756–1823) on this page.
Cutter’s Tufts sketch (vol. II, pp. 1198–1200) is a compiled family history of 1910, written for a descendant’s line. Quotes are from the Internet Archive’s scanned text, checked against the printed page numbers.
Source added: William Richard Cutter, ed., Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1910).
Links and Resources
Every source, record, map, survey, marker and artifact tied to this person, gathered in one place. Page numbers are given where a book is cited.
Maps, Surveys and Artifacts
- — Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 17, 1777 (Trumbull). A period illustration: John Trumbull’s painting in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, commissioned 1817 and completed 1821. Image: John T
- Source: Wikimedia Commons — Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 17, 1777 (Trumbull). A period illustration: John Trumbull’s painting in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, commissioned 1817 and completed 1821.Image: John Trumbull. Public domain.
- Source: Wikimedia Commons — …Kinsmen places Francis Tufts (41-4) in tomb 109 here; this photograph does not show that tomb. Tufts association: Tomb 109, “Lorenzo Draper and Francis Tufts 1811” (Find a Grave memorial 21755667).Image: Ceoil. Public domain.
- — …Tufts (41-4) in tomb 109 here; this photograph does not show that tomb. Tufts association: Tomb 109, “Lorenzo Draper and Francis Tufts 1811” (Find a Grave memorial 21755667).Image: Ceoil. Public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons
- Source: Wikimedia Commons — Saratoga Battlefield, Freeman’s Farm. The Freeman’s Farm area of Saratoga National Historical Park, scene of the first battle of Saratoga, September 19, 1777.Image: Nsausa. CC BY-SA 4.0.
- — …Wikimedia CommonsSaratoga Battlefield, Freeman’s Farm. The Freeman’s Farm area of Saratoga National Historical Park, scene of the first battle of Saratoga, September 19, 1777.Image: Nsausa. CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons
- Source: Wikimedia Commons — Gen. Horatio Gates (Gilbert Stuart). Portrait of Horatio Gates by Gilbert Stuart, about 1793–94, Metropolitan Museum of Art.Image: Gilbert Stuart (Metropolitan Museum of Art). CC0.
- — Tomb 109, Granary Burying Ground, Boston. The tomb slab reads “Tomb 109 Lorenzo Draper and Francis Tufts 1811.” Photo: Adrian Thierry, Find a Grave
Graves and Memorials
- Find a Grave memorial · 21755667
- — …Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 17, 1777 (Trumbull). A period illustration: John Trumbull’s painting in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, commissioned 1817 and completed 1821.Image: John Trumbull. Public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons