The Story of Thomas Machin, Revolutionary Hero from Schoharie and Montgomery Counties

SCHOHARIE - Submitted by Ken Jones, Town and Village Historian, Esperance, NY

Thomas Machin was born in England and, according to his son Thomas’s obituary, he studied under engineer James Brindley who was building a canal and aqueducts for the Duke of Bridgewater. When and how he arrived in the United States as well as other parts of his story have been a source of dispute among historians. The son’s obituary has him coming to America in 1772, arriving in New York and then settling in Boston, where he participated in the Boston Tea Party and was wounded at Bunker Hill. He becomes a Captain in Gen. Knox’s Artillery in 1776. He is assigned by Gen. Ward to enhance the fortifications of Boston from invasion and because of his success, is sent to Fort Montgomery where a problematic chain is being placed across the river. Washington sends him to Gen. George Clinton to be a fixer to replace the previous engineer. Unfortunately the British are able to breach the chain and attack the nearby forts, where Machin is wounded. None the less, Machin is assigned a similar project at West Point and is successful at laying a great chain across the Hudson that lasts throughout the war and is never breached by the British, preserving Albany and other northern towns from a naval invasion by the enemy. He is also credited with damming Otsego Lake so that the water could carry the soldiers down the Susquehanna River to start Sullivan’s Campaign. Machin was lauded with gaining a prize to Gen. Knox from the French when he fired a cannon disabling a British watercraft with one shot at the Battle of Yorktown.

After the war Machin operated a mint that created coinage near Newburgh, NY during a time of counterfeits and the use of imported imitation coinage metals leading to the copper panic of 1789. In January of 1791 he moved with his family to Charleston, Montgomery County, where he was a surveyor and land speculator. His business associations were mainly with Schoharie County. He was politically aligned with George Clinton. He took considerable efforts to see that his children were educated, and his son Thomas was trained as a surveyor. Historian and Esperance Attorney Isacc Hall Tiffany, who knew Machin intimately, told a story how his son Thomas was born with a club foot and Machin manually straightened out the limb himself saying “if God could not finish his work, he would do it for him”. His son was an officer in the War of 1812 and later a General in the New York State Militia, surveyor and professional lobbyist. 

Machin Sr. was also a member of the Masons. The Franklin Lodge #75 of Free and Accepted Masons located in the Town of Charleston, Montgomery County was established in 1799. In 1803 the lodge petitioned the Grand Lodge of the State of New York to form a new lodge for the convenience of their respective dwellings which is from twenty to ten miles from any regular lodge. Supporting Lodges of the petition included Walton Lodge #75 of Duanesburgh signed by Sect. Benjamin Frost and Master James Cantly. The new lodge was to be named Matchin also and more regularly spelled Machin. The meetings were to be held alternately at or near the house of James Brown in the Town and County of Schoharie and the home of Lemuel Clark in the Town of Charleston, County of Montgomery. James Brown was an Inn Keeper in what became Sloansville. Martin B. Schuyler was recommended as Master and John Herrick Jr. as Senior Warden and Lemuel Clark as Jr. Warden. Among the signatures to the petition are to be found the names of such prominent residents as Judah Burton the founder of Burtonsville/Burtonville and Jacob Eaton of Eaton’s Corners. The first person listed under the heading of “Names of Petitioners” was Thomas Machin. Machin had applied for a military disability pension, so it is possible that it was either himself or his son, named first on the list. Machin died in 1816 in Charleston, Montgomery County and apparently was buried there with other notable Revolutionary veterans.  Machin Lodge No. 127 had moved to the Village of Esperance by 1826 and is located halfway between Charleston and Schoharie. On the 24th of June 1826 the Lodge celebrated the Festival of St. John at the Village. Lodge members were to assemble at 10 A.M. and the procession was to form at 11. The advertisement invited other lodges and clergy to attend. “The Brethren of the order, are requested to appear with their appropriate clothing, badges, & c. Tickets reasonable. Geo. W. P. Wheeler, Secretary.” The lodge forfeited its warrant on June 8, 1832. When his son Gen. Thomas Machin died in Albany in 1875 it was noted his body was being brought to Charleston to be buried with his kindred. At some point Thomas Machin the engineer of the great chain across the Hudson River was disinterred and buried in the Carlisle Cemetery in Schoharie County. Read more about this acclaimed hero of the Revolutionary War in Donderburg’s Pumpkin Vine by Kenneth Lifshitz, 2010.