The seven children left fatherless when Colonel William Ledyard was murdered upon surrendering his sword to the British on Fort Griswold in 1781 had been raised on the long road to revolution in America.

Ledyard, a Groton Bank merchant, was 23 years old when he married 16-year-old Anne Williams of Stonington. The couple settled in a home close to the Ledyard warehouse, wharf, shop and ships on Thames Street, just down the hill from Fort Griswold.

Life was good for merchants in America when the Ledyards’ first child, daughter Mary Ann, was born on Feb. 16, 1763. But her birth also marked the end of the French and Indian War, and by the time Mary Ann was just a year old, Parliament had begun its 12-year crackdown on the colonies, targeting merchants to help cover the Crown’s war debt.

In 1764, both the Sugar Act and the Currency Act wreaked havoc on American merchants and shopkeepers like William Ledyard and his brother, Ebenezer. Merchants responded by instigating political and social protest, sowing the seeds of revolution in America.

Twenty-one-year-old Anne Ledyard was carrying her second child in 1765 when the notorious Stamp Act was passed, causing explosive political unrest. Daughter Sarah was born on May 6, 1765, as Groton and New London traders faced a long list of fees required by the Stamp Act on documents and paper products, sure to cripple the industry.

In response, the Sons of Liberty began their rampages through Boston and Connecticut in protest, attacking the homes of officials.

On Dec. 30, 1766, William and Anne’s first son, William, was born as the Sons of Liberty turned the revolution from the merchants’ trade policy protests to the popular mantra “taxation without representation.”

The Townshend Acts of 1767 then added 72 more import duties, further hammering the Ledyards’ business. The colonies enacted boycotts against British goods in response.

For the next two years, the family remained at two girls and one boy, as the Ledyards struggled to make a profit in a hostile political world.

Mary Ann, Sarah and William were joined by a new sister, Deborah, on Jan. 27, 1769, amid the ongoing boycotts. Ships in violation were refused entry into New London.

When the Boston Massacre exploded in 1770, protests raged in the streets of the New England colonies. Ledyard, a militiaman since his youth, surely harbored concerns of war, and his young family’s future.

Then the Tea Act was passed by Parliament in May 1773, a devastating blow to American trade and the Ledyards. A month later, William and Anne welcomed a new son, John Yarborough Ledyard, on June 24.

With hostility growing in American politics that same summer, William Ledyard was elected to his first term in the Connecticut Assembly, representing Groton in Hartford.

In December, the Boston Tea Party turned the world upside down when Britain retaliated in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, closing down the port of Boston, uniting the New England colonies in protest, and further damaging the Ledyards’ livelihood.

Over the next year, as the political environment decimated colonial merchants, William Ledyard was appointed to Groton’s Committee of Correspondence, in charge of maintaining close communications with area towns. His focus was on the coming revolution.

Early 1775 brought The General Restraining Act, requiring New England colonies to trade exclusively with Great Britain, followed in April by the “shot heard round the world” from Lexington, Massachusetts. The war was on.

With a young family of five at home, William Ledyard’s life turned to the military, as the community looked to him for leadership.

Months later, sixth child Peter Vandevoort Ledyard was born on Sept. 2, 1775, while American trading ships were being seized by British cruisers, their cargoes confiscated, and warships regularly threatened the coast of Connecticut.

Amid the American turbulence of 1776, Ledyard was appointed captain on the day before the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. At 37 years old, he was also serving his second term in the Connecticut Assembly, as all-out war loomed.

By the end of 1776, Anne was pregnant with their seventh child.

As the American Revolution got underway, the joy of a new son born on Sept. 1, 1777, was marred by grief just two weeks later when 10-year-old William died. The new son was also named William.

With his family remaining at seven children, Ledyard spent the period between 1777 and 1780 working long hours trying to improve the defenses on both shores of the Thames River, while struggling with money, manpower and a lack of food for the garrison at Fort Griswold.

In 1778, Ledyard was promoted to major, commanding forts at New London, Groton and Stonington, a time-consuming task.

By the time his eighth child Henry Youngs Ledyard was born on Jan. 6, 1780, Major William Ledyard, soon to be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, was more a soldier than a merchant.

In the summer of 1781, William and Anne’s oldest daughter Mary Ann married her first cousin, Captain Thomas Seymour of Hartford, in July. But the joy of that celebration was crushed by great sadness when 16-year-old Sarah Ledyard died on July 26. Anne was eight months pregnant with her latest child when she lost Sarah.

Son Charles Grover Ledyard was born on Aug. 27, 1781. William Ledyard was almost 43 years old, and Anne was 37. They had been married for over 20 years.

Charles would never know his father, for 10 days later, on Sept. 6, William Ledyard was killed in battle at Fort Griswold, along with over 80 massacred men and boys.

Left fatherless were 18-year-old Mary Ann (then living in Hartford), 12-year-old Deborah, 8-year-old John, 6-year-old Peter, 4-year-old William, 1-year-old Henry, and 10-day-old Charles Grover.

The births of nearly all of William Ledyard’s children had been overshadowed by the birthing process of America.

By 1781, aside from Mary Ann, the Ledyard children were likely too young to bear full witness to the impact of the American Revolution on their lives, as children of a protesting merchant and leader of men in battle.

All they knew was that their father would never be coming home, and their mother would never be the same.

Almost all of the Ledyard children would die young within 10 years after the Battle of Groton Heights. Mary Anne died six months after the battle, at 19 years old; Deborah died at 22; John at 18; William at 18; Henry at just 2 years old.

Nine-year-old Charles died in 1790 on the same day as his 46-year-old mother Anne, no doubt due to one of the many deadly colonial diseases. Per Anne’s dying request, Charles was buried in her arms, in the same casket, in Colonel Ledyard Cemetery.

Peter Vandevoort Ledyard achieved the most longevity, dying at age 54 in New York City, where it seems he worked in trade, like his father.

John Steward lives in Waterford. He can be reached at tossinglines@gmail.com