quila5 Landers (Nathan^4-3, Thomas^2-1), born 23 Nov. 1755, died after 23 Jan. 1833, when he deposed in Yates, Orleans County, N.Y., aged 77 years (Pension record S-13,617, National Archives).

The name of his wife and date and place of his marriage have not come to light. He probably married near the end of the Revolution, when he was living at Lenox, Mass.

The first record we find of Aquila is as a private, of Wareham, Mass., when he went out on an alarm in the company of Capt. Nathaniel Fearing 19 April 1775, to Marshfield (Massachusetts Soldiers & Sailors in the War of the Revolution (1902)). In Nov. 1775 he served in Capt. Hammond's company, Col. Theophilus Cotton's Regiment, per a return dated at Roxbury (ibid.). In the following year his father Nathan⁴ Landers moved from Wareham to Lenox in the western part of the province. And so we find that Aquila Landers, now described as having engaged from the town of Lenox, served as a private for a nine month hitch, in a company raised in Berkshire County, of the Continental army, described as "ae. 23, stature 5 ft 6 inches, complexion light". Further service, in 1780, is found under "Aquilla Landris" and "Quilla Sandrus" (ibid.).

Aquila Landers appears in Lenox in the 1790 Census, with a family of one male over 16, three under 16, and four females. His pension file (op. cit.) shows that in 1799 he moved to Shoreham, Vermont, where he appears in the 1800 Census as Aquilla Landon with two boys 10-16, one girl 10-16, as well as his wife, and that from 1822 until his deposition in 1833 he lived at Yates, Orleans County, N.Y.

The 1790 Census indicates that he had three sons and three daughters, probably born in Massachusetts; possibly he had others born in or near Shoreham, Vt. [Was the Nathan Landon in Shoreham in the 1800 Census his son?]. [Lydia B. (Phinney) Brownson and Maclean W. McLean, "Thomas¹ Landers of Sandwich, Mass.," NEHGR 124:275-276]

Deposition of Aquilla Landers:
State of New York, Orleans County. On this 23d day of January, 1833, personally appeared in open Court, before the Honourable Judges of the Court of Common Pleas for said County, now sitting, Aquilla Landers, a Resident of the Town of Yates, in said County, aged seventy seven years...That he was born in the Town of Wareham, in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, in the year 1755, and that his birth is recorded in a Bible now in possession of the Family. That in April, 1775, immediately after Lexington battle, this deponent enlisted into a Company of Militia comanded by Capt. Edward Hammond, accompanied by Lieut. Timothy Ruggles, and Ens. Nathan Sears, in which he served eight and a half months, as a Private. The Corps to which this Deponent was attached, by whom commanded he does not remember, lay some time at Plymouth, from whence the above Corps in with one other, were ordered to Nantucket, where they intercepted and unloaded a Brig, with a cargo of Flour, branded with the name of General Gage. Took the Flour, with ninety Boats, from Nantucket, up Braintree River, to the neighborhood of the American Camp at Roxbury, where he remained, attached to Col. Cotton's Regiment of the Massachusetts Line, under General Washington until he was discharged in January, 1776, and went home to Wareham. In a few weeks afterwards, a draft was made on that Town for eighteen men, to leave for two months. This Deponent volunteered under Capt. Wing of Plymouth County and lay at Dorchester until two weeks after the British evacuated Boston. Does not recollect who were the Field Officers. At the expiration of two months, he returned home. The next summer he moved to the County of Berkshire. In 1777, this Deponent volunteered under Capt. Goodrich or Guthridge of Lenox, in Col. Rowley's Regiment, in which he served in Bennington battle, and was discharged in one month. In 1779, he again enlisted at Lenox, to serve for nine months. Does not recollect the exact time of the year, nor the name of the Officer under whom he enlisted. Marched to Springfield, and from there to West Point, where he was transferred to Capt. Pray's Company, in Maj. Ternald's Regiment, Gen. Patterson's Brigade of the Continental Line. After remaining at West Point four and a half months from his enlistment, he served thte remaining half of his term by a Substitute, viz Peleg Landers, The Deponent's Brother, since dead. This Deponent, after his last discharge, resided at Lenox 15 or 16 years - at Shoreham, in the State of Vermont, 20 years & upwards - at Henrietta, in the State of New York, & [???? of ??????] and at Yates, in the said State, for thte last 11 years. [National Archives - Pension record S 13,697 - declaration of Aquilla Landers dated 23 Jan 1833]

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