Abigail Holcomb’s Story: Loss and Resilience in the Revolutionary War

Posted on April 7, 2026

Abigail Holcomb’s Story: Loss and Resilience in the Revolutionary War

On April 7, 1776—250 years ago today—Abigail Robbins Holcomb was trying to settle her late husband’s estate. In 1766, a month before her 18th birthday, she had married Timothy Holcomb. The couple settled in the northwestern corner of Connecticut and had at least four children together, although several died young. The Revolutionary War brought their life together to an abrupt halt and changed both of them irrevocably.  

On May 1, 1775, Timothy Holcomb was commissioned as a lieutenant in Colonel Benjamin Hinman’s 4th Connecticut Regiment. He left Abigail behind and marched to northern New York. His regiment spent the summer doing garrison duty at Fort Ticonderoga and other posts throughout the region as the army prepared for an expedition to Canada. At least some of the regiment joined that expedition when it set off in September. 

Sickness spread through the army during the campaign season, and Timothy was one of its victims. He was given leave to go home after falling ill and began the trip south, but never made it; he died in Shaftsbury, VT that fall. Abigail was now a widow with two young children to care for. She was also left with the responsibility of administering his estate, paying his debts and collecting anything that was owed to him. In this April 7 pay order, Connecticut’s Committee of the Pay Table ordered that she be paid 8 pounds, 7 shillings, 11 pence as compensation “for Sundry Expences [Timothy] paid in his life time for sick soldiers & the expense of his own last sickness”.   

Abigail’s life had been disrupted by the war, then knocked onto an entirely new path, but she kept going. Two years after Timothy’s death, she married another Connecticut soldier, Samuel Darrow. Samuel had served in the same regiment as Timothy in 1775, garrisoning Ticonderoga and serving at the siege of Fort St. Jean, then fought in the defense of New York City in 1776. Abigail and Samuel later moved to Starksboro, VT, where Abigail lived until her death in 1814.  

Learn about this pay order (object ID MS.7532, property of Robert Nittolo) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/31398