At 11:00 am Saturday, October 26, the Cape Cod and Islands Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution will host a ceremony honoring Revolutionary War veteran Thomas Bassett by installing a memorial marker at his grave. Thomas Bassett served both as a seaman and as a soldier in the Revolution. He was married to Lydia Mendall.
The ceremony, featuring the presentation of colors and musket salute by the Massachusetts Colonel Henry Knox Regimental Color Guard, in Revolutionary War period uniforms, and the Wareham Minutemen and Militia companies also in period dress, will be held, rain or shine, in the Center Cemetery, 26 Dexter Lane, Rochester. In addition, members of local Scout Troop 31 will participate.
Ms. Connie Eshbach, Chair of the Rochester Historical Commission and Vice-President of the Rochester Historical Society, will be the keynote speaker. The ceremony will also include the reading by various Historical Commission members of the family names of other patriots who resided in Rochester during the time of the Revolutionary War.
The Rev. Bruce W. Bassett, Jr., the 4th Great Grandson of Thomas Bassett and chaplain for the Cape Cod and Islands Chapter, SAR, will offer the invocation and benediction. All members of the public are invited to attend this colorful and dignified tribute to one of America’s first veterans. Members of the Bassett and Mendall families as well as other members of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution, are especially invited to attend.
The Sons of the American Revolution and Daughters of the American Revolution are national patriotic, historical and educational societies whose members are direct descendants of the patriots who earned our independence.