Maj. Gen. Noah Phelps (born January 22, 1740, descended from the English immigrant William Phelps) settled in Simsbury, Connecticut, where he was an active and influential man. He was a Yale University graduate, a justice of the Peace, judge of Probate for twenty years, and was a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to ratify the Federal Constitution.

Early in the American Revolutionary War, Phelps was chosen as a member of "Committee of War for the expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point." The committee considered the advisability of taking Fort Ticonderoga, then occupied by the British, and in which there was stored a large amount of heavy artillery and other war implements. Capt. Phelps, Barnard Romance, Ephraim Buell, and Capt. Edward Mott, with others, composed this committee, Capt. Mott acting as chairman. £300 was raised from the Public Treasury though guaranteed by several patriotic gentlemen. This fund was placed in the hands of Capt. Phelps and Barnard Romance, with the request that they should go north and press forward this project. This resulted in the great and bloodless victory — the capture of Fort Ticonderoga.

Captain Phelps acted as a spy in the campaign. Sent out to reconnoiter the southern part of Lake Champlain, he stopped overnight at a farm house some little distance from Fort Ticonderoga. Some British soldiers occupied rooms adjoining Phelps, where they were having a dinner party. Phelps heard them discuss the condition of the fort, and the position taken by the rebels, as they styled the people. Early the next morning, Phelps visited the fort disguised as a peddler.

"Pretending that his object was to get shaved, he avoided suspicion, and had an opportunity to ascertain the construction, strength, and force of the garrison. And he had the good fortune to elude detection, though as it afterwards appeared, his presence had began [sic] to excite mistrust before he left the garrison."

While returning through the fort, the commander accompanied him talking with him about the rebels, their object and movements. Phelps, seeing a portion of the wall in a dilapidated condition, remarked that it would afford a feeble defence against the rebels, if they should attack in that quarter. The commander replied, "Yes, but that is not our greatest misfortune. All our powder is damaged, and before we can use it, we are obliged to dry and sift it."

Phelps soon after left the fort, employing a boatman to take him down the lake in a small boat. He entered the boat in full view and under the guns of the fort. He requested the boatman to exert himself and terminate the journey as soon as possible. The boatman then requested him to take an oar and assist. This Phelps declined to do, being in full sight of the fort, by saying he was no boatman. After rounding a point that intercepted a view from the fort, Phelps proposed taking an oar, which he did, and being a strong active man as well as a good oarsman, he excited the suspicion of the oarsman by his efficient work, who remarked with an oath, 'You have seen an oar before now, sir.' This excited the suspicion of the boatman at the time that he was not a good and loyal citizen, but fear of superior strength prevented an attempt to carry him back to the fort. This he confessed to Capt. Phelps after the surrender of the fort. Capt. Phelps returned safely to his command, reported the information he had gained to General Ethan Allen, resulting in the great and glorious victory before referred to."

About this time Phelps raised a company mostly at his own expense, and was appointed captain. He served under Col. Ward, was at Fort Lee, joined Washington's army, and was at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Later he acted as commissary, and after the war was chosen Maj. Gen. of militia.

Noah Phelps was clearly a leader within the Simsbury community. He chaired the town meeting that passed the Articles of Confederation in January 1778, and in November of 1787, the meeting picked him and Daniel Humphrey Esq., as delegates for the Convention of the State of Connecticut, set to convene in Hartford in January and vote on whether or not to adopt the federal constitution. They were directed to oppose it, but "one of the delegates though voting as instructed by the town, took occasion to state that his personal convictions led him to favor the proposed constitution." This might or might not have been Phelps. He held a variety of important positions, including Surveyor of lands in 1772 and 1783, Justice of the Peace for Hartford County in 1782, Judge of Probate in 1787, and Major-General of the Militia, 1796-1799.

He died in Simsbury 4 Nov., 1809, honored and respected. On his tombstone is inscribed: "A Patriot of 1776. To such we are indebted for our Independence."

*Noah Phelps Papers William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan

(1) Excerpted from The Phelps Family of America and Their English Ancestors, Two volumes. By Judge Oliver Seymour Phelps and Andrew T. Servin. (Eagle Publishing Company of Pittsfield, Mass., 1899) Vol 1, p 204.

(2) Phelps, Noah Amherst. History of Simsbury, Granby and Canton, From 1642 to 1845. (Hartford: Press of Case, Tiffany and Burnham, 1845). p 94-95. From William L. Clements Library The University of Michigan, Noah Phelps Papers. p 94-95 (January 2003)

(3) Stowe, Rev. Charles E. Simsbury's Part in the War of the American Revolution. (Hartford: Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1896). p. 23