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This type of sword is typical of the type of weapon carried by many officers of the Continental Army. The gilding on the hilt and the engraved decoration on the blade, which retains traces of its original gilding, indicate that this would have been a dress sword–not a weapon carried in battle. This sword belonged to Captain Jabez Lane of Buxton. It was donated to the York Institute (now Saco Museum) by Anne B. Goodwin (1824-1894) sometime in the late 19th century; she was a descendant of the Lane family.Label Type
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Captain Jabez Lane (1743-1830)
Jabez Lane was the youngest of three Lane brothers from Buxton. He first served as an ensign in his father Captain John Lane’s unit at Cape Ann, Gloucester, Massachusetts. He stayed there until the beginning of 1776, when he joined Colonel Nixon’s regiment in the 6th Massachusetts and participated in the siege of Boston and the Battle of Long Island. On January 1, 1777, Jabez was commissioned as Captain in the 6th Massachusetts Regiment, serving alongside his brother Daniel. He commanded a company during the battles leading the British surrender at Stillwater and Saratoga in late 1777. Like his brother and nephew, Isaac, he was stationed at the remote outpost of Cherry Valley in New York through the brutal winter of 1778-1779, following the infamous massacre there in which the regiment’s commander, Colonel Alden, was killed. Jabez remained within the 6th Massachusetts until 1780, when the army was reorganized and he was honorably discharged. He returned home to Buxton.