Anne Macomb Pfister

Anne Macomb was born within a few years of 1750 ( perhaps in 1753). She was the daughter of John and Jane Gordon Macomb of Northern Ireland. She is said to have accompanied her father and brothers to America in 1757 - although she may have stayed behind with her mother and emigrated afterwards. Her mother does not seem to have come to America. John Macomb soon settled in Albany where Anne and her brothers probably grew up.

By 1770, she seems to have married Francis Pfister, a German-born British army engineer who had served on the frontier at least during the 1760s. Pfister was in Albany in 1768, and became a naturalized British subject in 1772 - the same year he retired from the Army.

In March 1772, Pfister probably was married to Anne when he was identified as a tenant in an Albany house. Shortly thereafter, he relocated to his property at Hoosick where Anne would raise their children. She soon was joined by her aging father.

The war caused this extended family great hardship culminating in the death of Francis Pfister at the so-called Battle of Bennington in August 1777. Widow Anne then came under the protection of her father who took her to Detroit where she married one Captain Thomas Bennett in 1782. In two marriages she was the mother of at least eight children.

Anne Macomb Pfister Bennett is said to have died in 1820. We seek particulars regarding her later life and passing.

Sources: The life of Anne Macomb Pfister has no CAP biography number 2973. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.