William Stark (loyalist)

William Stark (1724-1776) was the older brother of Gen. John Stark, the hero of the Battle of Bennington. William Stark was born on 1 April 1724 at Londonderry, New Hampshire. William Stark was with his brother John Stark, David Stinson and Amos Eastman, hunting along the Baker River, a tributary of the Pemigewasset River, on 28 April 1752, when John Stark and Amos Eastman were captured and David Stinson was killed by Abenaki Indians. William escaped in his canoe after being warned by his brother.

William Stark married Mary Stinson on 22 February 1754; they would have seven children.

During the French and Indian War William Stark commanded a company of Rogers' Rangers in northern New York and Nova Scotia and took part in the assaults on Fortress Louisbourg in 1758 and Quebec in 1759.

Early in the American Revolution, William Stark did not join the New Hampshire Militia forces in the Siege of Boston. The sounds of the Battle of Bunker Hill could be heard at William Stark's home in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, and he left on his swiftest horse to fight, but he arrived too late and the battle had already ended.

Both Gen. John Sullivan and Col. Jonathan Moulton recommended William Stark to command the new regiment being raised in New Hampshire for service with the Continental Army in the invasion of Canada, but the New Hampshire General Assembly gave the command to Timothy Bedel, a former subordinate of William Stark's. William Stark, feeling ill-used by his home state, left for New York City, which was occupied by the British Army, and offered his services to them. The British made him a lieutenant colonel of Loyalist troops.

William Stark's property in New Hampshire was confiscated by the revolutionary government. Stark died from injuries he received in falling from his horse on Long Island New York, during the Battle of Long Island 27 August 1776.

Notes from Debbie Carr record that: "According to an "Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots about William Stark" he is buried in: Lyme Plain Cemeter in Lyme, Grafton County, New Hampshire 29I"