When the news reached Connecticut that blood had been shed, Putnam, who was at work in the field, left his plow in the furrow, and started for Cambridge without delaying to change his apparel. Stark was sawing pine logs without a coat; he shut down the gate of his mill, and commenced the journey to…

Early Life The leading opponent of John Adams in the debate upon the Declaration of Independence was John Dickinson, of Delaware–an honest, able, patriotic, but timid statesman. He was born in Maryland, in December, 1732, and educated in Delaware, to which province his parents removed soon after his birth. He read law in Philadelphia, and…

Early life Cooper was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford where he later served as chaplain. Ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church in 1761, he attracted the influence of several high clergymen, including Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury, who recommended him for service in the American colonies. Cooper was thereby sent to New York…

America Born in Whitby, Yorkshire, England, Brown was of a prosperous family, his father Jonas owning a successful shipping company. In 1774 Thomas recruited colonists from Whitby and the Orkney Islands, and emigrated with them to the Province of Georgia. He established the community of Brownsborough northeast of present day Augusta and anticipated a life…

Early years Brant was born in 1743, probably in March, probably in the Ohio Country somewhere along the Cuyahoga River. This was during the hunting season when Mohawks traveled to the area. He was named Thayendanegea, which can mean two wagers (sticks) bound together for strength, or possibly “he who places two bets.” He was…

William Augustus Bowles (1763–1805), also known as Estajoca, was a Maryland-born English adventurer and organizer of Native American attempts to create their own state outside of Euro-American control. Some sources give his date of birth as 1764.[1] Bowles was born in Frederick County, Maryland. He joined the British Army at the age of 13, and served…

John Askin was born in Aughnaclay, County Tyrone, to James Askin and Alice Rae in 1739. John came to Albany, New York as a sulter with the British Army in 1758, and entered the western fur trade after the British gained control of New France. In 1764, he went to Michilimackinac, Michigan, to open a…

Early Life Benedict Arnold was born on January 14, 1741 in Norwich, Connecticut. Arnold was one of a number of Benedict Arnolds including an early governor of Rhode Island and his father. Arnold’s mother was Hannah Waterman King, a wealthy widow, before her marriage to the elder Arnold. The family fortunes were well for a…

Overview Ethan Allen was born in 1738 in Litchfield, Connecticut, the eldest of the eight children of Joseph and Mary Allen. He had five brothers (Heman, Heber, Levi, Zimri, and Ira) and two sisters (Lydia and Lucy) all of whom lived to adulthood, unusual in those days. Of these siblings, his youngest brother Ira is…

Life and career Born in Philadelphia in 1704, Allen was the son of William Allen, sr., a successful Philadelphia merchant of Scotch-Irish descent who had immigrated to America from Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland with his brother John and father. The elder Allen had risen to prominence through close ties to William Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania.…