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Browsing named entities in Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing). You can also browse the collection for 1776 AD or search for 1776 AD in all documents.

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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Wickes, Lambert 1735- (search)
Wickes, Lambert 1735- Naval officer; born in New England, presumably in 1735; joined the navy Dec. 22, 1775; commanded the brig Reprisal in 1776, and in the summer of that year captured the English vessels Friendship, Shark, and Peter. He next took Benjamin Franklin to France while in command of the same vessel, and before leaving French waters captured fourteen ships in five days. the Reprisal, with Wickes and all the crew excepting the cook, was lost in a storm off Newfoundland in 1778.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Wilkinson, James 1757- (search)
Wilkinson, James 1757- Military officer; born in Benedict, Md., in 1757; was preparing for the medical profession when the Revolutionary War broke out. He repaired to Cambridge after the battle of Bunker (Breed's) Hill, where he was made a captain in Reed's New Hampshire regiment in the spring of 1776. He served under Arnold in the Northern army, and in July, 1776, was appointed brigademajor. He was at the battles of Trenton and Princeton, and was made lieutenantcolonel in January, 1777. He was Gates's adjutant-general, and bore to Congress an account of the capture of Burgoyne, when he was brevetted brigadier-general and made secretary to the board of war, of which Gates was president. Being implicated in Conway's cabal he resigned the secretaryship, and in July, 1779, was made clothier-general to the army. At the close of the war he settled in Lexington, Ky., and engaged in mercantile transactions. In 1791-92 he commanded, as lieutenant-colonel of infantry, an expedition
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), William and Mary, College of (search)
y through the efforts of Rev. James Blair and of Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson. It was named William and Mary, in compliment to the ruling sovereigns, who made appropriations for its support. Buildings designed by Sir Christopher Wren were erected at the Middle Plantation, which was named Williamsburg. The first college edifice was destroyed by fire in 1705 and was rebuilt soon afterwards. The General Assembly and individuals made liberal gifts to the institution from time to time, and in 1776 it was the wealthiest William and Mary College in 1723. college in America. Its riches were wasted during the Revolutionary War, its resources being reduced to $2,500 and the then unproductive revenue granted by the crown. The college was closed in 1781, and American and French troops alternately occupied it, during which time the president's house and a wing of the main building were burned. After the Revolution, the General Assembly gave lands to the college, and its organization was
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Williams, Otho Holland 1749- (search)
Williams, Otho Holland 1749- Military officer: born in Prince George county, Md., in March, 1749; was left an orphan at twelve years of age; appointed lieutenant of a rifle company at the beginning of the Revolution, he marched to the Continen- Otho Holland Williams. tal camp at Cambridge; and in 1776 was appointed major of a new rifle regiment, which formed part of the garrison of Fort Washington, New York, when it was captured. He gallantly opposed the Hessian column, but was wounded and made prisoner. Being soon exchanged, he was made colonel of the 6th Maryland Regiment, with which he accompanied De Kalb to South Carolina; and when Gates took command of the Southern Army Colonel Williams was made adjutant-general. In the battle near Camden he gained great distinction for coolness and bravery, and performed efficient service during Greene's famous retreat, as commander of a light corps that formed the rear-guard. At the battle at Guilford Court-house he was Greene's seco
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Williams, William 1731-1811 (search)
Williams, William 1731-1811 Signer of the Declaration of Independence; born in Lebanon, Conn., April 18, 1731; graduated at Harvard College in 1757, and was on the staff of his relative, Col. Ephraim Williams, when he was killed near Lake George in 1755. An active patriot and a member of the committee of correspondence and safety in Connecticut, he was sent to Congress in 1776. He wrote several essays to arouse the spirit of liberty in the bosoms of his countrymen, and spent nearly all his property in the cause. He had been speaker of the Connecticut Assembly in 1775, and in 1783-84 was again a member of Congress. He was also a member of the convention of Connecticut that adopted the national Constitution. Mr. Williams married a daughter of Governor Trumbull. He died in Lebanon, Conn., Aug. 2, 1811.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Williamson, Hugh 1735-1819 (search)
n 1757; studied divinity; preached a while; and was Professor of Mathematics in his alma mater (1760-63). He was one of the committee of the American Philosophical Society appointed to observe the transit of Venus in 1769, of which he published an account; also an account of the transit of Mercury the same year. Being in England to solicit aid for an academy at Newark, N. J., he was examined (1774) before the privy council concerning the destruction of the tea at Boston. He returned home in 1776, and engaged, with his brother, in mercantile pursuits in Charleston, S. C. Afterwards he practised medicine at Edenton, N. C.; served in the North Carolina House of Commons; also as a surgeon in the North Carolina militia (1781-82). He was a delegate in Congress (1782-85 and 1787-88), and in the convention that framed the national Constitution. He was again in Congress in 1790-93, and soon afterwards removed to New York, where he assisted in forming a literary and philosophical society in 1
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Winthrop, Robert Charles 1809-1894 (search)
ould only be a constitutional union, a limited and restricted union, founded on compromises and mutual concessions; a union recognizing a large measure of State rights—resting not only on the division of powers among legislative and executive departments, but resting also on the distribution of powers between the States and the nation, both deriving their original authority from the people, and exercising that authority for the people. This was the system contemplated by the declaration of 1776. This was the system approximated to by the confederation of 1778-81. This was the system finally consummated by the Constitution of 1789. And under this system our great example of self-government has been held up before the nations, fulfilling, so far as it has fulfilled it, that lofty mission which is recognized to-day as liberty enlightening the world. Let me not speak of that example in any vainglorious spirit. Let me not seem to arrogate for my country anything of superior wisdom
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Woodhull, Nathaniel 1722-1776 (search)
Woodhull, Nathaniel 1722-1776 Military officer; born in Mastic, Suffolk co., Long Island, N. Y., Dec. 30, 1722; served in the French and Indian War, and was colonel of a New York regiment under Amherst. In 1769 he was in the New York Assembly, and was one of the few in that body who resisted the obnoxious measures of the British Parliament. In 1776 he was president of the New York Provincial Congress. On the landing of the British on Long Island, he put himself at the head of the militia1776 he was president of the New York Provincial Congress. On the landing of the British on Long Island, he put himself at the head of the militia, with whom he fought in the battle of Long Island. A few days afterwards he was surprised by a party of British light-horsemen, near Jamaica, and, after surrendering his The House in which Woodhull died. sword, he was cruelly cut with the weapons of his captors, of which wounds he died at an ancient stone-house at New Utrecht, Long Island, Sept. 10, 1776. A narrative of his capture and death was published by Henry Onderdonk, Jr., in 1848. His own Journal of the Montreal expedition in 176
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Yates, Robert 1738-1801 (search)
Yates, Robert 1738-1801 Jurist; born in Schenectady, N. Y., Jan. 27, 1738; was admitted to the bar in 1760, and became eminent in his profession. During the controversies preceding the Revolutionary War he wrote several excellent essays upon the great topics of the time. He was a prominent member of the committee of safety at Albany; also chairman of the committee on military operations (1776-77), member of the Provincial Congress of New York, and of the convention that framed the first State constitution. He was judge of the Supreme Court of New York from 1777 to 1790, and chief-justice from 1790 to 1798. Judge Yates was a member of the convention that framed the national Constitution, but left the convention before its close and opposed the instrument then adopted. He kept notes of the debates while he was in the convention. He was one of the commissioners to treat with Massachusetts and Connecticut respecting boundaries and to settle difficulties between New York and Vermo
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