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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Sevier, John 1745- (search)
Sevier, John 1745- Pioneer; born in Rockingham county, Va., Sept. 23, 1745; went to the Holston River, east Tennessee, with an exploring party, in 1769, and built Fort Watauga; was in the battle of Point Pleasant; settled in North Carolina; was a member of its legislature in 1777; fought the Indians on the frontiers; and was one of the leaders (as colonel) in the battle at King's Mountain (q. v. ). For his services there he was rewarded by North Carolina with public thanks and a sword. He was afterwards attached to Marion's command, and was a brigadiergeneral at the close of the war. Sevier was active among the secessionists of western North Carolina, who formed the independent State of Frankland (q. v. ), over which he was elected governor in 1784. When Tennessee was organized, in 1788, he was governor until 1801. He was again governor from 1803 to 1809, and in 1811 he was a member of Congress. In 1815 he accepted a mission to the Creek Indians, and died while in performance
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Sewall, Jonathan 1728- (search)
Sewall, Jonathan 1728- Lawyer; born in Boston, Mass., Aug. 24. 1728: graduated at Harvard College in 1748, and in early life was the intimate associate and friend of John Adams. Like Adams, he was a school-teacher; became a lawyer in 1767; and was appointed attorney-general of Massachusetts. In 1769 he began a suit for the freedom of a negro slave, and was successful, two years before the settlement of the case of the negro Somerset, which Blackstone commended so highly, and Cowper commemorated in poetry. He and Adams finally differed in politics, Sewall taking sides with the crown. When the Revolutionary War broke out, he was residing in the house, at Cambridge, which Washington afterwards occupied as his headquarters, for Sewall went to England, and was among the proscribed in Massachusetts in 1779. In 1788 he removed to St. John, N. B., where he was judge of the admiralty court until his death, Sept. 26, 1796.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Smith, William 1727-1803 (search)
eces of English composition. He was the author of several works, religious, moral, philosophical, and historical, including Brief account of the province of Pennsylvania; and Bouquet's expedition against the Western Indians. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., May 14, 1803. Jurist; born in New York City, June 25, 1728; graduated at Yale College in 1745; became one of the leading lawyers in America; and was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of New York in 1763, and member of the council in 1769. When the Revolutionary War broke out he at first opposed the measures of government, but finally adhered to the crown and went to England at the end of the struggle in 1783. In November, 1786, he was appointed chiefjustice of Canada. Judge Smith wrote History of the province of New York from its discovery in 1732, and, with William Livingston, published Revised laws of New York, 1690–;1762. He died in Quebec, Canada, Nov. 3, 1793. Jurist; born in North Carolina in 1762; graduated at
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Spain. (search)
lly unsuccessful. England then found herself (1742) threatened with a war with France. The war, really begun through the resolution of British merchants to force a trade with Spanish America, after spreading first to Europe and then to India, and adding nearly $150,000,000 to the British national debt, was brought to a close by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in the autumn of 1748. The position and strength of the countries occupied by the Americans, said Grimaldi, the Spanish minister, in 1769, excites a just alarm for the rich Spanish possessions on their borders. They have already introduced their grain and rice into our colonies by a commerce of interlopers. If this introduction should be legalized and extended to other objects of commerce, it would effectually increase the power and prosperity of a neighbor already too formidable. Moreover, should this neighbor separate from its metropolis, it would assume the republican form of government—and a republic is a government dang
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Susquehanna settlers. (search)
. 14 they attacked and massacred thirty of the settlers in the fields. Men, women, and children fled to the mountains, from which they saw their homes plundered and burned and their cattle taken away. They made their way back to Connecticut. The settlement was broken up. Meanwhile Pennsylvania took possession of the Wyoming Valley and built a fortified trading-house there. Another Connecticut association, called the Delaware Company, had begun a settlement on the Delaware River (1767). In 1769 forty pioneers of the Susquehanna Company went there to assert their rights, and civil war prevailed there for some time (see Pennymite and Yankee War). In 1771 the Assembly of Connecticut proposed to make an effort to adjust all the difficulties, but the governor of Pennsylvania refused to enter into any negotiation. The Connecticut Assembly then made out a case and sent it to England for adjudication. It was submitted to the ablest lawyers in the realm, and was decided in favor of the Sus
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Tatham, William 1752-1819 (search)
Tatham, William 1752-1819 Author; born in Hutton, England, in 1752; settled in Virginia in 1769; served in the Revolutionary War as a colonel of Virginia cavalry. After the war he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1784; settled in North Carolina in 1786; was in England in 1796-1805; then returned to the United States. He was the author of Memorial on the Civil and military government of the Tennessee; An analysis of the State of Virginia; Two tracts relating to the Canal between Norfolk and North Carolina; Plan for Insulating the metropolis by means of a navigable Canal, etc. He died in Richmond, Va., Feb. 22, 1819.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), State of Tennessee, (search)
ight-year lease in 1771. They there organized themselves into a body politic, and adopted a code of laws signed by each adult individual of the colony. Others soon joined them and extended settlements down the valley of the Holston, and over intervening ridges to the Clinch and one or two other streams, while others penetrated Powell Valley and began a settlement in the southwest corner of State seal of Tennessee. Virginia. These early settlers were known as the Watauga Association from 1769 to 1777. The territory was represented in the North Carolina legislature as the District of Washington. In 1785 the State of Frankland (q. v.) was organized, but was reunited with North Carolina in 1788, and the next year that State ceded the territory to the national government. John Sevier (q. v.), first governor of Frankland, stands out as one of the most prominent and picturesque figures in the early and formative history of Tennessee. He was called the greatest of Indian fighte
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Trumbull, Jonathan 1710-1785 (search)
Trumbull, Jonathan 1710-1785 Patriot; born in Lebanon, Conn., Oct. 12, 1710; graduated at Harvard College in 1727; preached a few years; studied law; and became Jonathan Trumbull. a member of Assembly at the age of twenty-three. He was chosen lieutenant-governor in 1766, and became ex-officio chief-justice of the Superior Court. In 1768 he boldly refused to take the oath enjoined on officers of the crown, and in 1769 he was chosen governor. He was the only conlonial governor who espoused the cause of the people in their struggle for justice and freedom. In the absence in Congress of the Adamses and Hancock from New England, Trumbull was considered the Whig leader in that region, and Washington always placed implicit reliance upon his patriotism and energy for support. When Washington took command of the Continental army at Cambridge, he found it in want of ammunition and other supplies, and this want continued, more or less, for months. Trumbull was then governor of Con
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Vermont, (search)
s, called Princetown, in the valley of the Battenkill, between Arlington and Dorset......May 21, 1765 Samuel Robinson, appointed by 1,000 settlers under the New Hampshire grants to present their petition to the King, sails from New York for England......Dec. 25, 1766 King George III. forbids New York, until authorized, to grant land in Vermont......July 24, 1767 Lieutenant-Governor Colden disregards the order, and between September, 1769, and October, 1770, grants 600,000 acres......1769-70 New-Yorkers, claiming the farm of James Breakenridge in the township of Bennington (part of the Walloomsac grant of 1739), send commissioners and surveyors who are dispersed by friends of Breakenridge......Oct. 19, 1769 Ejectment suits for lands claimed by New York at Albany are decided against settlers under New Hampshire grants......June, 1770 Sheriff Ten Eyck, with a posse of about 300 citizens of Albany, attempts to take Breakenridge's farm for New York claimants, but are driv
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Varnum, James Mitchell 1748- (search)
Varnum, James Mitchell 1748- Military officer; born in Dracut, Mass., Dec. 17, 1748; graduated at Rhode Island College (now Brown University) in 1769, and became a lawyer in East Greenwich, R. I. In 1784 he was commander of the Kentish Guards, from the ranks of which came General Greene and about thirty other officers of the Revolution. He was made colonel of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment in January, 1775, and soon afterwards entered the Continental army, becoming brigadier-general in February, 1777. He was at Red Bank (Fort Mercer), in command of all the troops on the Jersey side of the Delaware, when the British took Philadelphia; and it was under his direction that Major Thayer made his gallant defence of Fort Mifflin (q. v.). General Varnum was at Valley Forge the following winter; took part in the battle of Monmouth (June 28, 1778) ; joined Sullivan in his expedition to Rhode Island, serving under the immediate orders of Lafayette, and resigned in 1779, when he was chosen m
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