Military officer; born in
Durham, Conn., about 1716.
Educated at Yale College, he was a tutor there from 1738 to 1741.
He engaged in mercantile pursuits, but finally became a lawyer in
Suffield.
There he was a magistrate for some years, and took a conspicuous part in the disputes between
Massachusetts and
Connecticut concerning the town of
Suffield.
At the breaking out of the
French and Indian War he was commander-in-chief of the
Connecticut forces; he built Fort Lyman (afterwards
Fort Edward), on the upper
Hudson, and fought and won the battle at the head of
Lake George in 1755.
In 1758 he served under
General Abercrombie, and was with Lord Howe when he was killed.
He was also at the capture of
Crown Point and
Montreal, and, in 1762, led provincial troops against
Havana.
In 1763
General Lyman went to
England to get prizemoney for himself and fellow-officers and to solicit a grant of land on the
Mississippi for a company called “Military adventurers.”
He returned to
America in 1774, at which time a tract near
Natchez was granted to the petitioners; and thither he went with his eldest son, and died soon after reaching
west Florida, as the region was then called, near the present
Natchez, Miss., Sept. 10, 1774.
The emigrants suffered great hardships, and on the conquest of the country by the Spaniards (1781-82) they took refuge in
Savannah.
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