Cooper, Myles ( February 1737–20 May 1785), Anglican priest, president of King's College, and Loyalist, Anglican priest, president of King’s College, and Loyalist, was born near Broughton-Furness, Cumberland County, England, the son of William Cooper and Elizabeth (maiden name unknown). Myles Cooper’s date of birth is not known, but he was baptized probably on 19 February 1737 in Cumberland County, England. In 1753 he entered Queen’s College, Oxford, earning the B.A. in 1756 and the M.A. in 1760. That year he also taught school in Kent. In 1761 he returned to Queen’s College, was appointed chaplain until he was ordained a priest, and published with collaborators ...
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Cooper, Myles (February 1737–20 May 1785), Anglican priest, president of King's College, and Loyalist
Eugene R. Fingerhut
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Girty, Simon (1741-1818), British Loyalist and frontier warrior
John Ferling
Girty, Simon (1741–18 February 1818), British Loyalist and frontier warrior, was born near Harrisburg in colonial Pennsylvania, the son of farmers. One of at least four children born to Simon Girty and Mary Newton, young Simon was raised in modest circumstances. He received no formal education and remained illiterate. When only ten years of age, his father was killed by an Indian. Girty later maintained that his stepfather met a similar fate. In the course of the French and Indian War, Simon was captured by the Seneca and held captive for thirty-six months. During his captivity, Girty became familiar with the language of his captors....
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Hutchinson, Thomas (1711-1780), colonial historian, royal official, and Loyalist refugee
Robert M. Calhoon
Hutchinson, Thomas (09 September 1711–03 June 1780), colonial historian, royal official, and Loyalist refugee, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Colonel Thomas Hutchinson and Sarah Foster, both children of Boston merchants. He grew up in one of the finest mansions in Boston, plain in style but filled with busts of classical and British figures and pictures of historic events such as the destruction of the Spanish Armada. Preferring reading history to playing with other children, Thomas became absorbed in the history of England and New England and admired Charles I. He attended North Grammar School and at the age of twelve entered Harvard, where his family’s social standing entitled him to be ranked third in his class. In 1734 he married Margaret Sanford, daughter of a wealthy Rhode Island merchant and governor, and thereupon became linked by family ties and affection to ...
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Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826), philosopher, author of the Declaration of Independence, and president of the United States
Merrill D. Peterson
Jefferson, Thomas (13 April 1743–04 July 1826), philosopher, author of the Declaration of Independence, and president of the United States, was born at Shadwell, in what became Albemarle County, Virginia, the son of Peter Jefferson, a pioneer farmer and surveyor, and Jane Randolph. He always valued the enterprising example of his father, who set him in the path of education; he became “a hard student,” indeed remained one throughout his life. Peter Jefferson died in 1757, leaving to his son a fair estate—5,000 acres and the slaves to work them. Less than three years later, Jefferson, already a proficient classical scholar, enrolled at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg....
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Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)
Maker: Gilbert Stuart
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Thomas Jefferson. After a painting by Gilbert Stuart, artist. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-117117 DLC).
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Langdon, Samuel (1723-1797), Congregational minister, patriot, and college president
Mark A. Peterson
Langdon, Samuel (12 January 1723–29 November 1797), Congregational minister, patriot, and college president, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel Langdon, a house builder, and Esther Osgood. His father died while Samuel was an infant, but despite his impoverished circumstances, Langdon attended Harvard College from 1736 to 1740, earning his A.B. and A.M. degrees....
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Langworthy, Edward (1738–1 or 2 Nov. 1802), teacher and politician
Kenneth Coleman
Langworthy, Edward (1738–1 or 2 Nov. 1802), teacher and politician, was born near Savannah, Georgia, of unknown parents. Because his parents died when he was young, Langworthy was reared and educated at Bethesda Orphan House, founded by the Reverend George Whitefield near Savannah in 1740. He also read and studied on his own. He married a sister of Ambrose Wright; her first name is unknown. His wife was reported dead in 1771, with no date specified, and Langworthy married again at an unknown date. His second wife, whose name is also unknown, is referred to in a letter of his dated 5 April 1779; she is reported to have died at Christmas time in 1794. No information survives about children from either marriage....
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Logan, James (20 October 1674–31 October 1751), provincial councilor, scholar, and William Penn's secretary in America
Jeffrey B. Webb
Logan, James (20 October 1674–31 October 1751), provincial councilor, scholar, and William Penn's secretary in America, provincial councilor, scholar, and William Penn’s secretary in America, was born in Lurgan, County Armaugh, Ireland, the son of Scottish Quakers Patrick Logan, a minister and teacher, and Isabel Hume. His father, who earned an A.M. from Edinburgh University, taught him Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and at age thirteen he was apprenticed to Edward Webb, a Quaker linen draper in Dublin. Logan returned to Lurgan six months later, then moved with his family to Bristol when his father was appointed master of the Friar Meetinghouse School. He replaced his father in this position in 1693 and later earned the respect of William Penn when the colonial proprietor served on the school’s supervisory board. Penn invited Logan to be his secretary in Pennsylvania, and he was with the Penn family aboard the ...
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Ramsay, David (1749-1815), historian and politician
Arthur Shaffer
Ramsay, David (02 April 1749–08 May 1815), historian and politician, was born in Drumore Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of James Ramsay and Jane Montgomery, Protestant Irish immigrant farmers. Ramsay graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1765 and received medical training at the College of Philadelphia (1770–1773) under the tutelage of ...
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Sandys, George (1578-1644), writer and official of colonial Virginia
Dora Jean Ashe
Sandys, George (02 March 1578–04 March 1644), writer and official of colonial Virginia, was born at Bishopthorp near York, England, the son of Edwin Sandys, the archbishop of York, and his second wife, Cicely Wil(s)ford. Sandys entered Oxford University as a gentleman-commoner at the age of eleven in 1589, then at eighteen went to the Middle Temple, London. He remained at the Inns of Court only a year or two. Before the age of twenty-one, he married Elizabeth Norton of Ripon. The exact date of the family-arranged marriage is unknown, but it had ended, although it was never formally dissolved, by 1606. The couple had no children....
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Smith, John (1580-1631), colonial governor, promoter, and historian
Karen Ordahl Kupperman
Smith, John (1580–21 June 1631), colonial governor, promoter, and historian, was born in Willoughby by Alford in Lincolnshire, the son of George Smith, a yeoman, and Alice Rickard. His earliest schooling may have been under Francis Marbury, father of Anne Hutchinson, who was schoolmaster in Alford. Toward the end of his life Smith published an autobiography, one of the first examples of the modern genre, which he titled ...
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Smith, John (1580-1631)
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John Smith. Illustration from The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith, 1629, depicting Smith's 1607 capture. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-99524).
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Smith, Samuel (1720-1776), historian and colonial official
Dora Jean Ashe
Smith, Samuel (13 December 1720–13 July 1776), historian and colonial official, was born in Burlington, New Jersey, the son of Richard Smith, an assemblyman and merchant, and Abigail Rapier. The Smiths were a Yorkshire Quaker family, one of whom, Samuel’s great-uncle John, had been granted an original town lot in Burlington by the London Proprietors. As a young man Samuel was associated for a time with his father in the West India Company and lived in Philadelphia as well as Burlington. He settled in Burlington in the family town house and his nearby estate, “Hickory Grove.” In 1741 he married Jane Kirkbride; the couple had four children....
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Strachey, William (1572-1621), historian and secretary of the Virginia Company
Bernard W. Sheehan
Strachey, William (1572–1621), historian and secretary of the Virginia Company, was born in Lesnes, England, the son of William Strachey, a draper, and Mary Cooke. He spent his early years in Saffron Walden, Essex. Strachey’s father was a member of an ambitious yeoman family that owned substantial town property. In 1587 he was granted a coat-of-arms, making him a gentleman, a status inherited by his son. His mother came from a family of well-off London merchants. Strachey attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1588, and in 1605 he was a member of Gray’s Inn, though he apparently neither took a degree nor practiced law. In 1595 he married Frances Forster; they had two children. After the death of his father’s second wife in 1602 he came into the family property; it was much encumbered and never quite supported him in the life of a gentleman....
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Winthrop, John (1588-1649)
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John Winthrop. Oil on canvas, c. 1800. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
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Winthrop, John (1588-1649), first governor and chronicler of Massachusetts-Bay
Charles L. Cohen
Winthrop, John (12 January 1588–26 March 1649), first governor and chronicler of Massachusetts-Bay, was born in Edwardstone, Suffolk, England, the son of Adam Winthrop, lord of Groton Manor, and Anne Browne. His early life befitted a scion of the aspiring lesser gentry: matriculation at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1603; marriage in 1605 to Mary Forth (she died in 1615), a wealthy landowner’s sole heiress (shortcircuiting his college career); subsequent advantageous matches to Thomasine Clopton in 1615 (she died a year later) and Margaret Tyndal ( ...
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Witherspoon, John (1723-1794), Presbyterian minister, college president, and American patriot
Mark A. Noll
Witherspoon, John (05 February 1723–15 November 1794), Presbyterian minister, college president, and American patriot, was born in the village of Gifford in the parish of Yester, Scotland, eighteen miles east of Edinburgh Castle, the son of James Witherspoon, a minister of the Church of Scotland, and Anne (or Anna) Walker. At home Witherspoon was instructed in the New Testament and the hymns of Isaac Watts and early developed a facility for rapid, accurate memorization. He entered the University of Edinburgh when only thirteen and received a master of arts in February 1739. He then studied theology, was licensed to preach on 6 September 1743, and in January 1745 was called as minister of the Church of Scotland parish in Beith, Ayrshire. The next year he helped raise troops to fight against Charles Stuart, the Young Pretender, but rebel forces captured him when he went to observe the battle of Falkirk. He underwent a brief but harsh imprisonment in Castle Doune near Stirling that permanently damaged his nervous system. In 1748 he married Elizabeth Montgomery; they had ten children, five of whom died during childhood....
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Witherspoon, John (1723-1794)
Maker: Charles Willson Peale
In
John Witherspoon. Lithograph after a painting by Charles Willson Peale, c. 1838–1843. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-104656).
