On this day 250 years ago in Needham, Massachusetts, Private Alexander Quapish passed away after a long illness that he had contracted during the Siege of Boston. Quapish was a Native American originally from Yarmouth, Massachusetts who was living in Dedham, Massachusetts in May 1775 when he enlisted in Capt. Daniel Whiting’s company of Col. Jonathan Brewer’s regiment. The details of his last days are described in a petition subsequently filed in the Massachusetts General Court:
That one Alexander Quapish a Poor Indian Belonging to this State who was taken Sick in the Army Near Cambridge and was Dismissed Came to the House of your Petitioner in Said Needham in a Suffering Condition on the 15th Day of November 1775 and Remained there Sick untill the 23rd Day of March 1776 and then Died, and your Petitioner was at Great Trouble & Charge in Boarding Nursing, and Burying Said Indian.
Source: https://www.nps.gov/people/alexander-quapish.htm
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress authorized owners of privateers to seize British vessels and the cargo the vessels carry, and to keep a share of the value of the ship and cargo. Before the end of the War nearly 800 ships were commissioned as privateers and they would capture about 600 British ships.
Sources: https://www.nps.gov/articles/privateers-in-the-american-revolution.htm; Journals of the Continental Congress at 229-32 accessed at https://archive.org/details/us_congress_continental/lljc004/page/228/mode/2up
On this day 250 years ago in Charlestown (now Charleston), the General Assembly of South Carolina named Thomas Lynch Jr. to the Continental Congress as a sixth delegate to join and eventually replace his father Thomas Lynch, Sr. who was recuperating from a stroke. Thomas Lynch Sr. was a supporter of Independence but would be too ill to sign the Declaration. A blank line would be left where Thomas Lynch Sr. would have signed and Thomas Lynch Jr. would sign the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Lynch Sr. and Thomas Lynch Jr. were the only father and son to serve successively in the Continental Congress, but neither would survive the Revolution. Thomas Lynch Sr. would pass away in Annapolis on his return trip home later in 1776 and Thomas Lynch Jr. would be lost at sea in 1779.
On This Day In The Revolution 