On this day 250 years ago in Canada Susanna Grier was accidentally killed by the discharge of a Patriot rifle during siege of Quebec. Grier was the wife of Sergeant Joseph Grier of Captain William Hendricks’ Company of Pennsylvania riflemen. Sgt. Grier had been captured on December 31, and Capt. Hendricks killed, during the unsuccessful assault on Quebec. While Sgt. Grier was a prisoner in Quebec, his wife continued to serve in the Continental Army as the siege continued.

Susanna Grier was the second woman to lose her life from gunfire in the war for American liberty.

Source: https://gardnerlibrary.org/sites/default/files/vol24n1.pdf#page=5

On this day 250 years ago at Fort George, New York, Congressman Samuel Chase of Maryland, one of the members of the Commission sent by the Continental Congress to Canada, wrote:

On this Day arrived here, with their Interpreter Mr. Dean, The Delegates from the seven Tribes of Indians in Canada, from the Congress of the Six Nations lately held at Onandago. I was introduced to and had the Honor to take them by the Hand. Their Warriors are to stay at Home till their Return and to wait the Result of their Councils. I believe they will wait on Us in Montreal for the purpose of professing Friendship and extorting presents, what are We to do without the Means? Mr. Dean says the Indian Congress have resolved to observe a strict Neutrality, and have appointed Deputies to attend our Indian Commissioners at Albany and they may be daily expected there. I have seen Mr. Deans Notes of the proceedings of the Onandago Congress. The Oneidas, Tuscoraras, the Deputies from Canada, and some other small Tribes appear to be our firm Friends, but the Senecas, Mohawks and the others seem to me to be very unfriendly, and I am satisfied are ready from Inclination to act against Us.

James Deane was an American was adopted as a member of the Oneida Nation, and served as an intepreter for the Americans in negotiations with Iroquois and Canadian tribes throughout the War.

Sources: “Samuel Chase to John Adams, 18 April 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0047. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 4, February–August 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 129–130.]; https://collections.dartmouth.edu/archive/text/occom/ctx/personography/pers0163.ocp.html

On this day 250 years ago in New York, the Committee of Safety chaired by William Paulding

Resolved and Ordered, That no inhabitant of this Colany, upon any pretence or for any purpose whatsoever, either in person or in writing, directly or indirectly, do presume to have or maintain any intercourse whatsoever with any ship or vessel belonging to, or employed in, the service of the King of Great Britain, or any of his officers or ministers, or with any person or persons on board of the same, upon pain of being dealt with in the severest manner as enemies to the rights and liberties of the United North American Colonies.

Source: Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York : 1775-1777, Albany: Thurlow Weed (1842) at p. 412 accessed at https://archive.org/details/journalsofprovin01newy/page/412/mode/2up