On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, the Virginia Convention adopted a Constitution for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Virginia Constitution also incorporated the Declaration of Rights that had been previously adopted by the Convention on June 12. Also on this day the Convention elected Patrick Henry as independent Virginia’s first governor.

Sources: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/educator-resources/online-classroom/stc/entries/first-virginia-constitution-june-29-1776; https://constitution.org/1-Constitution/cons/early_state/virginia1776.html; https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/educator-resources/online-classroom/stc/entries/fifth-virginia-revolutionary-convention-elected-patrick-henry-governor-june-29-1776 https://prescottpulse.substack.com/p/this-day-in-history-june-29-1776

On this day 250 years ago 45 ships of the British fleet rounded Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and dropped anchor within the Lower Bay of New York joining the 15 or so British ships already there. Private Daniel McCurtin of Maryland recorded in his diary that the bay was “resembling a wood of pine trees trimmed” and “I thought all London was afloat.” The British fleet in the Bay of New York would soon grow to about 200 ships.

Bill, Alfred Hoyt, New Jersey and the Revolutionary War, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press (1992) at 7; Schecter at 29; https://prescottpulse.substack.com/p/this-day-in-history-june-29-1776; https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/day-1776-britain-fleet-appeared-170009297.html

On this day 250 years ago off Cape May, New Jersey, the 16-gun HMS Kingfisher and 32-gun HMS Orpheus chased the American brigantine Nancy into the Turtle Gut Inlet where the Nancy ran aground. The Nancy was armed with only six cannon and an 11-man crew but was carrying “three hundred and eighty-six barrels of gunpowder, fifty fire-locks, one hundred and one hogsheads of rum, and sixty-two hogsheads of sugar” from St. Thomas and St. Croix in the Caribbean to Philadelphia. Men from the USS Lexington, Wasp, and Reprisal, rowed to the Nancy in longboats and with the assistance of local militia from Cape May were able to remove most of the gunpowder and some of the other supplies under fire from the Kingfisher and Orpheus. As the British were approaching the Nancy in longboats, the Americans wrapped the remaining 100 barrels of gunpowder with a sail and lit it on fire to create a fuse. When the British were boarding the Nancy the gunpowder. The British records recorded only that the master’s mate and six men from the Kingfisher were killed in the explosion, but the Americans recorded that the British had between 12 and 36 casualties from the explosion and gunfire from the American sailors. In addition to the loss of the Nancy, the Americans lost only one man in the engagement, Lt. Richard Wickes of the Reprisal. Lt. Wickes was the first American casualty of the Revolution on New Jersey soil and is buried in what is now called the Veterans Field of Honor of the Cold Spring Presbyterian Church cemetery on Cape May.

Bill, Alfred Hoyt, New Jersey and the Revolutionary War, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press (1992) at 6-7; https://www.westjerseyhistory.org/books/battlesmunn/partone.shtml; https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/day-1776-britain-fleet-appeared-170009297.html; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Turtle_Gut_Inlet