On This Day In The Revolution

On this day 250 years ago, Hugh Mercer of Fredericksburg, Virginia wrote George Washington ofering to buy the farm in Fredericksburg where Washington’s mother lived and where Washington had grown up. At the Battle of Princeton less than three years later General Mercer would be mortally wounded leading the initial charge against the British line…

On this day 250 years ago at Mount Vernon signed Articles of Agreement with Valentine Crawford to act as the “Overlooker & manager” of the expedition of workers to establish a settlement on Washington’s lands on the Great Kanawha River at the site of present-day Charleston, West Virginia. Crawforrd would later serve as a Colonel…

On this day 250 years ago, preparations were being made for an expedition of indentured servants and hired laborers to be led by Valentine Crawford to George Washington’s property on the Great Kanawha River in western Virginia, now West Virginia. The expedition was intended to clear land, plant corn, and peach trees, and erect fences…

On this day 250 years ago in London, the British Prime Minister Lord North introduced in Parliament a bill to close the Port of Boston to all shipping as punishment for the Boston Tea Party. Source: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/boston-port-act-facts/#:~:text=March%2018%2C%201774%20—%20Lord%20North,to%20the%20House%20of%20Commons.

On this day 250 years ago the Connecticut Journal reported the latest tea party in Lyme, Connecticut: Yesterday, one William Lamson, of Martha’s Vineyard, came to this town with a bag of tea (about 100 wt.), on horseback, which he was peddling about the country. It appeared that he was about business which he supposed…

On this day 250 years ago, John Temple wrote to his father-in-law James Bowdoin that he had been dismissed as Surveyor General of Customs without notice or explanation. Bowdoin was a prominent Patriot who chaired the Massachusetts Council, and the British Government’s mistreatment of his son-in-law hardened his opposition to British rule. Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%22March%2015%2C%201774%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=1&sr= at…

On this day 250 years ago the Georgia Gazette published a report dated March 9 from Augusta that “Creeks were all ready to take up arms,” even if they faced “an army of Red Coats.” The letter also reported that a party of Creeks were planning to raid South Carolina in May. Source: at p.…

On this day 250 years ago in London, William Bollan, Agent for of Massachusetts petitioned Parliament to give the Colonies the “opportunity to ascertain and defend their invaluable rights.” Source: https://digital.lib.niu.edu/islandora/object/niu-amarch%3A87645

On this day 250 years ago at St. Augustine in the Colony of East Florida, Patrick Tonyn, the newly-appointed British Governor of East Florida, met with a party of over 100 Creeks led by the Oconee King, Long Warrior and Ahaya the Cowkeeper. Governor Tonyn chastised the Creeks for attacks on British settlers but assured…

On this day 250 years ago in London William Woodfall wrote John Adams suggesting the publication of a newspaper in London “particularly to profess itself a general channel of American Intelligence, as by means of it, a variety of facts, sentiments, and arguments, respecting the right of taxing the Colonies, would reach the public eye, which…