Named Entity Results, 1747 AD

Secession in New England. In 1747 the towns of Suffield, Somers, Enfield, and Woodstock, originally settled under Massachusetts grants, and assigned to that province in 1713, finding taxation there enhanced by its military operations, applied for annexation to Connecticut. They seemed to be clearly within the Connecticut charter. They asked permission of Massachusetts to withdraw. The request was refused. They then withdrew without the consent of Massachusetts, were annexed to Connecticut, and still remain part of that State. Massachusetts threatened an appeal to the King and council, but fearing she might, as in her controversy with New Hampshire, not only lose these towns, but other territory, nothing further was done. See Quincy, Josiah.

Shakers An English sect, now chiefly found in the United States, arose in the time of Charles I., and derived its name from voluntary convulsions. It soon disappeared, but was revived by James Wardley in 1747, and more successfully by Ann Lee (or Standless), expelled Quakers, about 1757. The sect emigrated to America, May, 1772, and settled near Albany, N. Y., 1774. They have several communities in the United States; they hold all goods in common, live uprightly, and are noted for frugality, industry, integrity, and thrift. They denounce marriage as sinful, regard celibacy as holy, oppose war, disown baptism and the Lord's Supper, and use a sort of dancing as part of worship.

Shays, Daniel 1747-1825 Insurgent; born in Hopkinton, Mass., in 1747; was an ensign in Woodbridge's regiment at the battle of Bunker Hill, and became a captain in the Continental army. His place in history was obtained by his leadership of an insurrection in Massachusetts in 1786-87. In other portions of the Union, discontents like those which produced the State of Frankland (q. v. ) caused revolutionary movements. A convention of the people of Maine, sitting in Portland (September, 11747; was an ensign in Woodbridge's regiment at the battle of Bunker Hill, and became a captain in the Continental army. His place in history was obtained by his leadership of an insurrection in Massachusetts in 1786-87. In other portions of the Union, discontents like those which produced the State of Frankland (q. v. ) caused revolutionary movements. A convention of the people of Maine, sitting in Portland (September, 1786), considered the expediency of erecting themselves into an independent State, but nothing came of it. In Massachusetts a more formidable movement took place. The General Court had voted customs and excise duties to produce a revenue sufficient to meet the interest on the State. debt. Besides this burden laid upon them, the people were suffering from private indebtedness. There were taxes to meet the instalments to be paid on the principal of the State debt, and, also, responses had to be

ethorpe took eight pounds of cocoons with him to England. Sir Thomas Lombe manufactured it into, organzine, of which Queen Caroline had a gown made in which she appeared at a Court levee on her husband's birthday. The business became considerable, but finally declined, and the last lot of Georgia silk offered for sale was in 1790. Before the Revolution, silk was grown and manufactured in New England. Governor Law, of Connecticut, wore a silk coat and stockings of New England production in 1747, and three years afterwards his daughter wore the first silk dress of New England manufacture. A silk manufactory was established at Mansfield, Conn., in 1776, where the manufacture is yet carried on. The legislature incorporated a silk manufacturing company in 1788, and the same year President Stiles, of Yale College, appeared at commencement in a gown woven from Connecticut silk. After that the silk culture and silk manufacture were carried on in different parts of the Northern and East

Smith, William 1727-1803 Clergyman; born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1727; graduated at the University of Aberdeen in 1747; emigrated to America in 1750; and, accepting an invitation to take charge of the College of Philadelphia, he went to England to receive ordination as a minister in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was placed at the head of the college in 1754. He was its founder and first provost. It was the origin of the present University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Smith was distinguished for his patriotism and oratory. At the request of Congress he pronounced orations on the deaths of General Montgomery and Dr. Franklin, and these are considered masterpieces of English composition. He was the author of several works, religious, moral, philosophical, and historical, including Brief account of the province of Pennsylvania; and Bouquet's expedition against the Western Indians. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., May 14, 1803. Jurist; born in New York City, June 25, 1728;

Pennsylvanian historian, which became very popular among the German-Americans, in 1739. In 1743 he published the Bible in German, which was the first printed in America, with the exception of Eliot's Indian Bible. He introduced cast-iron stoves into general use, and is supposed to have been their designer. He died in Germantown, Pa., Sept. 25, 1758. His son Christopher, publisher; born in Lansphe, Germany, Sept. 26, 1721; became a minister of the Dunker Church; was bishop or overseer in 1747-84; succeeded his father in the publishing business, and was the largest book manufacturer in America for many years. In 1776 he began to publish a third edition of the Bible in German. When the British occupied Germantown they seized the unbound sheets of this Bible and bedded their horses with them, and in the battle there many of these sheets were used for wadding in the artillery. Later Sower was accused of being a spy, and his property was confiscated. He died in poverty in Methatche

Thomas, John 1725-1776 Military officer; born in Marshfield, Mass., in 1725; was a practising physician, and was surgeon in the provincial army sent to Nova Scotia in 1746. In 1747 he was on Shirley's medical staff, and in 1759 he became colonel of a provincial regiment. He commanded a regiment under Amherst and Haviland in 1760 in the capture of Montreal Colonel Thomas was one of the most active Sons of Liberty in Massachusetts; was appointed brigadier-general by Congress ill 1775; commanded a brigade during the siege of Boston, and after the evacuation was sent to take command of the American troops in Canada. He joined the army before Quebec May 1, 1776, and died in Chambly, June 2, 1776.

Tucker, Samuel 1747-1833 Naval officer; born in Marblehead, Mass., Nov. 1, 1747; was a captain in the merchant service, sailing between Boston and London, before the Revolution. In March, 1777, he was commissioned a captain in the Continental navy, and, in command of the Boston, he took John Adams to France as American minister in February, 1778. During 1779 he took many prizes. In 1780 he helped in the defence of Charleston; was made prisoner; and was released in June, 1781, when he took command of the Thorne, and made many prizes, receiving, at the close of the war, the thanks of Congress. He settled in Bristol, Me., in 1792; and during the War of 1812 he captured, by a trick, a British vessel which had greatly annoyed the shipping in that vicinity. He was several times in the legislatures of Maine and Massachusetts. He died in Bremen, Me., March 10, 1833.

Van Schaack, Peter 1747-1832 Jurist; born in Kinderhook, N. Y., March, 1747; was educated at King's College (now Columbia University), and had the reputation of being an accomplished classical scholar. While in college he married Elizabeth Cruger; and, choosing the law as a profession, entered the office of Mr. Sylvester, in Albany, concluding his studies with William Smith, Sr., in New York. Soon rising to eminence in his profession, he was appointed, at the age of twenty-six years, sole reviser of the colonial statutes. When the Revolutionary War broke out he was one of the New York committee of correspondence; but when the question, Shall the American colonies take up arms against Great Britain? had to be answered by every American citizen, his voice was in the negative, and during the war he was a conscientious loyalist, but maintained an attitude of strict neutrality. He did not escape persecution, for suspicion was everywhere keen-scented. The committee on conspiraci

Warren, Sir Peter 1702-1752 Naval officer; born in Ireland, in 1702; entered the British navy in 1727, and was commodore in 1745, when he commanded an expedition against Louisburg, joining the land forces from Massachusetts under General Pepperell. He took possession of Louisburg on June 17. Afterwards he was made a rear-admiral, and, in 1747, defeated the French in an action off Cape Finisterre, capturing the greater part of their fleet. Admiral Warren married the eldest daughter of Stephen De Lancey, of New York, and became the owner of a large tract of land in the Mohawk region, in charge of which he placed his nephew, William Johnson, afterwards Sir William. Sir Peter died in Ireland, July 29, 1752.