1776 in Pennsylvania

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See also:	History of Pennsylvania Historical outline of Pennsylvania List of years in Pennsylvania 1776 in the United States

This is a list of events in the year 1776 in Pennsylvania.

Incumbents

• Colonel Governor: John Penn (1773–1776)

Events

• January 2 – The Tory Act of 1776 is signed by Peyton Randolph. ^[1]
• June 18–25 – The Pennsylvania Provincial Conference takes place at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia declaring Pennsylvania independent from Great Britain.
• July 4 – Henry Beeson published a plat of quarter-acre plots near his mill in Union now Uniontown. ^[2]
• August 23 – The 12th Pennsylvania Regiment is raised at Sudbury.
• September 16 – The 11th Pennsylvania Regiment is authorized.
• September 28 – The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 is ratified.
• December 25 – American Revolution: At 6 p.m. Gen. George Washington and his troops, numbering 2,400, march to McConkey's Ferry, cross the Delaware River, and land on the New Jersey bank by 3 a.m. the following morning.

Undated

• The last colonel governor John Penn resigns.
• The Continental Powder Works at French Creek is constructed in East Pikeland Township.
• Crawford Township is settled.
• The Dobbin House Tavern is established becoming the oldest building in Gettysburg.

Births

• January – Matthew Brown, Presbyterian minister (d. 1853)
• January 3 – Thomas Morris, politician (d. 1844) ^[3]
• January 5 – Daniel Dobbins, sailing master in the United States Navy and captain in the United States Revenue Cutter Service (d. 1856)
• January 13 – John M. Snowden, journalist, newspaper editor and politician (d. 1842)
• January 29 – Enoch Lewis, mathematician (d. 1856)
• February 12 – Mary Young Pickersgill, seamstress, and flagmaker (d. 1857) ^[4]
• February 26 – Innis Green, politician, lawyer and judge (d. 1839) ^[5]
• March 5 – Gerard Troost, Dutch-American medical doctor, naturalist, and mineralogist (d. 1850) ^[6]
• March 17 – Joel Abbot, politician (d. 1824) ^[7]
• March 19 – Philemon Beecher, Anglo-American attorney and legislator (d. 1839) ^[8]
• April 3 – Harm Jan Huidekoper, businessman, philanthropist, essayist and lay theologian (d. 1854)
• April 25 – James Miller, lawyer, militia officer, farmer, and politician, first governor of Arkansas Territory (d. 1851)
• May 9 – Thomas Maguire, American-born Canadian Roman Catholic priest, vicar general and educator (d. 1854)
• May 31 – John E. Hamm, American US Army colonel, doctor and politician, diplomat, industrialist, and Marshall of the State of Ohio (d. 1864)
• June 1 – George Schetky, composer (d. 1831)
• July 10 – Samuel Powell, politician (d. 1841) ^[9]
• July 29 – James McSherry, politician (d. 1849) ^[10]
• August 15 – Rees Hill, army colonel and politician (d. 1852) ^[11]
• September 16 – Langdon Cheves, politician, lawyer and businessman (d. 1857) ^[12]
• October 10 – John Hahn, politician (d. 1823) ^[13]
• October 14 – Samuel Rexford, politician (d. 1857)
• October 21 – George Izard, soldier and politician, second governor of Arkansas Territory (d. 1828)
• November 10 – Samuel Gross, politician (d. 1839) ^[14]
• December 6 – Theodorick Bland, attorney and statesman (d. 1846) ^[15]
• December 10 – David Marchand, physician, Military personnel and politician (d. 1832) ^[16]
• December 30 – William Drayton, politician, banker, and writer (d. 1846) ^[17]

Undated

• James M. Broom, lawyer and politician (d. 1850) ^[18]
• William Charles, Scottish-born engraver (d. 1820)
• Jacob Eichholtz, painter (d. 1842)
• William C. Frazer, lawyer and judge (d. 1838)
• Peter Gilles, violoncellist (d. 1839) ^[19]
• John Gloucester, first African American to become an ordained Presbyterian minister in the United States (d. 1822)
• John Henry, spy and adventurer (d. 1853)
• Hetty Reckless, runaway slave (d. 1888) ^[20]

Deaths

• March 26 – Samuel Ward, farmer, and politician, 31st and 33rd Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (b. 1725)
• June 29 – Richard Wickes, military personnel (b. Unknown) ^{[21] [22] [23]}
• July 10 – Richard Peters, attorney, Anglican minister, and civil servant (b. 1704)
• July 27 – Joseph Wharton, merchant (b. 1707)
• October 9 – Philip Vickers Fithian, tutor (b. 1747) ^[24]
• December 29 – Pluggy, Mingo chieftain

Undated

• Hetty Benbridge, painter (b. unknown)

See also

• 1776 in the United States
• List of years in Pennsylvania

References

1. "The Tory Act : published by order of the Continental Congress, Philadelphia, Jan. 2, 1776". Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774 to 1789. U.S. Library of Congress. LCCN   90898112. OCLC   977360698.
2. Hadden 1913, pp. 12–13.
3. "MORRIS, Thomas 1776 – 1844". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress . Retrieved 6 March 2024.
4. Spencer, Richard Henry (1919). Genealogical and Memorial Encyclopedia of the State of Maryland. New York: The American Historical Society. p.  455 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
5. "GREEN, Innis 1776 – 1839". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress . Retrieved 6 March 2024.
6. Euston, Diane (31 July 2022). "DR. BENOIST TROOST: BEYOND THE STREET WHICH BEARS HIS NAME. . . FOR NOW". Martin City Telegraph.
7. Biographical Director of the United States Congress, 1774-1989: Bicentennial Edition. United States: Government Printing Office, 1989. ISBN   0-16-006384-1
8. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume 51, page 27
9. "POWELL, Samuel 1776 – 1841". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress . Retrieved 6 March 2024.
10. "MCSHERRY, James 1776 – 1849". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress . Retrieved 6 March 2024.
11. Leckey, Howard L. (1977). The Tenmile Country and Its Pioneer Families. Waynesburg, Pennsylvania: Greene County Historical Society. p. 290. ISBN   0-8063-5097-0 . Retrieved 15 November 2019.
12. "CHEVES, Langdon 1776 – 1857". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress . Retrieved 6 March 2024.
13. "HAHN, John 1776 – 1823". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress . Retrieved 6 March 2024.
14. "GROSS, Samuel 1776 – 1839". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress . Retrieved 6 March 2024.
15. Theodorick Bland at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges , a publication of the Federal Judicial Center .
16. "MARCHAND, David 1776 – 1832". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress . Retrieved 6 March 2024.
17. "DRAYTON, William 1776 – 1846". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress . Retrieved 6 March 2024.
18. "BROOM, James Madison ca. 1776 – 1850". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress . Retrieved 23 December 2023.
19. http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/rbm/keffer/gilles.html Archived 2019-02-03 at the Wayback Machine UPenn Library
20. Crew, Spencer (28 July 2011), Clement A. Price (ed.), "How one woman set herself free", Seven Stories, Salem County Cultural & Heritage Commission
21. Johnson, Robert Amandus (2006). Saint Croix 1770–1776: The First Salute to the Stars and Stripes. p. 95. ISBN   9781425970086.
22. Morgan, William James, ed. (1970). Naval Documents of The American Revolution, American Theatre: May 9, 1776 – July 31, 1776 (PDF). Vol. 5. Washington, D.C.: Naval History Division/Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy. pp. 882–884.
23. Clark, William Bell (1938). Gallant John Barry, 1745–1803: The Story of a Naval Hero of Two Wars. New York: The Macmillan Company. p. 98.
24. Cunningham, John T. (1994). This is New Jersey. Rutgers University Press. p. 173. ISBN   0-8135-2141-6.