Life of John Davis

Chapter I

John Davis was descended of Welsh and North of Ireland ancestors.

William Davis, his grandfather, came from Great Britain about 1740, and settled in Solebury township, Bucks county, Pa., near the line of Upper Makefield. It was generally supposed, in the absence of testimony, he was born in Wales and came direct from that country, but it is now believed he was a native of London, whence he immigrated to America. The name, however, bespeaks his descent without regard to birthplace. Some of the family claim his descent to be Scotch-Welsh.

Nothing is positively known of the family before William Davis came to America. It comes down, by tradition, that the American ancestor had two brothers. One of them went to the West Indies, engaged in planting, made a fortune and returned to England to enjoy it ; the other remained in London, studied and practiced law, became distinguished in his profession, and received the honors of knighthood. An effort was made, many years ago, to recover an estate in England, said to have been left by one of these brothers, who died without issue, but the papers were lost and the matter given up. Whether this family tradition be true or false, we know that William Davis came to America, married, and was the ancestor of a numerous progeny.

William Davis married Sarah Burley, a daughter of John Burley,' of Upper Makefield, Bucks county, about 1756. The Burleys were settled in that township early, and John was the owner of considerable real estate there prior to 1750. His first tract was held under a patent from Thomas Penn, but its date is not known. He owned, in all, 254 acres, of which 200 were bought of Samuel Bunting. John Burley, Sr., died in 1748, and his will was proved April 5, 1749. He left five children, and possibly others — John, Joshua, Sarah, Elizabeth and Mary. The will provides that in case his widow shall marry a "care-

1 When the Burleys came into Bucks is not known, but probably in the first thirty years of the last century. Some of the Western descendants claim the first progenitor landed with Penn. The name, in both England and Ireland, is an ancient one, and is spelled in various ways : Burleigh, Borleigh, Barghley, Burley, Burly, Burlie, Burle, Berley, Birley, et al. Burleigh is the more modern spelling. The name may have been derived from Bu7-lei\ a dresser of cloth, Burly, boisterous, or compounded from Bur, Burgh, elevated, and Ley, meaning unfilled ground. The first of the name in America was Giles Berdley, or Burly, an inhabitant of Ipswich, Mass., in 1648, whose will is dated July, 1668. John Burley settled in Connecticut, whence some of his descendants probably strayed to New Jersey and across the river into Bucks county. In Burke's Peerage are given nineteen different coats-of-arms, borne by the various English families of this name.

fill, frugal man," she and her husband may enjoy the income from the estate until the youngest child is fourteen years of age. As the widow found a new husband in John Simmons, he probably filled the requirements of the will. John Rurley, Jr., died in 1799 or 1800, and left three sons and eight daughters. After 1809, the name of Burley drops out of the county records, but the descendants, in the female line, are quite numerous.

William Davis and Sarah Burley were the parents of seven children, all born subjects of the king of Great Britain: Jemima, December 25, 1758; John, September 6, 1760; Sarah, October i, 1763; William, September 9, 1766; Joshua, July 6, 1769; Mary, October 3, 1771, and Joseph, March i, 1774. The eldest son was named after the grandfather on the mother's side. One of Sarah Burley's sisters married James Torbet,^ and the family was also connected by marriage with the Slacks' and

2 The Torberts of Bucks county are descended from Samuel, who settled in Upper Makefield, but we do not know at what time. His will is dated February t2, 1777, and proved July 28, 1778. He left six sons and two daughters, and his estate was divided among his children. Among the provisions of his will was the following : "I give my negro woman Sarah her freedom, she to give bail to executors to save my estate harmless." James Torbert, who married a daughter of John Burley, was the third son and fourth child of Samuel. His will is dated September 18, 1813, and was admitted to probate November 8th, same year. He left five sons and four daughters, the latter intermarrying with the Slacks, Hares, and Searches. His executors were his sons James and Anthony.

3 The Slacks, of Bucks, are descended from Abraham, one of three brothers who came from Holland, about 1750, and settled on the Delaware,

McNairs'', all well-known Bucks county families. We know less of the life of William Davis after marriage than before. He lived in Solebury township to the end of his days, and died near the close of the last century. His life was uneventful, and probably the only

in Lower Makefield. Slack's Island, in the Delaware, was named for him. He was born in 1722, and died in 1802, leaving- four children — Abraham, Cornelius, Ja nes and Sarah, who married and left descendants. Cornelius died in 1828, leaving several children ; and James, born in 1756 and died in 1832, left three sons and one daughter. He assisted to ferry Washington's army across the Delaware the night of December 25, 1776. Of the sons of James, Elijah graduated at Princeton, became a clergyman and died at Cincinnati, leaving several children. Anthony, the youngest son of Abraham the second, and grandson of the first Abraham, removed to Indiana in 1838, and died there in 1847. He was the father of the late James R. Slack, of Huntingdon, Indiana, who was a State Senator, Judge of the Courts, and a Major-General in the civil war. The Slack descendants in this county are numerous, and intermarried with the families of Rich, Stevens, Torbert, Emery, McNair, LaRue, Young, Balderson, Harvey, Lippincott, et al.

■* The McNairs, Scotch-Irish, are descended from Samuel, son of James, driven out of Scotland to Ireland. Samuel was born in County Donegal, in 1699 ; married Anna Murdock, came to America in 1732, and settled in Upper Makefield, where the family lived five generations. He landed at Bristol and spent the first winter in an old school house, around which the wolves howled at night. He died in 1761, leaving five children - James, Samuel, Solomon, Rebecca and one other. James, born in 1733, married a Keith, had nine childrt;n, and died in i8og. From this marriage sprung the Bucks county McNairs. Samuel, born in 1739, married Mary Mann, of Horsham, and from them descended the McNairs of Montgomery county. The late John McNair, M. C, of Norristown, Montgomery county, was a grandson of Samuel, and son of John, of Southampton. He was the father of Captain F. V, McNair, United States navy, one of the most gallant officers of the late war. Solomon, the third son of Samuel McNair, the elder, was a merchant of Philadelphia, where he died in 1812. The descendants are found in many parts of th3 Union, and in all the walks of life. They have generally remained Presbyterian, the faith of their fathers.

thing that stirred its even current was the presence of the Continental army in the neighborhood, in December, 1776. The widow of WilHam Davis survived him until May 10, 18 19, when she died at the age of eighty-four. This would bring her birth to 1735.

We find it impossible to trace some of the children of William Davis and Sarah Burley, and their descendants. Jemima, the eldest child, married John Pitner, the son of Henry and Deborah, of Bucks county, about 1786. He was born at Penn's Manor, August 18, 1755, and married, in early life, a daughter of a Captain Thompson, of near Newtown. Six daughters and two sons were born to Jemima and John Pitner: Sarah, May 21, 1787, and died September 9, 1809, of yellow fever; James Neely, September 29, 1788, died about 1842 ; Deborah, June 19, 1790, died April 5, 1879; Mary, May 30, 1792, and has been dead half a century ; Anna, January II, 1794, died December 14, 1836; John, October 19, 1796, died October 15, 1823; William, October 29, 1798, died April 10, 1833 ; and Eliza N., born July 12, 1802, still living (1885) at Wilmington, Delaware. Several of these children married and left large families. John Pitner lived at Newtown several years after his second marriage, but removed to Maryland, five miles west of Newark, in 181 i. He afterward moved across the Delaware line to New Castle, where he died.

Of John Davis, the second child and eldest son of

William and Sarah Davis, and the father of the subject of this sketch, we have more accurate knowledge. As we have already stated, he was born in Solebury township, September 6, 1760. Of his boyhood we know nothing. These uneventful years were spent at his father's house, and with the family of William Neely,^ a relative by marriage, who lived at what is still known as " Neely's mill," in Solebury. His young life ran parallel with the lives of other boys of his age and station, and was divided between work and attending such schools as the neighborhood afforded— work, relieved by hunting and fishing, probably predominating. In this dull, but happy, routine, that of the average American country boy, he grew up surrounded by good precept and example. Young Uavis was hastening to manhood when the brewing quarrel, between Great Britain and her American colonies, broke into open war; and events shortly transpired that changed the current of his

8 William Neely, the first of the name in this county, was born in Ireland, August 31, 1742, and came to America, when a small boy, with his widowed mother. She married Charles Stewart, of Upper Makefield, with whom the son lived in his minority. He learned the milling; business with Robert '1 hompson, of Solebury, and married his daughter, June 24, 1766. He had two children, a son and daughter — Robert T.. who married Sarah Beaumont, from whom descended the late John T. Neely, of Solebury ; and Jane, who married John Poor, the principal of the first seminary for young ladies established in Philadelphia, William Neely died July 10, 1818, and his widow February 13, 1834. The old Thompson-Neely mill was destroyed when the Delaware Division canal was dug. While Washington's army was encamped in the neighborhood, in December, 1776, several officers quartered at William Neely's house, still standing.

life, and took him from his quiet and happy home for years. He became an active participant in the great struggle. As his immediate family and friends, with their mixed Welsh and Irish blood, were loyal to the cause of the colonies, his youthful heart was fired at the wrongs of his country. He early had an opportunity to take up arms. The 4th of June, 1776, the Continental Congress ordered a " Flying camp " to be established in New Jersey, and Bucks county was called upon for a quota of 400 men. The County Committee of Safety took steps to organize this force the loth of July, by appointing Joseph Hart,'' of Warminster township. Colonel of the battalion, with a full complement of field, staff, and company officers.'

« Joseph Hart, commandant of this battalion, a man of mark in his da)\ was the son of John Hart, of Warminster, born September i, 1715, and grandson of John, who came to America in 1682. He married Elizabeth Collet, granddaughter of Jeremiah Collet, who came with William Penn, and was a member of his council. He was commissioned a Justice in 1747 Sheriff in 1749, '50 and '51, Justice of the Court of Quarter Sessions in 1764, and held commissions in the militia in 1747, '55 and '56. He was an ardent patriot in the Revolution ; was a delegate to the convention in Carpenter's Hall, July 19, 1774, and chairman of the committee that recommended a " Congress of Deputies ;" a member of the Bucks County Committee of Safety ; Lieutenant of the county ; a delegate and vice president of the Convention of Conference in Philadelphia, in 1776, that organized a State government, and a member of the Supreme Executive Council of the State in 1777, '78 and '79. He died at Warminster, February 25, 1788.

' The following were the officers of Colonel Hart's battalion : Joseph Hart, Colonel ; Captains, John Fohvell, William Roberts, William Hart. Valentine Opp and John Jamison ; First Lieutenants, John Krteson, Henry Darrah, Hugh Long, Philip Trumbower and Tennis Middleton ; Second

In one of these companies, commanded by William Hart, young Davis served as a substitute for his father. These troops took the field about the first of August, and served through the campaign that closed with the fall of forts Washington and Lee, and the loss of New Jersey, and were discharged in December. The battalion was still in service when Washington crossed to the west bank of the Delaware, the 8th of that month. It was again called out, by Washington, December 19th, and ordered to report to General Putnam at Philadelphia, but was discharged toward the end of the month.

The operations of these troops are known in history as the " The Amboy Expedition." On another occasion, but we do not know whether before or afterward, our young soldier served a short tour of duty in a company commanded by Samuel Smith.*

Lieutenants, Abraham DuBois. James Shaw, Jacob Drake, Samuel Deane and John Irvine ; Ensigns, McKissack, William Hines, Joseph Hart, Stoffel Keller and John McCammon ; Adjutant, John Johnson ; Surgeon, Joseph Fenton, Jr. ; Quartermaster, Alexander Benstead.

* Samuel Smith was a descendant of Robert Smith, who settled in Bucks in his minority, prior to 1699, his father dying on the passage. He married in 1719 and died in 1745, leaving six sons, noted for their good penmanship. Samuel, probably a grandson, was born February i, 1749, and died September 17, 1835. He was commissioned First Lieutenant in the Fifth Pennsylvania Regiment, January 6, 1776, and promoted to Captain March i, 1777. He was an officer in General Lafayette's brigade of light infantry, and served in the Continental army to the end of the war. After his return he married a daughter of John Wilkinson and settled down at farming. In the last war with Great Britain, he commanded a brigade of militia at Marcus Hook. One of his sons, George W. Smith, died at Zion, Cecil

John Davis was sixteen years and three months old when the defeated Continentals sought the friendly shelter of the Delaware, and encamped about Jericho Hill, in Upper Makefield, in December, 1776. Having but recently returned from his maiden campaign, with his martial spirit fully aroused, the presence of Washington and his army in the neighborhood naturally stimulated his patriotic impulses. The troops were encamped so near his home he must have come in daily contact with them, in and out of camp. When Washington recrossed the Delaware, the night of Christmas day, to attack the Hessians at Trenton, young Davis accompanied him and shared in the glory of that achievement. As he was not an enlisted soldier at that time, he probably went as a volunteer, or, possibly, a substitute for his father in some militia company that strengthened the Continental forces. He frequently related the incidents of that memorable night to his interested children. Among the wounded, at Trenton, was James Monroe," a Lieutenant of artillery, and aftercounty, Maryland, in 1879, aged 85 years; and another is General A. J. Smith, of the regular army, who distinguished himself in the war of the Rebellion.

" James Mcnroe, fifth President of the United States, was born in Westmoreland county, Virginia, April 28, 1758. He left college in 1776 to join the Continental army, serving through the campaign of that year as Lieutenant of artillery, and was wounded at Trenton. He served on the staff of Lord Sterling, in 1777. He studied law with Thomas Jefferson, and commenced practice. He was in Congress from 1783 to 1786, and a Senator from 1790 to 1794. The latter year Washington appointed him Minister ward President of the United States. When the army recrossed the Delaware into Bucks, Lieutenant Monroe was taken to the residence of William Neely, the home of young Davis. He spent some time there, to recover from his wound, and was then removed to the house of Judge Wynkoop," near Newtown. Whether John Davis crossed the Delaware a second time with Washington, and took part in the battle of Princeton, we are not informed.

to France ; he was elected Governor of Virginia, in 1799 ; appointed one of the Commissioners to purchase Louisiana, by Jefferson, in 1803 ; then Minister to England, and transferred to Madrid, to negotiate the purchase of Florida, He was a member of Mr. Madison's Cabinet. He was elected President in 1816, re-elected in 1820, and died in 1831. He was the author of the celebrated " Monroe Doctrine," and a man of spotless character and an able and wise statesman.

1" Henry Wynkoop was probably a descendant of Cornelius C. Wynkoop, who immigrated from Holland to New York, in the seventeenth century. His son Gerardus moved toMoreland, Montgomery county, Pa., with his family, in 1717, and to Northampton township, Bucks county, in 1727, taking up 500 acres of the Tompkin's tract. He is styled, in the conveyance, " Garret Winekoop, gentleman, of Philadelphia." In 1738 he conveyed 260 acres to Nicholas Wynkoop, of Northampton, probably his eldest son. He was of local repute in the Revolution, and several times Speaker of the Assembly. Henry Wynkoop, the son of Nicholas, and grandson of Gerardus, was born March 2, 1737, and married Ann Knipers, of Bergen county, New Jersey. He was a prominent man in the Revolutionary struggle ; was a member of the Bucks County Committee of Safety, for 1774, '75 and '76; a Lieutenant in the army ; a member of the Congress that met in Carpenter's Hall, June 18, 1776, and a number of the first Congress of the United States, that met at New York, in 1789. Mr. Wynkoop was Judge of the Common Pleas of Bucks, in 1776, and delivered the first charge to the Grand Jury, at Newtown, under the Constitution formed that year. He was the personal friend of Washington and Hamilton ; and a remarkably handsome man.

John Davds soon entered upon a broader field of usefulness, as a defender of his country. All his surroundings gave him such encouragement to enter the Continental service that he yielded thereto, and enlisted, sometime in the winter of 1777, in Captain Thomas Butler's company. Third Pennsylvania Regiment. As the muster rolls have been destroyed we are not able to give the date of his enlistment. The regiment was formed on the basis of Colonel St. Clair's" second battalion, recruited in December, 1776, and January and February, '"jj, and was arranged in the Continental service, March 12th. There is hardly a doubt he enlisted prior to that date. Thomas Craig,'"' of Northampton county. Pa., was the second

1' General Arthur St, Clair was born at Edinburg, Scotland, in 1734, and served as a Lieutenant under General Wolf in Canada. He was appointed a Colonel in the Continental army in 1776; raised a regiment, and had it on the march for Canada in six weeks. He was appointed a Brigadier in August of that year, and a Major-General in 1777, He was at Trenton and Princeton ; and, serving at various points meanwhile, took part in the siege of Yorktown, in 1781. He was then sent, with a considerable force, to reinforce General Greene, in Georgia. He resided in Pennsylvania after the peace ; was elected to Congress in 1786, and appointed Governor of the Northwestern Territory in 1788, which office he held until 1802. His operations against the Indians were disastrous. He died in poverty at Laurel Hill, Western Pennsylvania, August 31, 1818.

'2 Colonel Thomas Craig, who succeeded Colonel Joseph Wood, disabled from wounds received in the Canada campaign, in command of the Third Pennsylvania Continental Regiment, was born in 1748, in that part of Bucks county now embraced in Northampton. He retired from service in 1783. He was still living in Northampton county in 1835 at the age of eighty-five. The Third was reorganized under Colonel Craig, in 1 781, and accompanied Wayne upon the Southern campaign. The first

Colonel, but Richard Butler" succeeded to the command. The Paymaster of the regiment was Erkuries

permanent settlement in the Forks of Delaware was made by Thomas and William Craig, one of them no doubt the father of the Colonel.

13 Richard Butler, born in the parish of St. Bridget, Dublin, Ireland. July I, 1743, was the eldest of five brothers, all more or less conspicuous during the Revolutionary war. Their parents immigrated in 1748, settling near Carlisle, Pa., where Richard Butler passed his early years. In 1770 he formed a partnership with his brother William, and they established an Indian trading house at Pittsburg. The knowledge he acquired of Indian dialects, and the confidence he inspired by his just treatment of the tribes in business intercourse, made his services so valuable to the United Colonies, on the breaking out of the Revolution, that he was solicited, and induced, to accept the post of Indian Agent for the Middle Department. His services were so highly appreciated that his first commission was that of Major in the Eighth Pennsylvania, on the 2d of July, 1776. On the i2th of March, 1777, he was made Lieutenant-Colonel, and in August assigned as second in command of Morgan's Rifle Corps. This corps crossed the Mohawk on the 3d of September, and at one o'clock on the 19th opened the battle of Saratoga, in drawing the fire of the right wing of Burgoyne's army. He was at Arnold's side when he was wounded in the attack on the Brunswickeis' camp at Saratoga, October 7, 1777. After the return of his corps, Butler was promoted Colonel of the Ninth Pennsylvania, distinguishing himself at Monmouth, June 28, 1778, and the following year at Stony Point, where he commanded the left of the assaulting forces. Under the arrangement of January 17, 1781, he became Colonel of the Fifth Pennsylvania, and marched with Wayne to Yorktown, Va. January I, 1783, he became Colonel of the Third Pennsylvania, retiring when the army was mustered out in November, 1783, with the rank of Brevet Brigadier-General. He had three brothers with him in the Pennsylvania line. Colonel William, Major Thomas and Captain Ed-ward. In 1784, he, with Arthur Lee, was a Commissioner to negotiate treaties with the Indians, and the following year Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern Department. When Allegheny county was erected, in 1788, Colonel Butler was appointed County Lieutenant, and upon the adoption of the Constitution of 1790, he was the first State Senator from that county. A year afterward, November 4, 1791, holding the rank of Major-General and second in command, he fell heroically at "St. Clair's defeat." His brothers, Thomas and Edward, were with him at St. Clair's defeat, the

JOHN DAYI8. 15

Beatty,"a son of the Rev. Charles Beatty," pastor of Neshaminy Presbyterian church, Warwick township,

former a Major, the latter a Captain. Thomas had his leg broken by a ball, but his brother Edward got him off the field. He left three children — William, who died a Lieutenant in the navy in the war of 1812 ; Mrs. Isaac Meason, of Uniontown, Fayette county, Pa., who died in 1878, in the ninety-sixth year of her age ; and James Butler, the gallant Captain of the " Blues," in the war of 1812, who died in Pittsburg, in April, 1842.

'< Erkuries Beatty, the eighth child of Rev. Charles Beatty, was born in Warminster, Bucks county, Pa., October 9, 1759. He was preparing for college when the Revolution broke out, but was fired with military ardor. He served a short time in a privateer, in the fall of 1775 ; then in the army, in the ranks, for a year, when he received an Ensign's commission in the Third Pennsylvania Regiment. He was at the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Brandywine and Germantown, where he was wounded ; wintered at Valley Forge, was at Monmouth, with Sullivan against the Tories and Indians, in 1779, and present at the surrender of Cornwallis, After the war he was appointed a Lieutenant in the regular army, in which he served until 1793, rising to the rank of Major in the Pay Department, when he resigned and settled near Princeton, N. J., where he died February 3, 1823. He stood high as an officer and gentleman.

>5 Rev. Charles Beatty was the son of John Beatty, of County Antrim, an officer in the British army. His mother was a Clinton, aunt to General George Clinton, Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States. He was born about 1715 ; came to America in 1729 ; began life a peddler, but relinquished it to finish his education at Log College under Rev. William Tennent. He was licensed to preach, and ordained pastor of Neshaminy church, Warwick, Bucks county. Pa., December i, 1743, at a salary of $160, and remained there till his death. He was appointed Chaplain to Franklin's regiment serving on the frontiers, in 1756 and 1758, and in Forbes' army against Fort DuQuesne, now Pittsburg. He made two visits to England, in 1760, to solicit relief foraged ministers, when he witnessed the coronation of George III, and was presented at court, and, in 1767, seeking medical relief for his wife, who died there in 1768. He died on the Island of Barbadoes, of yellow fever, whither he went in 1772, in the interest of the College of New Jersey. He married Ann Reading, daughter of Acling-riovernor John Reading, of New Jersey, June 24, 1746, and had several children, General Charles Beatty being his eldest son.

Bucks county. As a Continental soldier young Davis served his country with courage and fidelity several years. In the absence of muster rolls and his discharge, it is impossible to name all the organizations he belonged to, or give a detailed summary of his service. We have evidence, however, that he belonged to, and served in, the Second, Third, Eighth and Ninth Pennsylvania Regiments, the change of regiments being caused by consolidation and reorganization from time to time, as the good of the service required. In the summer of 1780, Washington caused a light infantry corps, composed of picked men from Continental regiments in the field, to be organized for General Lafayette. Young Davis was drawn for this service, and placed in Captain Joseph McClellan's company, which was assigned to Colonel Stewart's'" Ninth Regiment. He served in this corps from about the first of August to the 26th of No-

i« Colonel Walter Stewart was of Irish descent and born about 1756. He had a fair, florid complexion, was vivacious, intelligent, well educated and is said to have been the handsomest man in the American army. He began his Revolutionary services as aide-de-camp to General Gates. He was commissioned Captain in the Third Pennsylvania Battalion, January 6, 1776 ; promoted Colonel June 17, 1777, and took command July 6th, leading his regiment at Brandywine and Germantovvn. By resolution of Congress, November 12, 1777, Colonel Stewart's regiment was to be annexed to the Pennsylvania line and form the Thirteenth. He was transferred to the Second Regiment, July i, 1778. On the nth of April, 1781, just before starting on the Southern campaign with General Wayne, he was married to a daughter of Blair McGlenachan, a merchant of Philadelphia. He retired from service, January i, 1783, with the brevet of Brigadier-General. He became a merchant of Philadelphia, and was Major-General of the First vember, when it was disbanded, and the officers and men returned to their old regiments.

The Revolutionary services of John Davis cover the most important period of the war, and were highly honorable to the young soldier. Like a true patriot he shouldered his musket and voluntarily entered the ranks, not waiting for a commission to entice him to the field of danger. He began his career a private, and, as we have no evidence of his promotion, no doubt he was in the ranks through all his years of service — one of that innumerable host which win all battles, bear the heat and burden of the day alway, and rarely have justice done them. It is not our purpose to particularize the services of John Davis, nor is that necessary, for brief mention of where and when he served will epitomize the history of the great struggle for constitutional government in America.

Division Pennsylvania Militia. He died at Philadelphia, June 14th or 15th, 1796, at the early age of forty.

Chapter II

The year 1777 was the most eventful of the Revolutionary struggle. Trenton and Princeton infused new life into the leaders of the Continental forces and the statesmen who controlled political affairs. The campaign opened with spirit and was pushed with vigor ; and, before its close, one British army had laid down its arms ; another was roughly handled on two well-contested fields, while the opposing forces were brought face to face in several minor engagements. In these operations young Davis was an active participant.

As already stated, he served in .the Amboy expedition, in the summer and fall of 1776, in the battalion commanded by Colonel Joseph Hart, of Bucks county, and was discharged at the close of December. At what point he joined the Continental army, after his enlistment, is not known, but probably at Morristown, New Jersey, where the regiment, he was assigned to, was in winter quarters. Washington took the field early in the spring, and when the British army sailed south, in August, he moved his battalions in that direction. He crossed the Delaware at Coryell's Ferry,' now New Hope, and at