“Goodpublicans” at a Glance
A rundown of temporal attributes and historical peers shared by many Archpatriots
As part of my ongoing “Jigsaw Gens” series, I profile the various American generations (and “microgenerations”) identified by historians.
In This Installment…
Featured Generation: “Goodpublicans” (aka Archpatriots, Potomac Tailors, Resistors, Yellow Yachts, Water Jumpers)
Who they are: The pre-Revolutionary generation that would prove to be active soldiers and debators during the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812
When they were born: Approximately between 1747–1758
Key Members
Lawmakers & Policy-Shapers: Aaron Burr, John Marshall, Edmund Randolph, Gouverneur Morris, Rufus King, Frederick Muhlenberg, Levi Lincoln Sr., Nicholas Gilman, James Iredell, Gabriel Duvall, Fisher Ames, Governor Blacksnake, Adamson Tannehill, Christopher Gore, Red Jacket, Governor Charles Pinckney, Aaron Ogden, Nathaniel Macon, Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee III, James Gunn, Alfred Moore, Richard Dobbs Spaight, George Logan, James Morgan, Thomas Pinckney, William Stephens Smith, Jean Noël Destréhan, Henry Brockhoist Livingston, George Thatcher, John Baptiste Charles Lucas, Thomas Posey, John Henry, David Meriwether, George Walton, Philip Barton Key, James Jackson, Amos Slaymaker, George Gale, Stephen R. Bradley, John Milledge, Henry Latimer, Uriah Tracy, Isaac Tichenor, Samuel Sewall of Wiscasset, Isaac Shelby
Literary Writers: Phillis Wheatley, John Trumbull, Hannah Webster Foster, Philip Freneau, Joel Barlow, Ann Eliza Bleecker, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Lemuel Hopkins, Judith Sargeant Murray, Royall Tyler, Hannah Lawrence Schieffelin, Timothy Dwight IV, Jonathan M. Sewall, Henry Livington Jr., John Swanwick, Henry Alline
Journalists & Historians: Anthony Haswell, Carter Bassett Harrison, John Armstrong Jr., Deborah Norris Logan, St. George Tucker, James T. Callender, David Ramsay, Alexander Graydon, Nathaniel Ames II, Louisa Wells Aikman, Shepard Kollock, Isaiah Thomas, Henry Dearborn, John Fenno, Abijah Adams, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Nicholas Cresswell, Thomas Dobson, James Humphreys, Angelica Schuyler Church, Timothy Dexter, Christopher Sower III, Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, James Thacher, Peter Thacher, Richard Varick, Tench Coxe, Mathew Carey, William Duane
Scientists & Researchers: Henry Knox, Charles McKnight, Benjamin Waterhouse, Noah Webster, Thomas Melvill, Oliver Evans, William Dunbar, Andrew Ellicott, James Morris III, Benjamin Bussey, William Charles Wells, Alexander McGillivray, Colonel John Stevens of Hoboken, Samuel Tenney, William Eustis, Benjamin Thompson, Samuel Jordan Cabell, John Warren, David Stuart, James Winthrop, Moses Cleveland, John Brooks, Nathaniel Alexander, Benjamin Say, John Beatty, Catharine Littlefield Greene, Benjamin Bourne, Jonathan Williams, Thomas Tillotson, John Taylor of Caroline, William Beanes, James Armstrong, Benjamin Brown, David Cobb, James White, Ebenezer Sage, John Williams of Salem, Andrew Craigie, Nicholas Romayne, Jacob Yoder, Louis de Tousard, Simon Willard, James Finley, Alexander Humphreys
Athletes: Jemima Wilkinson, Charles Carnan Ridgely, John Threlkeld
Entrepreneurs & Business Leaders: Stephen Girard, Jack Jouett, Benjamin Hawkins, George Cabot, Robert Gray, William Bingham, Jacob Broom, Thomas Law, Francis Carr, Peter Sailly, Epaphroditus Champion, Joshua Sands, Peter Van Gaasbeck, Josiah Hasbrouck, Philip Van Cortlandt, John Dunlap, Oliver Phelps, Josiah Dean, Nicholas R. Moore, John Hathorn, Peleg Wadsworth, Isaac Van Horne, John Evert Van Alen, William Tudor I, Elihu Phinney, Thomson J. Skinner, William Cooper, Josiah Meigs, Isaac Coles, James Sheafe, Benjamin Edwards, William Pierce Jr., John Hunter, Lemuel Benton, Richard Winn, Peleg Coffin Jr., Thomas Boude, James Watson, Benjamin Clark Cutler, James Schureman, Christopher Greenup, Andrew Wodrow, Samuel Osgood, John Inskeep, Hannah Bunce Watson
Activists & Organizers: Nathan Hale, Oliver Cromwell, William North, Edward Rutledge, George Rogers Clark, William Blount, Silas Talbot, Israel Bissell, John André, Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette, John Laurens, Benjamin Tallmadge, Eulalia Callis, James Wilkinson, George Liele, William “Billy” Lee, Ebenezer Stevens, John Jameson, Miers Fisher, William Few, John Eager Howard, Prince Pitkin, James McHenry, Benjamin Contee, Matthew Lyon, John Adair, Charles Lee, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, William Patterson of Maryland, John J. Beckley, Luther Martin, John Fries, Martha “Patsy” Parke Custis, Jared Ingersoll, William Houstoun of Georgia, John Paulding, David Williams of New York, Lucy Flucker Knox, William Richardson Davie, Christopher Seider, Abraham Baldwin, John Lansing Jr., Thomas Lynch Jr., Rebecca Skiff, John Davis of Culpepper County
Entertainers: Thomas Wignell, Eliza Hallam, Alexander Placide, Charlotte Melmoth, Elizabeth Walker Morris, Joice Heth, Young Seneca George, Maria Henry, Jean Baptiste Casmiere Breschard, George Frederick Cooke
Musicians: John Christopher Moller, Alexander Reinagle, Jacob French, Issachar Bates, Abraham Wood, Lorenzo Da Ponte, Daniel Read, Georgina George, Supply Belcher, Elias Mann, Raynor Taylor, Andrew Law, Hans Gram, Elizabeth Joanetta Catherine von Hagen
Visual Artists: Pierre Charles L’Enfant, James Hoban, Gilbert Charles Stuart, William Barton, Samuel McIntire, John Trumbull, Hercules Posey, Amos Doolittle, Uriah Forrest, James Peale, Ralph Earl, William Verstille, Henry Pelham, James “John the Painter” Aitken, William Rush, John Ramage, George Beck
Cusp Cohorts
Preceding Microgeneration: “The Public Liberators” (1742–1746)
Prominent “Public Liberators”: Thomas Jefferson, Abigail Adams, Nathanael Greene, Benjamin Rush, Wentworth Cheswell, Joseph Brant, William Billings, John Cadwalader, Henry Benbridge, Oliver Ellsworth, Francis Bailey, William Churchill Houston, George Morgan, Absalom Jones, Dinah Bowman, Abraham Delanoy, Little Turtle, John Carter of Providence, Elbridge Gerry, James McClurg, Daniel Shays, Jeanne-Marie Marsan, William Paterson of New Jersey, Ebenezer Hazard, Richard Bayley, Cyrus Griffin, William Duer of New York City, John Harvie, Thomas Heyward Jr., Amos Bull, Thomas Stone, James Wilson of Philadelphia, Caleb Strong, Edward Hand, Thomas Mifflin, John Jeffries, Richard Bassett, John Gunby, Newport Gardner, Arthur Middleton, John Jay, Pierce Butler of South Carolina, Seth Warner, Blue Jacket, William Dawes, Johann Friedrich Peter, William Hooper, Robert R. Livingston, John Mathews of South Carolina, Lieutenant-Colonel John Ross, Francis Dana, William Henry Drayton, Commander Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Oliver Brownson, Jonathan Bayard Smith, David Brearley, Pierce Butler, Richard Hutson, John Wentworth Jr., Doublehead, Bernardo de Gálvez, Elizabeth Freeman, John Fitch, Robert H. Harrison, Barzillai Lew, John Barry of Pennsylvania, Anthony Wayne, Samuel Nicholas, James Sullivan of Berwick, Manasseh Cutler, John Aitken, Samuel Rowland Fisher, John Sears, Theodore Sedgwick, James Lloyd, David McClure, Colonel Andrew Porter of Harrisburg
Subsequent Microgeneration: “The Cradled Explorers” (1759–1763)
Prominent “Cradled Explorers”: John Breckinridge, Benjamin Russell, John Jacob Astor, Peggy Shippen, Anna Gardie, William Thornton, Deborah Sampson, James McGready, Bushrod Washington, Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton, James Kent, Nathan Read, Mason Fitch Cogswell, Paul Cuffe, Sybil Ludington, Ishmail Spicer, Jonathan Dayton, Sarah Ewing Hall, Mason Locke Weems, John Skey Eustace, Albert Gallatin, John Francis Mercer, Bishop Richard Allen, Timothy Olmstead, Yonaguska, John Penn of Stoke, William Bayard Jr., Jacob Kimball, Oliver Wolcott Jr., Joseph Plumb Martin, Mather Brown, James “Rich Joe” Vann, Nehemiah Shumway, James Earl, William Jackson of Philadelphia, Edward Savage, William Smith of South Carolina, Isaac Van Wart, Humphrey Marshall, Patty Cannon, Michael Leib, Thomas Campbell of Brush Run, Alexander J. Dallas, Robert Hemings, Paul Hamilton, William Vans Murray, Richard Bland Lee, William Branch Giles, James Ross of Pittsburgh, Zephaniah Swift, Richard Caton, Johannes “Jacob” Beam, Margaret Lowther Page, James Freeman, Henry C. Pratt, John McLean, Daniel Burnap, Wilson Cary Nicholas, Barnabas Bidwell, Joseph Doan Jr., Abraham Doan, Roger Griswold, Killian K. Van Rensselaer, Martin Chittenden, John Chandler, Samuel Dexter, John Dawson of Virginia Colony, Pierre Van Cortlandt Jr., Montfort Stokes, Elizur Goodrich, Daniel C. Verplanck, John Greenwood of Falmouth, Samuel Powel Griffitts, William Loughton Smith, John Vining, George Tibbits, Isaac Wilbour
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