“Liberty Lords” at a Glance
A rundown of temporal attributes and historical peers shared by many Marble Spears
As part of my ongoing “Jigsaw Gens” series, I profile the various American generations (and “microgenerations”) identified by historians.
In This Installment…
Featured Generation: “Liberty Lords” (aka Marble Spears, Prime Founders, Threadbares, Bluecoats, Revered Rebels)
Who they are: The most active Revolutionary War generation that found itself smack in the thick of colonial tensions with Great Britain
When they were born: Approximately between 1730–1741
Key Members
Lawmakers & Policy-Shapers: John Adams, Patrick Henry, John Blair Jr., Samuel Chase, George Clinton Sr., John Rutledge Sr., William Cushing, Samuel Huntington, John Blair Jr., Kamehameha I, Nicholas Van Dyke Sr., George Read Sr. of Delaware, Corn Planter, Archibald Bulloch, James Duane, William Paca, Jonathan Trumbull Jr., William Findley, Thomas McKean of Delaware, Philip Schuyler, Thomas Johnson of Maryland, William Moore of Pennsylvania, Samuel Johnston, Andrew Adams, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas “Fighting Gamecock” Sumter, Dragging Canoe, John Langdon, Button Gwinnett, John Sullivan of Durham, Alexander White, Juan Bautista de Anza, Peter Silvester, Edward Telfair, Samuel Livermore, John Smilie, Ralph Izard, William Shepard, Andrew Pickens Sr., Jonathan Sturges, Abiel Foster, Timothy Bloodworth, Leven Powell, Paine Wingate, Joseph Neville, Matthew Locke
Literary Writers: Lucy Terry, Robert Munford III, Annis Boudinot Stockton, Milcah Martha Moore, Jonathan Odell, Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson, Nathaniel Niles, Julien de Lallande Poydras, Benjamin Prime, Thomas Godfrey of Wilmington, George Campbell of Philadelphia
Journalists & Historians: John Dickinson, Handsome Lake, Clementina Rind, James Lovell of Massachusetts, Edward Langworthy, John Morin Scott, Mary Katharine Goddard, William Maclay, Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker, Robert Aitken, John Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, William Goddard, Samuel Hall, Benjamin Edes
Scientists & Researchers: John Archer, Benjamin Banneker, Adam Kuhn, Joseph Warren, Nathaniel Scudder, Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge, Hugh Williamson, Joseph Hewes, Samuel Holten, William Bartram, Lieutenant-Surgeon John Morgan of Philadelphia, Benjamin Church of Boston, Theodorick Bland, William Irvine, Benjamin Jesty, Filippo Mazzei, Samuel Maclay, Abraham Whipple, Isaac Smith, Theodorick Bland Jr. of Kippax, Nathaniel Freeman, Elisha Perkins, David Rittenhouse, Henry Voigt, Joseph Priestley, Thomas Barton, Silas Condict
Entrepreneurs & Business Leaders: Ethan Allen, Haym Salomon, William Whipple, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Anthony Lispenard Bleecker, Robert Morris, Samuel Meredith, Robert Yates, Alexander McDougall, Hercules Mulligan, Duchess Quamino, Marinus Willett, Carter Braxton, Hugh Hill, Moses Brown, Samuel Wharton, Étienne de Boré, William Panton, Jonas Phillips, Oliver Pollock, Alexander Martin, Tench Francis Jr., William Williams, Alexander Martin, Thomas Fitzsimons, Nathaniel Gorham, Thomas Adams of Virginia, William Floyd of Westernville, John Brown of Rhode Island, Henry Marchant, Archibald McCall, Thomas Willing, Silas Deane, Isaac Low, Arthur Lee, Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Aaron Lopez, Henry Glen, Alexander Gillon, Blair McClenachan, Tristram Dalton, James Beekman, George Mathews, Henry Cruger, John Ames,
Activists & Organizers: Thomas Paine, George Clymer, Robert Treat Paine, George Ross, Samuel Holden Parsons, Mother Ann Lee, William Franklin, Daniel Carroll, Benedict Arnold, Martha Washington, Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, John Glover of the Marblehead Men, Abraham Patten, Richard Stockton, Jane Spurgin, Andrew Bryan, James Smith of the “Black Boys,” Pedro Fages, Elias Boudinot of New Jersey, Daniel Morgan, Joseph Reed, Thomas Chittenden, John Banister, André Pepin, Titus Hosmer, John Penn of North Carolina, James Somerset, William Montgomery, John Walton, Lieutenant Charles Grant, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Thomas Nelson Jr., Robert Howe, Bloody Fellow, Elizur Goodrich, Benjamin Tupper, John Lamb, Arthur St. Clair, John Williams of North Carolina, Solomon Lovell, James Napper Tandy, Dudley Saltonstall, James Clinton, Benjamin Lincoln, William Palfrey, Betty Washington Lewis
Entertainers: John Brunton, Nancy Hallam, Lewis Hallam Jr., Thomas Wade West, John Bignall, Margaretta Sully West, John Henry, General Sir Henry Clinton of London
Musicians: Francis Hopkinson, John Antes, William Selby, Joseph Carr, Johannes Herbst, Philip Phile, James Lyon
Visual Artists: Benjamin West, Charles Willson Peale, John Singleton Copley, Matthew Pratt, William Jennys, Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, Francis Trumble, Eliphalet Chapin
Cusp Cohorts
Preceding Microgeneration: “Aucto-Septennials” (1725–1729)
Prominent “Aucto-Septennials”: Oliver Wolcott Sr., Mercy Otis Warren, Joseph Doan Sr., William Ellery, Hannah Griffitts, William Prescott, Josiah Bartlett, George Mason, Samuel Loudon, Charles Thomson, Governor John Penn of Lansdowne, George Wythe, Daniel Roberdeau, William Henry, Artemas Ward, Rufus Hopkins, William Samuel Johnson, Robert Callendar, John Stark, Richard Caswell, Thomas Barclay, Neolin, George Leonard, Nicholas Brown Sr., Johann Rall, Ann Timothy, Horatio Gates, William Goforth Sr., Bridget Richardson Fletcher, James Craik, Nicholas Hasselbach, Sir William Howe the 5th Viscount, James Armstrong of Georgia, William Bradford, John Hesselius, Phillips Cosby, Robert Rutherford, Samuel Seabury, Nathaniel Folsom, Josiah Hornblower, Alexander Fraser, John Whitehill, Edward Shippen IV, Colonel John Durkee, Henry William Stiegel, Chief Blackfish, Katharine Steel, Patrick Tonyn, James Burd, William “Lord Stirling” Alexander, Michael Hillegas, Jean de Neufville, Reverend William Smith of Philadelphia, Daniel Sargent Sr., Cortlandt Skinner, John De Hart, Mark Anthony DeWolf, Congressman William Smith of Baltimore, Jonathan Lumbert, William Byrd III, John Greenwood of Boston, Hugh Mercer, Colonel John Parker of Lexington
Subsequent 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
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