John Paterson | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Illustration depicting Paterson as shown on monument at Monmouth Battlefield State Park | |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 16th district | |
| In office March 4, 1803 – March 3, 1805 | |
| Preceded by | District created |
| Succeeded by | Uri Tracy |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Paterson 1744 Farmington or New Britain, Connecticut Colony, British America |
| Died | July 19, 1808 (aged 63–64) Lisle, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | Church on the Hill Cemetery Lenox, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican Party |
| Spouse |
Elizabeth Lee (m. 1766) |
| Children | 7 |
| Parent(s) | Major John Paterson (1708–1762) Ruth (Bird) Paterson |
| Education | |
| Profession |
|
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | |
| Branch/service |  Massachusetts Militia Continental Army |
| Years of service | 1774–1775, 1786–1791 (Militia) 1775–1783 (Army) |
| Rank | Major General |
| Battles/wars | American Revolution |
John Paterson (often spelled Patterson) (1744 – July 19, 1808) was a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and a U.S. Congressman from New York.
Paterson was born in 1744[1] in either Farmington[1] or New Britain in the Connecticut Colony.[2] His mother was Ruth (Bird) Paterson, and his father Colonel John Paterson (1708–1762), was a militia veteran of the French and Indian War, who died during the Siege of Havana.[3] He graduated from Yale College in 1762, studied law, attained admission to the bar, and practiced in New Britain.[4] He was a justice of the peace in New Britain until 1774, when he moved to Lenox, Massachusetts.[5] Paterson was elected to the Lenox board of selectmen and as a town assessor.[6] The town's proprietor's also chose him to serve as their clerk, which required him to maintain records of land transactions and ownership.[6] He was elected to represent Lenox in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in both 1774 and 1775.[6] He also represented Lenox at the 1774 Berkshire Convention, held in Stockbridge, Massachusetts to discuss how to respond to the Boston Port Act.[7] When the governor dissolved the legislature as pre-revolution tensions continued to rise, the people of Massachusetts formed a provincial Congress.[8] Paterson was elected as Lenox's representative in both 1774 and 1775.[9]
When the American Revolution began in April 1775 Paterson was commissioned as a colonel by the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, and he marched with his militia unit to take part in the Siege of Boston.[10] Paterson's command, the 1st Massachusetts Regiment saw action at the Battle of Bunker Hill.[11] After the British evacuation of Boston, Paterson's regiment took part in the Invasion of Canada[12] and the battles of Trenton and Princeton in New Jersey.[13] On February 21, 1777 Paterson was promoted to brigadier general in the Continental Army.[14]
During the Saratoga Campaign of 1777 Paterson commanded a brigade of Horatio Gates' army, consisting of the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 14th Massachusetts Regiments, and the 1st Berkshire County Militia Regiment.[15]
Paterson served under George Washington at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778.[16] He served primarily in the Hudson Valley of New York until the end of the war.[17] In September 1783, he received promotion to major general,[18] and he was discharged in December 1783.[19] Paterson was one of the last generals to leave active duty at the end of the war.[20]
While Paterson served in New York in 1782 and 1783, his personal staff included Private Robert Shirtliff of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment, who served as a waiter.[21] Shirtliff (also spelled Shirtliffe or Shurtleff) was later revealed to be Deborah Sampson, a woman who had disguised herself as a man in order to join the Continental Army.[21] Rather than reprimand her, as had often been the case with women discovered in the ranks, Paterson provided her with a certificate of honorable discharge, a note with words of encouragement, and money sufficient to pay for travel to her home in Massachusetts.[21]
In January 1783, Paterson took part in the organizational meeting that created the Society of the Cincinnati, and he was one of the society's charter members.[22]
After the war Paterson returned to Massachusetts, where he resumed practicing law, and also served in local offices including town meeting moderator, selectman, fence viewer, tax assessor, and highway surveyor.[23] In addition, he was the leader of the successful movement to locate the Berkshire County seat in Lenox.[23] (It was moved to Pittsfield in 1860.)[24] In 1785, he was again elected to represent Lenox in the state House of Representatives.[24] In 1786, he was commissioned as a major general in the Massachusetts Militia, and assigned to command the militia's 9th Division.[25] In 1786 and 1787, Paterson commanded militia units that took part in the quelling of Shays's Rebellion.[26]
In 1790, Paterson was one of the investors in the Boston Patent, a large land grant in Broome and Tioga Counties, New York.[27] In 1791, he moved to Lisle, a newly-organized town in Tioga County.[27] He was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1793.[28] The area of Lisle where Paterson settled was later organized as the town of Triangle; the site of his home and farm was in what is now the village of Whitney Point.[28]
In 1798, Paterson was appointed judge of the Tioga County Court, and he served until 1806.[29] When Broome County was organized separately from Tioga in 1806, Paterson was appointed judge of the new county's court.[28][29]
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Deborah Sampson published a memoir and made a lecture tour in which she gave presentations about her military service.[30] Her tour took her to New York, and from November to December 1802, she visited Paterson in Lisle.[30] While she stayed with Paterson, Sampson was able to take part in reunions with other former Massachusetts soldiers who had settled in the area of the Boston Patent.[30]
In 1802, Paterson was a successful Democratic-Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives.[28] He served in the 8th United States Congress (March 4, 1803 – March 3, 1805), and was not a candidate for reelection in 1804.[28]
Paterson died in Lisle on July 19, 1808.[28] He was originally interred at Riverside Cemetery in Whitney Point.[28] In 1892 he was reburied at Church on the Hill Cemetery in Lenox, Massachusetts.[28]
In 1766, Paterson married Elizabeth Lee.[31] They were the parents of seven children, including:[31]
Congressman Thomas J. Paterson (1805–1885) and State Senator John E. Paterson (born 1800) were Paterson's grandsons.[32][33] Scientist and academic Thomas Egleston was his great-grandson.[34]
