Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/212

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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her husband by a sumptuous lavishment of hospitality. He received an LL. D. from Harvard in 1779, and was vice-president- general of the Society of the Cincinnati, 17S4-86. He died in New York City, April 10. 1806.

Sumner, Jethro, was born in Virginia, in 1730. His father, William, an Englishman, emigrated to America in 1690, being one of the first settlers of Suffolk, Virginia. At an early age Jethro Sumner removed to Warren county, North Carolina, where he became a leader in political and military affairs. In 1760 he was appointed pay- master of the provincial troops of North Carolina, and afterward for a considerable period he commanded Fort Cumberland. In April, 1776, he was appointed by the provincial congress colonel of the Third North Carolina Regiment, and until 1779 participated in all the operations of the army under Washington, in New York, New Jer- sey and P-enn5ylvania. In 1779 he was pro- moted brigadier-general by the continental congress, and transferred to the southern army under Gen. Gates. He took part in the battle of Camden in 1780, where by his coolness and bravery, he aided greatly in rallying the patriot troops after Gen. de Kalb had fallen. He was then ordered to join Gen. Greene, and fought with splendid valor at the battle of Eutaw Springs in September. 1781 Subsequently, until the cf:ssatton of hostilities, he was engaged in the suppression of Tory raids in North Carolina. After the war he resigned and was married to a wealthy widow of New- bern by the name of Heiss. Gen. Sumner died in Warren county. North Carolina, in 1790.

Wccdon, George, was born in Fredericks- burg, about 1730. He was an innkeeper, and an ardent patriot, and during the revo- lutionary war became the lieutenant-colonel of the Third Virginia Regiment, being tiansferred to the First Virginia Regiment in August. 1776. He was commissioned brigadier-general in 1777, and fought in the battles of the Brandy wine and Germantown. He was acting adjutant-general of the United States army from February 20, 1777, to .\pril 19. 1777, when Col. Morgan Connor was appointed to the position. He resigned shortly afterward, but resumed the com- mand of a brigade in 1780, and during the siege of Yorktown was in charge of the Virginia militia. He died in Fredericks- burg, Virginia, in 1790.

Lcc, Charles, was born in Dernhall, Ches- shire. England, in 1731. the youngest son of John and Isabella ( Bunbury ) Lee. He received a classical education and then de- voted himself to a study of the art of war. His father died in 175 1, and in the same year he was commissioned lieutenant in the Forty-fourth Regiment of which his father had been colonel. Ordered to America in 1754, the regiment was attached to Brad- dock's army in Virginia, and after the dis- astrous defeat of July 9. 1755, marched to Albany and Schenectady, where Lee met Sir William Johnson and was adopted by the Mohawk Indians. He purchased a cap- tain's commission for £900, June 11, 1756; was severely wounded in Abercrombie's assault upon Ticonderoga, July i, 1758; was present at the capture of Fort Niagara, and then marched to Fort Duquesne and thence to Crown Point, New York, where he joined Gen. Amherst, and in 1760, took

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