Joseph Warren
(1741-1775)
Joseph Warren, a Founding Father of the United States, was an American physician who was one of the most important figures in the Patriot movement in Boston during the early days of the American Revolution, eventually serving as President of the revolutionary Massachusetts Provincial Congress.
BORN:
Roxbury, Massachusetts
Jun 11, 1741
Joseph Warren was born in Roxbury, Province of Massachusetts Bay, to Joseph and Mary (née Stevens) Warren. His father was a respected farmer who died in October 1755 when he fell off a ladder while gathering fruit in his orchard. After attending the Roxbury Latin School, Joseph enrolled in Harvard College, graduating in 1759, and then taught for about a year at Roxbury Latin. Warren pursued postgraduate studies at Harvard, graduating with a Master of Arts degree in 1763 after defending a thesis against the proposition that all disease was caused by obstruction of bodily vessels. He married 18-year-old heiress Elizabeth Hooten on September 6, 1764. She died in 1773, leaving him with four children: Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, and Richard. Before his death in 1775, he was engaged to Mercy Scollay.
Warren enlisted Paul Revere and William Dawes on April 18, 1775, to leave Boston and spread the alarm that the British garrison in Boston was setting out to raid the town of Concord and arrest rebel leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Warren participated in the Battles of Lexington and Concord the following day, the opening engagements of the American Revolutionary War.
Warren had been commissioned a major general in the colony's militia shortly before the June 17, 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill. Rather than exercise his rank, Warren chose to participate in the battle as a privatesoldier, and was killed in combat when British troops stormed the redoubt atop Breed's Hill. His death, immortalized in John Trumbull's painting, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775, galvanized the rebel forces. Warren has been memorialized in the naming of many towns, counties, streets, and other locations in the United States, by statues, and in numerous other ways.
DIED:
Breed's Hill, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Jun 17, 1775
Joseph Warren
was here...
Places | Image | Address | GPS | Site |
---|---|---|---|---|
Minute Man National Historical Park | 210 N Great Rd, Lincoln, MA 01773 | MUSEUM | ||
Old South Meeting House | 310 Washington St, Boston, MA 02108 | MUSEUM | ||
Old State House | 206 Washington St, Boston, MA 02109 | MUSEUM | ||
Boston Common | 139 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02111 | PARK | ||
Boston Tea Party Museum | 306 Congress St, Boston, MA 02210 | MUSEUM | ||
Buckman Tavern | 1 Bedford St, Lexington, MA 02420 | MUSEUM | ||
Faneuil Hall | 1 Faneuil Hall Market Pl, Boston, MA 02109 | MUSEUM | ||
Bunker Hill Monument | 43 Monument Sq, Charlestown, MA 02129 | PARK | ||
Bunker Hill Burying Ground Marker | 207 Bunker Hill St, Charlestown, MA 02129 | GRAVE | ||
Green Dragon Tavern Marker | 41 Union St, Boston, MA 02108 | MARKER | ||
First Provincial Congress Marker | 20 Lexington Rd, Concord, MA 01742 | MARKER | ||
Battle of Chelsea Creek Marker | CX3J+9VV Revere, Massachusetts | MARKER | ||
Salem Town House Marker | Essex St &, Washington St, Salem, MA 01970 | MARKER | ||
Massachusetts Hall - Harvard | 9VFJ+QM Cambridge, Massachusetts | MARKER | ||
Boston Massacre Site | 9W5V+G4 Boston, Massachusetts | MARKER |