Journal of the American Revolution – by Todd Andrlik
It’s a simple question — perhaps so basic that it’s been overlooked. How old were the key participants of the American Revolution?
Authors often reveal the age of a particular soldier, politician or other main character in books about the Revolution, but I routinely find myself wondering about their peers at the same time. As it turns out, many Founding Fathers were less than 40 years old in 1776 with several qualifying as Founding Teenagers and Twentysomethings. And though the average age of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was 44, more than a dozen of them were 35 or younger!
“We tend to see them as much older than they were,” said David McCullough in a 2005 speech. “Because we’re seeing them in portraits by Gilbert Stuart and others when they were truly the Founding Fathers — when they were president or chief justice of the Supreme Court and their hair, if it hadn’t turned white, was powdered white. We see the awkward teeth. We see the elder statesmen. At the time of the Revolution, they were all young. It was a young man’s–young woman’s cause.”
A list of ages of important American Revolution characters seems elementary enough, and certainly easy to assemble, yet I wasn’t able to find such a list anywhere I looked online. And I don’t recall ever stumbling upon such an appendix while researching my book, Reporting the Revolutionary War, so I figured I’d just make one. This is a list of ages, from youngest to oldest, of key American Revolution participants, providing the precise age as of July 4, 1776. If you spot any corrections or recommend any additions, let me know in the comments and I’ll continue modifying the list to make it more of a living resource. Looking for someone particular and don’t want to waste your time browsing? Hold down Ctrl+F (Command+F on a Mac) and use the “Find” feature of your web browser.
- Andrew Jackson, 9
- (Major) Thomas Young, 12
- Deborah Sampson, 15
- James Armistead, 15
- Sybil Ludington, 15
- Joseph Plumb Martin, 15
- Peter Salem, 16*
- Peggy Shippen, 16
- Marquis de Lafayette, 18
- James Monroe, 18
- Charles Pinckney, 18
- Henry Lee III, 20
- Gilbert Stuart, 20
- John Trumbull, 20
- Aaron Burr, 20
- John Marshall, 20
- Nathan Hale, 21
- Banastre Tarleton, 21
- Alexander Hamilton, 21*
- John Laurens, 21
- Benjamin Tallmadge, 22
- Robert Townsend, 22
- George Rogers Clark, 23
- David Humphreys, 23
- Gouveneur Morris, 24
- Betsy Ross, 24
- William Washington, 24
- James Madison, 25
- Henry Knox, 25
- John Andre, 26
- Thomas Lynch, Jr., 26^
- Edward Rutledge, 26^
- Abraham Woodhull, 26
- Isaiah Thomas, 27
- George Walton, 27*^
- John Paul Jones, 28
- Bernardo de Galvez, 29
- Thomas Heyward, Jr., 29^
- Robert R. Livingston, 29
- John Jay, 30
- Tadeusz Kosciuszko, 30
- Benjamin Rush, 30^
- Abigail Adams, 31
- John Barry, 31
- Elbridge Gerry, 31^
- Casimir Pulaski, 31
- Anthony Wayne, 31
- Joseph Brant, 33
- Nathanael Greene, 33
- Thomas Jefferson, 33^
- Thomas Stone, 33*^
- William Hooper, 34^
- Arthur Middleton, 34^
- James Wilson, 34*^
- Benedict Arnold, 35
- Samuel Chase, 35^
- Thomas Knowlton, 35
- William Paca, 35^
- John Penn, 35^
- Hercules Mulligan, 36
- Andrew Pickens, 36
- Haym Salomon, 36
- John Sullivan, 36
- George Clymer, 37^
- Charles Cornwallis, 37
- Thomas Nelson, Jr., 37^
- Ethan Allen, 38
- Charles Carroll, 38^
- King George III, 38
- Francis Hopkinson, 38^
- Carter Braxton, 39^
- George Clinton, 39
- John Hancock, 39^
- Daniel Morgan, 39
- Thomas Paine, 39
- Patrick Henry, 40
- Enoch Poor, 40
- John Adams, 40^
- Daniel Boone, 41
- William Floyd, 41^
- Button Gwinnett, 41*^
- John Lamb, 41*
- Francis Lightfoot Lee, 41^
- Paul Revere, 41
- Thomas Sumter, 41
- Robert Morris, 42^
- Thomas McKean, 42^
- George Read, 42^
- John Dickinson, 43
- John Glover, 43
- Benjamin Edes, 43
- Samuel Huntington, 44^
- Richard Henry Lee, 44^
- Charles Lee, 44
- Francis Marion, 44
- Lord North, 44
- George Washington, 44
- Joseph Galloway, 45
- Robert Treat Paine, 45^
- Friedrich von Steuben, 45
- Richard Stockton, 45^
- Martha Washington, 45
- William Williams, 45^
- (Dr.) Thomas Young, 45*
- Josiah Bartlett, 46^
- Henry Clinton, 46
- Joseph Hewes, 46^
- William Howe, 46
- George Ross, 46^
- William Whipple, 46^
- Caesar Rodney, 47^
- John Stark, 47
- Mercy Otis Warren, 47
- William Ellery, 48^
- Horatio Gates, 48
- Artemas Ward, 48
- Oliver Wolcott, 49^
- Abraham Clark, 50^
- Benjamin Harrison, 50^
- George Mason, 50
- Lewis Morris, 50^
- Lord Stirling, 50
- George Wythe, 50*^
- Guy Carleton, 51
- John Morton, 51*^
- Comte de Rochambeau, 51
- Lyman Hall, 52^
- James Rivington, 52*
- Samuel Adams, 53^
- Comte de Grasse, 53
- John Witherspoon, 53^
- John Burgoyne, 54
- Johann de Kalb, 55
- Roger Sherman, 55^
- Thomas Gage, 56
- James Smith, 56^
- Israel Putnam, 58
- Comte de Vergennes, 58
- Lewis Nicola, 59*
- George Germain, 60
- Philip Livingston, 60^
- George Taylor, 60*^
- Matthew Thornton, 62^
- Francis Lewis, 63^
- John Hart, 65*^
- Stephen Hopkins, 69^
- Benjamin Franklin, 70^
- Samuel Whittemore, 81
*Evidence exists that this age is not precise, or only a birth year is known
^Signers of the Declaration of Independence (average signer age was 44)
Thank you, Shalom. Here is evidence of a time when we were real people and our youth were as vital and important as any other man. This is life before our essence was tampered with. Not everyone’s but quite a few. And so our nation is now in peril. But what you posted serves as a reminder that we have it in us, everything it takes to kick tyranny’s ass and begin to live the gift of our Bill of Rights which protects those rights we initially fought for. Thank you!! And for myself and my own age, I can only say, Long live Sam Whittemore!!
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And then there’s today’s cupcakes.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/missouri-high-school-crowns-its-first-male-homecoming-queen/ar-AAQhx5c
One calculation missing from this narrative is that in 1775, 35 years was considered old age because people died a whole lot younger back then.
If we look at the children of today to do this shit for us, we are finished before we start. You would have to have known something of freedom in your life before the desire for it could burn in your soul.
We need to educate, educate, educate our young people, but most of them by the time they are fifteen years old figure they know it all already when they don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. Many have completely lost the respect for their elders who are the bank of knowledge and have always been the bank of knowledge in a truly thriving civilization. Too many kids are growing up weak and spoiled and this is part of the communist agenda. And again, these kids think they are somehow on an intellectual level with their elders when what they need is a goddamn ass whipping so they have to go tell all their friends how some old f-ker kicked their ass. Again, this is why the communists are trying to give them superior privilege so they can treat with their elders like the f-king Khmer Rouge did.
These young people back in 1775 were better educated than your average four year college student of today. And I guarantee you, they cherished their elders and were anxious to soak up any knowledge their elders were willing to impart to them.
Amen, brother!
Case in point:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/FfAtCxAoImPK/
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