Brigadier-General William Irvine

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Irvine, William, Brigadier-General in the American revolutionary army, was born in the County of Fermanagh, 3rd November 1741. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he studied medicine, was for some time a surgeon in the royal navy, and after 1763 removed to America, and practised at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the convention which met at Philadelphia in 1774, and recommended a general congress; was representative of Carlisle until 1776; raised and commanded the 6th Pennsylvania regiment; was taken prisoner at Trois Rivieres, Canada, and exchanged in 1778. After minor commands, he was, in the autumn of 1781, stationed at Fort Pitt, and entrusted with the defence of the north-western frontier. In 1785 he was appointed to examine the public lands of the State of Pennsylvania, and suggested the purchase of the "Triangle" which gave to that State an outlet upon Lake Erie. He was a member of the old Congress of 1786-'8, of the convention that revised the constitution of Pennsylvania, and of Congress, 1793-5. He died in Philadelphia, 29th July 1804, aged 62. Two of his brothers and three or his sons also served in the army of the United States.

Sources

37a. Biographical Dictionary—American Biography: Francis S. Drake. Boston, 1876.

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