John Glover
(1732-1797)
BIRTH
November 5, 1732
PLACE
Salem, Massachusetts
DEATH
January 30, 1797
PLACE
Marblehead, Massachusetts
FAMILY
CHILDREN
Mary Hooper
(1769–1850)
HOMES
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
CHRISTIAN
DENOMINATION NOT DOCUMENTED
MEMBERSHIPS
AWARDS
John Glover was an American fisherman, merchant, politician, and military leader from Marblehead, Massachusetts, who served as a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Glover was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of a house carpenter. When John was four years old, his father died. He married Hannah Gale in October 1754. After Trenton, Glover went home to tend to his sick wife and look to business affairs.
EARLY LIFE
Glover was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of a house carpenter. When John was four years old, his father died. Shortly thereafter, his mother and three brothers moved to the neighboring town of Marblehead. As a young man, Glover became a cordwainerand rum trade and eventually a ship owner and international merchant. He married Hannah Gale in October 1754. Following the Boston Massacre in 1770, Committees of Correspondence were formed. Marblehead elected Glover along with future revolutionists Elbridge Gerry and Azor Orne to committee posts. After the First Continental Congress passed the non-importation agreements sanctioning trade with the British, Glover was elected to enforce the embargo as a member of the committee of inspection.
Birthplace of John Glover Marker
26-28 St Peter St, Salem, MA 01970
A small pole-mounted sign at St. Peter and Church streets commemorates John Glover's birthplace. Craig Doda's April 2023 photographs record the metal panel. This later memorial identifies a birthplace association; it does not establish an original birth house, surviving interior or authenticated eighteenth-century domestic fabric at the junction.
MARKER
After Washington lost the Battle of Long Island (aka Battle of Brooklyn) in August 1776, Glover's Marbleheaders evacuated the army across the East River to Manhattan Island in a surprise nighttime operation, saving them from being entrapped in their fortified trenches on Brooklyn Heights. In subsequent actions of the New York campaignthe regiment fought well against the British at Kip's Bay when the Redcoats invaded, landing on Manhattan and Pell's Point.
The last action of the regiment was its most famous: ferrying Washington's army on confiscated river coal ore boats from upstream across the Delaware River at night for a surprise attack on Hessian forces at the Battle of Trentonin New Jersey on the morning of December 26, 1776.
After Trenton, Glover went home to tend to his sick wife and look to business affairs. He turned down a promotion to brigadier general in February 1777, but rejoined the war and accepted the promotion after a personal appeal from General Washington. As commander of a brigade made up of four Massachusetts regiments, he served in the successful Saratoga campaign with General Schuyler along the Hudson River in the summer and fall of 1777.
CAREER
DEATH
John Glover was an American fisherman, merchant, politician, and military leader from Marblehead, Massachusetts, who served as a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He married Hannah Gale in October 1754. After Trenton, Glover went home to tend to his sick wife and look to business affairs. Glover died on January 30, 1797, after contracting hepatitis. He was buried in a brick tomb on Marblehead's Old Burial Hill. The surviving summary is clearer about the date and setting than about the day-by-day medical course. A specific treatment history, exact final symptoms or unrecorded bedside conversations cannot be reconstructed confidently from it. The events of the earlier public career provide context for the final period but should not be mistaken for evidence of the immediate physical cause. Illnesses, injuries and deaths involving relatives or contemporaries are separate events. No further cause is inferred from age, occupation or the place of death. Where the account does not identify an illness or injury explicitly, the medical circumstances remain uncertain rather than a basis for a more elaborate final-days scene.
Old Burial Hill Cemetery
91 Pond Street, Marblehead, Massachusetts, 01945, USA
GRAVE
MUSEUM
Old South Meeting House
310 Washington St, Boston, MA 02108
MARKER
Evacuation of Brooklyn Marker
Main Street, New York, New York, 11201, USA
MARKER
Fort Sewall Marker
8 Fort Sewall Ln, Marblehead, MA 01945
MARKER
Birthplace of John Glover Marker
26-28 St Peter St, Salem, MA 01970
MARKER
Brookland Ferry Landing Marker
Pier 1, Furman St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
A dedicated biography is supplemented by collective military biography, campaign histories and local history.
1. General John Glover and His Marblehead Mariners — George Athan Billias. Find on Amazon
2. The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington across the Delaware — Patrick K. O'Donnell. [Collective military biography] Find on Amazon
3. Washington's Crossing — David Hackett Fischer. [Study of his military command] Find on Amazon
4. The Battle of Pell's Point — William Abbatt. [Early study of his command] Find on Amazon
5. The History and Traditions of Marblehead — Samuel Roads Jr. [Community history and biographical context] Find on Amazon
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