Joseph Warren

Background

He was born at Roxbury, Massachusetts, on the 11th of June 1741 to to Joseph Warren and Mary (Stevens) Warren. Genealogists can trace his more distant ancestry back to a Norman baron who was an uncle of William the Conqueror.

Education

He graduated from Harvard College in 1759, taught in a school at Roxbury in 1760-1761, studied medicine, and began to practise in Boston in 1764.

Career

The Stamp Act agitation aroused his interest in public questions. He soon became associated with Samuel Adams, John Adams and Josiah Quincy, Jr. , as a leader of the popular party, and contributed articles and letters to the Boston Gazette over the signature "True Patriot. "

The efforts of Samuel Adams to secure the appointment of committees of correspondence met with his hearty support, and he and Adams were the two leading members of the first Boston committee of correspondence, chosen in 1772. As chairman of a committee appointed for the purpose, he drafted the famous " Suffolk Resolves, " which were unanimously adopted by a convention at Milton (q. v. ) on the 9th of September 1774.

These " resolves " urgediorcible opposition to Great Britain if it should prove to be necessary, pledged submission to such measures as I he Continental Congress might recommend, and favoured the calling of a provincial congress. Warren was a member of the first three provincial congresses (1774 - 1775), president of the third, and an active member of the committee of public safety.

He took an active part in the fighting on the 19th of April, was appointed major-general of the Massachusetts troops, next in rank to Artemas Ward, on the 14th of June 1775; and three days later, before his commission was made out, he took part as a volunteer, under the orders of Putnam and Prescott, in the battle of Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill), where he was killed.

His tragic death strengthened their zeal for the popular cause and helped to prepare the way for the acceptance of the Declaration of Independence. Warren's speeches are typical examples of the old style of American political eloquence.

His best-known orations were those delivered in Old South Church on the second and fifth anniversaries (1772 and 1775) of the " Boston Massacre. "The standard biography is Richard Frothingham's Life and Times of Joseph Warren (Boston, 1865).

Achievements

• 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 next day's Battles of Lexington and Concord, which are commonly considered to be 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. He has been memorialized in the naming of many towns, counties and other locations in the United States, by statues, and in numerous other ways.
  
  The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts has an award in his name for Masons who have served the fraternity, the country, or humanity with distinction. It is the second-highest honor conferred by the Grand Lodge, only surpassed by the Henry Price medal. The Henry Price medal is usually awarded to those who served with distinction in the Grand Lodge, while the Joseph Warren medal may be conferred upon any Mason within the Grand jurisdiction.

Politics

Next to the Adamses, Warren was the most influential leader of the extreme Whig faction in Massachusetts.

Membership

While practicing medicine and surgery in Boston, he joined the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew, which had received a warrant from the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1756.

Connections

He studied medicine and married 18-year-old heiress Elizabeth Hooten on September 6, 1764. She died in 1772, leaving him with four children: Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, and Richard.

Father:

Joseph Warren

Mother:

Mary (Stevens) Warren

associates:

Samuel Adams

Wife:

Elizabeth Hooten

Daughter:

Mary Warren

Daughter:

Elizabeth Warren

Son:

Richard Warren

Son:

Joseph Warren

ancestor:

Richard Warren

References

• General Joseph Warren Revere: The Gothic Saga of Paul Revere's Grandson
• Liberty's Martyr: The Story of Dr. Joseph Warren
• Joseph Warren: Physician, Politician, Patirot
• Life and Times of Joseph Warren (Classic Reprint)
• Dr. Joseph Warren: The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and the Birth of American Liberty
• The Life of Dr. Joseph Warren, Martyr Hero of Bunker Hill (1848)
• Life of Joseph Warren