Joseph Palmer (American Revolutionary War general)

, Devonshire, England, birthplace of Joseph Palmer Palmer was born at Shaugh Prior, Devonshire, England, on March 31, 1716, a son of John and Joan Palmer, née Pearse. He married Mary Cranch in 1746 and emigrated to Massachusetts later that year with his brother-in-law Richard Cranch. Palmer and Mary had two daughters, Mary (Polly) and Elizabeth. They first lived in Watertown and then Germantown. The Palmers had nine children, one of whom was Elizabeth Palmer, wife of Nathaniel Peabody and mother of Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, and Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne. Elizabeth taught her daughters the three Rs when they were young and read William Shakespeare to them. Son Joseph was good friends with Royall Tyler, who lived with the Palmers in their Boston boardinghouse. ==Massachusetts Bay Colony==

In 1752, Palmer and his brother-in-law built a glassworks in Germantown, now a part of Quincy, Massachusetts. Later, they built a chocolate mill and spermaceti and salt factories. Palmer bought his brother-in-law's interests in the businesses by 1760. , Official Presidential portrait of John Adams, circa 1792, Blue Room, White House. Adams was a neighbor and a friend. After Palmer died, Adam's wife Abigail let Elizabeth Palmer and her daughters live in their "Old House". By the 1770s, Palmer had become a supporter of American independence, and he was friends with his neighbor John Adams. Palmer served in the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and on the Cambridge Committee of Safety. ==Revolutionary War==

Palmer served as an officer of the American patriot militia when the Revolutionary War broke out with the Siege of Boston on April 19, 1775. George Washington issued letters of commendation to Palmer for his service. In February 1777, he led a successful raid on Newport, Rhode Island that the British held. In October, he led a failed amphibious offensive attack on Newport. ==Later years==

After the war, he "suddenly lost his fortune". Palmer died four years later at his home in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on December 25, 1788. ==References==