GENERAL DAVID WOOSTER

GENERAL DAVID WOOSTER


BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD,P.G.M., District of Columbia

GENERAL WOOSTER was born in Stratford, Conn., March 2, 1710, and died in Danbury, May 2, 1777, where the beautiful marble column, surmounted by the American eagle has been erected to his memory.

David Wooster was graduated at Yale College in 1732. When war broke out in 1739 between England and Spain he entered the provincial army as a lieutenant, and was soon afterward promoted to the captaincy of a vessel built and armed by the colony as a guarda costa, or coast-guard. At that time piracy was not uncommon, and pirates and freebooters were taking advantage of war conditions. In 1740 he married Miss Clapp, daughter of the President of Yale College.

In 1745 we observe his first movements in military life as a captain in Colonel Burr's Connecticut Regiment and he distinguished himself in the expedition against Louisburg. From Cape Breton he went to Europe in command of a cartel-ship but was not allowed to land in France, so he sailed for England where he was received with great honors. He was presented to the king, became a great favorite at court, and was made a captain in the regular service under Sir William Pepperell. When the French and Indian war began he was commissioned a Colonel of the Third Connecticut Regiment and was later promoted to Brigadier General. He served to the end of the War in 1763, and then became Collector of Customs in New Haven.

Wooster was 65 years of age when the Revolutionary War broke out and though still holding rank and pension in the British Service, he resigned them and entered the American Army. He was one of the originators of the attack on Ticonderoga which was captured and destroyed in 1775. When the Continental army was organized a few weeks later he received the appointment of Brigadier-General, third in rank. He was in command in Canada in the spring of 1776. In the same year he had a command in the unfortunate campaign of Montgomery, shared in the defeat, and was subjected to a court of inquiry but was acquitted. Shortly after he was appointed a Major-General in the Connecticut Militia. During the winter of 1776-77 he was employed in protecting his State against the enemy and was in command at Danbury when Governor Tryon made his attack. Near Ridgefield he led a body, of militia in pursuit of the invader and in an engagement on Sunday, April 27, 1777, was fatally wounded by musket-ball.

David Wooster was the first Master of a Mason lodge in Connecticut, becoming Master of Hiram Lodge in 1750. He took a keen interest in the Craft, and was regular in attendance to the end of his life. He was the idol of the brethren of the good old nutmeg State.

[Source: The Builder Magazine, July 1921 - Volume VII - Number 7, http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/the_builder_1921_july.htm ]