Samuel Brady

Did You Know?

• The Middle Spring Presbyterian Church was erected in 1738, 3 miles from the Quigley homestead, and both Quigleys and Bradys are buried in its old cemetery.
• Samuel's paternal grandfather Hugh Brady was born about 1709 in Ireland, and his wife Hannah's maiden name was McCormick.
• John Brady, Samuel's father, was commissioned as a captain on July 19, 1763, in the Second Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiments during Pontiac's War.

Samuel Brady's family

Samuel Brady was born on May 5, 1756, in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, to Capt. John Brady and Mary Quigley Brady. His father, born in 1733 near Newark, Delaware, died on April 11, 1779, near Muncy, Pennsylvania, in an Indian attack. His mother, born on August 16, 1735, in Hopewell Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, died on October 20, 1783, in Muncy, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. The couple had thirteen children, three of whom died in infancy.

Among the surviving children were Samuel, James, John, Mary, William Penn, Hugh (a twin), Jane (twin), Robert Quigley, Hannah, and Liberty. Samuel's maternal grandfather, James Quigley, was born in Ireland around 1710 and came to America in 1730, settling on 400 acres of frontier land in what is now Hopewell Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, near Shippensburg. His log home stood close to Conodoguinet Creek, and a later bridge there gave the location the name "Quigley's Bridge."

Front line service in the American Revolution

Bradys fought in every major battle of the first two years of the American Revolution. When the war broke out, Capt. John Brady took his sons Samuel and James to fight with General George Washington in the trenches at Boston. Samuel and James enlisted as privates in the Continental Army on August 3, 1775, when Samuel was nineteen. Washington's siege of Boston forced the British to withdraw on March 17, 1776.

The British then invaded New York City, landing on Long Island. The Battle of Long Island took place on August 27, 1776, the first major battle after the Declaration of Independence. The British, under Major General Lord William Howe, outflanked and defeated Washington's forces. Samuel Brady distinguished himself in this battle and was soon commissioned a lieutenant.

He stood five feet, eleven and three-fourths inches tall and weighed one hundred and sixty-eight pounds, showing endurance, strength, and agility. His brother James was made a sergeant soon after turning eighteen.

Service on the frontier during the American Revolution

In the spring of 1778, General Washington deployed Pennsylvanians to the Pennsylvania and Ohio frontiers, where they mounted a successful expedition against tribes around the Muskingum River in the Ohio Country. In June 1778, they returned to repair and man Fort Muncy in present-day Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, defending settlers from British-allied tribes. Samuel Brady served as a scout. Washington sent him on special assignments and wrote to Col. Daniel Brodhead of the Eighth Pennsylvania commending his service.

According to Belle Swope, "he was noted for skill and daring, and was everywhere quoted as the scout who shot to kill." Brady was promoted to captain on August 2, 1779. Much of his zeal for fighting Indians stemmed from the deaths of his brother James on August 8, 1778, and his father Capt. John Brady on April 11, 1779. James Brady had long red hair tied up, and a Mrs. Buckalow had remarked that Indians might get his scalp; he replied, "If they do, it will make a bright light on a dark night."

Within a week he was killed. The Indians killed the family of Peter Smith on June 10, 1778, near present-day Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Men from Fort Muncy, including James Brady, were sent to help bring in Smith's crop. James was selected as their "captain" in the absence of a commissioned officer. The next morning, Indians attacked the party under cover of fog.

After the Revolution

The American Revolution effectively ended with British General Lord Charles Cornwallis's surrender on October 17, 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia. The war officially ended with the Treaty of Paris signed on September 3, 1783, approved by the American Congress on January 14, 1784. Samuel Brady's mother, Mary Quigley Brady, died on October 20, 1783, near Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, at age forty-eight after a long illness from frontier hardships. She lived to see American independence won and Indians driven from her area.

Her older children cared for the younger during her illness and after her death. Samuel's sister Mary, the fifth child and oldest daughter, did the most to care for her siblings. After her father's death, "she gave to her mother the tender ministrations of a strong, affectionate character." On September 10, 1784, Mary married Capt. William Gray and moved to Sunbury, Pennsylvania, taking all her younger siblings except Hugh.

Hugh Brady went to live with Samuel in Washington County, Pennsylvania, until he received an ensign's commission in General Anthony Wayne's army in 1792.