Benjamin Church

Benjamin Church (August 24, 1734 – 1778) was effectively the first Surgeon General of the United States Army, serving as the "Chief Physician & Director General" of the Medical Service of the Continental Army from July 27, 1775, to October 17, 1775. He was also active in Boston's Sons of Liberty movement in the years before the war. However, early in the American Revolution, Church was also sending secret information to General Thomas Gage, the British commander, and when one of his letters into Boston was intercepted, he was tried and convicted of "communicating with the enemy". He was jailed but eventually released, likely dying somewhere in the Caribbean Sea in 1778. Biography Family and education Church was born in Newport, Colony of Rhode Island, the son of Benjamin Church, a merchant of Boston and deacon of the Hollis Street Church conducted by the Rev. Mather Byles. His great-grandfather, Colonel Benjamin Church, took a prominent part in the war with the Narragansett Indians and led the force which hunted King Philip to his death on August 12, 1676. Church (the third Benjamin Church) was a Mayflower descendant through his great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Warren Church, who was the daughter of Richard Warren, one of the Mayflower passengers. Benjamin's sister Alice married Boston printer John Fleeming. The third Benjamin attended the Boston Latin School and graduated from Harvard College in 1754. He studied medicine with Joseph Pynchon, later continuing his studies in London. While there, he married Hannah Hill of Ross, Herefordshire. Returning to Boston he built up a reputation as a talented physician and a skillful surgeon. Church performed cataract surgery, and is also remembered for treating the eye ailments of John Adams. By 1769, he had acquired ownership over a slave named John Quamino, who later purchased his freedom with the earnings from a lottery ticket.