Jonathan Eddy

Jonathan Eddy (–1804) was a British-American soldier, who fought for the British in the French and Indian War and for the Americans in the American Revolution. After the French and Indian War, he settled in Nova Scotia as a New England Planter, becoming a member of the General Assembly of Nova Scotia. During the American Revolutionary War, he was strongly supportive of the rebellion against the Crown. He encouraged the residents of Nova Scotia to join in open revolt against King George III and England. He led a failed attempt to capture Fort Cumberland in 1776 and was forced to retreat to Massachusetts, the place of his birth. The following year, he led the defense of Machias, Maine during the Battle of Machias (1777). After the war, he established the community now known as Eddington, Maine in 1784, where he died. French and Indian War Jonathan Eddy was born in Norton, Massachusetts in 1726 or 1727. In 1755, he enlisted in the Massachusetts militia and participated in Robert Monckton's successful capture of Fort Beauséjour on the Isthmus of Chignecto in the French and Indian War. He received a militia captain's commission in 1758, when he apparently saw no action, and again in 1759, when his company was garrisoned at Fort Cumberland (the name Fort Beauséjour was switched after its capture). After the war, Eddy returned home to Norton, only to return to Cumberland as a New England Planter in 1763. From 1770 to 1775 he served in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, representing Cumberland Township. American Revolution When the American Revolutionary War began in Massachusetts in 1775, Eddy openly supported the rebellion. Following Governor Francis Legge's crackdown on seditious persons, and seeing an opportunity, Eddy fled to his riding in Cumberland. He made frequent excursions to see Samuel Adams and the General Court of Massachusetts, as well as to General George Washington. There, he was met with varying degrees of support for his proposed rebellion. Adams pledged full support, troops, weapons, ammunition and more, while Washington was less enthusiastic, failing to promise direct support for the venture.