Moses Gerrish

Moses Gerrish was a United Empire Loyalist and one of the original settlers of the island of Grand Manan. Early life and Revolutionary War activities He was born in Byfield parish, Newbury, Massachusetts in 1744. He attended Harvard College, graduating in 1762 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and became a school teacher. At the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War he took up residence in Lancaster, Massachusetts where his family owned land. He supported the British in the conflict and was arrested along with his brother in June 1777 on charges of being "dangerous persons to this and the other United States of America". Moses Gerrish had been circulating counterfeit money printed by the British in an effort to deflate the American currency's value. The family's property was confiscated and the brothers were imprisoned for one year. Gerrish joined the British forces as an officer in the commissary department at Fort George, which was built in 1779 at the mouth of the Penobscot River at Castine, Maine. He stayed at Fort George until the British forces were evacuated at the end of the Revolutionary War.