author

William Gordon

1728–1807

An English-born minister who became an energetic supporter and chronicler of the American Revolution, he wrote one of the early full-length histories of the fight for independence. His life moved between pulpit, politics, and print, giving his work an unusually close view of the era.

2 Audiobooks

The history of the rise, progress, and establishment of the independence of the United States of America, Vol. 1 (of 3) : Including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies, from their origin to that period

The history of the rise, progress, and establishment of the independence of the United States of America, Vol. 1 (of 3) : Including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies, from their origin to that period

by William Gordon

The history of the rise, progress, and establishment of the independence of the United States of America, Vol. 2 (of 3) : Including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies, from their origin to that period

The history of the rise, progress, and establishment of the independence of the United States of America, Vol. 2 (of 3) : Including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies, from their origin to that period

by William Gordon

About the author

Born in Hitchin, England, in 1728, William Gordon trained for the dissenting ministry and served congregations in Ipswich and Southwark before moving to Massachusetts in 1770. He became pastor of the Third Church in Roxbury and soon took a lively interest in the American cause during the years leading into the Revolution.

Gordon is best remembered for The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment, of the Independence of the United States of America, a major multi-volume account published in the late eighteenth century. Because he lived through the conflict, gathered documents, and knew many of the leading figures of the time, his writing helped shape how early readers understood the Revolution.

He returned to England in 1786 and died in 1807. Today he is remembered both as a clergyman and as an important early historian whose work preserves a near-contemporary view of the founding of the United States.