author

William Gordon

1728–1807

Drawn to the American cause from across the Atlantic, this English-born minister became one of the earliest historians of the Revolution. His writing blends eyewitness energy, political conviction, and a close-up view of the struggle for independence.

2 Audiobooks

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

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

About the author

Born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, in 1728, William Gordon trained for the dissenting ministry and served congregations in Ipswich and later Southwark. In 1770, sympathetic to the grievances of the American colonists, he moved to Massachusetts and became pastor of the Third Church in Roxbury.

During the Revolutionary era he was more than a clergyman. He corresponded with leading figures, gathered documents, and followed events closely enough to become an important contemporary chronicler of the conflict. Research connected with George Washington's circle and other American leaders helped shape his best-known work, The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment, of the Independence of the United States of America, published in 1788.

Gordon returned to England in 1786 and spent his later years in the ministry there. Today he is remembered chiefly for preserving an early, detailed account of the Revolution from someone who lived through it and cared deeply about its outcome.