Anthony Wayne (Jan. 1, 1745-Dec. 15, 1796), soldier, was born at Waynesboro, Pa., the only son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Iddings) Wayne. Isaac Wayne with his father Anthony Wayne, of English ancestry, emigrated from Ireland and about 1724 settled in Chester County, Pa., where he acquired some 500 acres of land and a thriving tannery. At the age of sixteen the boy attended a private academy kept by his uncle, Gilbert Wayne, in Philadelphia, where he is said to have been more proficient in feats of mock warfare, suggested no doubt by the Indian wars in progress, than in his classroom subjects. He learned enough mathematics to qualify as a surveyor, with some further application after he left school two years later. In 1765 he was sent by a Philadelphia land company to supervise the surveying and settlement of 100,000 acres of land in Nova Scotia. On Mar. 25, 1766, after the venture had failed, he returned to Pennsylvania and married Mary Penrose, the daughter of Bartholomew Penrose, a Philadelphia merchant. They had two children. He went to live on his father’s estate and took charge of the tannery. In 1774 his father died, and Anthony succeeded to the ownership of a profitable establishment that provided him a very comfortable competence. He was of medium height, had a handsome, well-proportioned face with a slightly aquiline nose and high forehead. His hair was dark, his eyes dark brown and penetrating, giving to his face a very animated appearance. During the early Revolutionary movement he was chairman of the committee appointed in the county on July 13, 1774, to frame the resolutions of protest against the coercive acts of the British government. He was later made chairman of the county committee appointed to supervise the carrying out of the association drawn up by the first Continental Congress. He represented his county in the provincial assembly that met during 1775. On Jan. 3, 1776, he was appointed by Congress to be colonel of a Chester County regiment engaged in continental service, and as a soldier he served through the war. His youth and lack of formal training in the arts of war prevented him from being on friendly terms with many of his colleagues, and he had personal difficulties with St. Clair, Charles Lee, and James Wilkinson. Contemporaries agreed that he was impetuous, yet Alexander Graydon, who called his manner “fervid,” admitted that he could “fight as well as brag.” Washington admitted his bravery and his self-possession in battle but feared his impetuousness, when, seventeen years later, he chose him to lead the army against the northwestern Indians. In the spring of 1776 he was sent with the Pennsylvania brigade commanded by Gen. William Thompson to reinforce the faltering Canadian expedition. When the Pennsylvanians met the retreating remnants of Montgomery’s army at the mouth of the Sorel River, they were sent down the St. Lawrence to attack what was thought to be the advance guard of the British army at Three Rivers.