Timothy Dwight IV to Nicolas Fouquet

Continued from previous post

Timothy Dwight IV (May 14, 1752 – January 11, 1817) was an American academic and educator, a Congregationalist minister, theologian, and author. He was the eighth president of Yale College (1795–1817). Licensed to preach in 1777, he was appointed by Congress chaplain in General Samuel Holden Parsons's Connecticut Continental Brigade. He served with distinction, inspiring the troops with his sermons and the stirring war songs he composed, the most famous of which is "Columbia".

Samuel Holden Parsons (May 14, 1737 – November 17, 1789) was an American lawyer, jurist, general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and a pioneer to the Ohio Country. In August 1776 Congress appointed Parsons Brigadier General in the Continental Army. He was ordered to New York with his brigade of about 2,500 men. Stationed in Brooklyn, Parsons was in the thick of the fighting with British troops under William Alexander, Lord Stirling on August 17, 1776.

William Alexander, Lord Stirling (1726 New York City – 15 January 1783), who claimed the disputed title of Earl of Stirling, was an American major-general during the American Revolutionary War. During the French and Indian War, he joined the British Army Commissariat, where he became aide-de-camp to Governor William Shirley. He traveled to London in 1756 to testify on behalf of Shirley, who was facing charges of dereliction of duty.

William Shirley (2 December 1694 – 24 March 1771) was a British colonial administrator who served twice as Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and as Governor of the Bahamas in the 1760s.  In 1745 Governor Shirley appointed William Pepperrell to command an expedition to capture Louisbourg.

 Sir William Pepperrell, 1st Baronet (27 June 1696 – 6 July 1759) was a merchant and soldier in Colonial Massachusetts. He is widely remembered for organizing, financing, and leading the 1745 expedition that captured the French garrison at Fortress Louisbourg during King George's War. During his day Pepperrell was called "the hero of Louisburg," a victory celebrated in the name of Louisburg Square in Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood.  During the siege, he was supported by a British naval squadron under Captain Peter Warren.

Sir Peter Warren, KB (10 March 1703 – 29 July 1752) was a British naval officer from Ireland who commanded the naval forces in the attack on the French fortress of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia in 1745. He later sat as MP for Westminster.  He was second in command of the British fleet on the Devonshire at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1747 under Admiral George Anson.

Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson PC, FRS, RN (23 April 1697 – 6 June 1762) was a British admiral and a wealthy aristocrat, noted for his circumnavigation of the globe and his role overseeing the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War.  In May 1747, he commanded the fleet that defeated the French Admiral de la Jonquière at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre

Jacques-Pierre de Taffanel de la Jonquière (April 18, 1685 – March 17, 1752) was a French admiral and Governor General of New France from March 1, 1746 until his death in 1752. He joined the navy when he was twelve, and fought under René Duguay-Trouin.

 

René Duguay-Trouin, (10 June 1673 - 1736) was a famous French corsair of Saint-Malo. He had a brilliant privateering and naval career and eventually became "Lieutenant-General of the Naval Armies of the King" (i.e. admiral), and a Commander in the Order of Saint-Louis. Ten ships of the French Navy were named in his honour.  On 6 June 1692, King Louis XIV of France handed him command of a forty-gun ship, the Hercule.

Louis XIV (5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. He holds the distinction of being the longest-reigning king in European history, reigning for 72 years and 110 days. In 1665 Louis had Nicolas Fouquet, the Surintendant des Finances, charged with Embezzlement. The Parlement found him guilty and sentenced him to exile. However, Louis commuted the sentence to life-imprisonment and also abolished Fouquet's post.

Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux (January 27, 1615 – March 23, 1680) was the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661 under King Louis XIV. From 1642 to 1650, he held various intendancies, at first in the provinces and then with the army of chief minister Cardinal Mazarin and, coming thus in touch with the court, was permitted in 1650 to buy the important position of procureur général to the parlement of Paris. During Mazarin's exile, Fouquet remained loyal to him, protecting his property and keeping him informed of the situation at court.

Continued in the next post.