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Captain John Douglass was born in 1747. Soon after the Battle of
Lexington he began his military service. On June 3, 1776, the
Continental Congress resolved “that a flying camp be immediately
established in the middle colonies.” The definition of the Flying Camp
Battalion is a Reservist or a Home Guard. Their duties were to serve and
protect citizens of the state in case of an invasion. They acted like a
police force guarding barracks and government buildings. For its part,
Pennsylvania was called upon to provide a force of some 6,000 men.
Delegations of one officer and two enlisted men from each of
Pennsylvania’s fifty-three associated battalions met in Lancaster, on
July 4, 1776, for the purpose of selecting this force.
Captain
Douglass was appointed Captain in the Flying Camp, Company G, on July 3,
1776 by order of the Pennsylvania State Convention. He served in the
11th Pennsylvania Regiment, taking part in the Battle of Brandywine
where his regiment took heavy loses and wintered in Valley Forge. He
resigned on December 7, 1777.
In 1805 he was appointed an
alderman of Philadelphia and was elected High Sheriff of the city and
county in 1825. His office was located in the west wing of Independence
Hall.
He married Ann Jones at Christ Church on August 10, 1772.
Ann Douglass died on September 22, 1826. Captain Douglass died on July
8, 1840 at the age of 94 years old. The notice in the Philadelphia
Public Ledger on July 10, 1840 is headed “Another Revolutionary
Character Gone!”
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