General Israel Putnam
American, 1718 - 1790
Person TypeIndividual
American, 1900 - 1988
BiographyGeneral Israel Putnam was born on 7 January 1718 in Salem Village, now Danvers, Massachusetts, the son of Joseph Putnam and Elizabeth Porter, and the great grandson of John Putnam who emigrated from Aston Abbotts, Buckinghamshire, England in the seventeenth century and was in Salem, Massacusetts, in 1640/41. On 19 July 1739, Putnam married Hannah Pope, and soon moved to Pomfret, Connecticut, which later became Brooklyn. He became a prosperous farmer, and they had ten children. Putnam fought in the French and Indian War and the Revolution. General Putnam was the officer in command at the battle of Bunker Hill. Hannah Putnam died on 6 September 1765, and two years later, on 3 July 1767, Putnam married Deborah Lothrup Avery Gardiner (1716/7-1777). In 1780, General Putnam suffered a stroke which ended his military career; he died on 29 May 1790.