Jedediah Huntington

Jedediah Huntington (4 August 1743 – 25 September 1818), also known as Jedidiah Huntington, was an American general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, he was collector of customs at New London, Connecticut, for many years.

Biography
He was born in Norwich, Connecticut, and was the son of Jabez Huntington. He graduated at Harvard in 1763, He was engaged in commercial pursuits with his father, was an active Son of Liberty, and a member of the committee of correspondence that was established at a Norwich town meeting on 6 June 1774. He raised a regiment in which he was made captain, joined the army at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 26 April 1775, and aided in repulsing the British at Danbury, Connecticut, in April 1776. He "fought courageously during the Battle of Bunker Hill, from which he emerged a Colonel." Having been appointed brigadier general on 12 May 1777, he joined the main army near Philadelphia in September of that year, and in May 1778, was ordered to Hudson River.

In 1778 he was a member of the court-martial that tried Gen. Charles Lee and in 1780 of the one that condemned Major André. He entertained many distinguished officers in his house, among whom were Lafayette, Steuben, and Pulaski. When Lauzun's Legion was stationed at Lebanon during the winter of 1780/1, he invited that commander and his officers to a banquet.

He was one of the first board of foreign missions, and a zealous supporter of charitable institutions. His first wife, Faith, was a daughter of Governor Trumbull, and his second wife was the sister of Bishop Moore of Virginia. He was one of the organizers of the Society of the Cincinnati. He became collector of the port of New London in 1789 and held the office 26 years.

The Gen. Jedidiah Huntington House in Norwichtown, Connecticut, survives and was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

Family
Jedediah's son Joshua Huntington was a Boston clergyman. Jedediah's son Daniel Huntington (born in Norwich, 17 October 1788; died in New London, Connecticut, 21 May 1858) studied in Brown University, but was graduated from Yale in 1807. He was pastor of the Congregational Church in North Bridgewater, Massachusetts, from 1812 until 1832. He then taught a young ladies' school in New London, but in 1841 resumed his pastoral charge in North Bridgewater. He was the author of “Religion,” a poem delivered at Brown, 31 August 1819; “Triumphs of Faith,” delivered at Andover Theological Seminary, 21 September 1830; and a “Memorial” of his daughter, Mary Hallam.