William Hull (1753 - 1825)

Born 24 Jun 1753 in Derby, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Fuller) Hull — married 17 Mar 1781 in Newton,Middlesex,Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 29 Nov 1825 at age 72 in Newton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts

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Preceded by Territory organized June 30, 1805

William Hull 1st Governor of Michigan Territory 1805—1813

Succeeded by 2nd Territorial Governor Lewis Cass

Biography

William Hull is Notable.

Lieutenant Colonel William Hull served with 8th Massachusetts Regiment (1777), Continental Army during the American Revolution.

William Hull is an NSSAR Patriot Ancestor.
NSSAR Ancestor #: P-187701
Rank: Lt Colonel

Brigadier General William Hull served in the War of 1812
Service started:
Unit(s): Michigan Territory
Service ended:

William Hull, just as his father before him, studied law at Yale College and was admitted to the bar just as the Revolutionary War began. He was 22 years old when he joined the army of the revolution in Cambridge, Massachusetts as a captain of a company of Connecticut volunteers. He would be involved in one battle after another and attained the rank of major by 1777 and two years later would become a lieutenant colonel. During his service he received commendations from General George Washington as well from Congress. He was clearly considered a hero of the revolution.^[1]

After the war William would reside in Newton, Massachusetts and take up the practice of law. This is where, in 1781, he met and married Sarah Fuller, the only daughter of Judge Abraham Fuller. William would become a Judge in his own right and then a state senator but military service would call again during Shays Rebellion, an insurrection by farmers against the government’s oppressive taxation needed to repay the Revolutionary War debt. Hull led the Massachusetts Militia against these insurgents. This event, while not actually threatening the government, alarmed the country’s leaders that the government needed to change. Out of Shays Rebellion came the Constitutional Convention that formed the foundation of the United States’ form of government.

William Hull was next appointed as a commissioner to Upper Canada and given the responsibility of negotiating with the British government in an effort to create a treaty with the Indians of the Great Lakes region. Given his military experience coupled with his public service, President Thomas Jefferson, in 1805, appointed William Hull the first Governor of the Michigan Territory. After accepting the post William learned to walk the line between the influx of American settlers on one hand and the many tribes of Native Americans in the Great Lakes region on the other. In the time after the Treaty of Detroit was signed by the Chippewa, Ottawa, Wyandot, and Potawatomi Indian tribes (the treaty that transferred ownership of most of Ohio and additional lands in Michigan in exchange for guarantees of peace with American settlers), the stream of American settlers increased and new incursions onto Indian land began. Governor Hull’s decisions concerning land ownership tended to favor his countrymen and thus he alienated the Indians. These occurrences set the stage for what was about to happen.

Before the War of 1812 began, the British in western Canada took note of the hard feelings between the Indians and Americans and took steps to form alliances with the disgruntled Native Americans who looked at the British as a means of regaining their lost lands. When the war began William Hull was offered the rank of Brigadier General and asked to form up a fighting force. He was 58 years old, not the same fighting man he had been over 25 years earlier and aware of what the British had been up to making allegiances with the Indians. He rightfully hesitated taking the position but perhaps due to his sense of service he went ahead and accepted.

The American leadership looked upon the war with Britain as an opportunity to invade and steal Canada away from their control. A very ambitious simultaneous three-pronged attack on Canada was conceived even though the country’s military was not prepared for such an effort. As part of this battle plan, William Hull was ordered to invade western Canada. He had been successful in raising a fighting force of 1,200 militiamen in addition to around 800 regular army soldiers but became aware he was unable to adequately supply them. Regardless of these dangerous concerns, General Hull led his men south from Detroit to lay siege to Fort Malden, the first step of the invasion, even though the other two prongs of the planned American attack on Canada were delayed.

Hull reached Fort Malden but then hesitated in attacking and then his supply lines were cut by Indians to his back. His inability to capture the fort and the uncertainty of his supply lines led him to withdraw back to Detroit where he had family. On top of this, the American fort on Mackinac Island was attacked by a superior British force and was surrendered by Lieutenant Porter Hanks who hadn’t even been notified a state of war existed with Great Britain! Next Fort Dearborn was evacuated. In the process, several soldiers, along with women and children, were killed when Indians allied with the British attacked.

Back in Fort Detroit, Hull and his men watched as the British and Indians put on a ruse to make the fort occupants believe a much larger force was prepared to lay siege and then an offer of surrender was made by the British commander. After considering the string of events that had taken place, the Indian's hostility towards the Americans and the safety of the many non-combatants, General Hull decided to protect the people inside Fort Detroit from a potential massacre and accept the offer of surrender. Many inside the fort were astounded to see the white flag of surrender run up, without a fight, in place of the American flag on August 16, 1812.

Hull was called a coward and a traitor by people who didn’t understand all of the circumstances. A year and a half later William Hull was found guilty of cowardice, neglect of duty and conduct unbecoming of an officer in a court-martial verdict rendered on March 25, 1814 after 38 court sessions. The court-martial court did not allow Hull to use his own papers or a defense attorney in court. The court did allow opinions to be heard rather than facts and allowed evidence to be heard without prior notification being made to Hull. Under these conditions, William Hull became the only American general in the country’s history to be sentenced to death. President James Madison would soon remit the sentence based on William’s record of service during the Revolutionary War but the damage was done.

Hull would continually try to clear his name, but he lived in disgrace up until the time of his death in 1825.

Sources

1. ↑ Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed December 7, 2021), "Record of William Hull", Ancestor # A059591.

• Wikipedia: William_Hull

• "Connecticut Deaths and Burials, 1772-1934," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F7DZ-8WT : 3 December 2014), Gen. William Hull, 29 Nov 1825; citing Connecticut, reference ; FHL microfilm 3,145.

• Find A Grave: Memorial #7504775

• Nicholls, Walter (1909) Sergeant Francis Nicholls of Stratford, Connecticut, 1639, and the Descendants of his son, Caleb Nicholls. The Grafton Press, Genealogical Publishers, New York. page 38 (#151)

• The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 1855) Vol. 9, Page 41-2.

See Also: Sources of War Biography

• https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/hull-william

• http://www.encyclopedia.com/law/law-magazines/general-william-hull-court-martial-1814

• http://www.historycentral.com/1812/hull.html

• http://www.military.com/Content/MoreContent?file=ML_whull_bkp

• http://ss.sites.mtu.edu/mhugl/2015/10/11/general-william-hull-draft/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Detroit

• "United States Rosters of Revolutionary War Soldiers and Sailors, 1775-1783," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS3Q-C3ND-B?cc=2546162&wc=WD6Q-RM3%3A1588792203 : 24 January 2018), Connecticut > image 97 of 977; citing various published state rosters, United States.

• "United States Rosters of Revolutionary War Soldiers and Sailors, 1775-1783," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS3Q-C38T-T?cc=2546162&wc=WD6Q-RM3%3A1588792203 : 24 January 2018), Connecticut > image 121 of 977; citing various published state rosters, United States.