Biographical Sketches

Joseph Warren (1741-1775), born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on 11 June 1741, was a physician and soldier who became a leader in the American Revolution. He graduated from Harvard in 1759 and began practicing medicine in 1764. A close friend of Samuel Adams, Warren was an outspoken opponent of naval impressment and the Stamp Act of 1765. He was a member of the Boston Committee of Safety and, with Samuel Adams and James Otis, helped to form the first Committee of Correspondence in November 1772. In 1774, Warren drafted the "Suffolk Resolves," which advocated forcible resistance to the British and placed the colony of Massachusetts in open rebellion against the British government. He delivered an important oration on 5 March 1775, commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Boston Massacre. On the night of 18 April 1775, he dispatched William Dawes and Paul Revere on their famous "Midnight Rides" to Lexington and Concord, and he fought alongside General Heath in the battle the following day. Warren was a member of the first, second, and third Provincial Congresses between 1774 and 1775 and president of the third. On 14 June 1775, he was appointed second major-general of the Massachusetts forces. He was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill just three days later on 17 June.

John Warren (1753-1815), brother of Joseph Warren, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1753. A 1771 graduate of Harvard, he became a leading surgeon in New England. He served in the Revolution and was a founder of the medical school at Harvard, where in 1782 he was appointed professor of anatomy and surgery.