Connolly, John, 1750?-1813

Dr. John Connoly was born in Pennsylvania in 1743. He trained as a doctor and moved to the American frontier in 1762. He came to Pittsburgh in 1774, where he sided with Virginia during the boundary dispute between that province and Pennsylvania. His actions in Pittsburgh led to violence between white settlers along the frontier and the Indian nations of the Ohio country. This violence erupted into Lord Dunmore's War between the Shawnee Indians and Virginia, which ended in a victory for the Virginians. The Revolutionary War soon began and Dr. Connolly remained a loyalist. He was imprisoned in 1775 for his sympathies and was released in 1780. He eventually moved to Canada, where he died in exile in 1813.