# 1776 in Pennsylvania

This is a list of events in the year 1776 in Pennsylvania.

## Incumbents

* Colonel Governor: John Penn (1773–1776)

## Events

* January 2 – The Tory Act of 1776 is signed by Peyton Randolph.
* June 18–25 – The Pennsylvania Provincial Conference takes place at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia declaring Pennsylvania independent from Great Britain.
* July 4 – Henry Beeson published a plat of quarter-acre plots near his mill in Union now Uniontown.
* August 23 – The 12th Pennsylvania Regiment is raised at Sudbury.
* September 16 – The 11th Pennsylvania Regiment is authorized.
* September 28 – The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 is ratified.
* December 25 – American Revolution: At 6 p.m. Gen. George Washington and his troops, numbering 2,400, march to McConkey's Ferry, cross the Delaware River, and land on the New Jersey bank by 3 a.m. the following morning.

### Undated

* The last colonel governor John Penn resigns.
* The Continental Powder Works at French Creek is constructed in East Pikeland Township.
* Crawford Township is settled.
* The Dobbin House Tavern is established becoming the oldest building in Gettysburg.

## Births

* January – Matthew Brown, Presbyterian minister (d. 1853)
* January 3 – Thomas Morris, politician (d. 1844)
* January 5 – Daniel Dobbins, sailing master in the United States Navy and captain in the United States Revenue Cutter Service (d. 1856)
* January 13 – John M. Snowden, journalist, newspaper editor and politician (d. 1842)
* January 29 – Enoch Lewis, mathematician (d. 1856)
* February 12 – Mary Young Pickersgill, seamstress, and flagmaker (d. 1857)
* February 26 – Innis Green, politician, lawyer and judge (d. 1839)
* March 5 – Gerard Troost, Dutch-American medical doctor, naturalist, and mineralogist (d. 1850)
* March 17 – Joel Abbot, politician (d. 1824)
* March 19 – Philemon Beecher, Anglo-American attorney and legislator (d. 1839)
* April 3 – Harm Jan Huidekoper, businessman, philanthropist, essayist and lay theologian (d. 1854)
* April 25 – James Miller, lawyer, militia officer, farmer, and politician, first governor of Arkansas Territory (d. 1851)
* May 9 – Thomas Maguire, American-born Canadian Roman Catholic priest, vicar general and educator (d. 1854)
* May 31 – John E. Hamm, American US Army colonel, doctor and politician, diplomat, industrialist, and Marshall of the State of Ohio (d. 1864)
* June 1 – George Schetky, composer (d. 1831)
* July 10 – Samuel Powell, politician (d. 1841)
* July 29 – James McSherry, politician (d. 1849)
* August 15 – Rees Hill, army colonel and politician (d. 1852)
* September 16 – Langdon Cheves, politician, lawyer and businessman (d. 1857)
* October 10 – John Hahn, politician (d. 1823)
* October 14 – Samuel Rexford, politician (d. 1857)
* October 21 – George Izard, soldier and politician, second governor of Arkansas Territory (d. 1828)
* November 10 – Samuel Gross, politician (d. 1839)
* December 6 – Theodorick Bland, attorney and statesman (d. 1846)
* December 10 – David Marchand, physician, Military personnel and politician (d. 1832)
* December 30 – William Drayton, politician, banker, and writer (d. 1846)

### Undated

* James M. Broom, lawyer and politician (d. 1850)
* William Charles, Scottish-born engraver (d. 1820)
* Jacob Eichholtz, painter (d. 1842)
* William C. Frazer, lawyer and judge (d. 1838)
* Peter Gilles, violoncellist (d. 1839)
* John Gloucester, first African American to become an ordained Presbyterian minister in the United States (d. 1822)
* John Henry, spy and adventurer (d. 1853)
* Hetty Reckless, runaway slave (d. 1888)

## Deaths

* March 26 – Samuel Ward, farmer, and politician, 31st and 33rd Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (b. 1725)
* June 29 – Richard Wickes, military personnel (b. Unknown)
* July 10 – Richard Peters, attorney, Anglican minister, and civil servant (b. 1704)
* July 27 – Joseph Wharton, merchant (b. 1707)
* October 9 – Philip Vickers Fithian, tutor (b. 1747)
* December 29 – Pluggy, Mingo chieftain

### Undated

* Hetty Benbridge, painter (b. unknown)