As a youth he was the carrier of dispatches between the headquarters of the Revolutionary Army under General George Washington at Valley Forge and the Congress, then in session at York, Pennsylvania. He served three terms of service in the American Revolutionary War before reaching the age of eighteen, at which time he became an ensign in the Fifth Battalion of Chester County Militia. He was commissioned on May 24, 1779, as first lieutenant, Fifth Battalion, Sixth Company. He served as justice of the peace in Charlestown Township for several years, and was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1801.