Jehu Eyre Jehu Eyre or Ayer ( January 10 , 1738 – July 23 , 1781 ) was an American businessman , veteran of the French and Indian War and American Revolutionary War , and member of the influential Eyre family , which played a major role in the American Revolution and the early Republic . Jehu ' s father George had emigrated to the New World in 1727 ; the family was descended from one of the oldest noble lines in England . Eyre was born in Burlington , New Jersey . He married Lydia Wright Eyre on December 28 , 1761 , when Jehu was twenty - three years old . Jehu ' s brother Manuel , also an officer in the Continental Army , had married Lydia ' s sister Martha on January 8 of the same year . In total , Jehu and Lydia Eyre would have five children : George ( named after his grandfather ) , Jehu Jr . , Franklin , Sarah , and Lydia ( named after her mother ) . Eyre fought alongside George Washington in the French and Indian War , serving as the Chief Engineer and Director of Artillery for the Province of Pennsylvania . Eyre and Washington were both participants in the July 9 , 1755 Battle of Monongahela , when forces under British General Edward Braddock were defeated by combined French and Native American units . Of the carnage there , Eyre later wrote : " When we came to the place where they crossed of the Monongahela , we saw a great many men ' s bones along the shore . We kept along the road about 1½ miles , where the first engagement begun , where there are men ' s bones lying about as thick as the leaves do on the ground ; for they are so thick that one lies on top of another for about a half a mile in length and about one hundred yards in breadth . " Eyre served under Washington at Valley Forge during the winter of 1776 – 1777 . He and his brothers were commissioned by Washington to build vessels for the independence effort at the Eyre family ' s shipping yards in Kensington ( now part of Philadelphia ) , and provided some of the first ships in the Continental Navy . The earliest gunboat of the American Navy was built under the supervision of the Eyre family ; christened " Bull Dog " , it was launched at Kensington on July 26 , 1775 . In that year Eyre also mustered his workers into a force for the defense of Philadelphia known as the " Kensington Artillery " . One of the frigates built by the Eyres , " The Alliance " , carried the Marquis de Lafayette to France in 1779 and then joined up with the fleet of John Paul Jones . On December 25 , 1776 , Jehu Eyre " had charge of the boats " in Washington ' s crossing of the Delaware , a resounding success and a critical battle that saved the Revolution from being snuffed out in its infancy . At the Battle of Brandywine , Eyre fought with his artillery company to halt the capture of Philadelphia , but his efforts were unsuccessful . Following the British occupation of the city in 1777 , the naval works at Kensington were destroyed , to be rebuilt after the conflict ' s conclusion by Jehu ' s children and grandchildren . The Eyre Mansion , specifically targeted by the British , was ransacked that winter . Eyre ' s siblings were also heavily involved in the Revolution , and his and his brothers ' descendants remained powerful business leaders for several generations after the war . During the war , Eyre ' s shipping yards were destroyed and his house razed , amounting to a total loss of £6 , 392 as of 1778 , for which neither he nor his family were ever compensated . Eyre died of malaria in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , and his diaries were later published as " The Memorials of Colonel Jehu Eyre " . In 1853 , his remains were taken from the Coates family graveyard and re - interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia , where an Eyre family vault was constructed . A portrait of Jehu Eyre can be found at Trumbull ' s Gallery at Yale College .