Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
June 1781
Primary Source Reference:
Du Simitière Memorandum Books, Library of Congress, fol. 59r
Notes:
Engraving by Augustin Saint-Aubin (1736-1807) of the monument executed by the Italian sculptor Jacques Caffieri to honor Maj. Gen. Richard Montgomery (1738-1775), the Irish-born Continental Army officer who died on 31 Dec 1775 during the unssuccessful attack on Quebec City. The monument was erected in 1787 under the portico in front of the great decorative window in the Broadway façade of St. Paul's Chapel in New York City. It was later moved to the interior atop the tomb where Montgomery was reinterred in 1818. See https://trinitywallstreet.org/stories-news/general-and-monument
The donor, John Shee (1740–1808), was a Philadelphia merchant who served on the city's committee of correspondence 1774–75, was appointed colonel of the 3d Pennsylvania Regiment by the Continental Congress on 3 Jan 1776. The demands of his family induced him to resign his command on 25 Sept. 1776. Shee was a member of the Pennsylvania board of war during 1777, state auditor of public accounts from 1780 to 1781, and a lieutenant colonel in the militia from 1780 to 1786. Founders Online, National Archives / https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-04-02-0382
