Hercules Mooney

{{no footnotes|date=July 2010}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=May 2020}} '''Hercules Mooney''' (1715–1800) was an [[Ireland|Irish]] veteran of the [[French and Indian War|French and Indian]] and [[American Revolutionary War|American Revolutionary]] wars.

Born to a catholic family from present day County Offaly, in 1733 he emigrated to the [[Thirteen Colonies]] and settled in [[Dover, New Hampshire]]. In 1738 he married Elizabeth Evans, also of Dover. Having been a tutor back in Ireland, Mooney became a teacher and schoolmaster at Dover and after 1750 in [[Durham, New Hampshire|Durham]].

In 1757 Mooney joined the [[New Hampshire Provincial Regiment]] to fight in the [[French and Indian War]] as a [[Captain (United States)|captain]] in command of a company of soldiers. Capt. Mooney was at the [[Siege of Fort William Henry]] that ended in the fall of the fort and attack by the Native Americans. After the end of the war Mooney returned to Durham to teach and was elected [[selectman]] in 1765.

In 1775 he was a delegate to the provincial congress at [[Exeter, New Hampshire]] and in 1776 was appointed [[lieutenant colonel]] in the [[Continental Army]]. Lt. Col. Mooney served in Col. [[Pierse Long]]'s regiment ([[Long's Regiment]]) and fought at the [[Battle of Fort Anne]] during the [[Saratoga campaign]]. During 1778 and 1779 Col. Mooney served on New Hampshire's [[Committee of Safety (American Revolution)|Committee of Safety]]. In June 1779 he was given command of a [[regiment]] of the [[New Hampshire Militia]] that was sent to [[Rhode Island]] to keep watch on the [[British Army]] at [[Newport, Rhode Island|Newport]].

After the end of the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] Col. Mooney moved to [[Holderness, New Hampshire]] and served as a [[justice of the peace]] for [[Grafton County, New Hampshire|Grafton County]] and in the [[New Hampshire General Court]]. He died at his home in April 1800.

==Sources== *''A List of The Revolutionary Soldiers of Dublin, N.H.'' by Samuel Carroll Derby, Press of Spahr & Glenn, Columbus, Ohio 1901 *[https://books.google.com/books?id=XSDnxlK1sMUC State Builders: An Illustrated Historical and Biographical Record of the State of New Hampshire. State Builders Publishing Manchester, N.H., 1903]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mooney, Hercules}} [[Category:1715 births]] [[Category:1800 deaths]] [[Category:18th-century Irish people]] [[Category:Irish soldiers in the Continental Army]] [[Category:Military personnel from County Offaly]] [[Category:Continental Army officers from Ireland]] [[Category:Continental Army officers from New Hampshire]] [[Category:New Hampshire militiamen in the American Revolution]] [[Category:People from Grafton County, New Hampshire]] [[Category:People from Durham, New Hampshire]] [[Category:People of New Hampshire in the French and Indian War]] [[Category:Irish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies]] [[Category:Schoolteachers from New Hampshire]] [[Category:People from colonial New Hampshire]] [[Category:Members of the New Hampshire General Court]] [[Category:People from Dover, New Hampshire]] [[Category:People from Holderness, New Hampshire]] [[Category:18th-century American politicians]] [[Category:European expatriate or exiled military officers]]