BIO: Adam BOYD, Dauphin County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, pages 183-184.
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  BOYD, CAPT. ADAM, the son of John Boyd and Elizabeth Young, was a 
native of Northampton county, Pa., born in 1746.  He learned the trade 
of a carpenter, and was following that avocation when the war of the 
Revolution called to arms.  He was an early associator, and when the 
State of Pennsylvania had formed its little navy for the protection of 
the ports on the Delaware, Lieutenant Boyd received a commission 
therein.  During the year 1776, and the early part of 1777, he was most 
of the time in command of the armed sloop "Burke," and rendered 
efficient service in the conflict between the Pennsylvania navy and the 
British ships "Roebudk" and "Liverpool" in May, 1776.  Growing tired of 
that branch of the service, Lieutenant Boyd requested to be discharged, 
that he might volunteer in the land forces.  Being honorably dismissed 
from the navy, he at once entered the army proper, holding the same 
rank therein.  He was at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, with 
two of his brothers, one of whom was killed in the latter engagement.  
Subsequently, Lieutenant Boyd acted as "master of wagons," and as such 
remained with the army until after the surrender at Yorktown.  
Returning to the home of his mother, near Newville, he married and 
settled in Harrisburg.  Upon the incorporation of the borough of 
Harrisburg, in 1791, he was chosen a burgess, Dr. John Luther being the 
other.  In 1792 he was elected treasurer of the county, and held the 
office until 1806, when he declined a re-election.  In 1809 Mr. Boyd 
was elected a director of the poor, and during his term of office the 
county poorhouse and mill were erected.
  Mr. Boyd died on May 14, 1814; was interred in the Presbyterian 
graveyard, but subsequently his remains were removed to the Harrisburg 
Cemetery.  Mr. Boyd married, in 1784, Jeannette Macfarland, of Big 
Spring, Cumberland county, daughter of Patrick and granddaughter of 
James Macfarlane, who came from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1717.  Mrs. 
Boyd died in early life at Harrisburg, leaving one child, a daughter 
Rosanna, who married Hugh Hamilton in 1807.  This estimable lady lived 
until 1872, when she died, the oldest inhabitant of Harrisburg, having 
been born here in 1786.