BIO: William PLUNKET, Dauphin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

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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, page 352.
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  PLUNKET, WILLIAM, M.D., frequently called Lord Plunket, was a native 
of Ireland, born about 1720.  Little is accurately known of his early 
life, save that he studied medicine, graduating from the university at 
Dublin, and emigrated to America.  He first settled at Carlisle, where 
he practiced his profession until probably the breaking out of the 
French and Indian war, into which service he entered.  He was 
commissioned lieutenant in Capt. John Hambright's company in Col. 
William Clapham's battalion, June 12, 1756.  In the Bouquet campaign of 
1764 he was surgeon of the Second battalion, commanded by Col. Arthur 
Clayton, his commission bearing date September 7, 1763.  For this 
service he participated in the Provincial land grants on the West 
Branch, receiving from the Proprietaries six hundred acres of land in 
Buffalo Valley.  About 1770 he removed to what was subsequently 
Northumberland county, locating a little above Chillisquaque creek, 
which he termed "The Soldier's Retreat," and became possessed of a 
large estate.  He was one of the leaders in the so-called Pennamite war 
at the outset of the Revolution.  A brief account of his expedition to 
Wyoming is found in "Annals of Buffalo Valley," by Hon. John Blair 
Linn, pp. 87-8.  At the beginning of the war for independence he 
entered heartily into the contest, and was commissioned colonel of the 
Second battalion of Northumberland county associators in March, 1776, 
but for some cause or another, possibly at the instigation of his 
Wyoming enemies, he was arrested as being inimical to the principles of 
the Revolution.  He was afterwards released as nothing treasonable 
could be proved against him.  Sabine, in his "American Loyalists," 
imputes crimes to Colonel Plunket which he had neither fact or 
foundation for.  At the close of the war he removed to Sunbury, where 
he died in the early part of May, 1791.
  Dr. Plunket married Esther Harris, daughter of John Harris, of 
Harris' Ferry, and sister of the founder of Harrisburg.  Of a large 
family of children only four daughters reached maturity.  Of these, 
Elizabeth married Samuel Maclay, afterwards a senator in congress and a 
brother of William Maclay, who married his cousin, Mary Harris.  
Isabella Plunket married William Bell, of Elizabeth, N. J.  Margaret 
Plunket married Isaac Richardson, of New York state, and Esther Plunket 
married her cousin, Col. Robert Baxter, of the British army.  
Descendants of the first named have been very prominent in public 
affairs in Pennsylvania for at least a century.