Three fascinating family stories from the founding of the USA

The most famous of the Founding Fathers are known throughout the world: Benjamin Franklin; George Washington; Thomas Jefferson; Alexander Hamilton. But the founding of the USA was not just about a small group of prominent men. The story involves millions of people from wildly different backgrounds right across the thirteen colonies… and beyond.

In Founding Fathers: An American Dream, the stories of several of those people are brought to life by their direct descendants. These are family stories that reveal the fascinating layers of the founding of the USA.

David How – George Washington’s soldier

The ranks of the Continental Army – led by George Washington – were full of unsung heroes. One was David How. Born and raised in rural Massachusetts, David was only eighteen when the first shots between British redcoats and American colonists were fired at the Battle of Lexington in April 1775. As a member of his local militia, he chased the British all the way to Boston, where a siege of the city began – and so did David’s extraordinary experience of the Revolutionary War.

Jim Philbrick is David’s five-times great-grandson. Jim’s fascination with his heroic forbear began when he heard old family stories as a child. A little later he discovered that David had written a magnificent historical document: a diary of his service in the Continental Army during 1776, the year America declared its independence from Great Britain.

David’s diary entries are fascinating; they offer a glimpse of world-changing events as experienced by an ordinary soldier. He was part of the group that attempted to rescue General Charles Lee after Lee had been taken prisoner by the British in New Jersey. Soon after, he was part of the force that crossed the freezing Delaware River on Christmas Day, 1776 and launched a surprise attack on the enemy – an astonishing moment that turned the tide of the war.

Jim is currently working on a book about David How and his diary. “It’s an honour,” he says of his link to the founding of the USA. “To be able to share that with my family and anybody who wants to listen is a blessing.”

Robert Hemings – Thomas Jefferson’s enslaved manservant

Calvin and Julius Jefferson are a father and son who are direct descendants of numerous people enslaved by Thomas Jefferson on his Monticello estate in Virginia. Their family story reveals the moral complexity at the heart of the founding of the USA. In so many instances, the freedom pursued by America’s white colonists depended upon other people being denied theirs.

Among Calvin and Julius’s ancestors is Robert Hemings. In 1773, Thomas Jefferson inherited much of the estate that had belonged to his recently deceased father-in-law, John Wayles. Included in that were 135 slaves. A number of them were Wayles’s own children, conceived with his enslaved servant, Elizabeth Hemings. One of those children was Robert.

Cut to 1776, and Thomas Jefferson is in Philadelphia drafting the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration is written to be read aloud. There’s every chance that Thomas Jefferson utters the famous words – “all men are created equal” – as he’s writing them. If so, they might well have fallen on the ears of the only other person present: Robert Hemings, his enslaved valet.

This awful injustice is a source of sorrow for Robert’s descendants. “I would love to have been a fly on the wall and just to hear what Robert may have been saying to himself,” says Julius Jefferson.

“I believe that Robert … probably had ideas that could have really made this country even greater than they thought they were making it at the time, but we'll never know because Robert was never allowed to share his ideas, his thoughts”. For Robert Hemings, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness didn’t exist”.

Lord Charles Cornwallis – ‘The Man Who Lost America’

For more than 200 years, Charles Cornwallis has been known as the cowardly, incompetent general who led the British Army to humiliating defeat at Yorktown, effectively the final battle of the Revolutionary War. But his direct descendant, Caroline Stanley, Countess of Derby, says this reputation is undeserved.

As a member of the House of Lords, Cornwallis voted against war in the American colonies. But as a general in the British Army, he was committed to crushing the American rebels.

“He was a very, very serious soldier,” says the countess. “He went to war … out of total duty to his sovereign”.

In Virginia in 1781, Cornwallis and his army found themselves trapped between a vast French fleet in the Chesapeake Bay, and advancing armies of French and American soldiers. The result was a devastating siege. On October 17th, 1781, Cornwallis raised the white flag.

But when it came to the official surrender, Cornwallis was absent. Legend has it that he chickened out, feigning illness rather than facing the humiliation of handing his sword to the enemy. But many historians think Cornwallis was actually bedridden with malaria.

Today, the Cornwallis sword is still in Caroline Stanley’s family. “When I was growing up, it was always in my father's dressing room in an umbrella stand.” She thinks it’s an object to proud of: a reminder of a misunderstood ancestor, and a symbol of the founding of the United States of America.

In October 2026, the countess is hosting ‘Dinners of Diplomacy’, a special two-day event at Knowsley Hall, the historic seat of the Earls and Countesses of Derby. Featuring expert scholars from around the world, the event will throw fresh light on Cornwallis, the surrender at Yorktown, and the founding of the USA.

For more information: Knowsley Hall
To book tickets: ‘Dinners of Diplomacy’ Tickets