Hercules Mooney

Hercules Mooney (1715-1800) was born in Ireland to a family of Irish Protestants. In 1733 Hercules Mooney emigrated to New Hampshire settling at Dover. In the year 1738 he married Elizabeth Evans also of Dover. Having been a tutor back in Ireland Hercules Mooney became a teacher and school master at Dover and after 1750 in Durham. In 1757 Hercules Mooney joined the New Hampshire Provincial Regiment to fight in the French and Indian War as a Captain in command of a company of soldiers. Capt. Mooney was at the Battle of Fort William Henry that ended in the fall of the fort and attack by the Indians. After the end of the French and Indian war Hercules Mooney returned to Durham to teach and was elected as selectman in 1765. In 1775 he was a delegate to the provincial congress at Exeter, New Hampshire and In 1776 was appointed as Lt. Col. in the Continental Army. Lt. Col. Mooney served in Col. Pierse Long's regiment (Long's Regiment) and fought at the Battle of Fort Ann during the Saratoga campaign. During 1778 and 1779 Col. Mooney served on New Hampshire's Committee of Safety. In June 1779 he was given command of a regiment of New Hampshire Militia that was sent to Rhode Island to keep watch on the British Army at Newport. After the end of the American Revolutionary War Col. Mooney moved to Holderness, New Hampshire and served as a justice of the peace for Grafton County and in the New Hampshire General Court. He died at his home in April of 1800