{"id":194170,"date":"2026-05-16T10:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/194170\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T10:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:49:10","slug":"historys-headlines-tench-tilghman-saves-the-day-historys-headlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/194170\/","title":{"rendered":"History’s Headlines: Tench Tilghman saves the day | History’s Headlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the fall of 1777 drifted toward winter, James Allen was getting desperate. All that year the American Revolution had drifted back and forth. General Howe\u2019s forces were comfortably in charge of Philadelphia with Howe deep in the arms of his mistress, the quartermaster\u2019s wife nicknamed the Sultana. George Washington\u2019s ragtag forces were at Valley Forge, where, as Allen noted in his diary, \u201cthey have no shelter but the huts they have to build, their situation is but bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for Allen other things are also on his mind. His wife is pregnant. Sometime soon, probably within the next month, she will give birth. He knows how difficult pregnancies are for her. At other times she has had her mother and sisters with her; men, by custom, were forbidden at births. But now those family members are all in British-occupied Philadelphia, and Allen and his family are in Allentown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

James Allen<\/p>\n

Allen had written to Washington, who he had entertained briefly during the horse races in Philadelphia in the blessed days of peace. But \u201cto my utter astonishment (was) met with a refusal; thou\u2019 I know people who were permitted to pass into and out of Philadelphia at liberty without any license.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen decided that the only thing he could do was appeal to Wahington personally. On December 26, the day after Christmas, Allen mounted his horse and left for Valley Forge. Allen was known as a skilled horseman. Even so it could not have been an easy trip, especially during a war. But on arrival he was greeted by Tench Tilghman, Washington\u2019s aide-de-camp. Another was Alexander Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s family had known the Tilghmans for many years. They were regulars on hunting visits to Trout Hall in Allentown.<\/p>\n

\"Trout<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Trout Hall<\/p>\n

Tilghman informed Allen that Washington had granted a permit for himself and his family through American lines to enter the city, but they could not be allowed to leave. It was later explained to Allen that Washington feared that rumors might be spread that he was conspiring with the British using Allen as a go-between. Allen notes in his diary that it was Tilghman \u201cwho had settled the matter\u201d of passage into the city for the Allen family with Washington.<\/p>\n

Shortly after their discussion, Washington entered and according to Allen\u2019s diary he \u201cdined with the Gen. who was very civil to me.\u201d Perhaps they talked about his visit to Allen\u2019s home on Chestnut Street or different breeds of racehorses. Whatever it was it is lost to history.<\/p>\n

Allen returned to Allentown and informed his family of the news. Here he got the word of his older brother John\u2019s death of a \u201cputrid fever.\u201d In early March he left Trout Hall under the supervision of his uncle James Hamilton, his late mother\u2019s brother. It was the last Allen would see of Trout Hall.<\/p>\n

The Allen party arrived safely in Philadelphia on March 13, 1778. On the 24th his wife gave birth to a son. He noted after five daughters, this was his first son, whom he named James.<\/p>\n

Allen did not have time to enjoy his son. While making plans that spring and summer with the French ambassador to relocate his family to France, then America\u2019s ally, the 37-year-old succumbed to tuberculous. The much-longed-for son was apparently a sickly child who died in 1788 at the age of ten.<\/p>\n

\"Tench<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tench Tilghman<\/p>\n

What of Tench Tilghman? A rough contemporary of James Allen, he was born at Fawsley (sometimes spelled with a \u201cu\u201d) plantation owned by his father, James Tilghman, on Christmas day 1744. James Allen recalled in his diary hunting grouse with his brother, William \u201cBilly\u201d Allen, and James Tilghman, who was then also Secretary to the Land Office of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Fawsley was apparently named after an English estate whose roots went back deep into the Middle Ages. The Tilghmans were among the most prominent families on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. His father was a lawyer and a Loyalist who also ran a mercantile business. Whether that business included the buying and selling of slaves is unknown. Tench Tilghman\u2019s Wikipedia biography has this to say of his family:<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many prominent planter families of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Tilghman\u2019s family had social and business ties with business elites in Philadelphia and had intermarried with some prominent Philadelphia families.\u201d The eldest of six brothers and four sisters, Tench attended a plantation school.<\/p>\n

The Tilghmans used enslaved Black people as labor on their plantation. Exact numbers are unknown. Many years later young Frederick Douglass was among the many Black people enslaved at a nearby plantation called Wye House. He later recalled it as crowded with slaves. How many are unknown.<\/p>\n

At the age of 14 Tench was sent by his grandfather to the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which later evolved into the University of Pennsylvania. Graduating in 1761 he became a partner in a family mercantile business that was successful until the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775. If that business included slave trading is not easily discoverable.<\/p>\n

Although a good part of his family was loyal to the British, Tench joined the Continental Army and the unit that the Continental Congress was using to negotiate with Native American tribes on the frontier. In the summer of 1775 Tilghman became a lieutenant In the Philadelphia Light infantry. It was in the summer of 1776 he became one of Washington\u2019s aides-de-camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Letter<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Letter from Tench Tilghman to George Washington, circa 1776\u20131781<\/p>\n

Fluent in French, Tench became invaluable to Washington when Lafayette and other French volunteers joined Americans following the signing of a treaty of alliance. Tench served largely without pay and until the end of the war.<\/p>\n

After the siege of Yorktown with an American victory on October 19, 1781, Washington commissioned Tilghman to take the terms from the Virginia battlefield to the Continental Congress. This Tilghman handled with fine style and poets of the day commemorated it in verse.<\/p>\n

\"Washington,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Washington, Lafayette & Tilghman at Yorktown, by Charles Willson Peale, 1784<\/p>\n

Although he was already suffering from a variety of illnesses, Tilghman went back into the mercantile business and on June 9, 1783, married his first cousin, Anna Maria Tilghman, with whom he had two daughters.<\/p>\n

But it was clear that his health, never strong, was failing. Tench Tilghman died at Chestertown, Maryland on April 18, 1786. He was 41. Like his friend James Allen, he died relatively young. Washington wrote to this family, \u201cI can assure you, that there are none whose death I could more sincerely regret.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the fall of 1777 drifted toward winter, James Allen was getting desperate. All that year the American…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,49837,86410,86411,86409,86408,78098],"class_list":["post-194170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-continental-army","tag-james-allen","tag-james-tilghman","tag-tench-tilghman","tag-tilghman","tag-trout-hall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}