1st Lt. Edward Crawford
Like many of his fellow-officers Crawford was a native of northern Ireland: his father Edward emigrated to Pennsylvania from Donegal about 1740, settling in Guilford Township, then in Cumberland but now in Franklin County. The father married Elizabeth, daughter of John and Martha Sterritt of Lancaster County; Lieutenant Edward was born about 1757, the sixth of eight children.
Edward Crawford first served as Ensign in the company commanded by Captain James Grier [an Original Member of the Society] of the Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion, Colonel Edward Hand. In February 1777 he was promoted to Second Lieutenant, and on 23 March was commissioned First Lieutenant, the rank he held for the remainder of his army career. He served almost entirely in the First Pennsylvania Regiment, as the Rifle Battalion became after 1 July 1776, but when the Pennsylvania Line was reorganized on 1 January 1783, Crawford was assigned to the Third Regiment.
The actions of the First Pennsylvania have previously been discussed and little is known about Crawford’s personal involvement, except that he was wounded in the chaotic attack on the Blockhouse at Bull’s Ferry, New Jersey, on 21 July 1780, and the statement has been made that he “came near to losing his life at Yorktown,” but the diary of Captain Joseph McClellan shows that Crawford was sent back to Pennsylvania “with a number of our soldiers’ wives” on 16 September, so that it is almost impossible for him to have been at the siege, which began on 6 October.
After the war, when Crawford applied for his “pay for life”, he supported his claim by an affidavit giving some insight into his experiences and the workings of the army:
I acted as paymaster by virtue of an appointment, the four last years of the war, the pay for this service was $10 per month, in addition to my pay as Lieutenat $26.67 – in the first Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line – this will appear by referring to my settlement[,] said paymaster with Wm Pierce the auditor at the peace of 83[,] by which I had great trouble and loss – It is therefore respectfully submitted to the Secretary whether I ought not receive the pay [of $10] as payment in addition to the $26.67 being both together very regular pay in the Line[.] I presume there is not a similar case in Pennsylvania the paymasters being generally aged persons – myself very young.
Crawford was mustered out in June 1783. He signed the Parchment Roll of the Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania, as well as the “Pay Order of of 1784.”
After the war Crawford made his home in Franklin County. On 11 September 1784, when Franklin County was established, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace. He also served as Prothonotary, Clerk of the Courts, and Register and Recorder of Deeds between 1784 and 1809. In 1809 he was one of the founders of the Bank of Chambersburg, was its first President and continued in the position for more than twenty years. In December 1814 he was elected a manager of the Franklin County Bible Society and was also a trustee of the Falling Spring Presbyterian Church. He does not seem to have been concerned in post-war military affairs, but when Chambersburg’s soldiers came home from the War of 1812 he was selected to give them an Address of Welcome.
The Franklin Repository of Chambersburg in its issue of 12 March 1833 said, “One of the oldest, one of the most useful, and one of the most respected of the citizens of Chambersburg has fallen under the stroke that spares none. Edward Crawford, Esq., died on the morning of Wednesday…the 6th of March last [1833], aged 75 years…”
Crawford first married Elizabeth Holsinger of York County, who was born in 1762 and died in 1792. They had two children, Catharine, and Thomas Hartley Crawford, named for his uncle Colonel Thomas Hartley [an Original Member of the Society] late of the Eleventh Pennsylvania. Edward Crawford married secondly in 1793 Rebecca Colhoun (1775-1839), and there were two children of the second marriage, Ruhana Chambers Crawford, who died an infant, and Elizabeth Sterritt Crawford.