Jonathan L. Austin

Austin was born on January 2, 1748, in Boston, Massachusetts.[2] He graduated from Harvard College in 1766.[1] After he graduated, Austin moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and became a merchant there.[1]

When the war started Austin became a Major in Langdon's Regiment, and later an aid to General John Sullivan.[1]

Austin was the secretary to the Massachusetts Board of War until October 1777,[1] when he was sent to Paris by Massachusetts to announce to Benjamin Franklin and his associates the news of John Burgoyne's surrender at the Battle of Saratoga.[6]

Franklin soon afterwards sent him on a secret mission to England, where he met many members of the opposition and furnished them with much information concerning American affairs. The trip was full of incident, and, says one of Franklin's biographers (Morse), "brings to mind some of the Jacobite tales of Sir Walter Scott's novels." He carried dispatches to Congress from the United States Commissioners in Paris early in 1779, and in January 1780, was dispatched to Europe to secure loans for Massachusetts in Spain and Holland.[6]

That same month Austin was captured by the British while on this mission.[1] He was later released. He failed to secure the loan and he returned in the autumn of 1781.[1]

Austin married Hannah Ivers,[4] the daughter of James[4] and Hannah (Trecothick) Ivers,[4] in Boston, on April 4, 1782.[5]

Austin served as Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth for two years, from 1806 to 1808.[7]

Austin served as Treasurer and Receiver-General of Massachusetts from 1811 to 1812.[7]

• Julie Helen Ott, "Lydia and Her Daughters: A Boston Matrilineal Case Study," NEHGS Nexus, Vol. IX, No. 1, pg. 25 (1992).
• Cutter, William Richard, ed., Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume IV (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1908), 1717.