John Ledyard - Early Life

Early Life

Ledyard was born in Groton, Connecticut, the oldest son of John and Abigail (Hempstead) Ledyard and the nephew of Continental Army Colonel William Ledyard. After his father, a sea captain, died of malaria in the Caribbean, Ledyard's mother and family moved to Southold, Long Island. Three years later Ledyard joined his grandfather in Hartford, Connecticut, where he attended school. His grandfather died just before Ledyard turned 20; perhaps due to Ledyard's profligacy the bulk of the family inheritance was left to a younger brother.

Ledyard briefly attended Dartmouth College (which was then only 3 years old), arriving on 22 April 1772. He left for two months without permission in August and September of that year, led a mid-winter camping expedition, and finally abandoned the college for good in May 1773. Memorably he fashioned his own dugout canoe and paddled it for a week down the Connecticut River to his grandfather's farm. Today, the Ledyard Canoe Club, a division of the Dartmouth Outing Club sponsors an annual canoe trip down the Connecticut River in his honor. At loose ends, he decided to travel; "I allot myself a seven year's ramble more," he wrote to a cousin. He shipped as a common seaman on a year-long trading voyage to Gibraltar, the Barbary Coast, and the Caribbean. On his next voyage, he jumped ship in England, but was soon impressed and forced to join the British Navy as a marine.