Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 200, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1918 — First American Knighted. [ARTICLE]

First American Knighted.

Commenting on the fact that several American citizens besides the Inventor of the Browning guns could claim title to knighthood and Inlslst on being ad* dressed as sir, if they were so foolish. New York Evening World recalls that the first native American to be knighted by an English monarch was Sir William Pepperell, who was born ,in Kittery, Me., In 1006. _ His father was a Welshman who came to New England as an apprentice to a fisherman. The son became a merchant and amassed a large foetune. For 82 years he was a member of the royal council of Massachusetts, and as chief justice of the common pleas court he won eminence as a jurist He was knighted for his success as a leader of the expedition against Louisburg, the French stronghold on Cape Breton, and afterward attained the rank of lieutenant general in the British army.