William Irvine (November 3, 1741July 29, 1804) was an Irish-American physician, soldier, and statesman from Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He practiced medicine as a ship's surgeon for the Royal Navy before he sympathized with the American Revolution and fought against the British during the American Revolutionary War. As tensions escalated between the American colonies and the British government during the 1770s, Irvine sympathized and allied himself with the revolutionary cause. He subsequently served as a brigadier general in the American Revolutionary War and served in the western theater. After the war he served in the Continental Congress, and later played an active role in ending the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. He also served one term in Congress representing Pennsylvania, and was also active in the state's other public affairs. Early life Irvine came from a Scots-Irish, Presbyterian family, born near Enniskillen, in County Fermanagh, Ulster, in the Kingdom of Ireland. His Scots-Irish ethnicity and Presbyterian religion would at first prove to be an obstacle in the English-dominated social worlds of colonial America. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin, where he studied medicine and classical literature under Doctor George Cleghorn who would later vouch for Irvine's competency and knowledge of medicine. Thereafter he was admitted to practice where he served as ship's surgeon on a British man-of-war during the French and Indian War. In 1763 he immigrated to the British colonies in America and settled in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. That year he became a delegate to the State Revolutionary conventions held in 1764–1766. In 1772 he married Ann Callender, daughter of Robert Callender, a prominent citizen of Carlisle whom Irvine held in high regard and named his first son after. Irvine had two brothers, Andrew who was an officer in the Continental Army, and Matthew, who was a physician and a surgeon in General Charles Lee's division. His son, Callender, was born in 1774 and became a captain of artillery and engineers in 1798. Callender would later manage his father's estate at Brokenstraw when Irvine's political appointment required that he move to Philadelphia. His second son, William, enlisted in the army as a captain of light artillery in 1808, and later fought in the War of 1812. Irvine's youngest son, Armstrong, also served in the War of 1812, as Adjutant General of the Militia of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Throughout his military career Irvine was an avid letter writer and, aside from his military