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Deborah Child will lead a discussion on her book “Soldier, Engraver, Forger: Richard Brunton’s Life on the Fringe in America’s New Republic” on May 19, at 12:00 pm-12:30 pm
Deborah Child will lead a discussion based on her book ““Soldier, Engraver, Forger: Richard Brunton’s Life on the Fringe in America’s New Republic””, on May 19, 2016, at the Connecticut State Library. Once described as a man of great ingenuity and skill, Richard Brunton literally lead a “life on the fringe.” After deserting the British army in the midst of the American Revolution, he tried to establish himself as an engraver and dye-sinker first in Boston, Massachusetts, and then in Providence, Rhode Island.
When these efforts failed, like so many craftsman in the New Republic, he took to the road working as a journeyman in his craft. Still unable to secure a livelihood, he often resorted to creating counterfeit paper money and coins. For this, he was incarcerated on at least two occasions in Connecticut including a two year stint inside NewGate prison in Simsbury for counterfeiting true silver coins before he died in a Groton, MA almshouse in 1832.
Copies of his biography “Soldier, Engraver, Forger: Richard Brunton’s Life on the Fringe in America’s New Republic” (New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015) will be available for purchase after the lecture.
For more details see www.deborahmchild.com