Ezekiel Cornell

Who was Ezekiel Cornell?

Ezekiel Cornell represented Rhode Island in the U.S. Continental Congress from 1780 to 1782.

Ezekiel Cornell was born in 1732 in either Dartmouth, Massachusetts or Scituate, Rhode Island. He attended the public schools and was employed as a mechanic. Cornell served as Scituate's town meeting moderator in 1768, 1781 and 1785 and as a Deputy from Scituate to the General Assembly in 1772, 1774 and 1775.

During the American Revolution Cornell was appointed lieutenant colonel in Hitchcock’s Rhode Island Regiment in 1775 and was present at the siege of Boston. The unit was taken into the Continental Army, from which Cornell resigned in December 1776.

Cornell was appointed deputy adjutant general on October 1, 1776, appointed brigadier general of State troops in 1776 and served until March 16, 1780.

Cornell served as a member of the Continental Congress from 1780 until 1782 and retired to his farm at Scituate, Rhode Island.

Ezekiel Cornell died in Milford, Massachusetts on April 25, 1800. His site of burial is unknown.