Excerpt from Col. Marinus Willett; The Hero of Mohawk Valley: An Address Before the Oneida Historical Society

Edward Willett (the father of Col. Willett, ) was a Quaker and a farmer of moderate means, near Jamaica, on Long Island; at that homestead Marinus was born on July 31, 1740, (old style.) He was the second son and child in a family of thirteen children the same number that was born uhto his great grandfather afore mentioned. That father died in 1794, at the age of ninety-four years, and, although he belonged to a denomination that was on principle, Opposed to war, yet he was destined to see two of his sons, before they were eighteen, enter the military service of their country, and the one to become a prominent leader; the other to be a lieutenant on an English privateer, and the vessel on which he was engaged swept away in a hurricane in the French war of 1758, and all on board lost at sea. Marinus, until he was nearly eighteen years of age, pursued the quiet and peaceful pursuits of a farm life at his father's homestead. About that period of his life, he was moved by a spirit of self-reliance to leave the paternal roof and provide for himself. With a resolute will and a determined spirit, and with only twenty shillings in his pocket, he crossed over to New York to seek in that great city employment, and, if possible, make his fortune. It was about the time of the French war of 1758, when the colonists were greatly excited by reason of raising of tr00ps, and the activity of the contending forces. In the early Spring of that year, three English expeditions were being fitted out, with a view to attack the French at different points, and drive them out of this country. One of those expedi tions, and in which New York took the greatest interest, was under the command of General Abercrombie, and to be led by him from Albany to lakes George and Champlain to attack Fort Ticonderoga, then garrisoned by tr00ps under Montcalm, a a field marshal of France. Here were to be raised in the vicinity of New York three battalions of 900 men each, to be under the command of Col. Oliver delancey, a brother of the acting governor of New York.

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