Daniel Roberdeau

Daniel Roberdeau was born in the West Indies in 1727 and came to Pennsylvania as a young man, establishing himself as a successful merchant in Philadelphia. He built a commercial network that gave him both wealth and political connections, and as the colonial crisis deepened in the 1770s, he moved steadily toward the patriot cause. Roberdeau served in the Pennsylvania colonial assembly and became one of the more outspoken voices for colonial rights, a position that placed him among the men Pennsylvania would turn to when formal resistance became necessary.

When the Revolutionary War began, Roberdeau held the unusual double role of Continental congressman and militia general simultaneously. He served in the Continental Congress during its period in York, Pennsylvania, from 1777 to 1778, when the British occupation of Philadelphia had forced Congress to relocate. During this period he was a persistent advocate for improving the supply situation of the Continental Army, which was suffering through the brutal winter at Valley Forge not far away. Acting on his belief that American forces needed domestic sources of lead for musket balls, Roberdeau used his own money to fund the establishment of a lead mine in Pennsylvania, creating what became known as Fort Roberdeau. The operation supplied ammunition at a moment when the army's ability to fight was genuinely in question.

Roberdeau's postwar years were more difficult than his wartime service might have suggested. His personal investment in wartime supply ventures drained his fortune, and he faced financial hardship in the 1780s and 1790s. He moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where he died in 1795. His legacy rested on his willingness to commit his personal resources to the patriot cause at its most desperate moment and on his service in Congress during the York period, when the survival of the Continental government itself was uncertain.