William Hull, an American soldier, born in Derby, Conn., June 24, 1753, died in Newton, Mass., Nov. 29, 1825. He graduated at Yale college in 1772, studied law at Litchfield, Conn., and was admitted to the bar in 1775. He entered the army of the revolution at Cambridge in 1775 as captain of a Connecticut company of volunteers; was made major in the 8th Massachusetts regiment in 1777, and lieutenant colonel in 1779, and was inspector of the army under Baron Steuben. He was in the battles at White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Stillwater, Saratoga, Monmouth, and Stony Point. He commanded the expedition against Morrisania, for which he received the thanks of Washington and of congress. After the war he was major general of the 3d division of Massachusetts militia, and a state senator, and was appointed by Jefferson governor of Michigan territory in 1805. He remained in this office till 1812, when he was appointed as brigadier general to the command of the northwestern army. He marched his troops through the wilderness to Detroit, heard of the declaration of war, and of the fall of Michilimack-inac, which let loose the Indians of the northwest upon him, crossed into Canada, but found his communications cut off, recrossed, and on the arrival of Gen. Brock surrendered to that officer the post of Detroit and the territory.

For this act he was tried two years after by a court martial, and sentenced to be shot, the execution of the sentence was remitted by the president in consideration of his age and revolutionary services. In 1824 Gen. Hull published a series of letters in defence of his conduct in this campaign. In 1848 a volume was published in New York on his revolutionary services and the campaign of 1812, written by his daughter, Mrs. Maria Campbell of Georgia, and his grandson, the Rev. James F. Clarke of Massachusetts.