William Irvine, an American soldier, born near Enniskillen, Ireland, about 1742, died in Philadelphia, July 30, 1804. He graduated at Dublin university, studied medicine and surgery, and was appointed surgeon on board a ship of war, serving during a part of the war of 1756-'63 between Great Britain and France. On the declaration of peace he emigrated to America, and in 1764 settled in Carlisle, Pa. At the opening of the revolution he took part with the colonies. He was a member of the provincial convention assembled July 15, 1774, until he was appointed by congress, Jan. 10, 1776, colonel of the 6th battalion of the Pennsylvania line, and was ordered to join the army in Canada. He was made prisoner at the battle of Three Rivers in June of the same year, and was released on parole, Aug. 3, but was not exchanged until April, 1778. In July, 1778, he was a member of the court martial which tried Gen. Charles Lee. On May 12, 1779, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, and was assigned to the command of the 2d brigade of the Pennsylvania line. In the unsuccessful attack of Gen. Wayne at Bull's Ferry, July 21 and 22, 1780, he commanded his brigade.

In the autumn of 1781 he was ordered to Fort Pitt, to take command of the troops on the western frontier, where he remained till Oct. 1, 1783. In 1785 he was appointed agent for the state under an "act for directing the mode of distributing the donation lands promised to the troops of the commonwealth." He became a member of congress in 1787, and was selected, with Messrs. Gilman and Kain, one of the commissioners for settling the accounts of the United States with the several states. He was a member of the convention for revising the constitution of Pennsylvania, and again from 1793 to 1795 a member of congress. In 1794 he was assigned to the command of the Pennsylvania troops for quelling the "whiskey insurrection," and took an active part in all the most important movements. In March, 1801, he was appointed superintendent of military stores at Philadelphia. He was president of the state society of the Cincinnati at his death.