Samuel Brady
Captain Samuel Brady was an Irish American Revolutionary War officer, frontier scout, fighter against Native Americans, and the subject of many legends, in the history of western Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio. He is best known for reportedly jumping across a gorge over the Cuyahoga River to escape pursuing Native Americans in what is present day Kent, Ohio. This jump is still remembered as "Brady's leap".
Samuel Brady's family
Samuel Brady was born on May 5, 1756, in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. His father was Capt. John Brady, who was born in 1733 near Newark, Delaware and who died April 11, 1779, near Muncy, Pennsylvania in an Indian attack. His mother was Mary Quigley Brady, who was born on August 16, 1735, in Hopewell Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and died October 20, 1783, in Muncy, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Capt. John Brady and Mary Quigley Brady had thirteen children, three of whom died in infancy. Their children were Captain Samuel Brady, born 1756, James Brady, born 1758, William Brady, born 1760 and died in infancy, John Brady, born March 18, 1761, Mary Brady, born April 22, 1764, William Penn Brady, born August 16, 1766, General Hugh Brady, twin, born July 27, 1768, Jane Brady, twin, born July 27, 1768, Robert Quigley Brady, born September 12, 1770, Agnes Brady, born February 14, 1773, and died November 24, 1773, Hannah Brady, born December 3, 1774, Joseph Brady, born in August 1777 and died in infancy and Liberty Brady, born August 9, 1778.The Quigleys
Samuel's Irish maternal grandfather, James Quigley, was born in about 1710 and came to America from Ireland in 1730. He settled on of frontier land, in what is today Hopewell Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, close to present day Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. He built his wilderness home of logs close to the banks of Conodoguinet Creek. A bridge later built there caused the location of the Quigley homestead on Conodoguinet Creek to be later called "Quigley's Bridge", where generations of Quigleys continued to live long thereafter.Image:Middle Springs Pennsylvania Presbyterian Church Plaque.jpg|thumb|100px|left|Plaque at Middle Spring Pennsylvania Presbyterian Church
Image:Middle Springs Presbyterian Church 8-10-08.jpg|thumb|100px|left|Rebuilt Middle Spring Pennsylvania Presbyterian Church
Little is known of James' wife, Jeanette, except that she was likely of Irish descent. However, according to local historian and author Belle Swope, "We are assured she was a devoted wife, a loving mother, and a wise counselor, or she would not have given to the world such brave and illustrious children." In 1738 the log Middle Spring Presbyterian Church was erected from their homestead, of which James and Jeanette Quigley became faithful members and in which they along with some of their children came to be buried in its old graveyard. James Quigley had to be and was ever vigilant to keep hostile Indians from killing his family and burning his home – a fate that befell many of his neighbors in those early days on the Pennsylvania frontier. In addition to successfully keeping his home and family safe, on March 25, 1756, James Quigley was commissioned ensign in the Cumberland County Colonial Rangers. He served as a private in the Revolutionary War. He died in 1782. They had six children, who were all born on their Hopewell Township homestead, namely, John Quigley, born in August 1731, Samuel Quigley, born in June 1733, Mary Quigley, born August 16, 1735, Agnes Quigley, born in March 1737 or 1738, Martha Quigley, born in July 1741 and Robert Quigley, born in 1744, who married Mary Jacob. Robert Quigley eventually ended up living on the Quigley Homestead, at Quigley Bridge, Hopewell Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Robert Quigley and his sister Mary Quigley Brady remained very close throughout their lives.
The Bradys
As to the Brady grandparents of Captain Samuel Brady, author Belle Swope states, "No family of pioneers was more conspicuous in the early history and settlement of the country than the Bradys." Hugh Brady was born about 1709 in Ireland. His wife Hannah's maiden name was McCormick. One family tradition stated "the Bradys, McCunes, Sharps, McConnels, Youngs, and two other families came from County Derry ... in one vessel and landed at Cape Henlopen, " but whether Hugh and Hannah actually met and married in Ireland or in America is not certainly known.The Bradys first lived in Delaware where their son John, Captain Samuel Brady's father, was born in 1733. After making several moves filing land claims along the way west, Hugh and Hannah Brady eventually moved to a Presbyterian community on the banks of Conodoguinet creek at Middle Springs, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania by about 1738 or perhaps later, where they established a homestead close to where the Quigleys had already settled. They thereby became near neighbors of and fellow church members with James and Jeanette Quigley. There were nine children in the family, their names as follows: John, Samuel, Joseph, Hugh II, William, Margaret, Mary, Ebenezer, and James. At least six of the seven sons are credited for military service during the Revolutionary War.
Church records show Hannah in 1776 living as a widow. Along with the Quigleys, Hugh and Hannah Brady are both buried in the old cemetery of the Middle Spring Presbyterian Church where in 1923 an organization of their descendants erected a memorial commemorating all eleven Brady family members.
Samuel's father Captain John Brady
Samuel's father John Brady was trained as a surveyor. On 18 April 1760, at the time of the war against the French and the Indians in the west, John Brady received his first commission as Ensign in the 1st Battalion, colonial troops.French and Indian War
John Brady fought in the French and Indian War. The French and Indian War was a colonial war fought between the British, the French and the Indian allies of the French. The British possessions in North America were located on the Atlantic Coast of North America and the French possessions were located in present-day Canada, centered mostly in Quebec. Both the British and the French made conflicting territorial claims on their respective frontiers, principally in present-day Michigan, western Pennsylvania and Ohio. The dispute simmered and flashed for many years. In the end, Britain declared war on France on May 15, 1756. The war between Britain and France was fought on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, it was called the Seven Years' War. Indians fought for both armies. For instance, the Iroquois Confederacy allied itself with the American colonies and the Britain. However, most of the warring tribes in the conflict were allied with the French. The French encouraged their Indian allies to attack the British settlers on the Pennsylvania frontier. The killing and scalping of whole families in isolated cabins on the Pennsylvania frontier was common place. This area of Pennsylvania was the area where the Quigley and Brady families had settled and were determined to live. John Brady was among those who joined the forces to battle the Indian marauders. The French and Indian War ended on February 10, 1763, with the Treaty of Paris, in which France lost all of its North American territory east of the Mississippi and most of Canada.Image:Henry Bouquet.jpg|thumb|80px|right|British Col. Henry BouquetImage:Governor John Penn.JPG|thumb|80px|left|Pennsylvania Governor John Penn
Pontiac's War
However, the Indian threat on the Pennsylvania frontier did not end with the end of the French and Indian War. In 1763, Pontiac's War began pretty much where the French and Indian War left off. Ottawa Chief Pontiac persuaded the Indian tribes, which had been the French allies, to unite to continue battling the British. John Brady was commissioned as a captain on July 19, 1763, in the Second Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiments, commanded by Governor John Penn, which Regiments fought in Pontiac's War. Captain John Brady actively fought against the Indian forces that were attacking and killing many frontier families in Bedford and Cumberland Counties, Pennsylvania. However, Pontiac took many frontier forts and settlements in present-day Michigan and Ohio. Pontiac's forces besieged Fort Pitt, Fort Ligionier and Fort Bedford in Pennsylvania. British Col. Henry Bouquet organized a force that marched to lift these sieges, which it did. Bouquet became the commander of Fort Pitt. In the fall of 1764, Col. Henry Bouquet commanded an army of colonial militia and regular British troops from Fort Pitt that moved into the Ohio Country and forced the Shawnees, Senecas and Delawares to make peace. Captain John Brady served in the Pennsylvania forces that participated in this expedition.Image:Pontiac's war region.png|thumb|200px|right|Map showing the area where Pontiac's War was fought
Image:Big Runaway Map.PNG|thumb|300px|right|Map showing Fort Brady and Fort Muncy, Pennsylvania