James AGNEW

2nd of Howlish Hall.

A brigadier in Gen. Sir William Howe's Army, he commanded 4 regiments during the invasion of Pennsylvania in the fall of 1777. During the Battle of Brandywine in September, he was grazed by a cannonball. He was leading his men during the Battle of Germantown in October when he was shot while rounding a corner. He and his aide Lt. Col. Bird, were buriedin the "Lower Burial-Ground" at Germantown Ave. and Logan St. Fearing desecration of the graves when the British Army left in 1778, permissionwas obtained by Gen. Howe to bury them during May in the family plot of Dr. George DeBenneville in Branchtown. The graves remained undisturbed in the NE corner until 1902 when a widened Broad Street was extendednorthward, necessitating the removal of several graves.Upon learning ofthis, His Britannic Majesty's consul William Powell, Esq. and Mrs. Anna DeBenneville Mears (great granddaughter of Dr. George DeBenneville) arranged a formal dedication and memorial. The remains of both men wereplaced in a new casket and re-interred at the NW-wall of the cemetery.A dedication address was presented by Consul Powell on Sunday, October4, 1903 (the 126th anniversary of the Battle of Germantown) and consecration of the site was tended by Rev. Frederick Dunham Ward of St. Clement's Protestant Episcopal Church.

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