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John Ledyard (November 1751 – 10 January 1789) was an American explorer and adventurer. ==Early life== Ledyard was born in Groton, Connecticut, in November 1751. The fact that Captain John Ledyard was at sea from November or December of 1749, and did not arrive in port at New London, CT until 1 May 1750 has not deterred all Ledyard historians from sticking to that story that "his" son was born in November 1751 (based on no documentary evidence other than "Ledyard family history.") The fact is, according to "The Diary of Joshua Hempstead, a Daily Record of Life in Colonial New London, CT, 1711 - 1758," published by the New London County Historical Society (1999). (). Joshua Hempstead is the grandfather of Abigail Hempstead, who married Captain John Ledyard, on 6 May 1750 at Seatauket, NY (as documented in his diary cited above). Seven months later, John the famous traveler was born in early December, at Groton, CT. He was the first child of Abigail and Capt. John Ledyard, the "legal" father. That Capt. John was at sea when that healthy blond baby was conceived is ignored by all but me, and a few men of words, i.e., Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Joshua Hempstead(even though he was constrained from including names of the principal characters in the story of the famous John Ledyard). A day or so after that child was born in December 1750 Capt. John boarded his (father's) ship and sailed for the West Indies. He returned in April 1751, As grandfather-in-law Joshua Hempstead recorded in his diary. Capt. John was not available to be the biological father of Abigail's first child; he was not available to be the father of any child of Abigail Ledyard born in September, October, or November of 1751. He had not arrived back in port at New London until 19 April 1751, as recorded in Joshua Hempstead's diary.] (Reference:ppg.536 & 537, The Diary of Joshua Hempstead(1999), New London County Historical Society, New London, CT.(Permission to cite this reference was granted to me several years ago by Patricia M. Schaefer, who was then the President. She is still active in the NLCHS at this time, 22 Sep 2015. ATL) ). Editor's note: the reasons for the subterfuge practiced by this Ledyard family are explainable. They wanted to hide the early birth of "their" famous traveler; and also to ignore/downplay the "ordinariness" of their other children, John's half-siblings. Of which, the second-born, named Robert Ledyard, after his grandfather, Robert Hempstead(again, Joshua just makes note of the birth without mentioning reason or name. See pg.606 & 669 of the Diary, to find how the family dealt with ONE of their "ordinary" children. ATL a sea captain, died of malaria in the Caribbean, Ledyard's mother and family moved to Southold, Long Island. Three years later Ledyard joined his grandfather in Hartford, Connecticut, where he attended school. His grandfather died just before Ledyard turned 20; perhaps due to Ledyard's profligacy the bulk of the family inheritance was left to a younger brother. Ledyard briefly attended Dartmouth College (which was then only 3 years old), arriving on 22 April 1772. He left for two months without permission in August and September of that year, led a mid-winter camping expedition, and finally abandoned the college for good in May 1773. Memorably he fashioned his own dugout canoe, and paddled it for a week down the Connecticut River to his grandfather's farm. Today, the Ledyard Canoe Club, a division of the Dartmouth Outing Club sponsors an annual canoe trip down the Connecticut River in his honor. At loose ends, he decided to travel; "I allot myself a seven year's ramble more," he wrote to a cousin. He shipped as a common seaman on a year-long trading voyage to Gibraltar, the Barbary Coast, and the Caribbean. On his next voyage, he jumped ship in England, but was soon impressed and forced to join the British Navy as a marine. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Ledyard」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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