Church (Benjamin) is born in Newport, Rhode Island.

The namesake and great grandson of the famous Colonial Indian fighter, Benjamin Church moves to Boston with his parents in 1745, graduates from Boston Latin School and Harvard College, and studies medicine in London. Returning to Boston in approximately 1760. He is one of only a few doctors in the town to have trained in Europe, and lives on Avon Place, near today’s 486 Washington Street. A member of the Sons of Liberty and Provincial Congress, he is appointed Director-General of the Continental Army in 1775,* but a few months later is found to be a British spy. After his release from prison, Church dies on a ship bound for the West Indies in 1778.