James Leonard was born in 1748, in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland. He married Mary Barclay Finley in 1768. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 3 daughters. He died in 1791, in Pennsylvania, United States, at the age of 43.
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Thomas Jefferson's American Declaration of Independence endorsed by Congress. Colonies declare independence.
The Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. The liberty bell was first rung here to Celebrate this important document.
The Revolutionary War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris which gave the new nation boundries on which they could expand and trade with other countries without any problems.
English; French (Léonard); Walloon (mainly Léonard): from a personal name composed of the ancient Germanic elements leo ‘lion’ (a late addition to the vocabulary of ancient Germanic name elements, taken from Latin) + hard ‘hardy, brave, strong’, which was taken to England by the Normans. A Christian saint of this name, who is supposed to have lived in the 6th century, but about whom nothing is known except for a largely fictional life dating from half a millennium later, was popular throughout Europe in the early Middle Ages and was regarded as the patron of peasants and horses. In North America, the English form of the surname has absorbed cognates from other languages, e.g. Italian Leonardo , Polish, Slovenian, etc. Lenart or Lenard , and probably also their derivatives. Compare Larned , Learned , and Yenor .
Irish (Fermanagh): adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Mac Giolla Fhionáin or of Langan .
German: variant of Leonhard , cognate with 1 above.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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