[1] John Dagworthy, born in 1721, came from a prominent Royalist family in Trenton, New Jersey and was a devoted member of the Anglican Church of England.

To this end the young captain Dagworthy sailed to England in the interest of his own cause, where he finally got his wish and received a royal commission in His Majesty's service.

[2] During the French and Indian War Captain John Dagworthy, was under the overall command of Colonel James Innes, the commander-in-chief of colonial forces at that time.

When Braddock was killed, George Washington, at the time a young officer of the Virginia militia, led the surviving troops back to Fort Cumberland.

At that time, Washington was a major in the Virginia militia, a rank that Dagworthy considered inferior to his own Royal commission as a captain.

[6] The fort was built at the confluence of Wills Creek and the Potomac River, by troops of the Maryland militia under Dagworthy's command, in the fall of 1754.

[7] Washington deeply resented the idea that a British captain considered himself to be of superior rank, especially since Dagworthy had obtained his royal commission for a price.

[5] When the American Revolutionary War broke out between the colonies and Great Britain, Dagworthy became a member of the Sussex County Committee of Safety and duly assigned a military post.