13 Facts About Marinus Willett

Colonel Marinus Willett was an American military officer, politician and merchant who served as the mayor of New York City from 1807 to 1808.

Marinus Willett participated in the Ticonderoga campaign and the British capture of Fort Frontenac in 1758, before falling sick and being transferred to Fort Stanwix in order to recuperate.

Marinus Willett was made colonel of the 5th New York Regiment in 1780 and the Tryon County militia in 1781, where he fought at Johnstown before the war's end in 1783.

Marinus Willett enlisted in the 3rd New York Regiment at the rank of lieutenant-colonel in mid-1776.

Marinus Willett subsequently aligned himself politically with the Anti-Federalist Party, including governor of New York George Clinton, to whom Willett served as a political advisor.

Marinus Willett's mission was successful, and a delegation of twenty-seven Muscogee leaders led by McGillivray came to the city and negotiated the 1790 Treaty of New York with Washington and United States Secretary of War Henry Knox.

Marinus Willett continued to advise the federal government on indigenous affairs after the treaty was signed.

Marinus Willett was appointed to serve as an emissary to the Northwestern Confederacy, which he declined.

From 1807 to 1808, Marinus Willett served as New York City mayor, having previously joined the Democratic-Republican Party.

Marinus Willett participated in a special election as the Tammany Hall candidate, where he was defeated by DeWitt Clinton; this led to Marinus Willett retiring from politics.

Marinus Willett's corpse was later reburied in the New York City Marble Cemetery.

Marinus Willett was one of the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati, a fraternal hereditary society founded in 1783; the society's membership was restricted to those who had served as military officers in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

In 1791, Marinus Willett commissioned American painter Ralph Earl to paint a full-length portrait of him.