Warren, Joseph (1741–1775)

American colonial physician and revolutionary leader. Opposing British colonial rule in Massachusetts, he sent Paul Revere and William Dawes to warn the countryside of the approach of the British 1775. Appointed major general of the Massachusetts militia, he was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill 1775.

Warren was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard University. He established a private medical practice in Boston. In 1774 he drafted the ‘Suffolk Reserves’, which urged the use of force against the British if necessary. Warren was a member of the first, second and third Provincial Congresses 1774–75, and was president of the third.