Captain James Sulivane (sometimes spelled Sullivane) was a 2nd lieutenant in the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. After the war's end, in 1785, he was the primary catalyst in the growth and development of present-day

East New Market, Maryland East New Market is a town located in Dorchester County, Maryland, United States. The population was 400 at the 2010 census. The ZIP code is 21631. Geography East New Market is located at (38.596219, -75.923613). According to the United Sta ...

Early life and education

Sulivane was born March 30, 1737, possibly at East New Market's Friendship Hall in what was then pre-

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

British America British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, which became the British Empire after the 1707 union of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, in the Americas from 16 ...

. Sulivane married Mary Ennalls in the early 1760s and had at least four children.

Career

American War of Independence

Sulivane was also a prominent local figure in the

. He served as a 2nd Lieutenant and Captain for a local militia group that he organized. The group was called "The New Market Blues". Sulivane later served as the Deputy Assistant Commissary for the Continental Army. As commissary, he would obtain arms, food, clothing, and other provisions for the army.

East New Market, Maryland

In 1776, Sulivane combined several tracts of land and resurveyed the tract as "Newmarket" in present-day

. In 1785, he carved out the town's first 20 lots on the northwest part of his property. Sulivane likely chose the name "New Market" because he had

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

in mind and

Newmarket, Suffolk Newmarket is a market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. Located (14 miles) west of Bury St Edmunds and (14 miles) northeast of Cambridge. It is considered the birthplace and global centre of thoroughbred hor ...

was then among the most notable horse racing towns in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Horse racing had a short but prominent history in Newmarket, as it was then known. Horse racing was first mentioned as early as 1777 in a report by Thomas Sparrow to the Maryland Council of Safety, which read, "...I intended next to go to New Market,

Dorchester County Dorchester County is the name of two counties in the United States: * Dorchester County, Maryland Dorchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. At the 2020 census, the population was 32,531. Its county seat is Cambridge ...

as I understood there was to be two days races, but my friends advised me not,..." Over 12 horse racing notices from ''Maryland Herald and Eastern Shore Intelligencer'' and the ''Easton Republican Star'' dating from the 1790s to 1821 mention the races at Newmarket. In 2006, Brian Tolley, a manager for a company engaged in aerial photography and satellite image processing, located the site of the race track using aerial photos from 1938 and 1957. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sulivane, James 1737 births Continental Army officers from Maryland Date of death missing People from Dorchester County, Maryland People from colonial Maryland Year of death unknown