Shippen was probably Joseph Shippen, Jr. (1732–1810), son of Edward and Sarah Plumley Shippen of Lancaster, Pa. He had graduated from Princeton in 1753 and served as an officer in the Pennsylvania Regiment during the French and Indian War. He was with Gen. John Forbes on the Fort Duquesne expedition and probably knew GW at that time. From 1762 until its dissolution in 1775, Shippen served as secretary of the Pennsylvania council and in 1786 was appointed a judge of the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas (SHIPPEN description begins “Military Letters of Captain Joseph Shippen of the Provincial Service, 1756–1758.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 36 (1912): 367–78, 385–463. description ends , 36:367; BALCH [2] description begins Thomas Willing Balch. “The English Ancestors of the Shippen Family and Edward Shippen, of Philadelphia.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 28 (1904): 385–402. description ends , 28:399).