Stephen Lush

Who was Stephen Lush?

Stephen Lush was an American politician and lawyer from New York, and an officer during the American Revolutionary War.

Lush was born in New York City. He attended King's College, earning a bachelor of arts in 1770 and a masters degree in 1773. He was admitted to the bar in 1774, at the age of twenty-one, and moved to Albany to practice law and live with his brother, Richard.

After the start of the American Revolutionary War, he was elected to the Albany Committee of Correspondence in 1776. He served as a captain in the New York Volunteers in 1776, and then joined the Fifth New Jersey Regiment under Colonel Oliver Spencer, serving as acting judge advocate general in 1777. He attained the rank of major, and served as the aide-de-camp of General George Clinton. Clinton commanded Fort Montgomery, on the Hudson River; when the fort was taken by the British on October 6, 1777, Lush was captured. He was held prisoner for nearly a year, when he was used as bait in a proposed exchange of three prisoners; Clinton agreed without hesitation, unaware that one of the other American prisoners was actually a valuable British spy.