Andrew Bunner

Before the revolution Andrew Bunner was a successful Philadelphia merchant but when the war started Andrew Bunner & Co. was under constant risk of loss from captures of their vessels by British ships of war. Their transactions were of the utmost importance to the American cause. They imported ammunition largely, and frequently in the hour of necessity the Continental troops were indebted to them for the means of meeting the enemy.

The company also put their capital into vessels intended to retaliate upon the British. They built several privateers, which made havoc in the commerce of England. One of these privateers, the schooner Mars, Captain Yelverton Taylor, took, in three vessels, five hundred English and Hessian soldiers. During the war the privateers of Andrew Bunner & Co. took one thousand prisoners, for whom American prisoners, languishing in the "Old Sugar House" and the "Jersey Prison Ship," at New York, were exchanged. Fifty prizes were also captured by the privateers of this firm. The company was patriotic, and ready at all times to aid the government.

The firm of Andrew Bunner & Co. subscribed to the amount of £6,000 to the fund of £260,000, raised among a few citizens of Philadelphia, in 1780, for the support of government in an hour of great need.