"The United States of all British America" – 1774

Happy 250th birthday to my friends and readers in the United States of America. It was spring 1775 when the 13 British colonies, meeting together as the Second Continental Congress, first decided to to describe themselves as "United Colonies". That term did the job for almost a year.

Of course, on our side of the Atlantic there was the United Kingdom, the United Provinces of Holland, and the United States of Sweden.

On 2 January 1776,  Stephen Moylan from Cork was George Washington's secretary and is said to have been first to write the term "United States of America" in a letter to Joseph Reed (article about the letter is online here).

However, digitised newspapers make it easy to text-search and to find sources from long ago.

Rev. Edmund Marshall (1730-1797) was the Church of England clergyman of St Peter and St Paul Parish Church in Charing in Kent. He wrote articles about history and current affairs commentary in the Kentish Gazette newspaper, under the name 'Candidus on American Affairs'. Here's an extract from one of his articles which was published on 16 November 1774:

"On the other hand, you have the United States of all British America, a people numerous, warlike, virtuous, firm, sagacious, and, what is more, our own Christian Protestant brethren, descended from the same common stock, and leagued together in the sacred cause of what they esteem their common inheritance, the right of taxing themselves - the basis of liberty."