COLONIAL WARS, SOCIETY OF

a patriotic organization formed in 1892 to perpetuate the heroic names and deeds of participants in American colonial wars, and to preserve records and documents of the period. Members must be descended from an ancestor who served as an army or nayal officer, soldier, sailor, or marine, or as a privateersman, either under the authority of the colonies, or in the forces of Great Britain which participated with those ef the colonies in any wars from the settlement of James town to the battle of Lexington; or an ancestor who held public office in the colonial period. The various state societies united with the general society have a membership approaching 5,000.