Margaret Cochran was born in western Pennsylvania to immigrant parents of Irish/Scotch-Irish descent.
Margaret Cochran, who would later become known to history as Margaret Corbin, was born on November 12, 1751, in the frontier region of western Pennsylvania, in territory that is today part of Franklin County. She was born to immigrant parents of Irish and Scotch-Irish descent who had settled on the colonial frontier, a rugged environment marked by both opportunity and danger for European settler families.
Her early childhood was shaped by the harsh realities of frontier life, including the constant threat of conflict between colonial settlers and Native American tribes defending their lands. This tumultuous environment would soon shape her personal history in a profound and tragic way, as she was orphaned at approximately age five when her father was killed and her mother taken captive during a raid.
Though little is documented about her earliest years beyond these bare facts, her birth marks the beginning of a life that would eventually place her among the most significant women of the American Revolutionary era. Raised thereafter by relatives, she grew up in a world without the parental guidance most children experienced, an experience that may have contributed to the resilience and toughness she would later display on the battlefield at Fort Washington.