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Heath made his home for his entire life at his family’s farm in Roxbury, Massachusetts. His family started the farm in 1636, and he was born there on March 7, 1737. He became active in the militia, and was a captain in the Suffolk County militia in 1760, and by 1770 he was a Colonel and its leader.

In December of 1774 the revolutionary government in Massachusetts named him a Brigadier General. He took to the field with part of his unit in the Battle of Lexington and Concord in April of 1775, but there was no American command stucture un that running fight. As the Siege of Boston began Heath devoted himself to traning the militia involved in the siege. In June that year, Massachusetts named him their Major General, and the Continental Congress made him a Brigadier General in the national army.

In 1776 Heath participted in the defense of New York City, and was one of those who urged General WashingtonGeorge Washington ( February 22, 1732— December 14, 1799), also called Father of his Country 1 was an American general and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War ( 1775 1783) and later the first President of the Unite not to abandon the city. He saw action at the Battle of Long IslandThe Battle of Long Island also known as the Battle of Brooklyn took place on August 27, 1776. The American outpost of Colonel Edward Hand sent word that the British were preparing to cross to Long Island from Staten Island on August 22, at dawn when Gener, the Battle of Harlem HeightsThe Battle of Harlem Heights was a skirmish in the New York Campaign of the American Revolutionary War. It was fought in what is now the Morningside Heights and west Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City on September 16, 1776. About 70 were k, and the Battle of White PlainsThe Battle of White Plains was an inconclusive meeting on October 28, 1776 in the American Revolutionary War. General William Howe's British army, with Hessian support was completing their occupation of New York and its environs. George Washington had wit. In August, he was made a Major General in the Continental Army, and in November he was placed in command of forces in the Hudson River Highlands.

After this General Heath served in mainly background area commands. He was in charge of the Convention ArmyThe Convention Army ( 1777- 1783) were the British and allied troops captured after the Battle of Saratoga in the American Revolutionary War. On October 17, 1777, British General John Burgoyne negotiated terms of surrender of his remaining force from the of John BurgoyneJohn Burgoyne ( February 24, 1723 August 4, 1792) was a British general during the American Revolutionary War. On October 17, 1777 at Saratoga he surrendered his army of 6,000 men. Biography Burgoyne entered the army at an early age. In 1743 he made a run’s surrendered troops after the Battle of SaratogaThe Battle of Saratoga is considered, by many historians, to have been the turning point of the American Revolutionary War. A force of roughly 10,000 men—mostly British regulars—under General "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne had advanced from French Canada in. In 1780Events January 16 American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent February, Armed Neutrality of the North alliance formed between Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. March 26 The British Gazette and Sunday Monitor the first Sunday newspaper in Britain May he returned to command the Highland Department after Benedict Arnold’s treason.

After the war, Heath was a member of the Massachusetts Convetion that ratified the United States Constitution in 1788. He served in the state Senate 1791–1792, and as a Probate Court Judge. In 1800 he was elected the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, but declined the office.

He died at home in Roxbury on January 24, 1814 and was buried in the Forrest Hills Cemetery at Jamaica Plains, now a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts.