Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, 1787-1788

Edited by John Bach McMaster and Frederick D. Stone

CHAPTER IX: SKETCHES OF THE MEMBERS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA CONVENTION

BY W. H. EGLE, M. D.

ALLISON, JOHN, of Franklin county, was born in Antrim township, that county, December 23, 1738. His father, William Allison, was a native of the north of Ireland, where he was born on the 12th of November, 1693; came to America about 1730, and located in the Cumberland Valley, where he died on the 14th of December, 177 8. John, the second son, received a thorough English and classical education, chiefly tinder the care of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ministers of the locality. As early as October, 1764, he was appointed one of the provincial magistrates for Cumberland county, and reappointed in 1769. At a meeting of the citizens of that county, held at Carlisle on July 12, 1774, he was appointed on the Committee of Observation for Cumberland, and became quite active in the struggle for independence. He was a member of the provincial conference held at Carpenters’ Hall, 18th of June, 1776, and appointed by that body one of the judges of the election of members to the first Constitutional Convention for the second division of the county, at Chambersburg. He was in command of one of the Associated battalions of Cumberland county during the Jersey campaigns of 1776 and 1777, and a member of the General Assembly in 1778, 1780, and 1781. In the latter year he laid out the town of Greencastle, which has grown to be one of the most flourishing towns in the Cumberland Valley. In 1787 he was chosen a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution, and in that body seconded the motion of Thomas McKean to assent to and ratify it.At the first federal conference, held at Lancaster in 1788, he was nominated for Congress, but defeated at the election that year. Colonel Allison died June 14, 1795.

ARNDT, John, of Northampton county, son of Jacob Arndt, was born 3d of June, 1748, in Bucks county, province of Pennsylvania. His father removed to Northampton county in 1760, where he erected what was long known as Arndt’s mill, on the Bushkin, and here most of his life was spent. At the outset of the war of the Revolution he became one of the Ieading spirits in that struggle. He was captain of a company in Colonel Baxter’s battalion of Northampton county of the “Flying Camp,” and in the battle of Long Island was wounded and taken prisoner. He was soon after exchanged, and on the 25th of March, 1777, was commissioned register of wills; and justice of the peace, June, 1777. He was appointed one of the commissioners to take subscriptions for the continental loan, December 16, 1777; and commissary of purchases in Pennsylvania, February 9, 1778. While filling this latter position he advanced large sums of money to the government, most of which was refunded to him. He served on the Committee of Safety for the county, was one of its most efficient members, and earnestly devoted to the patriot cause; was appointed by the General Assembly one of the commissioners to settle the accounts of the County Lieutenants, December 4, 1778; and one of the Commissioners of Exchange, April 5, 1779. He was elected a member of the Council of Censors, 1783-84; delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution, 1787; and chosen an elector at the first presidential election following. In 1783, when Dickinson College was incorporated, he was named one of the original trustees. He served several years as county treasurer, was appointed recorder of deeds and clerk of the Orphans’ Court, May 22, 1788, and continued in office under the constitution of 1790 until the election of Governor McKean, when he was removed. Under the act of 1796 the county records were required to be kept at the county seat, when Mr. Arndt took up his residence at Easton, where, after going out of office, he devoted the balance of his life to mercantile pursuits. In 1796 he was nominated for Congress, but defeated by ninety votes. During the so-called Fries Insurrection of 1798 his utmost exertions were given to the preservation of law and order, and his wise and judicious counsels were heeded by many of the rebellious, Henry says that Mr. Arndt “as mineralogist and botanist held no mean rank; and his correspondence with Rev. Mr. Gross and other clergymen shows that he was a pious man.” Captain Arndt died on the 6th of May, 1814.

ASHMEAD, SAMUEL, of the county of Philadelphia, the son of John Ashmead, was born in 1731. Little is known of his early history, save that he received a good education and was brought up to mercantile pursuits. Early in life he was comissioned one of the provincial magistrates; on January 16, 1767, appointed an associate justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and recommissioned April 27, 1772; and in 1773-74 became presiding justice of the courts. He was a delegate to the provincial convention held at Philadelphia, January 23, 1175 and served in the General Assembly in 1782, 1783 and 1789. In 1787 he represented his county in the convention to ratify the federal constitution, Mr. Ashmead died at his residence in the Northern Liberties on the 19th of March, 1794, and was interred on the 21St in the Baptist Church burial-place.

BAIRD, JOHN, of Westmoreland county, was born about 1740, in Lancaster, now Dauphin county. He removed to Westmoreland county about 1770, in company with some Scotch-Irish neighbors, and took up land in what was afterwards Huntingdon township. He appears to have been a man of mark west of the Alleghenies, but in all the histories recently published no mention is made of him. He served as one of the overseers of the poor in 1173; was appointed by the constitutional convention of 1776 one of the board of commissioners for Westmoreland county, and commissioned a justice of the peace June II, 1777. During the war of the Revolution, and in the border wars of his section, he was very efficient in recruiting the military forces. He was a member of the Supreme Executive Council from November 18, 1786, to November 25, 1789; and a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, but his name was not signed to the ratification. He was one of the members of the anti-constitution party who were mobbed in the city of Philadelphia on the 6th of November, 1787. He was a member of the General Assembly in 1789-’90, and of the House of Representatives in 1790 and 1791. Under the constitution of 1790, he was commissioned one of the associate judges of the county, August 17, 1791. Mr. Baird, we are inclined to believe, died about the beginning of the present century.

BAKER, HILARY, of the city of Philadelphia, was horn in Germantown about 1750. He was the son of Hilarius Decker, or Baker, who in 1761 was elected teacher of the Germantown Academy, he having for some time past kept a German school in Germantown.” It is naturally to he supposed that the son received a good classical education, which he did; entered mercantile life, became an iron merchant, which business he carried on for some years. He was commissioned clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions for the county of Philadelphia, August 19, 1777, which position he filled several years; was appointed interpreter of English and German resident at Philadelphia, February 4, 1779, and the same day notary public for the State. On the 11th of March, 1789, by act of the General Assembly, he was appointed an alderman of the city, and reappointed under the act of April 4, 1796. He was chosen a delegate to the State convention of 1787 on the Republican ticket, and served as a member of the State constitutional convention of 1789-90. He was elected mayor of Philadelphia in April, 1796, re-elected in October that year, and again in October, 1797. He died while filling that position on the 25th of September, 1798, of yellow fever. In the war for independence he was a firm patriot, and in every official position he proved a faithful citizen.

BALLIET, STEPHEN, of Northampton county, was born in 1753, in Whitehall township, that county. His father, Paul Balliet, was of Huguenot ancestry, and a native of Alsace, who came to Pennsylvania in 1738. His mother was Maria Magdalena Watring, a native of Lorraine. Stephen acquired a very limited education, and was brought up to mercantile life under his father. During the war of the Revolution he commanded one of the battalions of Northampton Associators in 1777 and 1778, and was in active service at the battle of Brandywine. He was appointed agent for forfeited estates in Northampton county, May 6, 1778; was a member of the Supreme Executive Council from October 20, 1783, to October 23, 1786, and member of the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787. He was appointed one of the commissioners to superintend the drawing of the Donation Land Lottery, October 2, 1786, and also in relation to the Wyoming controversy, June 1787. He served as a member of the General Assembly from 1788 to 1790, and of the House of Representatives from 1794 to 1797. For several years, under a commission dated October 25, 1797, he filled the office of revenue collector of the second district of Pennsylvania for the United States direct tax. Scattered through the Provincial and State records are various references to him, going to show that he was. au active and efficient officer. During the so-called Fries Rebellion, Mr. Burkhalter, a collector, was beaten, and the blame thrown upon the insurrectionists; but a circular, signed by Jonas Hartzel, Nicholas Kern, and A. Thorn, stated “that the beating Mr. Burkhalter received was front his own brother-in-law, Stephen Balliet, and that it was a family difference which gave rise to the flagellation.” Colonel Balliet died August 4, 1821.

BARCLAY, JOHN, of Bucks county, was born in 1749 in that county. He was the son of Alexander Barclay, an officer of the Crown under the proprietary government, and received a classical education. At the outset of the Revolution he entered the service, and was commissioned, January 8, 1776, an ensign in the fourth battalion, Colonel Anthony Wayne; promoted second lieutenant October 1, 1776; commissioned first lieutenant in the fifth regiment of the Pennsylvania Line January 1777; promoted captain-lieutenant June 13, 1777; and retired the service January 1, 1781, with the brevet rank of captain. He was appointed justice of the peace December 23, 1782; One of the justices of the Court of Quarter Sessions, August 14, 1788; and presiding justice of the Court of Common Pleas, February 27, 1790. In 1787 he was chosen one of the delegates to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution, and served as a member of the State constitutional convention of 1789-90, under which he was appointed an associate judge of the courts of Bucks county, serving from August 17, 1791, to January 2, 1803. He also represented the district comprising his own and a portion of Philadelphia county in the State Senate. Captain Barclay afterwards removed to the Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, where he continued to reside until his death, filing for some time the presidency of the Bank of the Northern Liberties of that district. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati, and was succeeded by his son, John Louis Barclay, in 1832. He died September 15, 1824, at the age of seventy-five years.

BARD, RICHARD, of Franklin county, was born in 1735. His father, Bernard Bard, was an early settler on “Carroll’s tract,” York, now Adams county, where he established what was for years known as “Bard’s mill,” and subsequently “Marshall’s.” Here, on the morning of 13th of April, 1758, the house was invested by a party of nineteen Indians, and Richard Bard and his wife were made prisoners by the Indians. An account of their captivity was prepared by their son, Archibald Bard, and published in Pritt’s “Border Life.” Subsequently they removed near Thomas Poe’s, in now Franklin county, Mrs. Bard being his daughter. He erected a stone house near Mercersburg, which is still standing. During the war of the Revolution Mr. Bard greatly assisted in organizing the troops, and commanded a company of rangers on the frontiers of Cumberland county to protect the settlers in gathering their crops. He was appointed a justice of the peace March 14, 1786, and was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution, but did not sign the ratification. He was one of the delegates to the Harrisburg conference of September, 1788, in opposition to that instrument. He was a gentleman of considerable ability, but his hostility to the federal constitution placed him in the background.

BISHOP, JOHN, of Berks county, was born March 4, 1740, in Exeter township, that county, his father, John Bishop, coining to Pennsylvania with the Boones and Lincolns. He was brought up as a farmer, an occupation he was engaged in all his life, although other enterprises engrossed much of his attention. He had extensive business connections, and became an ironmaster. He was a large landholder, not only in Berks county, but in the Valley of Virginia. As a consequence, he was more or less prominent and influential in public affairs. During the Revolution he greatly aided the county lieutenants in organizing the Associators and militia, by advancing large sums of money in emergencies. He was elected to the General Assembly, serving from 1781 to 1784, and chosen a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787. He did not sign the ratification, and the year following was a member of the Harrisburg conference which protested so loudly against that instrument. He filled the office of county auditor in 1797-98, and represented Berks in the State legislature in 1805-06. He died at his residence in Exeter township the 3d of September, 1812, aged seventy-two years.

BLACK, JOHN, of York county, was born in that county about the year 1750. His father, Robert Black, was an early settler in that section, but in the great Scotch-Irishimmigration to the southward removed to North Carolina when his son John was an infant. Hence the statement of his being born there, He entered Nassau Hall in the junior year, 1769, graduating in 1771. He was licensed by Donegal Presbytery, October 14, 1773, and was ordained and installed pastor of Upper Marsh Creek Congregation, York county, August 15, 1775. For almost nineteen years be served that congregation. During that period the old log church was replaced by a stone structure. As a preacher he possessed a high order of talent, and was undoubtedly a strung man. He was quite prominent in public affairs, but lost much of his hold upon the community and the church by his vigorous measures in the cause of temperance. In this he was bold and outspoken. In a Scotch-Irish neighborhood this was not wisdom. As a result, owing to this fact, as also to the exodus of many of his congregation westward at the close of the Revolution, the Presbytery relieved him from his charge at his own request, April so, 1794. The only secular office he ever held was delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787. The Rev. Mr. Black remained several years in the neighborhood of his flock, ministering occasionally to the remnants of a Reformed Dutch church near by. He afterwards received a call from the churches of Unity and Greensburg, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, accepted it, became a member of the Presbytery of Redstone, and was installed October 23, 1800. He died there on the 16th of August, 1802. He published several pamphlets, the titles of only two being preserved to us,—” The Duty of Christians in Singing the Praise of God Explained, a Sermon preached at Upper Marsh Creek on the 14th and 21st of September, 1788,” and “A Discourse on Psalmody, in reply to Rev. Dr. John Anderson, of the Associate Church.” These attracted considerable attention in their day.

BOYD, JOHN, of Northumberland county, was born the 22d of February, 1750, in Lancaster county, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Of his early occupation and education we have little knowledge. When the war for independence came he entered the service, and was commissioned second lieu-tenant in the twelfth regiment of the Pennsylvania Line, Colonel William Cooke, October 16, 1776. He was promoted first lieutenant and transferred to the third Pennsylvania regiment as captain-lieutenant. Under the rearrange-merit of January 1, 1781, he was retired the service, but afterwards appointed captain of a company of rangers on the frontiers, and was an excellent partisan officer. According to C. Biddle (see Autobiography, p. 204), “During the war he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Indians. Having killed a number of them before he was taken, they were determined to burn him. For this purpose he was stripped naked and tied to a stake, and expected everymoment to suffer death, when he was released by the intercession of one of the squaws, who had her husband killed in the engagement with Boyd. His life was probably saved in consequence of his being a stout, well-made man.” During the war he served one year as collector of the excise for Northumberland county, After the restoration of peace, in partnership with Colonel William Wilson, he entered into merchandising at the town of Northumberland, and in a mill at the mouth of Chillisquaqua Creek, They manufactured large quantities of potash, which they shipped to Philadelphia, where it met with a ready sale; but the difficulties of transportation compelled them to relinquish this enterprise. He served as a member of the Supreme Executive Council of the State from November 22, 1783, to November 23, 1786. On the ad of October, the latter year, he was appointed by the General Assembly one of the commissioners for superintending the drawing of the Donation Land Lottery. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1790 to 1792, and a presidential elector at the second election. He served as a justice of the peace many years. Was one of the original members of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. He died at Northumberland on the 13th of February, 1832, aged eighty-two years.

BREADING, NATHANIEL, of Fayette county, was born in Little Britain township, Lancaster county, March 16, 1751. His grandfather, David Breading, came to Pennsylvania from near Coleraine, county Londouderry, Ireland, about 1728. His son James married Ann Ewing, and they were the parents of the subject of this sketch. Nathaniel received a classical education, afterwards took charge of the Newark Academy, Delaware, and also taught school in Prince Edward county, Virginia. At the outset of the Revolution he returned to Pennsylvania, and was acting commissary under General James Ewing, who was in command of a portion of the Associated battalions during the years 1777 and 1778. In 1784 he removed to Luzerne township, Fayette county, and shortly after was appointed a justice of the peace, and, November 6, 1785, one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas. On the 5th of March, 1785, he was appointed by the Assembly one of the commissioners to survey the lands recently purchased from the Indians north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers to Lake Erie, as also to assist in running the boundary-lines between Pennsylvania and Virginia. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution, but in deference to his constituents did not sign the ratification. He served as a member of the Supreme Executive Council from November 19, 1789, until the dissolution of that body by the adoption of the constitution of 1790. He was commissioned one of the associate judges of Fayette county, August 17, 1791, and served continuously during the several changes of administration until his death, a period of thirty years, perchance the longest term of any who filled that honorable position. During the excitement in Western Pennsylvania consequent upon the enforcement of the excise laws, Judge Breading, although these were obnoxious to him, took a bold stand in the maintenance of law and order. As the result, much of his property was burned by the insurgents. He was one of the delegates from the county to the conference held at Pittsburgh, September 7, 1791, to take measures toward suppressing the threatened insurrection. Apart from the public positions Judge Breading filled so faithfully and honorably, he was engaged in various enterprises looking to the development of the Western country. He died on the 21st of April, 1821.

BROWN, WILLIAM, of Dauphin county, was born in 1733, on the Swatara, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. His grandfather, James Brown, came with his brother John from the north of Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1720, and, while he settled on the Swatara, subsequently Hanover township, the latter located in Paxtang township, in Lancaster county. John Brown was the father of another William Brown, no less eminent than his distinguished cousin. The former was designated as “William Brown, of Paxtang,” while the subject of our sketch as “Captain William Brown.” He was educated at the school of Rev. John Blair, became quite prominent on the frontiers, and was an officer in Rev. Colonel Elder’s battalion of rangers during the French and Indian war. He was one of the prime movers at the Hanover meeting of June 4, 1774, and probably the author of the celebrated resolutions there passed. He recruited a company of Associators, and was in active service during the Jersey campaign of 1776, as well in and around Philadelphia in 1777 and 1778. In 1779 he commanded a company of rangers in the expedition to the West Branch against the Indians and Tories, who were threatening the exposed frontiers. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution of 1787, but did not sign the ratification. He was a member of the State constitutional convention of 1789-90, and under that instrument represented his county in the Legislature in 1792 and 1793. He was chosen one of the Presidential electors in 1797, voting for Mr. Jefferson. Captain Brown died July 20, 1808, at the age of seventy-five.

BULL, THOMAS, of Chester county, was born June 9, 1744, the son of William Bull, an early settler in that county. He received the meagre education afforded in his day, and learned the trade of a stone-mason. Prior to the Revolution he was the manager of Warwick Furnace. When that struggle came he entered heartily into the contest, and assisted in organizing the Chester county battalion of Associators of the ” Flying Camp,” commanded by Colonel William Montgomery, of which he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel. He was taken prisoner at Fort Washington in November, 1776, and confined on the Jersey prison-ship. After several months he was properly exchanged. He subsequently returned to his position as manager of Warwick Furnace, where he remained several years. In 178o he was appointed by act of the General Assembly one of the commissioners for the for the removal of the county seat. He was elected a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and served as a member of the State constitutional convention of 1789-90. He was chosen a presidential elector in 1792, and from 1795 to 1801 represented Chester county in the Legislature of the State. He died on the 13th of July, 1837, aged ninety-three years.

CAMPBELL, THOMAS, of York county, the son of John Campbell, was born about 1750 in Chanceford township, that county. His father took up a tract of land at an early day, situated on the “Great Road leading from York to Nelson’s Perry.” He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and received the education accorded that sturdy race. He was a farmer by occupation. When the Revolutionary struggle began, he enlisted as a private in Captain Michael Doudel’s company, attached to Colonel William Thompson’s battalion of riflemen, in July, 1775. He served through the New England campaign, and was commissioned first lieutenant in the fourth regiment of the Pennsylvania Line, January 3, 1777. He was severely wounded at Germantown, was promoted captain-lieutenant January 1, 1781, and retired the service January 1, 1783. He was one of the original members of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. Captain Campbell was chosen a delegate to the State convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787; served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1797 to 18oo, and of the Senate from the York and Adams district from 1805 to 1808. He died at his residence in Monaghan township, York county, January 19, 1815.

CHAMBERS, STEPHEN, of Lancaster county, was a native of the north of Ireland, where he was born about 1750. He came to Pennsylvania prior to the Revolution. Fithian, in his journal of date July 20, 1775, met him at Sunbury, “a lawyer, . . . serious, civil, and sociable.” At the outset of the war he entered the service, was appointed first lieutenant of the twelfth regiment of the Line, October 16, 1776, and promoted captain in 1777. He was chosen to the General Assembly from the county of Northumberland in 1778, and while in attendance thereon was admitted to the Philadelphia bar, March 6, 1779. He was admitted to the Lancaster bar in 1780, removing there the same year, and to that of York, April 23, 1781. In 1779 he was a member of the Republican Society of Philadelphia, whose object was the revision of the constitution of 1776. He was also one of the original members of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. He represented Lancaster county in the Council of Censors, 1783-84, and was a delegate to the convention of November 20, 1787, to ratify the federal constitution. At the constituting of Lodge 22, Ancient York Masons, at Sunbury, December 27, 1779, he became its first Worshipful Master, and the war-rant for that body was produced and presented by him at “his own proper cost and charges.” In May, 1789, he was challenged by Dr. Reiger, of Lancaster, for some offence said to have been given at Stake’s tavern in that town. The duel took place on Monday, May 11, 1789, and Mr. Chambers was seriously wounded, dying on Saturday following, the 16th.

CHEYNEY, THOMAS, of Chester county, son of John Cheyney, Jr., and Ann Hickman, was born in Thornbury township, that county, December 12, 1731. His grandfather, John Cheyney, Sr., came to Pennsylvania about the close of the century, located in Middletown township, Chester county, where he died in 1722, leaving two sons, John and Thomas. They became possessed of a large tract of land in Thornbury in 1724, and here it was that the subject of this sketch lived all his fourscore years, an intelligent and progressive farmer. At the commencement of the Revolution he was an earnest Whig. He was appointed by the Assembly, December 16, 1777, to take subscriptions for the continental loan; one of the agents for forfeited estates under the Act of Attainder, May 6, 1778; and sub-lieutenant of Chester county, March 30, 1780. He was commissioned one of the justices in 1779, and again in 1784. Under the constitution of 1790 he was continued by Governor Mifflin, his commission bearing date August 26, 1791. He served as one of the delegates to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and signed the ratification. Squire Cheyney died January 12, 1811.

COLEMAN, ROBERT, of Lancaster county, was born November 4, 1748, near Castle-Finn, Donaghmore, county Donegal, Ireland. At the age of sixteen he came to America with letters to Blair McClenaghan and the Messrs. Biddle, of Philadelphia. Through them he secured a position with Mr. Read, prothonotary at Reading, in whose employ he remained two years, at the expiration of which he accepted a situation as clerk with Peter Grubb at Hopewell Forge. At the end of six months he entered the employ of James Old at Quittopehille Forge, near Lebanon. Mr. Old, some time after, removing from Speedwell Forge to Reading, took Mr. Coleman with him. In 1773 he rented Salford Forge, near Norristown, where he remained three years. In 1776 he moved to Elizabeth Furnace, in Lancaster county, which he first rented, and afterwards bought out gradually the different shares from the firm who owned it, namely, Stiegel, Stedman, and Benezet. By his energy and indomitable perseverance Mr. Coleman became the most enterprising and successful iron-master in Pennsylvania. Mr. Coleman served as a member of the General Assembly in 1783-84, as delegate to the convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and as a member of the constitutional convention of 1789-90. Under that organic law he was commissioned, August 17, 1791, one of the associate judges for Lancaster county, an office he held twenty years. He was chosen a presidential elector in 1792, and again in 1796. In 1809 Mr. Coleman removed to Lancaster, where he died August 14, 1825.

DESHLER, DAVID, of Northampton county, was born at Egypta, in the upper part of North Whitehall township, in 1733, where his father, Adam Deshler, was among the first settlers. The latter operated a mill on the Little Lehigh, of which the son subsequently became owner. He was quite prominent in the French and Indian war, and was active in the adoption of measures in defending the frontiers; and his house, a large stone structure, became a place of refuge for the people of the vicinity in case of an Indian alarm. In 1764 he was a shopkeeper in Allentown, but two years afterwards sold out and removed to his grist and saw-mills, which he continued to operate until almost the close of his life. During the Revolutionary war he became one of the most influential personages in Northampton county; acted as commissary of supplies, and, with his colleague and neighbor, Captain John Arndt, advanced money out of his private means at a time when not only the United States treasury but also that of Pennsylvania was empty. He was a member of the provincial conference which met at Carpenters’ Hall June 18, 1776, and appointed by that body one of the judges of the election for the second division of the county, held at Allentown. He was a delegate to the convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and filled other positions of public trust. Mr. Deshler died at his residence at Biery’s Bridge, now Catasauqua, in December, 1796.

DOWNING, RICHARD, of Chester county, son of Richard Downing and his wife, Mary Edge, was born May 4, 1750, in Cain township, that county. His father operated a fulling, grist and saw-mill, and the son was brought up in that occupation. During the struggle for independence he was a Non-Associator. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787; served in the General Assembly from 1788 to 1790, and was one of the representatives of his county in the Legislature from 1790 to 1792. During the local excitement caused by changing the county-seat, when it was not only proposed but really attempted to locate it at Milltown, now Downingtown, he was one of the leading spirits in opposing it. He died January 5, 1820, in his seventieth year.

EDGAR, JAMES, of Washington county, the son of James Edgar, was born November 15, 1744, in Fawn township, York county. He was a member of the convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, but did not sign the ratification. He died on his farm on the 8th of June, 1814, in the seventy-first year of his age.

EDWARDS, ENOCH, of the county of Philadelphia, the son of Alexander Edwards, was born in 1751, in Lower Dublin, that county. He received a classical education, studied medicine, and was in the active practice of his profession when the Revolutionary war began, and in which he became an earnest participant. He was a member of the provincial conference held at Carpenters’ Hall, June 18, 1776, and the same year served as surgeon in the Philadelphia Battalion of the ” Flying Camp.” He afterwards served as an aide on the staff of General Lord Stirling. He was commissioned one of the justices of the peace for the county of Philadelphia, June 6, 1777, and continued in office August 16, 1789. He was a delegate to the convention to ratify the federal constitution of 1787, and a member of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention of 1789-90. He was appointed by Governor Mifflin, August 17, 1791, one of the associate judges, and continued in office by Governor McKean until his death at Frankford on the 25th of April, 1802, aged fifty years.

ELLIOTT, BENJAMIN, of Huntingdon county, eldest son of Robert and Martha Elliott, was born in 1752 in Peters town-ship, Cumberland, now Franklin, county, and settled at the town of Huntingdon prior to the Revolution. He was chosen a member of the convention of July 15, 1776, and served as a member of the Assembly during that and the following year as one of the representatives of Bedford county. He was commissioned Sheriff of that county, October 31, 1785, and of Huntingdon, October 22, 1787, after its erection from Bedford; member of the convention of Pennsylvania to consider the federal constitution, November 2o, 1787; appointed county lieutenant on the 23d of the same month, and in April, 1789, in conjunction with Matthew Taylor, of Bedford, and James Harris, of Cumberland, appointed to run and mark the boundary lines of Huntingdon county. He served as treasurer of the county in 1789, and again in 1799; was admitted a member of the Supreme Executive Council, December 29, 1789, and member of the Board of Property, August 3, 1790. On the 17th of August, 1791, he was commissioned one of the associate judges for Huntingdon county. He had previously held the office of justice of the Court of Common Pleas under the constitution of 1776. He was the first chief burgess elected in the borough of Huntingdon after its incorporation in 1796. He was appointed brigadier-general of the militia, 1797, and in 1800 elected county commissioner. He died at Huntingdon, March 13, 1835, aged 83 years. Judge Elliott was what was then termed a Republican in politics. He signed the ratification.

FINDLEY, WILLIAM, of Westmoreland county, was born in 1741, near Londonderry, province of Ulster, Ireland. His grandfather was a native of Scotland, but settled early in life in the north of Ireland, and was one of the brave men who assisted in the heroic defence of Derry. The grandson received a fair English education, and came to Pennsylvania in 1763. Owing to the Indian troubles on the frontiers he remained within the settlements, where he taught school. At the beginning of the Revolution he was in the Cumberland valley. He served as a captain in the militia in the years 1776 and 1777 under Colonel John Findlay, the period of the invasion into Pennsylvania, and was at the battle of the Crooked Billet. Towards the close of the war he removed with his family to Western Pennsylvania and took up a tract of land in Westmoreland county, on which he resided until his death. Here he became prominent in political affairs, his first entry upon the scene being in the character of a member of the Council of Censors. In this body he voted invariably against the party which professed Federalism. He served in the General Assembly from 1784 to 1788; was a delegate to the convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, one of its bitterest opponents, and did not sign the ratification. He was one of the members of the anti-constitution party who were mobbed in Philadelphia on the evening of the 6th of November that year. At the Harrisburg conference in September, 1788, with Smilie and Gallatin, he was a leading spirit, and this trio almost accomplished the total defeat of the constitutionalist ticket, electing two of the eight Congressmen, the parties being evenly balanced. He served as a member of the Supreme Executive Council from November 25, 1789, until the constitution of 1790, of the convention to form which he was a member, went into effect. He was elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1790, at the same time a member of the Second Congress. He was re-elected to the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth Congresses, and then, after an interval of two terms, during which period he served in the State Senate, to the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth Congresses, serving a longer time in that representative body than any other person from Pennsylvania. During the so-called Whisky Insurrection of 1794 he took a decided part, and as an apology for his share in it we are indebted to him for one of the most impartial histories of that transaction. He was as forcible a writer as a speaker, and the newspapers of the day contained many political articles from his pen. He was a shrewd politician without being a demagogue, and no man in Western Pennsylvania had as strong hold upon the people or was more popular than William Findley. He was a statesman of whom Pennsylvania should be proud. Mr. Findley died at his residence in Unity township, Westmoreland county, on the 5th of April, 1821, in the eightieth year of his age.

GIBBONS, WILLIAM, of Chester county, the son of James Gibbons and Jane Sheward, was born in 1737 in the township of Westtown, that county. The parents were prominent members of the Society of Friends, the mother being a minister thereof. After his marriage he resided in Philadelphia, subsequently, in 1766, removing to Thornbury township, and in 1769 to West Nantmeal, on a fine farm left him by his parents. For the active part he took in the struggle for independence he was disowned by the Society. He served as lieutenant-colonel of one of the Chester county battalions of Associators, was appointed justice of the peace March 31, 1777, and directed by the Supreme Executive Council, October 21, 1777, to collect blankets, arms, etc., from those not taking the oath of allegiance. Towards the close of the war he removed to Paxtang township, in Lancaster county, where he resided a year or two, for what purpose it is not known. In 1783 he was elected sheriff of Chester county, and it was during his time of service the seat of justice was removed from Chester to West Chester. He served as a delegate to the convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and as a member of the constitutional convention of 1789-90. Governor Mifflin commissioned him prothonotary of the county August 17, 1791, in which he served nine years. During the Whiskey Insurrection, in 1794, he volunteered under Captain Joseph McClellan for the expedition westward, performing that tour of military duty. He was elected a member of the House of Representatives in 1801, and served one term. Colonel Gibbons died October 30, 1803.

GRAVE, SEBASTIAN, of Lancaster county, was the grandson of Sebastian Graff, a member of the Moravian Church, who emigrated with his family from Germany in 1731 or 1732, and settled in the town of Lancaster, where he was a “shopkeeper ” in 1734. The Sebastian of the third generation was born at Lancaster about 1750, and was in active business when the war for independence began. He took a prominent part, and was on the Committee of Observation for the county of Lancaster. He was a delegate to the provincial convention of January 23, 1775, and to the convention to ratify the federal constitution of 1787, signing the ratification. He was a member of the convention which framed the constitution of 1789-’90, and under that form of government was chosen to the State Senate in 1790. He died in July, 1792.

GRAY, GEORGE, of the county of Philadelphia, the fifth of that name in the line of descent from George Gray, of Barbadoes, a wealthy member of the Society of Friends, was born at Gray’s Ferry, that county. He took an early and active part in the affairs of the province, and was elected a member of the Assembly in 1772, and annually until the commencement of the Revolutionary struggle. He was the author of the celebrated “Treason Resolutions” reported by the committee of which he was chairman. For the part he took in this and other warlike measures he was “turned out of meeting.” He was a delegate to the provincial conference of July 15, 1774, and a member of the provincial convention of January 23, 1775. He was a member of the General Committee of Safety in 1776 and 1777, and of the Pennsylvania Board of War during its existence in 1777, serving a portion of the time as its chairman. He was one of the signers of the bills of credit in 1775, and a member of the Assembly in 1776. Under the constitution of the latter year he served in the General Assembly from 1780 to 1787, being Speaker of that body in 1783- 84. He was a delegate to the convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and a member of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention of 1789-90. During the entire period of the Revolution he was conspicuous by his patriotism. He died in the year 1800.

GRIER, DAVID, of York county, son of William Grier, was born in Mount Pleasant township, that county, in 1742. He received a classical education, studied law with James Smith, and was admitted to the York county bar April 23, 1771. Having served in the French and Indian war as a subaltern officer, when the war for independence commenced he became a prominent participant. He was commissioned captain of the sixth battalion of the Line, Colonel William Irvine, January 9, 1776, served in the campaign against Canada, and was promoted to major October 25, 1776. He was subsequently promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the seventh regiment Pennsylvania Line, ranking from October 2, 1776. He was wounded in the side by a bayonet at the Paoli massacre in September, 1777, He continued in the service until, under the new arrangement of January 1, 1781, he was retired at that date. At the close of the war he resumed his profession at York, was elected to the General Assembly in 1783, served as a delegate to the convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and was chosen by the constitutionalists one of the first presidential electors. Colonel Grier died at York, June 3, 1790, aged forty-eight years.

HANNA, JOHN ANDRE, son of Rev. John Hanna and Mary McCrea, was born about 1761, at Flemington, N. J. He received a good classical education under his father, who was a most excellent tutor. He served in the war of the Revolution, towards its close came to Pennsylvania, and studied law with Stephen Chambers, of Lancaster, whose acquaintance he had made in the army, and was admitted to the bar of Lancaster county at November session, 1783. He located at Harrisburg upon the formation of the county of Dauphin, and was among the first lawyers admitted there. He took a deep interest in early municipal affairs, and there was little transpiring looking to the welfare and development of the new town in which Mr. Hanna did not take part. His marriage with a daughter of John Harris, the founder, brought him into unusual prominence. He represented the county in the Legislature, and in 1795 was elected to the United States Congress, a position he filled up to the time of his death by successive re-election. During the Whisky Insurrection he was a brigadier-general of the Pennsylvania troops, in command of the second brigade, second division. In 1800 Governor McKean commissioned him a major-general of the third division of the militia forces of the State. He died at Harrisburg, on the 13th of July, 1805, aged forty-four years.

HANNUM, JOHN, of Chester county, was born in 1742, in Concord, that county. He was the son of John Hannum, Jr., and his wife, Jane Neild. Arriving at maturity, he settled on a large farm in East Bradford township. He was commissioned early in life one of the provincial justices of the peace, and continued in commission by the constitutional convention of 1776. At the outset of the struggle with the mother-country he became an ardent Whig, and was appointed one of the Committee of Observation for the county of Chester the loth of December, 1774. In 1777 he was chosen to the command of one of the Associated Battalions, and became an active participant in the Revolutionary contest. He was with Wayne at the Paoli. Subsequently he was captured at his own residence by a squad of British light-horse, led thither by a Tory neighbor, and taken to Philadelphia, then occupied by the enemy. He soon after escaped, and was more energetic than ever in the cause of his country. He was appointed one of the commissioners of purchases, June 27, 1780, one of the auditors of depreciation accounts, March 3, 1781, and on the 8th of November, the latter year, one of the agents for forfeited estates. He was chosen to the General Assembly in 1781, serving until 1785. While a member of this body, independence having been established, he was largely instrumental in securing the repeal of the “Test Law,” then no longer necessary as a war measure. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and signed the ratification. He was recommissioned one of the justices for the county in 1788, serving until his appointment by Governor Mifflin of register and recorder, December 13, 1793, which office he held until the 6th of December, 1798, when he was succeeded by his son, Richard Montgomery Hannum. He had previously served in the House of Representatives, 1792 -93. Colonel Hannum died the 7th of February, 1799, and was interred at Bradford Meeting-house, Marshallton.

HARRIS, JOHN, of Cumberland county, was born in county Donegal, Ireland, in 1723. He was related to Harris of Harris’s Ferry, to the family in Buffalo Valley, and has frequently been confounded with others of the same name. In 1753 he was located on the Swatara, Lancaster county, as his autograph to a road petition is a counterpart of that of twenty years later. He was one of the most prominent men in the Cumberland Valley. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution of 1787, and voted against the ratification. He died at Miffiintown, which he laid out, February 24, 1794.

HARTLEY, THOMAS, of York County, was born in Colebrookdale township, Berks county, Pennsylvania, on the 7th of September, 1748. His father, George Hartley, was an early settler in Pennsylvania and a well-to-do farmer. The son received a good classical education at Reading, and at the age of eighteen began the study of law at York with Samuel Johnston, a distinguished lawyer and a relative on his mother’s side. He was admitted to the bar of York county July 25, 1769, and to that of Philadelphia on the 10th of August following. He soon rose rapidly to legal distinction, and was in a successful career when the war of the Revolution opened. In 1774 he was vice-president of the Committee of Observation for York county, and again in November, 1775. He was chosen a deputy to the provincial conference held at Philadelphia, July 15, 1774, and a delegate to the provincial convention of January 23, 1775. In December, 1774, he was first lieutenant of Captain James Smith’s company of Associators, and in December, 1775, chosen lieutenant-colonel of the first battalion of York county. On the loth of January, 1776, Congress elected him lieutenant-colonel of the sixth battalion of the Pennsylvania Line, and he served in the Canada campaign of that year. On the 27th of December, the same year, General Washington, by authority of the Congress, issued commissions and authority to raise two “additional regiments in Pennsylvania,” the command of one being given to Colonel Hartley. He commanded the first Pennsylvania brigade, Wayne’s division, in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown. In 1778 he was in command of the troops on the West Branch, upon which the Indians and Tories from New York had made inroads. By a resolution of Congress of 16th December, 1778, the remains of Patton’s and Hartley’s regiments, with several detached companies, were organized into what was termed the “new eleventh ” regiment of the Pennsylvania Line, to which he was transferred on the 13th of January, 1779, but resigned the month following, having been chosen to the General Assembly. In accepting his resignation Congress, deeming his reasons satisfactory, bore testimony of their ” high sense of Colonel Hartley’s merit and services.” He served as a member of the Council of Censors, 1783-84, and as a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787. He was elected by the constitutionalists on the general ticket for members of Congress in 1788, and continued in that high official position for a period of twelve years. He was one of the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati, and a trustee of Dickinson College at the beginning of its educational career. In 1799 he laid out the town of Hartleton in the Buffalo Valley, on a tract of one thousand acres purchased by him during the Revolution. Governor McKean commissioned him, April 28, 1800, a major-general in the Pennsylvania militia. General Hartley died at his residence in York, December 21, 1800.

HIESTER, JOSEPH, of Berks county, was born November 18, 1752, in Bern township, Berks county, Pennsylvania. He was the son of John Hiester, a native of Elsoff, in the province of Westphalia, Germany. The son acquired the rudiments of a good English and German education under the supervision of the pastor of Bern Church. Until near age he worked upon his father’s farm, when he went to Reading and learned merchandising. He was a member of the provincial conference held at Carpenters’ Hall, June 18, 1776, which called the convention of July following. The war of the Revolution breaking out, he raised a company of Associators for the Flying Camp, which participated in the battle of Long Island, where he was taken prisoner. After several months’ imprisonment, he was exchanged, and returned in time to take part in the battle of Germantown, where he was wounded. He was appointed by the Supreme Executive Council one of the commissioners of exchange, April 5, 1779, and on the 21st of October following one of the committee to seize the personal effects of traitors. He was chosen to the General Assembly in 1780, and served almost continuously from that date until 1790. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, but did not sign the ratification. He was a member of the State constitutional convention of 1789-90, and under that instrument was elected to the first Senate, serving a full term. He was chosen a presidential elector in 1792, and again in 1796. He served in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth Congresses, and again in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth Congresses. It was during his last term that he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania by the Federalists, in a campaign which for personal vituperation has never been equalled in Pennsylvania. His administration, however, of the affairs of State was a successful one, but he would not allow himself to be nominated for a second term. Returning to Reading, he retired to private life, and died there on the 10th of June, 1832.

HOGE, JONATHAN, of Cumberland county, son of John Hoge and his wife, Gwenthleen Bowen Davis, was born July 23, 1725. His parents residing about that date in the Three Lower Counties of Penn’s Province, it is certain he was born there, and not in Ireland. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution, but opposed the ratification. He died April 19, 1800.

HORSPIELD, JOSEPH, of Northampton county, was born at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, November 24, 1750. His father, Timothy Horsfield, was an early Moravian settler, at Bethlehem, and quite prominent in the history of that settlement. But little is known of the son’s early history save that he was a man of good education and of influence in the community. He was chosen a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and signed the ratification. He was appointed by President Washington, June 12, 1792, the first postmaster at Bethlehem, an office he held until the 13th of February, 18oz. He died at Bethlehem on the 9th of September, 1834, at the age of eighty-three years.

HUBLEY, JOHN, of Lancaster county, the son of Michael Hubley and Rosina Strumpf, was born in the town of Lancaster the 25th of December, 1747. He was a member of the convention of 1776, and also of that of 1789-90. He was a constitutionalist, and signed the ratification of the federal constitution in the Pennsylvania convention of 1787. He also served in the Supreme Executive Council in 1777, and was chosen a presidential elector in 1801. A lawyer by profession, although by no means a brilliant one, yet there was a magnetism about him which, next to Judge Yeates, made him the most popular attorney at the Lancaster bar, always justly celebrated for its great legal minds. He died January 21, 1821, aged seventy-three years.

HUNN, JOHN, of the county of Philadelphia, was born in 1746, in Kent county, Delaware. His grandfather, Nathaniel Hunn, was an early settler on the Delaware. John, the subject of our sketch, was brought up to a sea-faring life, and was a captain in the merchant service at the breaking out of the War for Independence. He was an ardent patriot, and was intrusted with very important duties. In July, 1776, he was in command of the privateer “Security ;” while in the following summer, when it was momentarily expected that the British fleet would attempt to pass up the Delaware, at the request of General Washington he was sent by the Council of Pennsylvania to the Capes to give the earliest possible notice of the appearance of the enemy’s vessels. In the campaign in and around Philadelphia he seems to have been in active military service. In the subsequent events he was not an idle spectator, his energies being principally devoted to perfect plans to destroy the power of the enemy at sea. When the war closed he retired to private life, only coming to the front in times of great political excitement. As a constitutionalist he was chosen to the Pennsylvania convention in 1787, and signed the ratification. He took a prominent part at the meeting held in Philadelphia, June 22, 1795, in opposition to the Jay Treaty, and was appointed one of the committee to prepare a memorial to the President. Captain Hunn died at Wilmington, Delaware, April 22, 181o, while on a visit to his daughter, Mrs. Rodney.

LATIMER, GEORGE, of the city of Philadelphia, was born there in 1750. He was educated at the College of Philadelphia, and entered upon a mercantile life. In the Revolutionary war he was active and influential, and was in military service prior to the occupation of Philadelphia by the British in 1777. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787. He represented his native city in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1792 to 1799, being Speaker of that body five years. He was a presidential elector in 1792, and from 1798 to 1804 was collector of the customs by appointment of the President. In politics he was a Federalist. During the war of 1812-14 he was a member of the Committee of Defence for the city of Philadelphia and treasurer of that body. He was an enterprising citizen, being a director of the old Bank of North America from the 9th of January, 1792, until his death, and also president of the Union Insurance Company. He was appointed April 5, 1786, one of the five commissioners from Pennsylvania to confer with those from Maryland and Delaware on the navigation of the river Susquehanna. In 1814 he was an independent candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania, receiving nine hundred and ten votes in the canvass which elected Simon Snyder for the third term by a majority of twenty-two thousand in a poll of seventy thousand. Mr. Latimer died at Philadelphia on Sunday evening, 12th of June, 1825, in his seventy-fifth year.

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, of Berks county, the son of Mordecai and Mary Lincoln, was born in 1736 in Amity township, Philadelphia, subsequently Berks county, Pennsylvania. His father, who died in May of that year, a few months before the birth of Abraham, was the ancestor of President Lincoln. The subject of our sketch was brought up on the paternal farm. He received a fair education, and became quite prominent in the affairs of his native county. Prior to the Revolution he served as county commissioner, continuing in office during the greater part of the struggle for independence. He was an active patriot, and was appointed one of the sub-lieutenants of the county March 21, 1777. He served in the General Assembly from 1782 to 1786, and was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787. He did not sign the ratification. Under the act of the 14th of March, 1784, he was appointed one of the Commissioners of Fisheries. He was a member of the State constitutional convention of 1789-90, and appears to have been a man of much influence in that body. He died at his residence in Exeter township, January 31, 1806, in his seventieth year. He married, in 1761, Anne Boone, daughter of James Boone and Mary Foulke. She was a full cousin of Colonel Daniel Boone, of Kentucky. The Boones were Quakers, the Lincolns were Congregationalists. Hence it appears by the records of Exeter Meeting, October 27, 1761, that Anne Boone quot; condones quot; her marriage for marrying one not a member of the Society.

LUDWIG, JOHN, of Berks county, was a native of the county. But little is known of his early history. He became, however, a substantial farmer, and at the opening of the Revolutionary war was a man of prominence in the county. He served as a captain in the third battalion of Associators, and was in service at Trenton and Princeton. He was commissioned a justice of the peace in 1777, and recommissioned in 1784. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, but with his colleagues, did not sign the ratification. He served in the General Assembly in 1782-83, and again in 1788-90. In 1789 he voted against calling the convention to alter the State constitution of 1776. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1790 to 1793. Governor Mifflin appointed him a justice of the peace April 17, 1795, and he was yet in commission at the time of his death, which occurred in July, 1802.

LUTZ, or LOTZ, NICHOLAS, of Berks county, was born in the Palatinate, Germany, February 20, 1740, coming to America when a young man. He located in Berks county, was a millwright by occupation, establishing a mill near Reading, at the mouth of the Wyomessing Creek. He be-came early identified with the cause of independence, and was a member of the provincial conference which met at Carpenters’ Hall, June 18, 1776. He was in command of a batallion of Associators at the battle of Long Island, where he was taken prisoner, and confined until April 16, 1777, when he was admitted to a parol, but not exchanged until the 10th of September, 1779. He was appointed commissary of purchases April 3, 1780, and served in the General Assembly almost continuously from 1783 to 1790. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, but did not sign the ratification. Under the constitution of 1789-90 he served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1790 to 1794. He was appointed by Governor Mifflin one of the associate judges of Berks county, February 6, 1795, serving until a short time before his death. He died at Reading on the 28th of November, 1807, aged sixty-seven years.

MCKEAN, THOMAS, of the city of Philadelphia, son of William McKean, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, March 19, 1734. He was educated at the academy of Rev. Francis Alison, and entered the office of David Finney, a lawyer of New Castle, Delaware. He was appointed deputy prothonotary there, and afterwards admitted to the bar, and in May, 1755, to that of Chester county. He afterwards went to England, and studied at the Middle Temple, London, being admitted May 9, 1758. In 1762 he was elected a member of the Assembly from New Castle county, and was annually returned until the Revolution, although for a portion of the time a resident of Philadelphia. In 1765 he assisted in framing the address of the Colonies to the British House of Commons. In 1771 he was appointed collector of the port of New Castle; was a member of the Continental Congress in 1774, and annually re-elected until February, 1783, serving in that body during a period of eight and a half years, representing the State of Delaware. During this period he was not only President of that State (1781), but from July 28, 1777, to December, 1799, held the office and also executed the duties of chief justice of Pennsylvania. He was a member in 1778 of the convention which framed the Articles of Confederation, President of Congress (1781), and a promoter of and signer of the Declaration of Independence. He commanded a battalion which served in the Jersey campaigns of 1776-77. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and, next to Wilson, one of the most fearless advocates for its adoption. He was a member of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention of 1789-90, and under it became its second executive, filling the gubernatorial office three terms, from December 17, 1799, to December 20, 1808. He was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the founders of the Hibernian Society, and a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. The College of New Jersey conferred upon him the degree of LL.D., as did also Dartmouth College. He died at Philadelphia on the 24th of June, 1817.

MACPHERSON, WILLIAM, of the county of Philadelphia, was born in Philadelphia in 1756. He was the son of John Macpherson and Margaret Rodgers. The father was a noted privateersman during the French and Spanish wars, while his mother was a sister of the Rev. John Rodgers, D. D., both natives of Londonderry, Ireland. The son was educated partly in Philadelphia and at the College of New Jersey. At the age of thirteen he was appointed a cadet in the British army, and in his eighteenth year, by purchase, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the sixteenth British regiment. When the Revolutionary war began, his sympathies were with his countrymen, although his allegiance to his sovereign retained him in the British service. The death of his brother, Major John Macpherson, in front of Quebec, who had espoused the cause of his country, completely changed his feelings. Tendering his resignation, he found his way into the patriot lines in 1778, and was, on the recommendation of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, commissioned by Congress a major by brevet in the Continental Line. He served as aid on the staff of Lafayette, and also on that of St. Clair, with distinction. He was one of the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati, served as a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and was a member of the General Assembly, 1788-89. He was appointed, September 19, 1789, by President Washington, surveyor of the customs at Philadelphia; inspector of the revenue, March 8, 1792; and on the 28th of November, 1793, naval officer, which latter position he held until his death. During the Whiskey Insurrection, in 1794, he commanded the Philadelphia battalion, which went by the name of quot;Macpherson Blues.quot; President Adams commissioned him, March 11, 1799, one of the brigadier-generals of the provisional army, and in the so-called Fries Insurrection he was in command of the few volunteers called into that service. He died at his residence near Philadelphia, November 5, 1813, in his fifty-eighth year.

MARSHEL, JAMES, of Washington county, was born February 20, 1753, in Lancaster county. He moved to the western country some three years prior to the Revolution, and settled in what is now Cross Creek township, Washington (then Westmoreland) county. He was on the Committee of Observation for the latter county at the outset of the Revolution, and captain in the militia for the protection of the frontiers. He was appointed a justice of the peace June 11, 1777, and, when the county of Washington was organized, commissioned one of its presiding justices. Under the constitution of 1776 he held the office of register and recorder from April 4, 1781, to November 19, 1784, and also served as county lieutenant. Governor Mifflin reappointed him register and recorder August 17, 1791, continuing in office to March 6, 1795. In the mean time he filled the position of sheriff from November 3, 1784, to November 21, 1787; was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, of which he was a stern opponent; and was a member of the General Assembly, session of 1789-90. Biddle, in his autobiography, states that he was one of the principal promoters of the disturbance in 1794, but this arose from the fact that he was present when the mail was taken possession of by Bradford. The fact is, interference at such a time was useless. He was no doubt a man of considerable influence in the community, but far from being in league with the insurgents. Captain Marshall died March 17, 1829, at Wellsburg, West Virginia, whither he removed towards the close of the century.

MARTIN, JAMES, of Bedford county, was born in the Cumberland Valley, about the year 1750. In 1772 he resided in what was then Colerain township. In the campaign of 1776 he commanded a company of Associators, and during the Revolutionary era he was in active military service, chiefly stationed on the frontiers to protect the farmers in sowing and gathering their crops. He was one of the sub-lieutenants for the county September 12, 1777, and a justice of the peace for some years. On the 26th of February, 1785, he be-came one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, and in 1787 a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution. He did not sign the ratification. He was chosen a Councillor in 1789, and served in that capacity from November 12, 1789, until the constitution of 1790 dissolved that body. He was elected sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives in December, 1790, serving that session. On the 17th of August, 1791, Governor Mifflin commissioned him an associate judge, an office he filled acceptably up to the time of his death.

MORRIS, JAMES, of Montgomery county, son of Joseph Morris, was born in 1753. His father was a son of Anthony Morris, who was fourth son of Anthony Morris, an only child of Anthony Morris, born at St. Dunstan’s, Stepney, London, August 23, 1654. In 1771, Joseph Morris, the father, bought a house and grist-mill, and ninety-four acres of land, on the now Morris Road and Butler Pike, in Upper Dublin township, Montgomery county, and located his son there. James Morris was elected to the General Assembly from Philadelphia county in 1782, and again in 1783. When the county of Montgomery was formed, he was commissioned one of its first justices of the peace, and judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1785. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and a member of the State constitutional convention of 1789-90. Under this latter instrument, Governor Mifflin appointed him register and recorder of the county, serving until March 5, 1799. He was chosen a presidential elector in 1792, and in 1793 commissioned a brigadier-general of the militia, having served in the military during and subsequent to the Revolution. He was on the Western Expedition of 1794. General Morris died the following year (1795), at the age of forty-two years.

MUHLENBERG, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS, of Montgomery county, was born at the Trappe, that county, June 2, 1750. His father was the eminent patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America, the Rev. Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, while his mother was Anna Maria Weiser, daughter of the no less celebrated Conrad Weiser. At the age of thirteen, in company with his elder brother Peter, he entered the University of Halle, Germany. He was ordained to the work of the ministry, and from 1773 to 1775 was in charge of the church at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, removing the latter year to the city of New York, where he continued until the occupation of that city by the British. He officiated at New Hanover, Montgomery county, until called into political life, as did his brother Peter, when he laid aside the gown and the duties of the ministry. He was chosen to the Continental Congress in 1779, serving one term, the year following being elected to the General Assembly, and was Speaker of that body, 1781-82. He was a member of the Council of Censors, 1783-84, over which body he presided. Upon the organization of the county of Montgomery he was commissioned one of the justices of the first courts, October 4, 1784, as also register of wills and recorder of deeds, September 21, 1 784. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, being President thereof, and at the first election for members of Congress was chosen on the so-called anti-federal ticket, his brother, General Peter Muhlenberg, being on the federal ticket and also elected. Of that distinguished body he was Speaker. He was chosen to the second, third, and fourth Congresses. Governor Mc-Kean appointed him, January 8, 1800, receiver-general of the Pennsylvania Land Office. He died at Lancaster, the seat of State government, June 4, 18o1. In 1792, when nominated for the third Congress, the quot;addressquot; contained the following: quot;Descended from an amiable, enlightened, and revered German clergyman, Mr. Muhlenberg was naturally regarded with a favorable eye by our fellow-citizens of that nation; and it is certainly a fortunate circumstance that the object to whom the attention of so important a part of the community was directed has proved himself capable to serve the public, and deserving of the confidence of his country. In the year 1779, when Whig principles warmed the hearts of the people and Whig politics controlled the operations of the government, he was elected a member of Congress; and at the expiration of that service he was chosen Speaker of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. The contest by which he was placed in a situation to be Speaker of the House of Representatives in Congress will be commemorated for the honor of America as long as the Union lasts; and for Mr. Muhlenberg’s honor the conduct which he observed in that arduous and important office ought never to be forgotten.quot;

NEVILLE, JOHN, of Washington county, son of Richard Neville and Ann Burroughs, was born July 26, 1731, on the head-waters of Occoquan River, Virginia. He served with Washington in the Braddock expedition of 1755, held the office of sheriff of Frederick county, Virginia, and participated in the Dunmore expedition of 1774. Prior to this he had taken up, by purchase and entry, large tracts of land on Chartiers Creek, in Western Pennsylvania, and was elected a delegate from Augusta county to the provincial convention of Virginia, which body, on the 7th of August, 1775, ordered him to march with his company and take possession of Fort Pitt. On the 23d of December, 1776, he was commissioned a justice of the peace for Yohogania county, but declined the appointment owing to the boundary dispute, as well as being commandant at Fort Pitt. He was colonel of the fourth regiment of the Virginia line, and one of the original members of the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council from November 11, 1783, to November 20, 1786, and as a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, signing the ratification. He was elected to the General Assembly in 1788 and the year following, while under the constitution of 1789-90, he was chosen to the House of Representatives, session of 1790-91. The latter year, at the urgent solicitation of the President and the Secretary of the Treasury, he accepted the appointment of inspector of the revenue in the Fourth Survey of the District of Pennsylvania, which he held until after the suppression of the Whiskey Insurrection and establishment of the supremacy of the laws of the United States. He was commissioned by Governor Muffin brigade inspector, and was of great service in securing the defence of the frontiers of Western Pennsylvania. Under the act of Congress of May 18, 1796, he was appointed the agent at Pittsburgh for the sale of lands in the territory northwest of the Ohio. He died at his seat on Montour’s Island (now Neville township), Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, Friday, July 29, 1803.

ORTH, ADAM, of Dauphin county, son of Balthaser (died October, 1788) and Gertrude Catharine Orth, was born March 10, 1733, in Lebanon township, Lancaster (now Lebanon) county. His parents came to America in 1729, and he was thus brought up amid the dangers and struggles of Pennsylvania pioneer life. He received the limited education of the “back settlements,” and yet, by self-culture and reading, became a man well informed and of more than ordinary intelgence. During the French and Indian war he commanded the Lebanon township company in Rev. John Elder’s ranging battalion. In 1769 he was one of the commissioners of the county of Lancaster. During the Revolution he was early identified with the movement, and, although well advanced in years, assisted in the organization of the associated battalions, and was appointed a sub-lieutenant of the county March 12, 1777. Upon the formation of the county of Dauphin, he served as a Representative in the General Assembly in 1789 and 1790. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention of 1787, but opposed the adoption of the federal constitution, and took an active part in the Harrisburg conference of 1788. For a long period he operated and owned New Market Forge, which at his death he bequeathed to his son Henry. He was one of the pioneers in the manufacture of iron in Lebanon county, a man of energy and indomitable perseverance. He died November 15, 1794.

PEDAN, BENJAMIN, of York county, son of John Pedan, was born about 1740. His father in 1733 settled in Hempfield township, Lancaster county, along Big Chickies Creek, half a mile below where the Pennsylvania Railroad crosses. It is not known when the son removed west of the Susquehanna and took up his residence in what is now Lower Chanceford township, York county. When the struggle for independence came on he took an active part, and was on the Committee of Observation for the county. When supplies were asked for the people of Boston, personally and unaided he secured grain and flour, which he took to Baltimore for shipment. He was appointed by the constitutional convention of 1776 one of the Board of Commissioners for York county, and on June 10, 1777, commissioned a justice of the peace. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, which he signed, although he eventually became a prominent anti-federalist. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1789-90, and represented his county in the Legislature of the State, session of 1805-6. He died at his residence in Lower Chanceford township, York county, in October, 1813.

PICKERING, TIMOTHY, of Luzerne county, son of Deacon Timothy Pickering, was born at Salem, Massachusetts, on the 17th of July, 1745. He graduated at Harvard University in 1763, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1768. At the outset of the Revolution he was on the Committee of Correspondence, and was the author of the address of the people of Salem to the British general, Gage, on the occasion of the Boston Port Bill. He first opposed an armed resistance to the British troops, when, on the 26th of February, 1775, he, while a colonel of militia, prevented their crossing at a drawbridge to seize some military stores. In the fall of 1776 he joined Washington’s army in the Jerseys, was subsequently (1777) made his adjutant-general, and present at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown. On the 5th of August, 1780, he succeeded General Greene as quartermaster-general. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. After the war he took up his residence in Philadelphia, and in 1786 was sent by the government to assist in adjusting the claims of the Connecticut settlers in Wyoming. For an account of his adventures in that section, see ” Hazard’s Register,” Vol. VII. In 1787 he represented the county of Luzerne in the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution, but did not sign the ratification. At that period he held the offices of prothonotary, clerk of the courts, etc., for that county, and was subsequently a member of the Pennsylvania convention of 1789-90. He opposed Governor Mifflin’s election to the gubernatorial office, but, nevertheless, continued to hold his positions under him. President Washington appointed him Postmaster-General, November 7, 1791, which he held until the 2d of January, 1795: filled the office of Secretary of State from December 10, 1795, to the 12th of May, 18oo. Leaving office poor, he settled on a tract of land he possessed in Pennsylvania. He returned to Salem, Massachusetts, the year following, afterwards filling the various offices of judge of the courts, United States Senator, 1803-11, and member of the Massachusetts Board of War, 1812-14, and member of Congress, 1815-17. He wrote quite a number of political pamphlets during his brilliant political career, and was one of the leaders of the federal party. He died at Salem, Massachusetts, on the 29th of January, 1829.

POWELL, JOSEPH, of Bedford county, born about 1750, in Bethlehem township, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, son of Joseph Powell, a Moravian clergyman from White Church, Shropshire, England. He studied for the ministry, was settled in Bedford county, and during the Revolutionary period became quite prominent in political affairs. He was a member of the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, but united with his colleagues in opposing the ratification. As stated in the sketch referred to, he was a member of the State constitutional convention of 1776, and also of 1789-90. He died in November, 1804, in Bedford county.

REYNOLDS, JOHN, of Cumberland county, was born in 1749, near Shippensburg, that county. His father, John Reynolds, came from the north of Ireland and settled in the valley at an early period. Although there were three John Reynolds in that settlement during the Revolutionary period, the subject of our sketch appears to have been the more prominent one, “Justice Rannels,” as he is generally noted. He was commissioned a justice of the peace prior to the Revolution, and during the struggle for independence was an active partisan. He was continued in commission of the peace by the Supreme Executive Council, June 9, 1777, and by virtue of seniority became one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas. He was a member of the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, but voted against the ratification. He was an elder, as also was his father, of Middle Spring Presbyterian Church. He died the 20th of October, 1789, aged forty years.

RICHARDS, JOHN, of Montgomery county, son of Matthias and Margaret (Hillegas) Richards, was born April 17, 1753, in new New Hanover township, that county. His grand-father, John Frederick Richards, came from Wurtemberg, Germany, to Pennsylvania prior to 1720, his warrant for a tract of land bearing that date. He died in 1748, and his son John in March, 1775, at the age of fifty-six years. The life of the subject of this sketch was an eventful and busy one,—with a fine estate, he was a progressive farmer, store-keeper, and iron-master. Having been appointed one of the justices of the peace for Philadelphia county, June 6, 1777, he was continued in commission, and upon the organization of the county of Montgomery, became one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, November 1, 1784. He was elected to the fourth Congress, 1796-97, and from 18oi to 1807 served in the State Senate. He died November 13, 1822, at the age of sixty-nine years.

ROBERTS, JONATHAN, of Montgomery county, eldest son of Matthew Roberts and Sarah Walter, was born in 1731. His grandfather, John Roberts, a native of Pennychland, Denbighshire, North Wales, came to America about the year 1682, and settled in Lower Merion, now Montgomery county. Jonathan was brought up as a farmer. From 1771 to 1775 he served in the provincial Assembly. When the Revolutionary struggle came on, belonging to the Society of Friends, he took the position of “a non-militant Whig,”—that is, he aided the patriot cause secretly, but did not bear arms. At the close of the struggle, when measures were taken to divide the county of Philadelphia, he became quite prominent in the formation of the county of Montgomery in 1784. He was one of the commissioners named in the act, and chiefly through his efforts was the county-seat located at Norristown. This injured him more or less politically, but he was a man always above reproach, and the bitterness of feeling soon subsided. He was elected a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and gave his vote for ratification, although he thought the outlines of that instrument were perhaps a too faithful copy of the British theory of government. From 1788 to 1790 he served in the General Assembly, and was a member of the House of Representatives, sessions of 1790-91 and 1799-1800. Mr. Roberts died in 1812, at the age of eighty-two years.

RUSH, BENJAMIN, of the City of Philadelphia, was born December 24, 1745, in Byberry township, county of Philadelphia. He was educated at the College of New Jersey, from whence he graduated in 1760. He studied medicine. under Dr. John Redman, a famous physician in his day, went to Edinburgh, and graduated from the university there as Doctor of Medicine in 1768. Passing sometime in the London hospitals, he returned to Pennsylvania, and in 1769 was elected Professor of Chemistry in the College of Philadelphia. He was in the successful practice of his profession when the war of the Revolution commenced. His native State establishing a navy for the protection of the Delaware, he was commissioned, September 27, 1775, fleet-surgeon thereof, only resigning, July, 1776, when he was elected by the General Assembly to the Continental Congress. He was one of the after-signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was on the commission to establish and superintend a saltpetre factory in Philadelphia in 1775, and was a member of the provincial conference held at Carpenters’ Hall, June 18, 1776. In 1777 he was appointed physician-general to the hospital of the Middle Department, and served with great usefulness. In 1779 he assisted in organizing the Republican Society, which had for its object the revision of the Pennsylvania constitution of 1776. Towards the close of the war he was active in the cause for the abolition of slavery, and for a long time was secretary of the Pennsylvania Society. He was an intimate friend of the author of “Common Sense,” and a pamphleteer of considerable prominence. In 1787 he was elected a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution, of which he was an earnest advocate. On the death of Dr. John Morgan, in 1789, he succeeded to the chair of the Theory and Practice of Medicine, and when, in 1791, the College of Philadelphia was transformed into the University of Pennsylvania, he became professor of the Institutes and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Practice, afterwards that of the Practice of Physic being added. Until the end of his life he filled these positions with distinguished ability. From 1790 to 1795 he was resident port-physician of the City of Philadelphia; was cashier of the United States Mint; and, upon the incorporation of Dickinson College, Carlisle, one of its original trustees. During the yellow-fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793 he remained at his post and battled with the fearful scourge, saying to those who counselled him to regard his personal safety, “I will remain if I remain alive.” He died in Philadelphia, April 19, 1813, leaving a reputation in his professional life only equalled by his sterling patriotism and his great philanthropy.

SCOTT, THOMAS, of Washington county, was born February 28, 1739, in Donegal township, Lancaster county. In 1770 he removed with his family to Western Pennsylvania, and settled on Dunlap’s Creek, near the Monongahela. Shortly after the erection of Westmoreland county, January II, 1774, he was appointed a justice of the peace, and in that capacity was a warm and able supporter of the Pennsylvania jurisdiction, and drew on himself the particular resentment of the partisans of Virginia. When this contest sunk in the great cause of the Revolution, he was elected, in 1776, to the first Assembly under the constitution of the State passed that year. He was a member of the Council of Safety from Westmoreland county in 1777, and elected to the Supreme Executive Council, in which body he served three years. When the county of Washington was organized in 1781, he was appointed prothonotary April 2, 1781, serving until March 28, 1789. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and in 1788 elected a member of the first Congress under that instrument, which he so zealously supported against the protests of his constituents and the contrary action of his colleagues. As the change of the constitution of Pennsylvania occasioned a new appointment of State officers in 1791, he declined being considered as a candidate for a seat in the second Congress, with a view to retain his office as clerk of the courts in Washington county. Governor Mifflin thought proper to supersede him. At the election, however, a few weeks after, he was chosen a member of the Assembly, and in 1792 a member of the third Congress. With only such opportunities of study as his residence in Philadelphia while in Council afforded him, and unaided by a liberal or professional education, he was admitted to the Washington county bar at the September term, 1791, afterwards to other of the western counties, and was a successful advocate. And it may be here stated that his arguments were natural and judicious, his language nervous, and his elocution remarkably emphatic. Mr. Scott died at his residence in the town of Washington, whither he removed upon the organization of the county, on Wednesday, March 2, 1796, a few days after he had completed his fifty-seventh year.

SLAGLE, HENRY, of York county, son of Christopher Slagle, an emigrant from Saxony, was born in 1735 in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. He was commissioned one of the provincial magistrates, in October, 1764, and was continued in the office by the convention of 1776. In December, 1774, he served on the committee of inspection for York county; commanded a battalion of Associators in 1776; was a member of the provincial conference of June 18, 1776; and of the subsequent convention of the 15th of July. He was appointed by the Assembly, December 16, 1777, to take subscriptions for the continental loan; and November 22, 1777, acted as one of the commissioners who met at New Haven, Connecticut, to regulate the price of commodies in the colonies. He represented York county in the General Assembly from 1777 to 1779; was appointed sub-lieutenant of the county, March 30, 1780; one of the auditors of depreciation accounts for York county, March 3, 1781; delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and member of the constitutional convention of 1789-90. He was commissioned by Governor Mifflin one of the associate judges of York county, August 17, 1791, and continued as such, on the organization of Adams county, and represented the latter county in the legislature, session of 1801-2. He served as one of the original trustees of Dickinson College, and was a zealous supporter of the system of public education, which he did not live to see adopted. He died at his residence in Adams county.

SMILIE, JOHN, of Fayette county, son of Thomas Smilie, was born September 16, 1742, in county Down, Ireland. His father came to Pennsylvania at an early period and settled in Lancaster county. The son early espoused the patriot cause, and at once took sides, being a member of the County Committee, of the provincial conference held at Carpenters’ Hall June 18, 1775, and that of June 18, 1776. In the latter year, and that of 1777, he served as a private in the Associators, and continued in that situation during the most critical periods of the war. In 1778, and again in 1779, he was elected to the General Assembly from Lancaster county, and became an ardent promoter of the act of 1780, providing for the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania. In 1781, he removed with his family to then Westmoreland county, and was chosen a member of the Council of Censors, 1783-84, from that county. When the county of Fayette was ‘organized in 1784, he was chosen its first Representative in the General Assembly, re-elected in 1785, and served in the Supreme Executive Council from November 2, 1786, to November 19, 1789. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787—opposed the ratification—and was one of the anti-constitutional party who were mobbed in Philadelphia on the evening of the 6th of November, that year. With Gallatin, he represented Fayette in the State constitutional convention of 1789-90. In 1790 he was elected to the State Senate, but in 1792, having been elected to the third Congress, he resigned the last year of his senatorial term. He was sent to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1795, ’96, and ’97, and was a presidential elector in 1796. In 1798 he was again chosen to Congress, the sixth, and re-elected to the succeeding Congresses up to and including the thirteenth. He died at the city of Washington on the 29th of December, 1813, aged seventy-one years.

Ed. — According to Edward Black of the John and Jane Porter Smilie Family Association, there are a number of errors in the above biography of John Smilie. Specifically, Mr. Black states that John Smilie was actually the son of Robert Smilie, not Thomas Smilie; that he came to America by himself, not with his father; that he was born in 1742, not 1741; and that he died on December 30, 1812, though indeed at the age of 71. We thank Mr. Black for these corrections.

STOUT, ABRAHAM, of Bucks county, was born in Rockhill township, Bucks county, in 1740. His father, Jacob Stout, in 1735, came from Germany and purchased a tract of land in the Proprietaries’ manor of Perkasie, now covering the village of Perkasie. The son seems to have been an influential farmer; was chosen a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and also a member of the constitutional convention of 1789-90. He held the office of justice of the peace from August 27, 1791, to January 20, 1795. He died in June, 1812.

TODD, WILLIAM, of Westmoreland county, was born about 1739, at the Trappe (now Montgomery county), Pennsylvania. His father was Robert Todd, a native of County Down, Ireland, who came to Pennsylvania in 1737, and located in then Philadelphia county, where he died in 1775. He was the ancestor of the Todd family of Kentucky, from whom descended the wife of President Lincoln. William Todd went to Western Pennsylvania about 1765, locating at first within the limits of Bedford county. He was a man of more than ordinary prominence, was appointed by the provincial conference held at Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia, in June, 1776, one of the judges of the election in the western part of Bed-ford county for members of the first constitutional convention, by which latter body he was appointed one of the commissioners of that county, and also a justice of the peace. Shortly after he removed to Westmoreland county, where he settled upon land subsequently warranted to him, located ” on both sides of the road leading from Cherry’s Mill to Bud’s Ferry, Youghiogheny River, Mount Pleasant township.” He served in the General Assembly from 1783 to 1789, and opposed the calling of the convention of 1789-90. He was chosen a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention of 1787, voting against its ratification; and was also a member of the constitutional convention of 1789-90. He was an associate judge from August 17, 1791, to December 3, 1794, when he resigned to take his seat in the State Senate, serving one term, 1794 to 1796. He died in October, 1810.

WAYNE, ANTHONY, of Chester county, son of Isaac Wayne, was born January 1, 1745, in that county. His grandfather, Anthony Wayne, who commanded a squadron of dragoons at the battle of the Boyne, came to Pennsylvania in 1722. The father was prominent in local affairs, and was a member of the provincial Assembly, 1757 to 1764. The son was a farmer and surveyor. In 1774 he was chosen to the General Assembly, was a deputy to the provincial conference of July 15, 1774, and a delegate to the provincial convention, January 23, 1775. He was on the Committee of Safety from June 30, 1775, resigning when he was commissioned colonel of the fourth battalion of the Pennsylvania Line, January 3, 1776. He was in the Canada campaign of that year, and wounded at Three Rivers. On the 23d of November, General Schuyler assigned him to the command of the fortress of Ticonderoga and garrison, composed of Wood’s, Dayton’s, Irvine’s, Russell’s, Whitcomb’s, and his own battalion. He was promoted brigadier-general February 21, 1777. In May following, at his own earnest solicitation, he was called to the main army, where he arrived on the, 5th of that month, and was placed in command of a brigade. He was with Washington at the battle of Brandywine, September 1777, and held his ground against Knyphausen until the right of the American army was turned. He was surprised at the Paoli on the night of the 2oth of September, and demanding a court of inquiry, was honorably acquitted. He was wounded at Germantown, and greatly distinguished himself at Monmouth. For his conduct at the storming of Stony Point, one of the most gallant achievements of the struggle for independence, on the night of July 15, 1779, Congress gave him a vote of thanks and a gold medal. His conduct during the revolt of the Pennsylvania Line, and his subsequent brilliant career in the South until the close of the Revolution, render the name of Wayne illustrious. Returning home, the well-scarred veteran was the recipient of many honors. Chester county elected him a member of the Council of Censors, 1783-84, and from 1784 to 1786 he represented her in the General Assembly of the State. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution of 1787, and espoused the cause of its adoption. The defeat of St. Clair on the Maumee, in November, 1791, required a change of commanders, and the eyes and hopes of the people were turned to the discreet and cautious Wayne. He was appointed by President Washington, April 3, 1792, general-in-chief of the army, and on the 20th of August following, by the admirable discipline, courage, and bravery of his troops, he gained the battle of “Fallen Timbers,” and dictated terms to the savages at Greenville. On the 14th of December, 1796, General Wayne suddenly closed his military career at Presqu’ Isle, and was buried on the shores of Lake Erie. His remains were removed to Chester county in 1809, and in 1811 the Society of the Cincinnati, of which he was an original member, erected over them a plain, substantial monument.

WHITEHILL, JOHN, of Lancaster county, was born December 1, 1729, in Salisbury township, that county. His father, James Whitehill, a native of the north of Ireland, settled on Pequea Creek, in 1723. John received a good education. He was an ardent patriot, and came into prominence at the beginning of the Revolution. The Supreme Executive Council appointed him, March 31, 1777, one of the justices of the Common Pleas for Lancaster, and in the years 1778 to 1782 he represented the county in the General Assembly. He served as a member of the Council of Censors, 1783-84, and was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution of 1787, but did not sign the ratification. From December 22, 1784, to December 16, 1787, he was a member of the Supreme Executive Council. Under the constitution of 1790 he was appointed by Governor Mifflin an associate judge of the county of Lancaster, August 17, 1791. He was a presidential elector in 1796, and elected to the eighth and ninth Congresses, serving with distinguished ability. A rigid Presbyterian, he was a trustee and elder of the church at Pequea. He died at his residence, Salisbury, in 1815. He left a large landed estate. Brought to the front by the Revolutionary war, he proved to be, like his compeers, a person of indomitable courage and vigor of intellect, and was ever tenacious of republican principles. He belonged to the Jeffersonian school of statesmen.

WHITEHILL, ROBERT, of Cumberland county, was born July 24, 1735, in Salisbury township, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. He was the son of James Whitehill and his wife, Rachel Cresswell, and younger brother of the subject of the preceding sketch. He was educated in the school of the Rev. Francis Allison. In the spring of 1771 he removed to Cumberland county, locating on a farm two miles west of Harrisburg. His entire public life was a successful and brilliant one. He was a member of the County Committee of 1774-75; of the convention of July 15, 1776; of the Assembly, 1776-8; Council of Safety from October to December, 1777; member of the Supreme Executive Council, December 28, 1779 to November, 30, 1781; of the Assembly, 1784-7; under the constitution of 1790, member of the House of Representatives from 1797 to 1801, and of the Senate from 1801 to 1804. During his term as Senator he was speaker of that body, and presided at the celebrated impeachment of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. In 1805 he was elected to Congress, and continued to be a member thereof until his death. From 1774 to the time of his death he filled almost every position in the gift of the people. In the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution of 1787 he was one of the leaders in opposing the ratification, and it is to be regretted that his remarks were not fully reported. He died at his residence in Cumberland county, two miles west of the Susquehanna, on the 7th of April, 1813, while a member of Congress.

WILSON, JAMES, of the city of Philadelphia, was born September 14, 1742, in the Lowlands, near St. Andrew’s, Scotland. His studies were pursued at Glasgow, St. Andrew’s, and Edinburgh, emigrating to Pennsylvania in 1766, where he became a tutor in the College of Philadelphia. He at once began the study of the law with John Dickinson, one of the ablest legal minds in America, and was admitted to the bar November, 1767. He shortly after took up his residence at Carlisle, where he was in the enjoyment of a good practice when the war of the Revolution began. He early espoused the patriot cause, and was chosen a delegate from Cumberland county to the provincial convention held at Philadelphia, January 23, 1775. On May 6, 1775, the Assemby elected him one of the deputies to the Continental Congress, and on the loth he took his seat in that body. He was re-elected by the Assembly, November 4, 1775, and voted for the Declaration of Independence, to which he had the honor of affixing his signature. The State constitutional convention, on July 20, 1776, chose him to the same position, and on March 10, 1777, he was elected by the Assembly. In 1782-83, and again in 1785-86, he served in that body. On May 23, 1782, he was appointed brigadier-general of the Pennsylvania militia. During the closing years of the Revolution he acted as the advocate-general of France in America, and for this service was handsomely rewarded by that government. In 1779 he was one of the active members of the Republican Society formed for the purpose of urging the revision of the State constitution of 1776. He was appointed by the Supreme Executive Council and the Assembly, February 14, 1784, one of the counsellors on the cause between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, a case which he conducted with great legal ability. He was a member of the convention which framed the federal constitution of 1787, and also of the Pennsylvania convention called to ratify that instrument, being its foremost defender. It may with truth be said that to him is due the honor of its ratification by that body. President Washington appointed him, in September, 1789, a judge of the United States Supreme Court. He was also a member of the constitutional convention of 1789-90. In addition to these duties he accepted the appointment in 1790 of law professor in the University of Pennsylvania. His course of lectures are published in his works, edited by his son. In 1792 he published, in connection with Chief Justice McKean, of Pennsylvania, ” Commentaries on the United States Constitution.” During the Revolutionary period he published several pamphlets relating to the contest with the mother-country. Judge Wilson died at Edenton, North Carolina, August 28, 1798, while on his judicial circuit, and was there buried. He was a profound thinker, and thoroughly learned in the law. His scientific attainments were of a high order, and the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him. Graydon, in his ” Memoirs,” says of Wilson, referring to the Pennsylvania convention: ” He never failed to throw the strongest lights on his subject, and thence rather to flash than elicit conviction syllogistically. . . . He produced greater orations than any other man I have heard; and I doubt much whether the ablest of those who sneer at his occasional simplicities and ‘brilliant conceits’ would not have found him a truly formidable antagonist.”

WILSON, WIILLIAM, of Northumberland county, emigrated from the north of Ireland when quite young. Upon the breaking out of the Revolution he was commissioned ensign of Captain John Lowdon’s company, Colonel William Thompson’s battalion, June 25, 1775, and marched to Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was promoted second lieutenant January 4, 1776. His regiment re-enlisting for the war, under General Edward Hand, became the first Pennsylvania regiment of the Continental Line. He was promoted first lieutenant September 25, 1776, and to captain March 2, 1777. His regiment, in Wayne’s division, took a very prominent part in the action at Monmouth, June 22, 1778, where the Royal Grenadiers under Colonel Monckton undertook to break the centre occupied by Wayne and the Pennsylvania Line. Colonel Monckton was killed, and in a hand-to-hand fight over the colors of the Grenadiers they were secured by Captain Wilson, and are in possession of his descendants at Bellefonte. He was mustered out November 3, 1783, and settled in the mercantile business in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. On the death of Colonel Samuel Hunter, he succeeded him as county lieutenant, commission dating May 20, 1784. In the fall of 1787, Colonel Wilson and his partner in business, Captain John Boyd, were elected delegates to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution. There were parties in politics even at that time, and the ruling party in Northumberland county were opposed to the proposed constitution; but the old officers of the army rallied to its support, and selected two of their own number for delegates. In 1789 he became a member of the Supreme Executive Council, serving one year. In connection with his partner, Captain Boyd, he built Chillisquaque Mills, at the mouth of that creek, four miles above Northumberland. He was appointed an associate judge January 13, 1792. In September, 1794, he took a prominent part in favor of the government in suppressing liberty-poles and demonstrations on the part of those who sympathized in the Whiskey Insurrection. In 1798, when war was threatened with the French Directory and a provisional army was authorized, Washing-ton selected Colonel Wilson for one of his division commanders. Happily, there was no necessity to bring that army into the field. He died in 1813.

WYNKOOP, HENRY, of Bucks county, son of Nicholas Wynkoop, was born in Northampton township, that county, March 2, 1737. His great-grandfather, Gerardus Wynkoop, settled in Moreland township, then Philadelphia county, in 1717. Henry Wynkoop, who received a collegiate education, came into active prominence at the outset of the Revolutionary struggle. He was on the County Committee of Observation in 1774, a deputy to the provincial conference of July 15, that year, and a member of the provincial conference which met at Carpenters’ Hall on the 18th of June, 1775. He was chosen major of one of the Associated battalions, and was an efficient officer. He was on the General Committee of Safety from July, 1776, to July, 1777. The General Assembly appointed him one of the commissioners to settle the accounts of county lieutenants, December 4, 1778, and on March 3, 1779, when Edward Biddle resigned his seat in Congress, Major Wynkoop was chosen by that body to fill the position, being re-elected November 24, 178o, and November 22, 1781. He was commissioned one of the justices of the Court of Common Pleas and Orphans’ Court, November 18, 178o, but resigned June 27, 1789, having been elected to the first Congress, 1789-91. On the expiration of his Congressional term he was appointed by Governor Mifflin an associate judge of Bucks county, August 17, 1791, filling that honorable station until his death, October 24, 1812.

YARDLEY, THOMAS, of Bucks county, was a native of Lower Makefield township, that county. He was descended from William Yardley (1632-93) and his wife Jane, of Banselough, near Leek, in Staffordshire, England, who, with their children, Thomas and William, arrived at the Falls September 28, 1682, and settled in Lower Makefield township, taking up a large tract of land, covering the site of Yardleyville. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution of 1787, and voted for the ratification. Governor Mifflin appointed him a justice of the peace August 27, 1791, which office he held until February 21, 1794, which, we presume, was the date of his death.

YEATES, JASPER, of Lancaster county, the son of John Yeates and his wife, Elizabeth Sidbotham, was born April 9, 1745, in the City of Philadelphia. He was educated at the College of Philadelphia, studied law, and was admitted to the bar October 5, 1765. Shortly after he located at Lancaster. When the war of the Revolution opened he took an active part, and was chairman of the Committee of Observation for Lancaster county. In 1776 he was one of the commissioners appointed to hold a conference with the Indians at Port Pitt. Throughout the war for independence he occupied a conspicuous position in every patriotic effort. He was a member of the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution, and one of the committee which reported the form of ratification. He was a strong federalist. Under the State constitution of 1789-91 he was commissioned by Governor Mifflin, March 21, 1791, a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. President Washington appointed him one of the commissioners to confer with the insurgents in the so-called Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. In 1805, when politics ran exceedingly high in the State, he, with Chief Justice Shippen and Judge Thomas Smith, was impeached, tried, and acquitted, upon one of the most trivial charges which ever engaged the attention of a legislative body. He remained in office until his death, at Lancaster, March 14, 1817. Judge Yeates was the author of four volumes of “Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,” published after his death.)