DELAWARE

Image: The Baltimore Museum of Art

Early Life

Richard Bassett was born in Cecil County, Maryland on April 2, 1745. After an inauspicious start in life his father, a tavern-keeper, abandoned him and his mother he was sent to live with a wealthy relative named Peter Lawson. Lawson provided Bassett with an education, sent him to Philadelphia to read law, and later left Bassett his estate, Bohemia Manor. Bassett was admitted to the bar in Delaware in 1770. He prospered as a lawyer and planter, and eventually became a major landowner with property in Dover and Wilmington in addition to Bohemia Manor.

During the Revolution, Bassett led a troop of Dover cavalry militia and served on the Delaware Council of Safety. He subsequently participated in Delaware's Constitutional Convention, and sat in both the upper and lower houses of the legislature. In 1786, he represented Delaware in the Annapolis Convention.

Constitutional Convention

Bassett was one of Delaware's representatives to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Bassett was a rather quiet delegate; he made no recorded speeches and did not serve on any committees. However, he attended the Convention diligently and was one of the signers of the Constitution.

Later Government Office

After the Constitutional Convention, Bassett returned home to cast one of the 30 unanimous votes in favor of ratification at the Delaware Ratifying Convention. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1789. An ardent federalist, he supported the power of the President to remove federal governmental officers, and opposed Alexander Hamilton's proposal for the federal assumption of state debts. Bassett left the Senate in 1793 to become Chief Justice of the Delaware Court of Common Pleas. He was elected Governor of Delaware in 1799. In 1801, Bassett was appointed to the bench of the United States Circuit Court by President Adams. He retired a year later, when Jeffersonian Republicans repealed the Act of Congress that constituted the federal judiciary.

Bassett was married twice and fathered several children. A devout Methodist, he frequently held religious meetings at Bohemia Manor, and supported the church financially. Bassett died in 1815 at the age of 70. He is buried in Wilmington, Delaware.

Image: The Architect of the Capital

Early Life

Gunning Bedford, Jr. was born in Philadelphia in 1747. His family, which had originally settled in Jamestown, Virginia, was socially and politically distinguished. His cousin, Colonel Gunning Bedford, a prominent statesman and soldier, was the 12th Governor of Delaware.

Bedford graduated with honors from the College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton) in 1771, where he was a classmate of James Madison. He was admitted to the bar after reading law with Joseph Read in Philadelphia. He subsequently moved to Dover, and later to Wilmington. He apparently served in the Continental Army, possibly as an aide to General Washington.

Bedford figured prominently in the politics of his state and nation following the war. He sat in the Delaware legislature, served on the state council, and was a representative to the Continental Congress from 1783 to 1785. In 1785, Bedford was selected as a delegate to the Annapolis Convention, but for some reason did not attend. He served as Attorney General of Delaware from 1784 to 1789.

Constitutional Convention

Bedford was one of Delaware's most active delegates to the Constitutional Convention. A large and forceful man, Bedford was an ardent advocate for the interests of small states, which were often at odds with those of larger states. He was instrumental author of the Great Compromise, which created a bicameral legislature in which the number of representatives from each state in the lower house is determined by population, while the number of representatives in the upper house if the same for each state. Bedford was one of the signers of the Constitution, and voted in favor of ratification at the Delaware Ratifying Convention.

Later Government Office

Bedford continued to serve as Delaware's Attorney General for two years after the Constitutional Convention. In 1789, President Washington appointed him to the United States Circuit Court for Delaware. He served as a Federalist presidential elector in 1789 and again in 1793. He spent his later years supporting Wilmington Academy, fostering the abolition movement, and enjoying his Lombardy Hall farm.

Bedford was married to Jane B. Parker, and fathered at least one daughter. He died at the age of 65 in 1812. He was originally buried in the First Presbyterian Churchyard in Wilmington, Delaware. When that cemetery was abandoned, his grave site was moved to Masdred, Delaware.

Early Life

Jacob Broom was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1752, the eldest son of a prosperous blacksmith and farmer. Broom was educated at home, and probably later at the local Old Academy. Although he followed his father into farming and also studied surveying, he ultimately became a successful businessman. He was engaged primarily in shipping, importing, and real estate. In 1773, he married Rachel Pierce, with whom he had eight children.

During the Revolution, Broom prepared maps for George Washington before the Battle of Brandywine. In 1776, when he was 24, he became Assistant Burgess of Wilmington. Over the next several decades, Broom held a wide range of offices in Wilmington, including Chief Burgess, Borough Assessor, president of the city "street regulators," and Justice of the Peace for New Castle County. Broom also sat in the state legislature from 1784 to 1786, and again in 1788. He was chosen as a delegate to the Annapolis Convention in 1785, but did not attend.

Constitutional Convention

Broom was one of Delaware's delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. He never missed a session and spoke on several occasions. He was one of the signers of the Constitution.

Later Government Office

Broom returned to Wilmington after the Constitutional Convention, where in he continued to hold various local offices and engage in business and commerce. He was Wilmington's first postmaster from 1790 to 1792, and was the chairman of the board of directors of Wilmington's Delaware Bank for many years. He also operated a cotton mill and a machine shop. Broom encouraged construction of Delaware's early infrastructure, including canals, toll roads and bridges.

Broom was also involved in philanthropic and religious activities. He served on the board of trustees of the College of Wilmington and as a lay leader at Old Swedes Church. He died at the age of 58 while in Philadelphia on business, and is buried there at Christ Church Burial Ground.

Image: Independence National Historical Park

Early Life

John Dickinson was born in 1732 in Talbot County, Maryland. He was the second son of Samuel Dickinson, a prosperous farmer, and his second wife, Mary Cadwalader Dickinson. In 1740, the family moved to Kent County near Dover, Delaware, where Dickinson was educated by private tutors. In 1750, he began to study law with John Moland in Philadelphia. In 1753, Dickinson went to England to continue his studies at London's Middle Temple. He returned to Philadelphia four years later, where he became a prominent lawyer.

Shortly thereafter, Dickinson became involved in politics. In 1760, he served as Speaker of the Assembly of the Three Lower Counties (present-day Delaware). From 1762 to 1764, he served in the Pennsylvania Assembly as a representative from Philadelphia, but lost his seat after he defended the Royal Governor against a faction of patriots led by Benjamin Franklin.

Despite his earlier defense of the British colonial government, Dickinson eventually emerged as a leading critic of British tax policy. In 1765, he authored an influential pamphlet urging colonists to seek repeal of the Stamp Act, and was later appointed to the Stamp Act Congress by the Pennsylvania legislature. In 1767, Dickinson began a series of newspaper articles in the Pennsylvania Chronicle that came to be known collectively as Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies. The Letters criticized the Townshend Duties, and urged resistance to British tax laws. The Letters, which were extremely popular, made Dickinson famous. In 1771, Dickinson drafted a petition to King George III seeking relief from unjust taxation that was unanimously approved by the Pennsylvania legislature.

Unlike other of his contemporaries, however, Dickinson opposed the use of force against the British, and was hopeful that the colonies' grievances could be resolved without warfare. He refused to support military aid requested by Boston in the wake of the Intolerable Acts, though he sympathized with the city's plight. Eventually, however, Dickinson was reluctantly drawn into the Revolutionary fray. In 1774, he chaired the Philadelphia Committee of Correspondence and briefly represented Philadelphia in the First Continental Congress. He also chaired a Philadelphia Committee of Safety and Defense, and was a colonel in first battalion recruited in Philadelphia to defend the city. In the Second Continental Congress (1775-76), he was a principal author of the Declaration . . . Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking up Arms.

Still, though, Dickinson continued to hope for a peaceful solution to the growing crisis. In 1776, Dickinson voted against the Declaration of Independence as a member of Congress from Philadelphia, which caused him to lose much of his popularity. He nevertheless enlisted in the colonial army, but when he was not reelected to Congress, he resigned his commission and withdrew to his estate in Delaware. Later in 1776, he returned to Congress as a representative from Delaware. He may have taken part in the Battle of Brandywine, Pennsylvania on September 11, 1777, as a private in a special Delaware force, but otherwise saw no further military action.

In 1779, Dickinson authored and signed the Articles of Confederation. In 1781, he became governor -- or president, as it was then called -- of Delaware. In 1782, he returned to Philadelphia, where he became president of the Supreme Council of Pennsylvania. He returned to Delaware in 1786; shortly thereafter, he represented Delaware in the Annapolis Convention, which he chaired.

Constitutional Convention

Dickinson was one of Delaware's delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Although he missed a number of sessions, and left early because of illness, he nonetheless made worthwhile contributions, including service on the Committee on Postponed Matters. Like many of his fellow delegates from Delaware, he was a champion of the interests of small states, and helped engineer the Great Compromise. Because of his premature departure from the Convention, he did not actually sign the Constitution, but authorized his friend and fellow-delegate, George Read, to do so for him. After the Convention, Dickinson wrote a series of influential articles supporting ratification under the pen name "Fabius."

Later Government Office

Dickinson lived for two decades after ratification, but did not hold public office again. Instead, he devoted himself to writing about politics. Two volumes of his public works were published in 1801. Dickinson was married Mary Norris, daughter of a wealthy merchant, with whom he had at least one daughter. He died in Wilmington in 1808 at the age of 75.

Image: The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Early Life

George Read was born in 1733 near the village of North East in Cecil County, Maryland. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to New Castle, Delaware. His mother was the daughter of a Welsh planter, and his Dublin-born father was a significant landowner. One of six brothers, Read attended school in Chester, Pennsylvania, and later at Rev. Francis Alison's academy in New London, Pennsylvania. When he was about fifteen, he began reading law with a Philadelphia lawyer.

Read was admitted to the bar in 1753. He returned to New Castle to begin his practice the following year, and before long had a clientele that extended into Maryland. In 1763, Read married Gertrude Ross Till, the widowed sister of George Ross, who, like Read, would later sign the Declaration of Independence. Read and his wife had four sons and a daughter.

In 1763, as Crown Attorney General for the Three Lower Counties (present-day Delaware), Read became a vocal opponent of the Stamp Act. In 1765, he began a career in the colonial legislature that lasted more than a decade. A moderate Whig, he favored non-importation measures and non-violent protests against British tax policy. Like his friend John Dickinson, he was an advocate of colonial rights, but was wary of extremism. Read was a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1777, but his attendance was irregular. He voted against independence on July 2, 1776, presumably in response to the strong Tory sentiment in Delaware, or in hopes that reconciliation with Britain was still possible.

That same year, Read presided over the Delaware Constitutional Convention, where he chaired the Drafting Committee. He also began a term as speaker of the legislative council, which in effect made him vice president of the state. (In Delaware at the time, the chief executive of the colony was called the president.) When the British took Wilmington the following fall, they captured the president. Because Read was away in Congress, Thomas McKean, speaker of the lower house of the Delaware legislature, took over as acting president of Delaware. But in November, after barely escaping from the British himself while he and his family were en route to Dover from Philadelphia, which was newly occupied by the British, Read assumed the office and held it until the spring of 1778. When he returned to the legislative council in 1779, he drafted legislation directing Delaware congressional delegates to sign the Articles of Confederation.

That same year, Read, who was in poor health, resigned from the legislative council and refused reelection to Congress. However, he returned to office in 1782 to serve in the Delaware legislature, and concurrently held the position of judge of the Court of Appeals in admiralty cases. In 1784, Read served on a commission that adjusted New York-Massachusetts land claims. He attended the Annapolis Convention the following year.

Constitutional Convention

Read was one of Delaware's delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He missed few, if any, sessions. Like many of his fellow delegates from Delaware, he championed the rights of the small states. Otherwise, he adopted a Hamiltonian stance, favoring a strong executive. He later led the ratification effort in Delaware, which was the first state to ratify the Constitution.

Later Government Office

Read served in the United States Senate from Delaware from 1789 to 1793. His attendance was again erratic, but when he was present, he was a staunch Federalist. He resigned in 1793 to accept the post of Chief Justice of Delaware. He held that position until his death five years later, just three days after he celebrated his 65th birthday. He his buried in the Immanuel Episcopal Churchyard in New Castle.