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 THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 ENDOWED BY THE 
 
 DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC 
 
 SOCIETIES 
 
 I » 
 
 I » 
 
 E221 
 .C6 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00018263228 
 
 ^^THE THREE SIGNERS ^^ 
 
 i^ 
 
 ^^^An address by HENRY C. CON- 
 RAD, Esq., of Wilmington, Delaware, 
 before The Sons of Delaware, of Phila- 
 3>Q>>-) delphia, Pennsylvania ^^^j»^^^^^,^ 
 
 2'1-lJ 
 
 SATURDAY EVENING 
 JANUARY 30, t897 
 
 
 Printed for 
 
 The Sons of Delaware^ Pliila* 
 
 J897 
 
Press of 
 
 Mercantile Printing Company, 
 Wilmington, Del. 
 
Philadelphia, Pcnna. 
 
 The President of the Society, Richard Fisher, Esq., 
 introduced Mr. Conrad, who said : 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: — The three men 
 whose names appear as representatives from Delaware on 
 the Declaration of Independence have always interested 
 me very much as public characters. I have had some 
 natural bent, I think, for some years in the direction of 
 Revolutionary affairs and have been brought into contact 
 with these men as historical characters. And the more I 
 have read of them and learned of them, the more interest 
 I have felt in them, and recently I have prepared this 
 fragmentary sketch, covering the lives of these three men, 
 with the hope that it might prove interesting to such as 
 may hear it. 
 
 The first of these men of whom I shall treat is Caesar 
 Rodney, who was born in 1728, near Dover, in Dela- 
 ware. His father^s name was also Caesar. He was a 
 grandson of William Rodney. His mother's name was 
 Crawford, being the daughter of Rev. Thomas Crawford, 
 I think the earliest Rector of Christ Episcopal Church at 
 Dover. The name ^^ Caesar '^ was the family name that 
 came to Caesar Rodney, the signer, from his maternal 
 grandfather, whose name was Thomas Caesar and who 
 lived in London. The family was of English descent. 
 
 The ancestors of the family in this country settled in 
 Kent County early in J 700. 
 
 In order that we may go back to the times in which 
 these people lived, I want to quote, very briefly from a 
 letter written by Thomas Rodney, a brother of Caesar, 
 the signer, in which he speaks of the manners and cus- 
 toms of the people of that day: 
 
 *^ The manner and customs of the white people when 
 
Sons of Delaware, 
 
 I first remember, were very simple, plain and sociaL Very 
 few foreign articles were used in this part of the country 
 for eating, drinking or clothing* Almost every family 
 manufactured their own clothes; and beef, pork, poultry, 
 milk, butter, cheese, wheat, and Indian corn were raised 
 by themselves, served them with fruits of the country, 
 and wild game for food; and cider, small beer, and peach 
 and apple brandy for drink* The best families in the 
 country but seldom used tea, coffee, chocolate or sugar, 
 for honey was their sweetening* The largest farmers at 
 that time did not sow over twenty acres of wheat, nor 
 tend more than thirty acres of Indian corn, and there was 
 very few of this sort, so that all the families in the country 
 had a great deal of idle time, for the land being fertile 
 supplied them plentifully by a little labor, with all that 
 was necessary, hay with great abundance, more than 
 enough, grudged nothing to those who happened to want. 
 Indeed, they seemed to live as it were in concord; for 
 they constantly associated together at one house or an- 
 other in considerable numbers, to play and frolic, at which 
 times the young people would dance, and the elder ones 
 whistle, run, hop, jump or throw the disc or play at some 
 rustic and manly exercises. On Christmas Eve there 
 was an universal firing of guns, and traveling round from 
 house to house during the holiday, and indeed all winter 
 there was a continual frolic at one house or another, 
 shooting-matches, twelfth-cakes, &c*^' 
 
 This is an indication of the simplicity of the people 
 in the times in which these men figured* 
 
 Caesar Rodney^s father died in 1745* The son 
 Caesar, being the eldest son, inherited all* He was a man 
 of meagre education, so far as known, and was raised a 
 
Philadelphia, Penna* 
 
 farmer, and had very little advantage of books or of 
 learning in that day. He was appointed High Sheriff of 
 Kent County in 1758, when but thirty years of age, and 
 shortly afterwards Justice of the Peace and Judge of all 
 the Courts. 
 
 Delaware was then a Province (part of Pennsyl- 
 vania) under the control of the English government. 
 
 In 1762 he was appointed with Thomas McKean 
 to revise and print the laws — that is, all existing laws of 
 this Province in force at that time — and there are copies 
 of these laws now in existence. In fact, we have one or 
 two in the possession of our Historical Society in Wil- 
 mington. 
 
 Rodney and McKean were elected to represent 
 Delaware in the Stamp Act Congress which met in New 
 York in October, 1765; and both took conspicuous and 
 influential parts in its deliberations and served on its most 
 important committees. 
 
 One of the issues which led up to the Revolution 
 was the failure of the British Government to allow the 
 people living in these colonies to tax themselves, and also 
 the further denial of the right to be tried by their peers. 
 As I understand it, in many cases of importance, the 
 British authorities insisted upon taking the people who 
 were to be tried, and who should have been tried here for 
 these offenses, across the water to be tried by entire 
 strangers to them ; and they insisted that by right they 
 were entitled to be tried by their peers. 
 
 From J 766 to 1769, Rodney was an active member 
 of the General Assembly and sought to prohibit the 
 importation of slaves, even at that early period. 
 
 Never a robust man, about this time, in J 768 I think 
 
Sons of Delaware, 
 
 it was, there appeared on his face, what proved to be a 
 cancer, and it was a source of very great pain and distress 
 to him during the remainder of his life. I have here a 
 letter written by him under date of June 13, 1768, in 
 which he says he has gone to Philadelphia with a view 
 to consulting physicians as to this trouble on his face* 
 He says further: "But to conclude, my case is truly 
 dangerous, and what will be the event, God only knows, 
 I stfll live in hopes and still retain my usual flow of 
 spirits/^ 
 
 In a letter written a week before, he says: 
 
 ** I got to Philadelphia on Saturday, and on Monday 
 applied to doctors concerning the sore on my nose, who 
 all, upon examination, pronounced it a cancer, and that it 
 will be necessary I should go through a small course of 
 physick and then to extract it by a costick or by cutting 
 it out, all which (to me) is a dreadful undertaking — and 
 will require so much time, that it is impossible for me to 
 now to determine when you may probably expect to see 
 me in Kent again — if ever — as (no doubt) it will be 
 attended with danger/^ 
 
 Then followed the letter of a week later, in which 
 he says, '^what will be the event, God only knows, I 
 still live in hopes and still retain my usual flow of spirits/^ 
 
 I quote from these letters to show that notwithstand- 
 ing what was almost a death sentence pronounced upon 
 this man, for nearly twenty years after that he stood at 
 his post of public duty and made for himself a name that 
 has come down to us after more than one hundred years, 
 as probably the foremost name in Delaware history. 
 
 Rodney was almost continuously a member of the 
 Legislature and frequently its speaker — From the Stamp 
 
Philadelphia, Pcnna* 
 
 act Congress in J 765 until the close of the Revolution, he 
 was the most active, and was by odds the leading man in 
 the State in espousing the American cause* 
 
 We have somehow drifted into the idea that at that 
 time the whole people rose en masse in favor of severing 
 the relations between these colonies and the mother coun- 
 try* As a matter of fact, the people were very evenly 
 divided. There was a large number of people in every 
 one of the colonies who were honestly of opinion that the 
 time had not come when the colonies were strong enough 
 to form and maintain a government of their own; that 
 the time had not come when it was expedient for them to 
 break the ties which joined them to the mother country. 
 So that these men who stood in the fore-front of this 
 movement for independence were harassed continually by 
 this sentiment which existed in all of the colonies, and it 
 was a great deal harder task that they had to perform, 
 than if the overwhelming sentiment of the people had been 
 in favor of independence. The result of this was, that 
 men who were fighting in the field, and the men who 
 were representing the different colonies in their assem- 
 blies, were continually harassed with this firing from the 
 rear, so to speak, by these opponents of American inde- 
 pendence. That was particularly the case as regards 
 Caesar Rodney. In reading his letters you find that he 
 was with the military one day and back in Dover the 
 next, trying to prevent the people from overturning all 
 that was being done in the field and in Congress. With 
 that opposition existing you can appreciate the hard duty 
 which these men had to perform. 
 
 There was a Committee of Correspondence in each 
 of the colonies in 1772-73-74. Mr. Rodney was, during 
 
Sons of Delaware, 
 
 all these years, a leading member of this Committee on 
 Correspondence* That Committee, as its name suggests, 
 was composed of leading men who were in favor of 
 American Independence, and a continual correspondence 
 was kept up with the different colonies, suggesting how 
 the movement was getting along and how the sentiment 
 for independence was growing from time to time* The 
 Committee of Correspondence held a convention at New 
 Castle, under date of August I, J 774, with a view of 
 choosing delegates to the first Continental Congress which 
 was to meet in Philadelphia a month later* I have in my 
 possession a most interesting relic, being a notice written 
 and sent by Caesar Rodney, calling upon Dr* Charles 
 Ridgely, a delegate from Kent County to attend this meet- 
 ing at New Castle* 
 
 A month later (September 5, 1774), the first Conti- 
 nental Congress met in Philadelphia, with Rodney, Read 
 and McKean as the representatives from Delaware* 
 There were fifty-six delegates present* George Wash- 
 ington was a member from Virginia* Rodney was also 
 a delegate to the Continental Congress of J 775-76* 
 
 The population of Delaware in 1775 was 35,000* 
 Rodney was speaker of the Assembly of the State while 
 in Congress* He was also a Brigadier-General in the 
 Continental Army — in the field and back again to the 
 State, serving as a military man and serving as the lead- 
 ing Statesman of the day; evidently the man of all others 
 who was continually conferred with as to all lines of con- 
 duct in that time, both in the civil and in the military 
 service* 
 
 Letters extant indicate that he was close to Wash- 
 ington — possibly as near to Washington as any man 
 
Philadelphia, Pcnna^ 9 
 
 living in Delaware at that time* There are a great many- 
 letters in existence, from Washington to Rodney and from 
 Rodney to Washington, in which the situations of that 
 day are discussed and explained* They are scattered all 
 about* I do not recall that the Delaware Historical So- 
 ciety has even an autograph signature of Caesar Rodney. 
 Some of them still are in the possession of the Rodney 
 family* I think Mr* John M* C* Rodney, living at Cool 
 Spring, has some of them* A good many of them are 
 published in ** Spark^s Life and Correspondence of Wash- 
 ington*^^ 
 
 Caesar Rodney was among the first to advocate the 
 election of George Washington as Commander-in-Chief 
 of the American Army* He was his warm, ardent and 
 close friend all through the War of the Revolution, as 
 shown by his correspondence* 
 
 We come now to July I, 1776* On that day the 
 vote was taken in the Committee of the Whole of the 
 Continental Congress as to the framing and proclaiming 
 of the Declaration of Independence* There were thirteen 
 original colonies represented — ^I do not know whether 
 anybody else has any such a faculty as I have of always 
 forgetting which were the thirteen original colonies, but I 
 have taken precaution this time to set them down, and as 
 I have them before me, I will make no mistake this time* 
 
 The thirteen original colonies were — New Hamp- 
 shire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
 York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, 
 Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia; 
 all feeble little colonies, scattered along the Atlantic sea- 
 board* 
 
 In the Committee of the Whole, ten out of the thirteen 
 
10 Sons of Delaware, 
 
 colonies voted in favor of proclaiming the Declaration of 
 Independence. Pennsylvania had seven delegates ; four 
 of whom were opposed to it and three in favor of it. 
 Delaware had two members present — McKean and Read 
 — and being divided, did not vote. Rodney was absent. 
 McKean was in favor of, and Read against the Declara- 
 tion. MeKean appreciating that it was most important, 
 for the sentiment it would create, that the Declaration of 
 Independence should be proclaimed, if proclaimed at all, 
 by the unanimous vote of these thirteen colonies, sent for 
 Rodney, who was at the time at one of his farms near 
 Dover (one called ^' By-field ^^ and the other ^^ Poplar 
 Grove ^0 ^^^ A^ story goes that Rodney came post-haste 
 and that he arrived just in time to save the day, and cast 
 the vote of Delaware in favor of the Declaration of 
 Independence. 
 
 McKean, writing of it years afterwards to Caesar 
 A. Rodney, a nephew of Caesar Rodney, the signer, says: 
 **l sent an express, at my own private expense, for your 
 honored uncle, Caesar Rodney, Esquire, the remaining 
 member for Delaware, whom I met at the State House 
 door, in his boots and spurs, as the members were assem- 
 bling. After a friendly salutation, without a word on the 
 business, we went into the hall of Congress together, and 
 found we were among the latest. Proceedings imme- 
 diately commenced, and after a few minutes the great 
 question was put. When the vote for Delaware was 
 called, your uncle arose and said : ^ As I believe the voice 
 of my constituents and of all sensible and honest men is 
 in favor of independence my own judgment concurs with 
 them, I vote for independence,^ or in words to the same 
 effect.'^ 
 
Philadelphia^ Pcnna. i I 
 
 And so in that way, by bringing Caesar Rodney 
 those seventy or eighty miles and joining his vote with 
 the vote of Thomas McKean, Delaware's vote was re- 
 corded that day in favor of proclaiming the Declaration 
 of Independence* Pennsylvania's vote^ it turned out, was 
 cast for the Declaration also; and thereby the unanimous 
 vote of the thirteen colonies was procured* It happened 
 that only five, of the seven members from Pennsylvania 
 were present, and three out of the five were in favor of 
 it, three making a majority of those present, and so Penn- 
 sylvania's vote was cast for the Declaration. If the other 
 members from that State who were opposed to it had 
 been there, they could have thrown the vote of Pennsyl- 
 vania against it. 
 
 Caesar Rodney was a member of the Convention 
 that framed the first Constitution of Delaware, in August, 
 1776. He was again elected to Congress in J 777. In 
 August, 1777, the forces of Lord Howe landed at Head 
 of Elk, near what is now known as Elkton, and very 
 shortly afterwards the Battle of Brandy wine was fought. 
 At that time Caesar Rodney was placed in command of 
 the Delaware State Militia, and served to protect Dela- 
 ware from the invasions of the British force which landed 
 at the Head of Elk. The statement is made that he was 
 in command and that his force was encamped a little to 
 the Southeast of Middletown, at a place then called 
 Noxontown, which was his headquarters, and there for 
 several days he guarded the inhabitants of Delaware from 
 the invasion of the British forces. There were forty- 
 seven hundred and twenty-eight soldiers from Delaware 
 in the Continental Army. 
 
 In 1778, a year afterwards, he was elected President 
 
12 Sons of Delaware, 
 
 (Governor) of Delaware^ He had served, as you see, 
 almost without interruption, in the General Assembly of 
 the State, and its representative in the Continental Con- 
 gress, meeting from year to year* He was also serving 
 as Brigadier-General, and now the General Assembly of 
 State elected him Governor* Just here I want to read 
 you, as a matter of interest, a very brief letter which he 
 wrote in acknowledgment of the action of the General 
 Assembly in electing him Governor* 
 
 ''Wednesday, A* M*, April 1st, 1778* 
 ''Gentlemen of the General Assembly: 
 
 "I received yesterday afternoon your message declar- 
 ing me duly elected President of the Delaware State'^ — 
 
 At that time, and for a few years afterwards, the 
 Chief Executive of the State was called " President ^^ and 
 not "Governor*^^ Continuing he says: 
 
 "And am fully sensible of the honor done me by the 
 appointment; but as I am too conscious of my own ina- 
 bility to suppose your expectation will be answered by 
 my acceptance, I hope I shall be excused* I think, never- 
 theless, that at a time like this, it is the duty of every 
 member of society to take such part in the civil line as 
 shall be assigned him by the government, if tolerably 
 qualified; therefore if the General Assembly cannot fix 
 upon some other person more equal to that important 
 duty, I shall, though with great diffidence, accept; in full 
 confidence, however, that Your Honors will afford me 
 every necessary aid in the due execution of the laws, and 
 otherwise supporting the civil government as now estab- 
 lished under the authority of the people ; and as the pro- 
 vision made for the President is by no means an ample 
 one; that the General Assembly would not wish to add 
 
Philadelphia, Penna» 13 
 
 to the sacrifice I have already made, by which more than 
 ought to fall to the share of any one member of the com- 
 munity* 
 
 *^ Caesar Rodney/^ 
 
 He did accept, although his letter indicates that he 
 hesitated about it; and he was Governor for three years* 
 He was a member of the Legislative Council and its 
 Speaker in J 784* On April 8, J 784, it is recorded that 
 what was called the State Council, of which he was a 
 member and the Presiding Officer, met at his own house 
 out on one of his farms a little east of Dover* He being 
 too ill to attend at the regular meeting place, the Council 
 came to him* 
 
 Caesar Rodney died June 26, 1784, of cancer, yet a 
 comparatively young man, being in his fifty-sixth year* 
 He never married* For his time, he was regarded as a 
 substantial man, a man of considerable means for that 
 day and generation* His will indicates that he left a 
 comfortable estate* There is a tradition in his family 
 that he owned two hundred slaves* By his will they 
 were all manumitted* And yet he doubtless sacrificed a 
 great deal of his own means in the various positions in 
 which he served his country during that trying time* 
 
 Judge Whitely, speaking of the Revolutionary sol- 
 diers, says, ^* that to Rodney more than to any other man 
 in Delaware do we owe the position which our State and 
 people took in that most important contest*^^ 
 
 John Adams, in his Diary, describes Caesar Rodney 
 as follows: 
 
 ** Caesar Rodney is the oddest looking man in the 
 world; he is tall, thin and slender as a reed and pale; 
 
14 Sons of Delaware, 
 
 his face is not bigger than a large apple, yet there is sense, 
 fire, spirit, wit and humour in his countenance/* 
 
 His brother, Thomas, describing him says: ** Caesar 
 Rodney was about five feet ten inches high ; his person 
 was very elegant and genteel ; his manners graceful, easy 
 and polite^ He had a good fund of humour, and the 
 happiest talent in the world of making his wit agreeable, 
 however sparkling and severe. He was a great states- 
 man, a faithful public officer, just in all his dealings, easy 
 to his family and debtors, sincere to his friends, beneficent 
 to his relatives, and kind to his servants, and always 
 lived in a generous and social style/* 
 
 He was buried on one of his farms near Dover. In 
 1888 or 1889, an association of young men in Dover 
 calling itself the ^* Rodney Club,** arranged for the 
 removal of the remains of Caesar Rodney from the 
 rather neglected locality on the old Rodney farm and 
 interred the same in Christ*s Episcopal Church-yard in 
 Dover ; and over his remains there has been erected a 
 substantial granite tomb-stone, to mark his last resting 
 place. 
 
 There is no picture of Caesar Rodney in existence; 
 presumably on account of his face being so disfigured by 
 the cancer, he was averse to having one taken. There 
 is a picture extant of Caesar A. Rodney, a nephew of 
 Caesar Rodney, the signer, and he is frequently confused 
 with Caesar Rodney, the signer. Caesar A. Rodney 
 was a very distinguished and prominent man in his day, 
 but belonged to the generation succeeding Caesar Rodney, 
 the signer. 
 
Philadelphia, Pcnna. 15 
 
 GEORGE READ. 
 
 Wc come now to George Read. He was born of 
 Irish parentage in 1734, and was the oldest of six brothers. 
 His father^s name was John Read. About the time, or 
 shortly after George Read was born in Cecil County, 
 Maryland, his father came over and settled near Chris- 
 tiana Bridge, at what we now call ** Christiana.'^ He was 
 educated at Chester and at New London. There was at 
 that time an Academy at New London of the first 
 rank under the charge of Doctor Allison, afterwards 
 connected with the University of Pennsylvania. He 
 studied law with John Moland, in Philadelphia, who 
 was a distinguished member of the bar of that city, 
 and was admitted to the bar when nineteen years of 
 age. 
 
 He was entitled by law to two shares of his father's 
 estate ; but he took the ground that his father had spent 
 on him all that he was entitled to receive in giving him 
 his education, and so he surrendered the two shares 
 which the law gave him to his brothers and sisters, and 
 refused to take anything himself. 
 
 He settled in New Castle in 1754. He married, in 
 1763, Miss Gertrude Ross, daughter of Reverend George 
 Ross, Rector of Immanuel Episcopal Church at New 
 Castle. Although a believer in the maxim that men who 
 are ambitious of reaching the acme of their ambitions 
 should never marry, he did marry. It was somewhat 
 like the case of a man's preaching one thing and practic- 
 ing another. George Read's wife, Gertrude Ross, was 
 also a sister of George Ross, one of the signers of the 
 Declaration of Independence from Pennsylvania. 
 
 He succeeded John Ross as Attorney-General in 
 
16 Sons of Delaware, 
 
 1763, and was really the first Attorney-General appointed 
 to serve Delaware alone in the capacity of a prosecuting 
 attorney. Before that the Attorney-Generals from Penn- 
 sylvania had merely visited the Courts here, and Read 
 was the first one to serve Delaware alone. 
 
 In 1765 he held an office under the Crown, but es- 
 poused the American cause. He was elected a member 
 of the General Assembly in 1765, and was a member 
 continuously for twelve years. 
 
 You will observe how these three men, Rodney, 
 McKean and Read, for a period of twenty years seemed 
 to stay side by side, and wherever you would find one, 
 there the others were. The people, during all that time, 
 seemed to look to these three men as the men best fitted 
 to exercise the most important public functions. 
 
 In 1774 Read was sent as a representative, with 
 Rodney and McKean, to the first Congress, and continued 
 a member until the close of the war in J 783, covering a 
 period of nine years. One after another he served in 
 these positions: He was one of the Representatives in 
 the Continental Congress from Delaware; he shouldered 
 a musket as a private in the militia in 1775, and was also 
 enrolled in Richard McWilliam^s Company of Foot in 
 1757; he was President of the Convention that formed 
 the first Constitution for the State in 1776. 
 
 The first President of Delaware was John McKinly. 
 McKinly is a name that we are familiar with at this time^ 
 but it is William now and not John. John McKinly was 
 a doctor of medicine and a distinguished man in that day. 
 After the Battle of Brandywine, the British swooped 
 down on Wilmington and got possession there. They 
 took Governor McKinly prisoner and put him on a boat 
 
Philadelphia, Penna* 17 
 
 and held him in the Delaware River for several months^ 
 At that time Read was Speaker of the Assembly, and by- 
 virtue of that office, became President of the State. On 
 the locking up of President McKinly, it devolved on 
 Read to take command, and he proceeded to do so. 
 
 He was in Philadelphia at the time, and the shores 
 of the Delaware River from Philadelphia down past 
 Chester and on to Wilmington were largely in control of 
 the British forces. It was deemed important for him to 
 come down into Delaware and take command, so he 
 struck out through New Jersey, coming down on that 
 side of the Delaware River, going to Salem and going 
 across from Salem in a boat. There were several British 
 gun boats in the Delaware at that time and he came very 
 near being taken prisoner in coming across; but finally 
 landed on the Delaware side with his family, went to 
 Dover, and during the time that John McKinly was held 
 a prisoner on the British boat in the Delaware, Read 
 acted as Governor. 
 
 He served as member of the General Assembly from 
 J 767 to 1779, a period of twelve years. In 1782 was 
 appointed Judge of the United States Court of Appeals 
 in Admiralty, which position he held until the abolition of 
 the Court. 
 
 In 1787 he was a member of the Convention that 
 framed the Constitution of the United States. In J 789 
 he was elected the first United States Senator from Dela- 
 ware. He resigned his seat in the Senate to become 
 Chief Justice in 1793, and served until his death in 1798. 
 
 Governor Joshua Clayton, (who was Governor of 
 Delaware when the Constitution of 1792 went into force), 
 wrote to Read, who was United States Senator from 
 
18 Sons of Delaware, 
 
 Delaware, asking him to accept the place of his choice in 
 the judiciary system under the new Constitution of the 
 State* He chose, after some hesitation, the position of 
 Chief Justice, which he filled acceptably until his death. 
 
 He died at New Castle, September 21, J 789, in the 
 sixty-fourth year of his age, after a most eventful life, 
 which was spent largely in the public service, and was 
 buried there in the grave-yard of the Immanuel Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 He must have been a man of means, always living 
 in much style. The Read house, which was his home 
 for years, and in which he entertained very handsomely 
 all the prominent men of his day, was burned down in 
 the fire of 1824. There is now in New Castle, a large 
 house the Read house, but that house was built by George 
 Read, Junior, the son of George Read, the signer ; and it 
 is said that he had the misfortune of investing so much 
 money in it that it seriously embarrassed him. The 
 house, however, must not be confused with the residence 
 of George Read, the signer. 
 
 THOMAS McKEAN. 
 
 Thomas McKean was of Irish parentage, and was 
 born at New London, Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 
 1 734. He was principally educated there in the Academy 
 that was presided over, as I have suggested, by Doctor 
 Allison. 
 
 Of these three men, only Caesar Rodney was born 
 in the State and of English parentage. George Read, 
 being of Irish parentage was born just across the border 
 in Cecil County, Maryland. 
 
 McKean too, like Read, was admitted to practice 
 
Philadelphia^ Pcnna* 19 
 
 before he was twenty-one, having studied law with David 
 Finney, Esquire, of New Castle. He was early appointed 
 Deputy Attorney-General. In 1757 and 1758 he was 
 Clerk of the Assembly. 
 
 In 1752, he was appointed with Caesar Rodney to 
 revise and print the laws then in existence in this 
 Province. In 1762 he was elected member of the General 
 Assembly, and this was repeated uninterrupedly for seven- 
 teen years, or to 1779. 
 
 Think of it for a moment, that one man should be 
 held in such respect and estem by his constitutents as to 
 be elected year after year for seventeen years as a member 
 of the General Assembly of the State, all through the 
 trying times of the Revolution. This was done after 
 repeated declinations on his part. From 1773 to 1779, 
 he had really lived in Philadelphia and not in Delaware ; 
 and after he had positively declined to allow the use of 
 his name after his term of seventeen years, the people 
 suggested to him that if he could not serve he had better 
 name who should serve, which he did and they elected 
 the men whom he suggested. 
 
 He was one of the members of the Committee of the 
 Loan Office for three terms of four years each. 
 
 In J 765 he was appointed sole Notary Public for the 
 three counties, and to that was added Justice of the 
 Peace, and Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and 
 Quarter Sessions and Orphans' Court for the County of 
 New Castle; so that he seems to have had quite an 
 accumulation of offices. 
 
 There had come across the water an edict that only 
 stamped paper was to be used in the Courts of the 
 Colonies, but he was bold enough to tell the authorities 
 
20 Sons of Delaware, 
 
 that he would use unstamped paper when he chose to do 
 so — ^and he did. He took this stand in the Common 
 Pleas Court, in November, 1765. 
 
 McKean had been licensed to practice law in Dela- 
 ware and Pennsylvania prior to 1766 — although very 
 young — ^and afterwards in New Jersey* In J 77 J he was 
 appointed Coflector of Customs at New Castle* New 
 Castle was his general home, although he owned land 
 about Christiana Bridge, where he spent considerable 
 time* 
 
 In 1774 he was a member of the first Congress, from 
 Delaware, although living in Philadelphia, and continued 
 a member until J 783, a period of nine years ; and he was 
 the only member of Congress who took his seat in the 
 first Congress and remained a member until the close of the 
 war* While serving Delaware as a member of Congress, 
 he was acting for six years, from J 777, as Chief Justice 
 of Pennsylvania* And during one year ( J78J)t he acted 
 in the three-fold capacity of Member of Congress from 
 Delaware, President of Congress and Chief Justice of 
 Pennsylvania* 
 
 If it would be possible ever to combine in any one 
 public character more offices than that at one time, I am 
 unable to appreciate it* 
 
 In J 776 he was in the New Jersey campaign with 
 Washington as Colonel of the Philadelphia Associators* 
 While there he was elected a member of the Convention 
 to form the first Constitution of Delaware* He came to 
 this Convention in August, 1776* Years afterwards, 
 writing in regard to it, he said that in a tavern on the 
 night preceding the meeting of the Convention, he drafted 
 the Constitution itself which was adopted substantially 
 
Philadelphia^ Penna. 21 
 
 by the Convention, and that he drafted it without the aid 
 of any book, sitting alone in a room of the tavern* He 
 was then on his way from the New Jersey campaign to 
 the Convention, which, I think, met at New Castle* In 
 drafting this Constitution (which was afterwards adopted 
 by the Convention as the first Constitution of Delaware) 
 somebody suggested that he had a bottle of ink (and a 
 bottle of something else), a quill and a sand-box; and that 
 was alL 
 
 McKean served as Chief Justice of Pennsylvania for 
 twenty-two years — from J 777 to 1799. He was elected 
 Governor of that State and was twice re-elected, serving 
 nine years altogether* 
 
 He retired from public life in 1808* He died in 18 J 7, 
 in Philadelphia, and was buried in Christ^s Church-yard 
 in Philadelphia, dying in his 87th year* 
 
 McKean is described as tall, erect and dignified, his 
 face expressive of ability, courage and fortitude* 
 
 His first wife was a Miss Borden of New Jersey, by 
 which marriage there were six children* His second 
 wife was Miss Armitage of New Castle, and by this mar- 
 riage there were eleven children* 
 
 You can appreciate that a man who was as long and 
 as continously in public life as was this man, made many 
 bitter enemies ; and especially during the time that he was 
 Governor of Pennsylvania, he seems to have had the 
 faculty of stirring up a great deal of opposition ; so that 
 many severe and cutting things were said about him* I 
 presume the politicians of those days were about as ugly 
 in their remarks as they are to-day* But Thomas 
 McKean was able to hold his own* Here is his picture; 
 and it is evident that a man having the characteristics as 
 
22 Sons of Delaware^ 
 
 shown in that face, was perfectly able to hold his own 
 under all circumstances, as he did* 
 
 Here is a picture of George Read, the signer — a 
 milder and gentler sort of man, evidently; a delightful 
 face or visage No wonder the people loved and honored 
 him* 
 
 If in this brief and imperfect sketch of these three 
 men, I have been able to interest you, and if in the con- 
 sideration of their lives we shall all conclude that we 
 have some characters in Delaware history of which we 
 may be all proud, I shall feel amply repaid for any exer- 
 tion made on my own part* 
 
Philadelphia, Penna* 23 
 
 Officers, 
 
 SONS OF DELAWARE, 
 
 Philadelphia, 
 
 J897. 
 
 Presidentt 
 
 RICHARD nSHER, 
 
 408 Walnut Street, 
 
 First Vice-Presidentt 
 
 WILLIAM T. TILDEN, 
 
 252 N. Front Street. 
 
 Second Vice-President^ 
 
 ALEXANDER P. COLESBERRY, 
 
 44J Chestnut Street. 
 
 Treasurer, 
 
 EDWARD C MILLER, 
 
 526 South 8th Street. 
 
 Historian, 
 
 NORRIS S. BARRATT, 
 
 2J6 South Third Street. 
 
 Secretary, 
 
 WILLIAM T. WESTBROOK, Jr., 
 
 334 Phila. Bourse. 
 
 Board of Governors, 
 
 D. B. C. CATHERWOOD, 50 S. Front Street. 
 JAMES B. CANBY, 27 North Water Street. 
 ALFRED N. CHANDLER, Bourse Building, Phila. 
 Dr. THOMAS C. STELLWAGEN, J328 Chestnut Street. 
 WARREN HARPER, J25 South 3rd Street. 
 WILLLIAM W. MARVILL, 5J5 Market Street. 
 FRANCIS H. HOFFECKER, Wilmington, Delaware. 
 JOHN L. CLAWSON, 45 South 2nd Street. 
 
This book is due at the LOUIS R. WILSON LIBRARY on the 
 last date stamped under "Date Due." If not on hold it may be 
 renewed by bringing it to the library. 
 
 DATE ovT 
 DUE ^^^ 
 
 DATE 
 
 DUE "*^* 
 
 
 
 1 ^ '-^ 
 
 
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 form No. 513