Samuel Wharton

Samuel Wharton

Samuel Wharton (born May 3, 1732 in Philadelphia , Province of Pennsylvania , † March 1800 ibid) was an American politician . In 1782 and 1783 he was a delegate for Delaware in the Continental Congress .

Career

Samuel Wharton was a cousin of Thomas Wharton (1735–1778), the first president of Pennsylvania . He moved to Dover , Delaware, where he worked in commerce. Through the Vandalia Company he founded , he operated intensive trade with the region on the upper Ohio River in what is now West Virginia . There he also owned some lands. In 1765 he turned against the Stamp Act and signed the so-called Non-Importation Resolutions . When the revolution broke out, he was in London trying to get his land rights on the Ohio River recognized by the British Crown. When his contacts with the American freedom fighters became known, he had to flee to France .

In 1780 he returned to America, where he finally joined the independence movement. In 1782 and 1783 he represented Delaware in the Continental Congress. There, too, he campaigned for the recognition of his land rights in the west, which was only granted to him in 1787 in connection with the passage of the Northwest Ordinance . Between 1784 and 1786 Samuel Wharton was Justice of the Peace in the District of Southwark . He was then an appellate judge in Delaware in 1790 and 1791. Eventually he moved to the Philadelphia area, where he died in March 1800.

Web links

• Samuel Wharton in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)