People of the Revolutionary War | The Founding Fathers - An Overview | David Brearly
David Brearly (1745-1790) - New Jersey
Image: Courtesy of Trenton Free Public Library
Brearly (Brearley) was descended from a Yorkshire, England, family, one of
whose members migrated to New Jersey around 1680. Signer Brearly was
born in 1745 at Spring Grove near Trenton, was reared in the area, and
attended but did not graduate from the nearby College of New Jersey
(later Princeton). He chose law as a career and originally practiced
at Allentown, NJ. About 1767 he married Elizabeth Mullen.
Brearly avidly backed the Revolutionary
cause. The British arrested him for high treason, but a group of
patriots freed him. In 1776 he took part in the convention that drew
up the state constitution. During the War for Independence, he rose
from a captain to a colonel in the militia.
In 1779 Brearly was elected as chief justice
of the New Jersey supreme court, a position he held until 1789. He
presided over the precedent-setting case of Holmes v. Walton. His
decision, rendered in 1780, represented an early expression of the
principle of judicial review. The next year, the College of New Jersey
bestowed an honorary M.A. degree on him.
Brearly was 42 years of age when he
participated in the Constitutional
Convention. Although he did not rank among the leaders, he
attended the sessions regularly. A follower of Paterson, who
introduced the New Jersey Plan, Brearly opposed proportional
representation of the states and favored one vote for each of them in
Congress. He also chaired the Committee on Postponed Matters.
Brearly's subsequent career was short, for he
had only 3 years to live. He presided at the New Jersey convention
that ratified the Constitution
in 1788, and served as a presidential elector in 1789. That same year,
President Washington appointed him
as a federal district judge, and he served in that capacity until his
death.
When free from his judicial duties, Brearly
devoted much energy to lodge and church affairs. He was one of the
leading members of the Masonic Order in New Jersey, as well as state
vice president of the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of
former officers of the Revolutionary War. In addition, he served as a
delegate to the Episcopal General Conference (1786) and helped write
the church's prayer book. In 1783, following the death of his first
wife, he had married Elizabeth Higbee.
Brearly died in Trenton at the age of 45 in
1790. He was buried there at St. Michael's Episcopal Church.
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