|
|
People of the Revolutionary War | The Founding Fathers - An Overview | William Few
William Few (1748-1828) - Georgia
Image: Courtesy of National Archives, Records of Exposition, Anniversary,
and Memorial Commissions
Few was born in 1748. His father's family had emigrated from England to Pennsylvania in the 1680s, but
the father had subsequently moved to Maryland, where he married and settled on a farm near Baltimore.
William was born there. He encountered much hardship and received minimal schooling. When he was 10
years of age, his father, seeking better opportunity, moved his family to North Carolina.
In 1771 Few, his father, and a brother associated themselves with the "Regulators," a group
of frontiersmen who opposed the royal governor. As a result, the brother was hanged, the Few family farm
was destroyed, and the father was forced to move once again, this time to Georgia. William remained
behind, helping to settle his father's affairs, until 1776 when he joined his family near Wrightsboro, Ga.
About this time, he won admittance to the bar, based on earlier informal study, and set up practice in
Augusta.
When the War for Independence began, Few enthusiastically aligned himself with the Whig cause. Although
largely self-educated, he soon proved his capacity for leadership and won a lieutenant-colonelcy in the
dragoons. In addition, he entered politics. He was elected to the Georgia provincial congress of 1776 and
during the war twice served in the assembly, in 1777 and 1779. During the same period, he also sat on the
state executive council besides holding the positions of surveyor-general and Indian commissioner. He also
served in the Continental Congress (1780-88), during which time he was
reelected to the Georgia Assembly (1783).
Four years later, Few was appointed as one of six state delegates to the
Constitutional Convention, two of whom never attended and two others of whom did not stay for the duration.
Few himself missed large segments of the proceedings, being absent during all of July and part of August because
of congressional service, and never made a speech. Nonetheless, he contributed nationalist votes at critical
times. Furthermore, as a delegate to the last sessions of the Continental Congress, he helped steer the
Constitution past its first obstacle, approval by Congress. And
he attended the state ratifying convention.
Few became one of his state's first U.S. senators (1789-93). When his term ended, he headed back home and served
again in the assembly. In 1796 he received an appointment as a federal judge for the Georgia circuit. For
reasons unknown, he resigned his judgeship in 1799 at the age of 52 and moved to New York City.
Few's career continued to blossom. He served 4 years in the legislature (1802-5) and then as inspector of
prisons (1802-10), alderman (1813-14), and U.S. commissioner of loans (1804). From 1804 to 1814 he held a
directorship at the Manhattan Bank and later the presidency of City Bank. A devout Methodist, he also
donated generously to philanthropic causes.
When Few died in 1828 at the age of 80 in Fishkill-on-the-Hudson (present Beacon), he was survived by his
wife (born Catherine Nicholson) and three daughters. Originally buried in the yard of the local Reformed
Dutch Church, his body was later reinterred at St. Paul's Church, Augusta, GA.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
