People of the Revolutionary War | The Founding Fathers - An Overview | William Paterson
William Paterson (1745-1806) - New Jersey
Image: Courtesy of U.S. Supreme Court
William Paterson (Patterson) was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1745. When
he was almost 2 years of age, his family emigrated to America,
disembarking at New Castle, DE. While the father traveled about the
country, apparently selling tinware, the family lived in New London,
other places in Connecticut, and in Trenton, NJ. In 1750 he settled in
Princeton, NJ. There, he became a merchant and manufacturer of tin
goods. His prosperity enabled William to attend local private schools
and the College of New Jersey (later Princeton). He took a B.A. in
1763 and an M.A. 3 years later.
Meantime, Paterson had studied law in the
city of Princeton under Richard Stockton, who later was to sign the Declaration
of Independence, and near the end of the decade began practicing
at New Bromley, in Hunterdon County. Before long, he moved to South
Branch, in Somerset County, and then in 1779 relocated near New
Brunswick at Raritan estate.
When the War for Independence broke out,
Paterson joined the vanguard of the New Jersey patriots. He served in
the provincial congress (1775-76), the Constitutional
Convention (1776), legislative council (1776-77), and council of
safety (1777). During the last year, he also held a militia
commission. From 1776 to 1783 he was attorney general of New Jersey, a
task that occupied so much of his time that it prevented him from
accepting election to the Continental
Congress in 1780. Meantime, the year before, he had married
Cornelia Bell, by whom he had three children before her death in 1783.
Two years later, he took a new bride, Euphemia White, but it is not
known whether or not they had children.
From 1783, when he moved into the city of New
Brunswick, until 1787, Paterson devoted his energies to the law and
stayed out of the public limelight. Then he was chosen to represent
New Jersey at the Constitutional Convention, which he attended only
until late July. Until then, he took notes of the proceedings. More
importantly, he figured prominently because of his advocacy and
coauthorship of the New Jersey, or Paterson, Plan, which asserted the
rights of the small states against the large. He apparently returned
to the convention only to sign the final document. After supporting
its ratification in New Jersey, he began a career in the new
government.
In 1789 Paterson was elected to the U.S.
Senate (1789-90), where he played a pivotal role in drafting the
Judiciary Act of 1789. His next position was governor of his state
(1790-93). During this time, he began work on the volume later
published as Laws of the State of New Jersey (1800) and began to
revise the rules and practices of the chancery and common law courts.
During the years 1793-1806, Paterson served
as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Riding the grueling
circuit to which federal judges were subjected in those days and
sitting with the full Court, he presided over a number of major
trials.
In September 1806, his health failing, the
60-year-old Paterson embarked on a journey to Ballston Spa, NY, for a
cure but died en route at Albany in the home of his daughter, who had
married Stephen Van Rensselaer. Paterson was at first laid to rest in
the nearby Van Rensselaer manor house family vault, but later his body
was apparently moved to the Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, NY.
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