| | 1 | Name: | John Adams | | | Institution: | Vice-President, U.S. Government | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1736 | | | Death Date: | 7/4/1826 | | | | |
| 2 | Name: | Marquis de Francois Barbe-Marbois | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1/31/1745 | | | Death Date: | 1/14/1837 | | | | | | |
François, marquis de Barbé-Marbois (31 January 1745–14 January 1837) was a French statesman, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Born in Metz, France, he began his diplomatic career working with American colonists. He then became an intendant of Santo Domingo in 1785 and, returning to France, served as deputy of the Council of Ancients a decade later. Not long after, his monarchist leanings forced him into exile in French Guiana. In 1800 Barbé-Marbois was able to return to France and, shortly after, became Minister of the Treasury. Three years later he successfully negotiated the Louisiana Purchase with the United States, selling the territory of Louisiana for a much better price than initially expected. Still, in 1806 Napoleon dismissed Barbé-Marbois after his role in the 1805 financial crisis surfaced. Nevertheless, he received an appointment as First President of the Cour des Comptes, an administrative court which handled the country’s public accounts. In 1813 he was made a senator and then a count. Upon Napoleon’s imminent demise, he switched allegiances and joined up with the Bourbons. This move proved lucrative for Barbé-Marbois: he became a Peer of France (1814), a Minister of Justice (1815-1816), and once again President of the Cour des Comptes (1816-1834). When the Bourbons were ousted he once again strategically switched alliances, aligning himself with the July Monarchy in 1834. He died three years later in Paris. (EB) | |
| 3 | Name: | William Brown | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1748 | | | Death Date: | 1/11/1792 | | | | | | |
William Brown (1748–11 January 1792) was a physician, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Raised in Maryland, Brown returned to his place of birth, Scotland, to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, earning his M.D. in 1770. Returning to Alexandria, Virginia, Brown quickly established himself by opening a medical practice and starting a family. His skill attracted the attention of APS member William Shippen, Jr. who recruited him in 1775 to join the Second Virginia Regiment as a surgeon. He spent a few months at the Flying Camp field hospital before landing at the military hospital at Bethlehem. In 1777 Congress elected Brown Surgeon General. He spent a dismal winter with General George Washington in Valley Forge. His services were well used for the remainder of the war and, in recognition, he replaced APS Member Benjamin Rush as Physician General in 1788. Brown relocated to a new general hospital at Lititz, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where he made a number of changes to improve the facilities and capacities at the hospital, including sanitation improvements and assessing the supply of affordable medications for future wartimes. His list of medications became his Pharmacopeia simpliciorum et effecaciorum in usum nocosomii militaris, and was the first of its kind printed in the United States. In 1779, he gave a series of lectures on anatomy for army surgeons in the region, as per the request of General George Washington. Brown resigned not long after that to resume his practice back in Virginia and died years later of unknown causes. (ANB) | |
| 4 | Name: | William Carmichael | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Death Date: | 2/9/1795 | | | | | | |
William Carmichael (?–9 February 1795) was a diplomat and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Born to a wealthy family in Maryland, Carmichael pursued a legal education in America before travelling abroad for further study and leisure. Though he was not formally appointed to a diplomatic post, Carmichael began working for Americans abroad while in Paris, carrying correspondence for diplomats like Arthur Lee and earning the trust of Benjamin Franklin. Perhaps his greatest contribution to the success of the American Revolution came between 1776 and 1777 when he convinced the Marquis de Lafayette to go to America. Carmichael himself returned to America in 1778 and served on the Committee on the Treasury for the Continental Congress. In 1779, he travelled to Spain with APS Member John Jay to garner financial support and official recognition of American independence. At Jay’s urging, the Spanish government loaned nearly $200,000 to the American cause, but King Charles III refused to formally receive Jay and Carmichael as ministers of the United States government. Jay moved on to Paris in 1782, which left Carmichael on his own. The Marquis de Lafayette arrived in Spain the following year and helped Carmichael secure an invitation to a diplomatic dinner, and eventually Carmichael was granted an introduction to King Charles III. However, resentful of his lack of official title and what he considered insufficient pay, Carmichael’s diplomatic communication faltered. He intended to return to America after he was released from his post in the fall of 1794, but fell ill and died in Madrid that winter. Though Carmichael seemed to serve the American cause, he was suspected of having divided loyalties: the British Secret Service knew of him and he recruited Captain Joseph Hynes, later revealed to be a traitor, to work for the American cause. (ANB) | |
| 5 | Name: | Arthur St. Clair | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 3/23/1737 | | | Death Date: | 8/31/1818 | | | | | | |
Arthur St. Clair (23 March 1737–31 August 1818) was a public officeholder, soldier, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. He was born in Scotland and likely studied at the University of Edinburgh before apprenticing a physician in 1756. The next year, he gave up his medical studies and by 1760 St. Clair was a lieutenant. In 1762, however, he married into wealth and resigned his commission, settling in Pennsylvania’s Ligonier Valley. He held minor public offices there before 1775 when he served as secretary to an embassy from the Continental Congress, then, returning to military service, he raised a regiment and became a colonel. He protected an American retreat in Canada (1776), fought in Trenton (1776), and Princeton (1777), and earned the rank of Major General. He controversially withdrew from a siege at Fort Ticonderoga, was subsequently suspended by Congress, and only served as an aide-de-camp under General George Washington for the rest of the war. Now in peacetime, St. Clair took up the federalist mantle and plotted in the Newburgh Conspiracy of 1783, using threat of military recourse to promote a stronger federal government. He served on Pennsylvania's Council of Censors (1783), became a delegate to Congress (1785), and then served as its President (1787), overseeing the passing of the Northwest Ordinance and reluctantly becoming governor of the new territory. St. Clair’s time as governor was marked by persistent mishandling of treaties and subsequent conflicts with Native tribes and a fruitless effort to push his Federalist policies onto a territory clamoring for self-governance and statehood. In 1801, President John Adams and the Senate reappointed him for a three-year term in the Senate. During this time, he fought to delay statehood of the Northwestern territory despite popular support, leading President Thomas Jefferson to dismiss him in 1802. Politically and financially in ruin, he lost his property not long after and retired to a log house in Chestnut Ridge, Pennsylvania. He died following a carriage accident. (ANB) | |
| 6 | Name: | Robert Erskine | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 7 | Name: | William Grayson | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1736 | | | Death Date: | 3/12/1790 | | | | | | |
William Grayson (1736–12 March 1790) was a lawyer, soldier, slaveholder and statesman, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. He was born in Virginia to a merchant family, and attended the College of Philadelphia, graduating in 1760. He likely followed by pursuing legal training at the University of Edinburgh because afterwards he returned to Virginia and began his own legal practice.. He entered public life at the Westmorland County meeting that adopted the Association of 1766, the first association of men committed to boycotting British goods. Greyson served in the Virginia convention in 1775 before becoming a colonel of infantry in the Virginia army the following year. Alongside Washington, Grayson fought at Valley Forge, and the battles of Long Island and White Plains. He became a regimented commander, then fought in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmoth before becoming a commissioner of the Board of War in 1779. His time in public office continued five years later when he joined the Virginia General Assembly. During his last decade in public office he supported the Northwest Ordinance, which notably banned slavery in the new territories (though his support for the ban had more to do with eradicating potential Northwestern tobacco market competitors for the benefit of slaveholding Virginians such as himself). During this time he also took up the anti-federalist mantle, earning the honor of being Virginia’s first senator in the process. He was not in his new office for long, however, as he died of gout in between sessions of the First Congress. In his will he freed the enslaved people working under him only if they were born after the Declaration of Independence. (ANB) | |
| 8 | Name: | William C. Houston | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Death Date: | 08/12/1788 | | | | |
| 9 | Name: | John Jay | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 12/12/1745 | | | Death Date: | 5/17/1829 | | | | | | |
John Jay (12 December 1745–17 May 1829) was a lawyer, politician, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Born in New York to affluent parents, John Jay was tutored privately before earning a B.A. at King’s College in 1764. He studied law in a local office before opening his own practice in 1768. Given his affluence and connections, he wanted little to do with radical revolutionary politics, however he opposed absolute British control of America. In 1774 he served in the First Continental Congress and New York’s Committee of Correspondence. He continued into the Second Continental Congress, and joined New York’s revolutionary convention, writing part of the constitution adopted by New York state in 1777. Jay was chief justice of New York before becoming the President of the Continental Congress, before it elected him minister to Madrid. The Spanish were dismissive of American independence, yet Jay was able to negotiate a loan. Upon the imminent defeat of the British in 1782, he joined Benjamin Franklin and John Adams in negotiating a peace treaty in Paris. Returning to Congress two years later, he found he had been elected Secretary for Foreign Affairs. He utilized his negotiation skills to prevent America’s newfound independence from worsening diplomatic ties. At this time, he also began taking up the federalist cause: he contributed to The Federalist (1787) alongside Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, and he strongly advocated for the cause at New York’s ratifying convention the following year. In 1789, President George Washington appointed Jay as First Chief Justice. Jay advised the president, presided over high-profile trials, drafted President Washington’s proclamation of American neutrality regarding the current war between Britain and France in 1793, and went to London to negotiate a treaty with the British. Despite substantive popular disdain for the so-called Jay Treaty (1794), he won New York’s gubernatorial election before he had even returned (1795). Notably, Jay was a strong opponent to slavery: he freed any enslaved people whom he inherited, he helped found the New York Manumission Society, and signed into law a bill that called for gradual emancipation in New York. He left public life not long after, spent decades in peaceful retirement, then died from a ‘palsy’. (DNB) | |
| 10 | Name: | Thomas Jefferson | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1743 | | | Death Date: | 7/4/1826 | | | | |
| 11 | Name: | J.C. Kunze | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 8/5/1744 | | | Death Date: | 7/24/1807 | | | | | | |
J.C. Kunze (5 August 1744–24 July 1807) was a Lutheran minister, an educator, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Born in Germany in 1744, Kunze was educated in theology, history, and philosophy at the Academy of Leipzig, and later received a Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After he was ordained a Lutheran Minister, he was invited to Philadelphia to work for fellow pastor and APS Member Henry Muhlenberg. In 1771, he married Muhlenberg’s daughter Henrietta Margaretta, and in 1779 became pastor of the Zion Lutheran Church. Kunze was an active and passionate educator and was a strong advocate for teaching the English language to his fellow German immigrants and Lutheran pastors. As a part of this mission, Kunze began a pre-theological school in Philadelphia in 1773. In 1795, he created the first English-language Lutheran prayer and hymn book. He was also a sought-after scholar of Arabic and Hebrew, and in 1785 became an official translator for the U.S. Congress. In 1779, Kunze became a professor of philology at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1784, after moving to New York City to be the pastor of a newly formed congregation, became a professor at Columbia College. In addition to his work as an educator, Kunze had a talent for bringing people together by creating scholarly and cultural organizations. Inspired by the mission of the American Philosophical Society, Kunze helped create the Society for Useful Knowledge, he founded the German Society of New York with fellow APS Member Baron Friedrich von Steuben, and he helped form the Ministerium of New York, an organization of local Lutheran ministers. He served as the president of this latter organization until his death in 1807. (ANB) | |
| 12 | Name: | John Laurens | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 13 | Name: | Anne C. de la Luaerne | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 14 | Name: | Rev. James Madison | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1750 | | | Death Date: | 3/6/1812 | | | | |
| 15 | Name: | Timothy Matlack | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 3/28/1736 | | | Death Date: | 4/14/1829 | | | | | | |
Timothy Matlack (c. 28 March 1736–14 April 1829) was a merchant, brewer, and politician, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Born to a Quaker family in Haddonfield, New Jersey, Matlack was seldom the proper Quaker given his enjoyment of horse races and cockfighting. He established himself as a merchant and a brewer before landing into debtor’s prison. Upon his release, his fellow Quakers chastised him for his unsavory hobbies and company he kept. Nevertheless, he continued to defy Quaker practice, becoming one of Pennsylvania’s most powerful leaders during the Revolutionary War, criticizing Quakers for being slow to support abolition, extolling the militia, and condemning the ultra-wealthy. In 1775 he became clerk to the Secretary of the Second Continental Congress, a storekeeper of military supplies, and a Colonel of the Fifth Rifle Battalion of Philadelphia Associators, leading campaigns in New Jersey. He helped draft a state democratic constitution and declaration of rights, and earned a multitude of honors and offices for his contributions: the assembly appointed him to the state Council of Safety (1776), then elected him Secretary of the Assembly (1776), he became secretary of the Supreme Executive Council (1777), Keeper of the Great Seal (1777), trustee of the University of Pennsylvania (1779), and a delegate to the Second Continental Congress (1780). He gave the annual oration at the American Philosophical Society after his election and served as a secretary for the Society from 1781 to 1783. Despite all his honors, Matlack had made many enemies: he was tried for mismanagement of funds after assembly Republicans accused him. Ultimately, a constitutional body meeting ruled his treatment unconstitutional and annulled the charges. In 1790 Matlack became clerk of the state senate. Ten years later he became state Master of Rolls: recording laws, resolutions, and patents. After the office was abolished in 1809, he retired to his orchards for some time before returning to Philadelphia and serving as an alderman (1813-1818) and prothonotary of the district court of Philadelphia (1817-1822). He died at home in Holmesburg, Pennsylvania. (ANB) | |
| 16 | Name: | Baron Friedrich W. von Steuben | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 9/17/1730 | | | Death Date: | 11/28/1794 | | | | | | |
Friedrich W. von Steuben (17 September 1730–28 November 1794) was a military officer and strategist and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Von Steuben was born in Magdeburg, Prussia to a military family, and began his own service in his teenage years. He became a captain in the Prussian army during the Seven Years’ War and was a member of the general staff, the army’s strategic leadership branch. At the end of the war, von Steuben settled at Hohenzollern-Hechingen where he served as a chamberlain to the prince. Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, who heard of von Steuben while working in France shortly after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, wrote to George Washington of his skill and availability, introducing him with the elevated title of “Lieutenant-General.” Von Steuben travelled to America in late 1777 and was appointed to train troops at Valley Forge. His guidance and organization of this corps was so effective that it was copied throughout the entire Continental Army. Von Steuben wrote a “blue book” for the training and etiquette of troops throughout the United States, and the discipline he imposed upon the newly formed army was integral to their ultimate victory. Congress quickly appointed him a Major General and the Inspector General of the Continental Army in 1778. At the end of the war, he served as the head of a regiment in Virginia and participated in the war’s final battle at Yorktown. Despite his outstanding service record, von Steuben’s reputation was not spotless. He was possibly ousted from the court at Hohenzollern-Hechingen for rumors of inappropriate conduct. After the Revolutionary War, von Steuben lived lavishly on money and land given to him by Congress for his valuable service and plunged himself into debt. He died on his farm in New York City in 1794. (EB) | |
| 17 | Name: | Jean-Baptiste Ternant | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 18 | Name: | Charles Vallancey | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1726 | | | Death Date: | 8/8/1812 | | | | | | |
Charles Vallancey (c. 1726–8 August 1812) was a military officer, surveyor, historian, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Vallancey was born in Flanders to French Huguenot parents and was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He was commissioned as an ensign in 1747 and was sent with his regiment to Ireland, where he would spend the rest of his life. Vallancey participated in a far-reaching surveying and map-making expedition of the Irish coast beginning in 1769. He rose through the military ranks slowly despite his demonstrable technical understanding of military engineering, eventually retiring with the title of general in 1803. Outside of his military service, Vallancey was an obsessive student of the history of the Irish language and culture. He was an advocate of the theory that ancient Irish civilization had its roots in Persian or Phoenecian cultures. Though his fellow scholars found this theory absurd and improbable, Vallancey managed to gain some acceptance in mainstream academic circles: he became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1784, a joint secretary of the Royal Dublin Society’s antiquities committee in 1772, and a founding member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1785. He helped this last institution obtain two important collections of ancient Irish literature: the Book of Lecan and the Leabhar Breac. Though his own publications were not highly regarded, his single-minded enthusiasm for Irish antiquity and mythology brought mainstream attention and new scholarship to the field throughout the 19th century. (DNB) | |
| 19 | Name: | George Washington | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1731 | | | | |
| 20 | Name: | Anthony Wayne | | | Year Elected: | 1780 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1/1/1745 | | | Death Date: | 12/15/1796 | | | | | | |
Anthony Wayne (1 January 1745–15 December 1796) was a soldier, politician, and slaveholder, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Born in Chester County to a farming family, Anthony studied at the Academy of Philadelphia before taking up surveying. He received his father’s inheritance in 1774 and became chairman of the Chester County Committee of Safety. During the American Revolution he served alongside George Washington in New York before rising to brigadier general. He fought outside of Philadelphia before making his way closer to the city in the Battle of Germantown. Tragically, in Germantown, Wayne began accidentally firing on American troops, a mistake that almost drove him to resign his post. Deciding against it, he remained and went on to command an elite corps of Continental light infantry: seizing Stony Point (1779) and securing Westpoint (1780). He joined the Marquis de Lafayette in Virginia in 1781, and helped ease Whig and Tory tensions in Charlestown. Returning to Pennsylvania a war hero in 1783, congress promoted him and he won the election to the Council of Censors. The following two years he served in the assembly and helped ratify the new federal constitution. He won a seat as a Georgia representative to congress before losing the office on charges of fraud. Bereft of social and political support, he sank into debt but managed to eke out a surprising comeback when Washington appointed him Major General, tasked with suppressing Indian resistance to US expansion in the Northwest Territory. His military accomplishments brought Wayne the accolades he had enjoyed from his youth. Despite a lifetime of military service, gout claimed his life. (ANB) | |
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