| 1 | Name: | Lambert Cadwalader | |
| Year Elected: | |||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1741 | ||
| Death Date: | 9/13/1823 | ||
Lambert Cadwalader (1741?–13 September 1823) was a merchant, soldier, and slaveholder, and a member of the American Philosophical Society via his 1768 election to the American Society. Born to APS Member Dr. Thomas Cadwalader sometime around 1741 and likely in Trenton, his education at the Academy and then College of Philadelphia culminated in a bachelor’s degree in 1760. With his brother, fellow APS Member John Cadwalader, he ran a drygoods business selling varieties of coarse and fine cloth, among other goods, but dutifully signed the Non-Importation Agreement in November 1765. Brother John in 1771 offered the astronomical bribe of £500–600 pounds to gain Lambert’s appointment as Philadelphia comptroller of customs; whether it proceeded, the post went to another, regardless. But Lambert was clearly growing in local renown and influence in the heating phase of the Revolution: he became a member of the Philadelphia Committee of Correspondence (1774) and a delegate to the Provincial Convention in (1775), before a commission as a captain, then lieutenant colonel, and then the colonel of the Fourth Battalion of the Pennsylvania Line, before his capture at Ft. Washington on the Hudson (all in 1776). Owing to his father’s unbiased medical treatment of the British during their occupation of Philadelphia in 1777, General Howe did not require Cadwalader’s oath of parole; but that also prevented any sort of honorable prisoner exchange, leading Cadwalader to feel he ought to resign his commission to make way for other junior officers, which he did in 1779. After settling in New Jersey, he served in national congresses: the Confederation Congress (1784–86) and the new federal House of Representatives (1789–91, 1793–95), before retiring to his estate, “Greenwood.” There, and on the estates of relatives, he sated his interests in agricultural reforms, having been an original member of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture since 1785. He died at Greenwood, leaving son Thomas the bulk of his property, excepting those held in bondage, whom he freed. (PI) | |||