| | 1 | Name: | James Bringhurst | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1731 | | | Death Date: | 2/27/1810 | | | | |
| 2 | Name: | William Bryant | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 3 | Name: | Sharp Delany | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1736 | | | Death Date: | 5/13/1799 | | | | |
| 4 | Name: | Jonathan Elmer | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 11/29/1745 | | | Death Date: | 9/3/1817 | | | | | | |
Jonathan Elmer (29 November 1745–3 September 1817) was a politician, public officeholder, doctor, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. Born in New Jersey, Elmer was physically frail from his youth, but showed early promise in his intellectual pursuits. He attended the medical school at the College of Philadelphia, earning a Bachelor’s degree in 1768 and an M.D. in 1771. He was recognized as an excellent student and held in high esteem by the faculty of the college. Shortly after the publication of his thesis, he was admitted to the New Jersey Medical Society, an organization that he would one day lead as its president. Though Elmer never let his medical training lag and continued training young doctors throughout his life, in 1772 he began moving towards a career as a jurist and public servant. He served in various positions throughout his political career, both local and national, including the sheriff of his local county, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and, from 1789-1791, a representative for the State of New Jersey to the new United States Senate. Elmer was respected by his fellow Senators, but was not re-elected, seemingly because of his vote to place the new nation’s capital further south than his constituents preferred. Not discouraged, Elmer continued in his course of public service on a local level, working as justice of the peace and a judge of the common pleas court for his home of Cumberland County. He retired in 1814 when the health problems that had plagued him throughout his life worsened. He died in Bridgeton, New Jersey three years later. (ANB) | |
| 5 | Name: | George Gauld | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 6 | Name: | John Jones | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 7/6/1747 | | | Death Date: | 7/18/1792 | | | | | | |
John Jones (6 July 1747–18 July 1792) was a naval officer and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. He was born John Paul Jones in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland and began his sailing career as a merchant’s apprentice when he was thirteen years old. By twenty-one, he was in charge of a vessel sailing to the West Indies, and by twenty-eight he was an officer in the U.S. Navy. The newly formed military branch lacked formal structures, and, as a result, Jones’s maneuvers were rarely well-planned in advance. On a 1777 voyage upon a ship called the Ranger, he intended to kidnap and hold hostage the Earl of Selkirk, but, finding the nobleman was not home, stole his household silver instead. He later sent a letter of apology to the Earl’s wife. By Jones’s own admission, his military feats did little to contribute to the war’s outcome, but they were sensational—humiliating to the British and rousing to the Americans. Jones’s colorful Navy career—characterized by acts of heroism and daring—contributed to his already controversial reputation. In 1770, on a voyage to Tobago, he was charged with murder for beating a sailor who then died, and, in a separate incident, he killed a mutinying crewmember in what he claimed was self-defense. After the American Revolution, Jones joined the Russian navy, and in 1789 was accused in St. Petersburg of raping a young girl. He managed to evade serious repercussions for his actions in each case. Jones thrived on the basis of his powerful connections: he joined the Freemasons as a young man in Scotland, and formed long-lasting and advantageous friendships with Robert Morris and Benjamin Franklin. He spent the last years of his life in Paris, living peacefully and largely ignoring the French Revolution. He is now buried in an ornate crypt, fit for his legendary stature, on the campus of the United States Naval Academy. (ANB, DNB) | |
| 7 | Name: | Walter Jones | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Death Date: | ? | | | | |
| 8 | Name: | James McClurg | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1746 | | | Death Date: | 7/9/1823 | | | | | | |
James McClurg (1746–9 July 1823) was a physician, delegate, mayor, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. He was born in Virginia to a British naval surgeon and his wife. His father is thought to have opened the first hospital for the inoculations against smallpox in North America. Following in his father’s footsteps, James McClurg studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating as a doctor of medicine in 1770. He furthered his studies in Paris and London, intermingling amongst the scientific elite of the Enlightenment. He earned a reputation for his 1772 Experiments upon the Human Bile and Reflections on the Biliary Excretion, which expanded upon knowledge of the human intestines. In 1779, he married the daughter of a prominent slave-owning planter back in Virginia and became the first Chair of Anatomy and Medicine at the College of William and Mary that same year. At this time, McClurg also entered into Virginia’s political sphere and in 1784 became a member of the Council of State. Three years later, the House of Delegates selected him for the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention, likely because fellow delegate James Madison was aware of his agreeable federalist-leanings. McClurg took the floor twice to advocate for strong executive powers, with little success. He left the convention to return to his medical practice in Virginia. His political career was not entirely over, however, and he served as Mayor of Richmond from 1801 to 1802. He was president of the State Medical Society from 1820 to 1821 and died in Richmond two years later. (ANB) | |
| 9 | Name: | Benjamin Morgan | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 10 | Name: | Thomas Parke | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 11 | Name: | John Perkins | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 12 | Name: | Bernard Romans | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1720 | | | Death Date: | 1784 | | | | | | |
Bernard Romans (c. 1720–c. 1784) was a cartographer, naturalist, army officer, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. He was born in the Netherlands, and moved to England to study botany, mathematics, and engineering. Around 1757 the British government sent him to America as a junior surveyor. By 1768 he was Principal Deputy Surveyor of the Southern District of British North America. During this time, he produced maps detailing hitherto unrecorded Floridian waterways and what is perhaps the first chart of the Florida coastline. He relocated to New York in 1773 to promote his future publication, A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida. While in the city, the Marine Society elected him as a member and he made contributions to the Royal American Magazine. In 1775 he published the only volume of A Concise Natural History before setting off to build fortifications on the Hudson river for the war effort. His feud with the crown over his pension fueled his joining the revolutionary cause. He resigned from duty shortly thereafter over a dispute regarding whether he was actually a colonel (he insisted he was). The next year he joined the Pennsylvania Artillery and then served under General Horatio Gates. He resigned again in 1788, but not before being court-martialed but ultimately acquitted of some charges regarding his involvement in his men’s misconduct. He intended to return to battle two years later, departing for Charleston before being captured at sea by the British. It is disputed where he was held for the remainder of the war, but in 1784 he supposedly set sail for Philadelphia with a large sum of money and then vanished. It is thought someone robbed, murdered, and threw him overboard. (ANB, DNB) | |
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