USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 2
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The children of Calvin and Mary Chaffey (Glyde) Wells: I. Mary Chaffey, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 26, 1863. She was educated in private schools in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. She married, October 15, 1885, Chaun- cey Milton Griggs, of the wholesale grocery firm of Griggs Cooper & Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, born in Minnesota, a graduate of Yale, class of 1882. Their children, all born in St. Paul, Minnesota, are: i. Calvin Wells, born No- vember 13, 1886; ii. Milton Wright, November 15, 1888, married, June, 1910; Arline Bayliss, of New York City; iii. Katherine Glyde, June 22, 1890, died March 27, 1893; iv. Mary Glyde, April 21, 1893; v. Everett, December 17, 1894; vi. Benjamin Glyde, January 1, 1898; vii. Elizabeth Taggart, March 3, 1901; viii. Chauncey Wright, November 3, 1902. 2. George Duncan, died in infancy. 3. Benjamin Glyde, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 8, 1868, graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, in the class of 1894. He was for several years secretary and treasurer of the Press Company, of Philadelphia, and is now (1909) president. Since 1895 he has resided in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Union League Club, Merion Cricket Club, Batherlor Range Club, University Club of New York, St. Anthony of New York. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a Republican in politics. He married, October 30, 1895, at Uniontown, Penn- sylvania, Louise Dewey, of Stamford, Connecticut, daughter of the late William H. and Louise (Badger) Dewey, of Stamford. Their children are: Mary Glyde, born June 21, 1897; Calvin, October 1, 1898; Louis Badger, July 18, 1903; Eliz- abeth Dewey.
THOMAS MCKEAN
The ancestry of the Mckean family, so prominently associated with the his- tory of Pennsylvania in the Revolutionary period and its early statehood, has been traced to William McKean, of Argyleshire, Scotland, who with his three sons, John, James and William, sought an asylum from religious and political persecution in Londonderry, Ireland, in the latter part of the seventeenth cen- tury.
JOHN MCKEAN, one of the loyal defenders of Londonderry in 1668-69, had one son and three grandsons who emigrated to America at different periods His son James, born in Argyleshire, Scotland, in 1666, emigrated to New Eng- land in 1718, and died in Londonderry, New Hampshire, November 9, 1756, in his ninetieth year, leaving numerous descendants, some of whom have been prominent in the affairs of the New England states and New York, among them Judge Levi Mckean, of Poughkeepsie, New York.
JOHN MCKEAN, son of John McKean, of Londonderry, removed to Bally- money, Ireland, where he died. He had sons, Robert Mckean, who settled in Cecil county, Maryland; John McKean, who settled in Nova Scotia; and Wil- liam Mckean, of whom presently.
WILLIAM MCKEAN, son of John McKean, of Londonderry and Ballymoney, emigrated to Pennsylvania about 1725, with his wife Susannah, her son by a former marriage, John Creighton, and their sons, Thomas and William Mc- Kean, and daughters, Barbara and Margaret, and settled on a plantation of three hundred acres in New London township, Chester county, where he died within a few years of his settlement. His widow, Susanah McKean, continued to live on the plantation until her death in 1731. Her will dated December 29, 1730, proven February, 1730-31, mentions her children, John Creighton, Wil- liam and Thomas McKean, and daughters, Barbara, wife of - Murray, and Margaret, wife of John Henderson.
WILLIAM MCKEAN, son of William and Susannah McKean, born in Ire- land in 1705, accompanied his parents to Pennsylvania, when a youth, and on his marriage, about 1731, to Letitia, daughter of Robert and Dorothea Finney, also of New London, became an innkeeper in New London, and resided there until the death of his wife in 1742. In 1745 he married Ann Logan, widow of James Logan, of Londonderry township, in the same county, and removed to the Logan plantation there, where he kept a tavern until his death, November 18, 1769, at the age of sixty-four years. His second wife died in 1751.
Robert Finney, father of Letitia (Finney) Mckean, said to have been a trooper in the battle of Boyne in 1690, was born in Ireland in 1668, and with his wife Dorothea, and several children came to Pennsylvania and settled in New London township, Chester county, prior to 1720. In 1722 he purchased nine hundred acres of land in that township, and named his plantation "Thun- der Hill," where he lived until his death in March, 1755, at the age of eighty- seven years. His wife Dorothea died in 1752, at the age of eighty-two years.
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He was a ruling elder of the Elk River Presbyterian Church, known as the "Rocks Church", organized in 1720, and was the founder of the New London Presbyterian Church organized in 1728, then known as the congregation of the upper branches of the Elk. Robert and Dorothea Finney had five sons : Dr. John Finney, Esq., of New Castle county, a Colonial justice, later justice of the Orphan's Court of New Castle county, and lieutenant of militia; Dr. Robert Finney, of Thunder Hill; William, Lazarus, and Thomas Finney; and two daughters, Letitia Mckean, and Ann, wife of John McClenachan.
William and Letitia (Finney ) Mckean had three children: Robert Mckean, born July 13, 1732, first a physician, and later an eminent minister of the gos- pel in New Jersey, long pastor of St. Peter's Church, Perth Amboy ; Dorothea McKean, who married John Thompson, of Delaware, and was the mother of Thomas Mckean Thompson, secretary of state of Pennsylvania, under his un- cle, Thomas Mckean, and grandmother of Judge William McKennan, of the United States Circuit Court ; and Thomas Mckean, of whom presently.
HON. THOMAS MCKEAN, the distinguished lawyer, soldier, statesman, and jurist, was the second son of William and Letitia (Finney ) Mckean, and was born in New London township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, March 19, 1734- 5. Soon after the death of his mother, he, then at the age of nine years, and his brother Robert, aged eleven, were placed under the tuition of Rev. Francis Allison, the distinguished teacher and divine, in New Castle county, now the state of Delaware, where Dr. Allison long conducted a fine classical school. Here Colonel Mckean received a thorough course of training in the English branches and a fair knowlege of Latin, French and German. He studied law with his relative, David Finney, of New Castle, and became a clerk in the of- fice of the prothonotary of the county, and in 1754 was admitted to the prac- tice of law in the counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex, on the Delaware, now, comprising the state of Delaware, then territories of Pennsylvania, and in May, 1755, still in his minority, was admitted to the bar of his native county of Chester, Pennsylvania, and soon after arriving at the age of twenty-one to the bar of Philadelphia county, and April 17, 1758, he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the Province of Pennsylvania. In 1756 Mr. McKean was appointed deputy-attorney-general for the county of Sussex, a position he filled for two years, resigning this office to go abroad to perfect his legal stud- ies at the Middle Temple, London, where he was admitted May 9, 1758. He had also filled the position of clerk of the assembly, of Three Lower Counties, in 1757.
On his return from England he entered with characteristic vigor and energy on the practice of his profession, and also in the prosecution of a career of pub- lic usefulness. He was appointed with Caesar Rodney, in 1762, to revise and codify the laws passed since 1752, for the Three Lower Counties, and in Octo- ber of the same year was elected to the Assembly from New Castle, in which body he served with great distinction until 1780, filling the position of speaker of the House of Assembly for seven years, 1772-79, though during the greater part of these seven years he was a resident of Philadelphia.
In 1764 he was selected as one of the trustees of the Loan Office, and was re-commissioned June 16, 1769, and again in 1773, serving three full terms of four years each. On November 1, 1764, he was commissioned a justice of the
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peace, and justice of the Common Pleas and other courts of New Castle coun- ty, and while sitting as such for November term, 1765, and February term, 1766, issued an order that the several clerks and officers of the courts should use none but unstamped paper, in order to emphasize the determination of the American people to oppose to the utmost the enforcement of the odious Stamp Act, this being the first order of the kind issued in the American Colonies. He was a representative in the Stamp Act Congress which met at New York, Octo- ber 7, 1765, and prepared and adopted a memorial to the King and Parliament on the subject of the Stamp Act, being one of the most prominent and active figures in the convention which continued in session until October 24, vigorous- ly expressing himself in favor of a determined opposition to the enforcement of the Act, should their memorial fail to accomplish its repeal, and when the president of the convention, becoming alarmed at the treasonable tendency of the proceedings, refused to sign the memorial, Mckean so severely denounced and ridiculed him for his cowardice, that he was challenged to a duel, but the chairman proved his cowardice by leaving the city clandestinely before the time set for the duel.
Thomas Mckean was licensed to practice in the Chancery and other Pro- vincial Courts of Pennsylvania in 1766, and on October 29, 1769, was com- missioned a justice of the province and re-commissioned, April 10, 1773, and October 24, 1774. In 1769 he was sent to New York by the Assembly of New Castle, Kent and Sussex to secure copies and records for these counties dur- ing the period covered by the jurisdiction of the Duke of York and these rec- ords duly certified are still on file at the respective county seats of Delaware. In 1771 he was appointed collector of the port of New Castle. On August I, 1774, he was named, with his life-long friend, Caesar Rodney, and George Reed, a delegate to the Provincial Congress at Philadelphia. And on the organization of the Continental Congress was elected to represent New Castle county there- in, and served as that county's representative until 1782, though nominally a resident of Philadelphia from 1774. He was also one of the first Committee of Observation and Correspondence for New Castle County, and was one of the committee of thirteen appointed at a meeting of the citizens of the Three Lower Counties held at New Castle, June 20, 1774, to collect subscriptions for the people of Boston, after the closing of the port.
Thomas Mckean was one of the active members of Continental Congress, in which he served from its inception until the signing of the preliminary treaty of peace in 1783. The historian Bancroft says of him in this connection; "Thomas Mckean was the leading Delegate from Delaware and on the Fifth of September (1774) took his seat in that august assemblage of which he be- came an invaluable ornament, and from that day his country claimed him as her own". He was at once appointed on one of the most important commit- tees,-"to state the rights of the Colonies-the various instances where these rights have been violated-and to report the means most proper to be taken for their restoration". He was a member of the Secret Committee to procure am- munition and arms from abroad; was one of the most active in arranging the monetary affairs of the infant republic and active in the debate on all mat- ters of importance before the Congress. He was one of the committee appointed
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June 12, 1776, to draft Articles of Confederation, under which the United Colonies were governed until the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1687.
Thomas McKean's first association with the military force forming for the defence of American liberties was as a member of Captain John Latta's Company of Associators, in the Second Battalion of Philadelphia City Militia, May I, 1775. He had had some military experience in the French and Indian Wars, having in 1757, enrolled himself as a member of Captain Richard Wil- liams' Company of Foot, from New Castle county, with which he received a thorough military training and saw some active service.
On the formation of the Fourth Battalion of Philadelphia Associators, he was commissioned its colonel, but when it was fully equipped and ready to march for New York, the momentous question of declaring the Colonies "free and independent State" was before Congress, and he remained in Philadelphia until the declaration was agreed to by a majority of the thirteen colonies, and then went with his command to Perth Amboy, without waiting to sign the en- grossed copy of the Declaration of Independence, of which he had been one of the strongest advocates, and remained with it until its disbandment when succeeded by the "Flying Camp" in August, when he returned to Philadelphia. According to his own statement he did not sign the engrossed Declaration until 1781.
Colonel McKean strongly favored the resolution of May 15, 1776, declaring all authority under the crown of England be set aside, and as chairman of the Philadelphia Committee of Obervation, called the convention of June 18, 1776, to ratify this resolve on the part of Pennsylvania, when it was "Resolved that we concur in a vote of Congress Declaring the United Colonies free and In- dependent States" which resolve was signed by Thomas Mckean as president of the convention on June 24, 1776, and by him delivered to Congress the fol- lowing day. Nevertheless when the crucial test came on July 2, 1776, in a vote of Richard Henry Lee's resolution, though it carried by a large majority, Penn- sylvania's representatives voted against it, and George Read, Colonel Mckean's colleague from Delaware also voted against it, and Caesar Rodney, the other representative from Delaware, not being present the vote of Delaware was a tie. Colonel Mckean at once despatched an express for Rodney and secured the postponement of a day, and Caesar Rodney made his memorable ride of eighty miles on horseback, reaching Philadelphia in time to, with Colonel Mc- Kean, cast the majority vote of Delaware in favor of independence. Popular opinion in Pennsylvania in favor of independence, brought to bear upon her representatives in Congress largely through the efforts of Colonel Mckean, also induced Franklin, Morton and Wilson to vote affirmatively, Willing and Hum- phreys voting against it as did Read of Delaware, while Dickinson and Mor- ris refrained from voting, the two votes of Pennsylvania and one from Dela- ware being the only ones cast against it.
Colonel Mckean did not re-enter the military service after the disbanding of the Associated Battalions, but gave his whole energy to the work of Congress and the Committee of Safety. He was extremely active in the selection and equipment of ten thousand men which were to compose Pennsylvania's contri- bution to the "Flying Camp" which was sent to the support of Washington, until the regular Continental forces could be organized and equipped.
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On the same day that Congress passed the Declaration, the delegates from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with the Council of Safety, and Committee of Observation and Inspection of Philadelphia, and the Field Offi- cers of the Pennsylvania forces, were named as a committee to devise meas- ures for the safety of New Jersey, then threatened with invasion by Howe's army. They met on July 5, 1776, and Colonel Mckean was called to the chair, and it was determined that all the available military forces should at once march to the support of Washington, and to defensive points in New Jersey. Three battalions were ordered to New Brunswick, and the remainder of the Pennsylvania troops including Colonel Mckean's battalion under command of General Roberdeau, were ordered to join Washington, near New York. There- fore Colonel McKean marched at the head of his battalion to Perth Amboy, where they were under fire in defense of the Jersey coast.
Colonel Mckean returned to his seat in Congress in August, 1776, but was almost immediately summoned by an express to attend the constitutional con- vention of the State of Delaware, held August 27, to which he had been elected a delegate during his absence with the army. He reached Newcastle the even- ing preceding the convention and was waited on by a delegation and requested to prepare a draft of a constitution for presentation to the con- vention on the morrow. Retiring to his room at the public inn, he sat up all night writing the constitution which was adopted the next day without material amendment, his knowledge of the people among whom he had so long lived and his profound knowledge of the law enabling him to perform this important duty unaided by a book or a like instrument as a guide.
Colonel McKean continued his activity in the cause of independence, fre- quently addressing meetings of citizens, urging and formulating plans for the defence of the city and province as well as general measures for the prosecution of the war. On July 28, 1777, he was commissioned by the Supreme Execu- tive Council, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He was still speaker of the Assembly of the State of Delaware, and on September 13, 1777, became president, or governor of the state of Delaware, succeeding John Mckinley, who had been captured by the British soldiers, together with the greater part of the other state officers. Colonel Mckean held this office only until a suitable successor could be selected, and the confusion resulting from the seizure of the state papers overcome, resigning September 26, 1777.
Chief Justice Mckean held that office at the most trying time in the nation's existence, when a new element had come into the control of public affairs- when the constitution was crude and undefined-all laws unsettled-the civil authority to a large extent subordinate to the military, it being a time of war -when many cases coming before the court originated in personal enmity and political jealousies against old-time men of influence, not entirely in accord with the new regime, ofttimes growing out of a desire to profit by the confisca- tion of property of alleged enemies of the republic, not really such, and trials for treason, attainder, and confiscation were very frequent. To steer clear of the rocks of prejudice, and not founder on those of hastily formed public opin- ion, required a master mind. Well grounded in the law, clear headed and forceful, of inflexible honesty, during his twenty-two years occupancy of the chief justiceship he never wavered in what he deemed to be his duty to per-
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form; no threat could intimidate, or influence divert him from the independent discharge of his duty. He was considered one of the greatest legal minds of our early history, and his several biographers unite in their indorsement of his ability and uprightness as a judge. One of his successors as chief justice has said of him, "He was a great man, his merit in the profession of law and as a judge has never been sufficiently appreciated. It is only since I have been on the bench that I have been able to conceive a just idea of the greatness of his merit. His legal learning was profound and accurate; the lucidity of his ex- plication and the perspicuity of his language, which is the first excellence in the communication of ideas was perfect; but I never saw equalled his dignity of manner in delivering a charge to a jury or on a law argument at the Bar. But what is still more, his comprehension of mind in taking notes so as to em- brace the substance and yet omit the material has appeared inimitable. All sub- sequent decisions of the Supreme Court have sanctioned his judicial fame, and European judges yielded him spontaneous praise".
He took the oath of office as chief justice, September 1, 1777, was re-ap- pointed July 29, 1784, and July 20, 1791, and served until his resignation, in October, 1799, to take the office of governor of the state.
Judge Mckean was commissioned with seven others, November 20, 1780, as a judge of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, established by Act of February 26, 1780, and served until its re-organization by Act of April 17, 1791, when he was re-appointed, and he served until the abolition of this court by the Act of February 24, 1806.
Judge Mckean continued to hold his seat in Congress as the representative of Delaware until November, 1781, though he tendered his resignation, Decem- ber 25, 1780, alleging that his health and his fortune were both becoming im- paired in his unremitting attention to public affairs, and his inability to give to each position the attention his conscience dictated, stating in his letter a char- acteristic of his nature, "what I undertake to perform, I do with all my might". His resignation, however, was not accepted and he continued to serve as a delegate, and on July 10, 1781, was elected president of Congress, and pre- sided as such at the time of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, being roused from his bed at midnight on October 22, 1781, by Colonel Tilghman, Washington's messenger to Congress, with the news of the surrender. He re- signed the office of president of Congress on October 23, 1781, when his resig- nation was accepted, but on the next day he was unanimously re-elected and re- quested to serve until the first Monday in November, to which he consented, and again sent in his resignation, November 7, 1781, and received an unanimous vote of thanks, on his retirement.
Judge Mckean was not a delegate to the United States Constitutional Con- vention of 1786-87, but took a lively interest in its proceedings. He was, how- ever, a delegate to the Pennsylvania Convention to ratify the Federal Constitu- tion, and to him and James Wilson we are equally indebted for their active ef- forts in securing its ratification by Pennsylvania. His speech before the con- vention on December II, 1787, after his ardent efforts to answer the objections to its main features, was so prophetic of the wise provisions and enduring worth of the constitution that we are impelled to insert here a brief extract thereof :
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"The objections to the Constitution having been answered, and all done away with, it remains pure and unhurt, and this alone is a favorable argument of its goodness. *
* * The law. Sirs, has been my study from my infancy, and my only profession. I have gone through the circle of offices in the legislative, executive and judicial departments of Govern- ment, and from all my study, observation and experience, I must declare that from a full examination and due consideration of this system, it appears to me the best the World has yet known.'
Judge Mckean, with his colleague, Judge William A. Atlee, and Judge Rush, represented the Constitution in the celebration of its adoption by the several States, held at Philadelphia, July 4, 1788, and delivered an eloquent address, congratulating Pennsylvania on its adoption. He was a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention of November 24, 1789, and acted as its chairman. He was one of the commissioners appointed to settle the claims between Georgia and South Carolina in 1796, and in the same year was a presidential elector.
Chief Justice McKean was elected governor of Pennsylvania, in October, 1799, and took the oath of office, December 17, 1799. He was re-elected at the expiration of his term three years later, and again in 1805, and served in all nine years as chief executive of his native state. His gubernatorial career was marked by great ability, and produced beneficial results to the Commonwealth, after which he retired to private life, at his residence in Philadelphia, where he died June 24, 1817, in his eighty-sixth year. His remains were interred in the Presbyterian burying ground on Market Street, but were later removed to the family vault of his grandson, Henry Pratt Mckean, in Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Chief Justice Mckean received the honorary degree of A. M. from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania in 1763; that of LL.D., from the College of New Jer- sey, now Princeton University, in 1781 ; and the same degree from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, in 1782, and from the University of Pennsylvania in 1785. He became a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania under its old charter in 1779, and under the union charter in 1791. He was elected a mem- ber of the American Philosophical Society prior to 1770, and was one of its twelve councilors in 1786. He was elected a member of the Philadelphia So- ciety for the Promotion of Agriculture, May 2, 1785. He received his diploma as a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, October 31, 1785, and subsequently became vice-president of the Pennsylvania Society. In 1790 he organized the Hibernian Society, and was its first president. When the news of the capture and burning of the national capital reached Philadelphia, a meeting of the citi- zens of Philadelphia was called at the State House, August 26, 1814, of which ex-Governor McKean was made chairman, and a "Committee of Defense" was organized. Governor Mckean in his long career acquired considerable world- ly estate, consisting largely of extensive tracts of land in the western portion of his native state, much of which was undeveloped prior to his death. By his will, executed in 1814, he devised his "Mansion House" in Philadelphia to his eldest son, Joseph Borden McKean, with his family Bible, "my Steel Seal Ring with my Coat of Arms cut thereon", etc .; to the four sons and four daugh- ters of his deceased daughter, Elizabeth Pettit, he devised two thousand and two hundred acres in Beaver county; to his daughter, Letitia Buchanan, one thousand six hundred and eighty acres on the Ohio river in the same county, and a plantation in Center county ; to the four children of his daughter, Anne Buchanan, one thousand one hundred and sixteen acres northwest of the Ohio
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