Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant (1746 – October 8, 1793) was an American politician who served as a member of the

Provincial Congress of New Jersey The Provincial Congress of New Jersey was a transitional governing body of the Province of New Jersey in the early part of the American Revolution. It first met in 1775 with representatives from all New Jersey's then-thirteen counties, to supersed ...

from 1774 to 1776. He was a member of the committee that drafted the

Constitution of New Jersey The Constitution of the State of New Jersey is the basic governing document of the State of New Jersey. In addition to three British Royal Charters issued for East Jersey, West Jersey and united New Jersey while they were still colonies, the s ...

. He served as a delegate from the

Province of New Jersey The Province of New Jersey was one of the Middle Colonies of Colonial history of the United States, Colonial America and became the U.S. state of New Jersey in 1776. The province had originally been settled by Europeans as part of New Netherla ...

to the

Second Continental Congress The Second Continental Congress (1775–1781) was the meetings of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War, which established American independence ...

in 1776 and 1777, and as

Pennsylvania Attorney General The Pennsylvania attorney general is the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It became an elected office in 1980. The current attorney general is Republican Dave Sunday (politician), Dave ...

from 1777 to 1780.

Early life and education

Sergeant was born in 1746 in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...

, to Abigail (Dickinson) and Jonathan Sergeant. He moved with his parents to Princeton. He completed his initial studies, attended the College of New Jersey (now

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

), and received his degree in 1762. His maternal grandfather, Jonathan Dickinson, was the first president of the college at its founding in 1747. He graduated from the

College of Philadelphia The Academy and College of Philadelphia (1749–1791) was a boys' school and men's college in Philadelphia in the colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania. Founded in 1749 by a group of local notables that included Benjamin Franklin, the Academy of P ...

(now the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

) in 1763 with an A.B. degree. He studied law in the Princeton office of Richard Stockton, was accepted into the New Jersey bar, and entered practice in Princeton in 1767.

Career

He was a member of the

Sons of Liberty The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It p ...

and served a major role in the Stamp Act controversy. From 1774 to 1776 he was a member of the revolutionary New Jersey Provincial Congress. He served as clerk to the Provincial convention in New Brunswick on July 21, 1774, and as a delegate and secretary to the convention held in Trenton on May 23, 1775. He was a member and treasurer to the New Jersey Committee of Safety. In early 1776, he was a delegate to the Continental Congress, but resigned in June to return home and serve on the committee that drafted the Constitution of New Jersey. On August 13, 1776, Sergeant wrote to

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

of his plan to recruit a battalion of black slaves to help fight the British. Adams wrote back to Sergeant, "Your Negro battalion will never do. S. Carolina would run out of their wits at the least hint of such a measure." In November 1776, he returned again to the national congress. In December 1776, Sergeant moved to Philadelphia after Hessian troops burned his house in Princeton. In September 1777 he resigned from Congress a second time, this time to accept office as the attorney general of Pennsylvania. He served as attorney general until his resignation on November 20, 1780. He moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and opened a law practice there in 1780. He participated in the trial to settle the

Pennamite–Yankee War The Pennamite–Yankee Wars or Yankee–Pennamite Wars were a series of conflicts consisting of the First Pennamite War (1769–1770), the Second Pennamite War (1774), and the Third Pennamite War (1784), in which settlers from Connecticut ( Yankee ...

land dispute between Pennsylvania and Connecticut. In 1784, he was elected a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. He served on the Committee of Health in Philadelphia during the yellow fever epidemic of 1792 and 1793. He was a candidate in the 1792 U.S. House election for Pennsylvania's 13 at-large seats, where the top 13 would be elected; he finished 15th. Sergeant died in Philadelphia in 1793 due to yellow fever. He was initially interred in the Old Pine Street Church cemetery, but was re-interred to

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery, also called Laurel Hill East to distinguish it from the affiliated West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, Bala Cynwyd, is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls, Philadelphia, East Falls neighborhood ...

in 1878.

Personal life

In 1775, he married Margaret Spencer and together they had eight children. Margaret died in 1787 and he re-married Elizabeth Rittenhouse, the daughter of

David Rittenhouse David Rittenhouse (April 8, 1732 – June 26, 1796) was an American astronomer, inventor, clockmaker, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrument craftsman, and public official. Rittenhouse was a member of the American Philosophical Society an ...

, in 1778. His son John Sergeant later represented Pennsylvania in the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

. Another son, Thomas Sergeant, served as Pennsylvania secretary of state, attorney general and on the state Supreme Court.

References

External links

Death mask of Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant at Smithsonian National Portrait GallerySergeant family tree
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sergeant, Jonathan 1746 births 1793 deaths 18th-century American lawyers American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Continental Congressmen from New Jersey Deaths from yellow fever Lawyers from Newark, New Jersey Lawyers from Philadelphia Members of the American Philosophical Society Pennsylvania attorneys general People from colonial New Jersey Politicians from Newark, New Jersey Politicians from Princeton, New Jersey Princeton University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Candidates in the 1792 United States elections