John Beatty (Continental Congress)

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = John Beatty

| image = File:John Beatty, M.D., member of the Continental Congress (NYPL b12349195-420168).tif

| caption =

| office = Secretary of State of New Jersey

| term_start = 1795

| term_end = 1805

| governor = Richard Howell
Joseph Bloomfield

| predecessor = Samuel W. Stockton

| successor = James Linn

| office2 =

| state2 = New Jersey

| district2 = at-large

| term_start2 = 1793

| term_end2 = 1795
alongside Elias Boudinot, Abraham Clark, Jonathan Dayton, and Lambert Cadwalader

| predecessor2 = Elias Boudinot, Abraham Clark, Jonathan Dayton, and Aaron Kitchell

| successor2 = Jonathan Dayton, Aaron Kitchell, Mark Thomson, Thomas Henderson, and Isaac Smith

| office3 = Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly

| term_start3 = 1789

| term_end3 = 1790

| predecessor3 = Benjamin Van Cleve

| successor3 = Jonathan Dayton

| birth_date = {{birth date|1749|12|10}}

| birth_place = Neshaminy, Province of Pennsylvania, British America

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1826|5|30|1749|12|10}}

| death_place = Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.

| nationality =

| other_names =

| occupation = Physician, politician

| known_for =

| alma_mater = College of New Jersey

| spouse =

| children =

| relations = John Reading (grandfather)
James Clinton (great-grandfather)

}}

John Beatty (December 10, 1749 – May 30, 1826) was an American physician, statesman and slaveowner{{Citation|title=Congress slaveowners|date=2022-01-19|url=https://github.com/washingtonpost/data-congress-slaveowners|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2022-01-25}} from Princeton, New Jersey.{{cite web|title=BEATTY, John - Biographical Information|url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000282|website=bioguide.congress.gov|publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date=May 22, 2018}}{{cite book|last1=Mays|first1=Terry M.|title=Historical Dictionary of Revolutionary America|date=2005|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810853898|page=24|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QAgEVl8wQmsC&pg=PA24|access-date=May 22, 2018|language=en}}

Early life

File:Coat of Arms of John Beatty.svg

He was born in Neshaminy in the Province of Pennsylvania on December 10, 1749. Beatty was the oldest of ten children of Irish born Rev. Charles Clinton Beatty (1715–1772) and Anne (née Reading) Beatty (1723–1768), who were married in 1746. His father was a Presbyterian minister who did missionary work among the Native Americans.

His maternal grandfather was John Reading (1686–1767), president of the New Jersey Provincial Council and acting Governor of the province of New Jersey. His paternal grandparents were John Beatty (1645–1729) and Christiana (née Clinton) Beatty (1685–1776).{{cite book|last1=Jordan|first1=John Woolf|title=Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania|date=1913|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company|page=721|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v9YqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA721|access-date=May 22, 2018|language=en}} John's grandmother was the daughter of James Clinton (1667–1718) and the sister of Charles Clinton (1690–1773) (himself the father of Revolutionary War Major General James Clinton (1736–1812) and Vice President George Clinton (1739–1812), and the grandfather of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton (1769–1828)).{{cite book|last1=Bergen|first1=Tunis Garret|title=Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation|date=1915|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wekpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA548|access-date=July 18, 2017|language=en}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=05gyAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA196&lpg=RA1-PA196 Moore, Charles B., "Introductory Sketch to the History of the Clinton Family", The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, (Richard Henry Greene at al, eds.), New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1880]

Beatty graduated from the College of New Jersey (later known as Princeton University) in 1769.{{cite web|title=To George Washington from John Beatty, 28 April 1789|url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-02-02-0121|website=founders.archives.gov|publisher=Founders Online|access-date=May 22, 2018|language=en}} He was a student of Founding Father Benjamin Rush.{{cite book|last1=Gansevoort Jr.|first1=Peter|title=Hero of Fort Schuyler: Selected Revolutionary War Correspondence of Brigadier General Peter Gansevoort, Jr.|date=2014|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476616803|page=254|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zUTFBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA254|access-date=May 22, 2018|language=en}}

Career

File:John Beatty 1784.jpg

Beatty became a doctor and opened his first practice in Hartsville, Pennsylvania.{{cite book|title=Bulletin of the History of Medicine|date=1958|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|pages=38–41|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wzI5AAAAIAAJ|access-date=May 22, 2018|language=en}} He rose to the rank of major in the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He was captured at the surrender of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776. After his exchange, he was appointed Commissary General for Prisoners with the rank of colonel.{{cite book|last1=Heitman|first1=Francis Bernard|title=Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution, April 1775, to December, 1783|date=1914|publisher=Rare Book Shop Publishing Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/historicalregis02heitgoog/page/n105 95]|url=https://archive.org/details/historicalregis02heitgoog|access-date=May 22, 2018|language=en}}Purcell, L. Edward. Who Was Who in the American Revolution. New York: Facts on File, 1993. {{ISBN|0-8160-2107-4}}.

By the end of the war he had become a resident of New Jersey, serving as a member of the New Jersey Legislative Council (now the New Jersey Senate) from 1781 to 1783, representing Middlesex County,{{cite book|last1=Jensen|first1=Merrill|last2=DenBoer|first2=Gordon|last3=Becker|first3=Robert A.|title=The Documentary History of the First Federal Elections, 1788-1790|date=1976|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=9780299106508|page=52|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rklx9c7MJFoC&pg=PA52|access-date=May 22, 2018|language=en}} and delegate from that state to the Continental Congress in 1784 and 1785.

In 1784, when Thomas Jefferson's proposed ban on slavery in all future territories came up for a vote in Congress, Beatty became sick and was absent from the meeting. As Jefferson noted, "[Je]rsey would have been for it, but there were but two members, one of whom [Beatty] was sick in his chambers"; thus, New Jersey could not submit its vote.{{Cite web|url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-08-02-0009|title = Founders Online: To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 25 April 1784}} The proposal failed to pass by one vote.{{cite journal |last1=Merkel |first1=William |date=2009 |title=Jefferson's Failed Anti-Slavery Proviso of 1784 and the Nascence of Free Soil Constitutionalism |url=https://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1115&context=shlr |journal=Seton Hall Law Review |access-date=March 7, 2021}}

Beatty was the speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly from 1789 to 1790, an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1791,{{Cite web |title=A New Nation Votes |url=https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/2514nk82b |access-date=2024-12-21 |website=elections.lib.tufts.edu}} and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the Third Congress from 1793 to 1795. While serving in the U.S. House, he was one of nine representatives to vote against the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution.{{Cite web |title=Voteview {{!}} Plot Vote: 3rd Congress > House > 9 |url=https://voteview.com/rollcall/RH0030009 |access-date=2023-08-21 |website=voteview.com}} He later served as Secretary of State of New Jersey from 1795 to 1805.

Personal life

Beatty was married to Catherine DeKlyn, the daughter of Mary (née Van Sant) DeKlyn and Barnt DeKlyn, who became wealthy selling textiles to the Continental Army during the American Revolution.{{cite web|title=New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Mercer County |url=http://www.state.nj.us/dep/hpo/1identify/lists/mercer.pdf |publisher=New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - Historic Preservation Office |page=9 |date=March 1, 2011 |access-date=March 28, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203043600/http://www.state.nj.us/dep/hpo/1identify/lists/mercer.pdf |archive-date=December 3, 2010 }} Together, they were the parents of Robert Beatty and William Beatty.{{cite book|title=Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Book|date=1935|publisher=Daughters of the American Revolution|page=99|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rK4BAAAAMAAJ|access-date=May 22, 2018|language=en}}

Beatty was admitted as an original member of The Society of the Cincinnati in the state of New Jersey,Metcalf, Bryce (1938). Original Members and Other Officers Eligible to the Society of the Cincinnati, 1783-1938: With the Institution, Rules of Admission, and Lists of the Officers of the General and State Societies Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc., p. 48.{{cite web |title=Officers Represented in the Society of the Cincinnati |url=https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/soldiers-and-sailors-of-the-revolutionary-war/officers-represented-in-the-society-of-the-cincinnati/ |website=The American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati |access-date=9 April 2021}} and served as the organization's treasurer from 1823 until his death on May 30, 1826, in Trenton in Mercer County, New Jersey.{{cite web|title=John Beatty | The Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey|url=https://njcincinnati.org/john-beatty/|website=njcincinnati.org|access-date=May 14, 2019}}{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Beatty, John (physician)|year=1900}}

=Legacy=

The Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a collection of personal papers, including diaries, correspondences and genealogical notes, related to the Beatty Family. Besides John Beatty's papers, the collection also includes journals by his father, Charles Clinton Beatty, who served as an early missionary with George Duffield among Native Americans.{{cite web |date=May 5, 2014 |title=Guide to the Beatty Family Papers |url=https://pcusa.org/historical-society/collections/research-tools/guides-archival-collections/rg-293 |access-date=May 22, 2018 |website=www.history.pcusa.org |publisher=Presbyterian Historical Society}}