Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant

| image = Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, by Charles Willson Peale.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Portrait of Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant by Charles Willson Peale (1786)

| office1 = Attorney General of Pennsylvania

| governor1 =

| term_start1 = 1777

| term_end1 = 1780

| predecessor1 = John Morris, Jr.

| successor1 = William Bradford

| birth_name =

| birth_date = 1746

| birth_place = Newark, Province of New Jersey, British America

| death_date = {{death date and age|1793|10|8|1746}}

| death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| resting_place = Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| party =

| spouse = Margaret Spencer
Elizabeth Rittenhouse

| children = 8

| relatives = Jonathan Dickinson (maternal grandfather)
John Sergeant (son)
Thomas Sergeant (son)

| education = College of New Jersey
College of Philadelphia

| signature =

| signature_alt =

}}

Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant (1746 – October 8, 1793) was an American politician who served as a member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey from 1774 to 1776. He was a member of the committee that drafted the Constitution of New Jersey. He served as a delegate from the Province of New Jersey to the Second Continental Congress in 1776 and 1777, and as Pennsylvania Attorney General from 1777 to 1780.

Early life and education

Sergeant was born in 1746 in Newark, New Jersey, 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), 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 (now the University of Pennsylvania) in 1763 with an A.B. degree. He studied law in the Princeton office of Richard Stockton,{{cite web |title=Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant 1746-1793 |url=https://archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/penn-people/biography/jonathan-dickinson-sergeant/ |website=archives.upenn.edu |publisher=Penn Libraries University of Pennsylvania |access-date=26 March 2024}} was accepted into the New Jersey bar,{{cite book |last1=Jordan |first1=John Woolf |title=Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania |date=1978 |publisher=Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc. |location=Baltimore, Maryland |isbn=0-8063-0811-7 |pages=657–658 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=arAfWBsvO1gC |access-date=27 March 2024}} and entered practice in Princeton in 1767.{{cite web |title=Sergeant, Jonathan Dickinson |url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/S000247 |website=bioguide.congress.gov |publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress |access-date=26 March 2024}}

Career

He was a member of the Sons of Liberty and served a major role in the Stamp Act controversy.{{cite book |last1=Baltzell |first1=E. Digby |title=Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia |date=1996 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey |isbn=978-1-56000-830-9 |page=343 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6ZL0-hg2owC |access-date=26 March 2024}}

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 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."{{cite book |last1=Kaminski |first1=John P. |title=A Necessary Evil? Slavery and the Debate over the Constitution |date=1995 |publisher=Madison House Publishers, Inc. |location=Madison, Wisconsin |isbn=0-945612-33-8 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t3SDQgfxsCIC |access-date=27 March 2024}}

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.{{cite book |last1=Hazard |first1=Samuel |title=Pennsylvania Archives |date=1853 |publisher=Joseph Severns & Co. |location=Philadelphia |pages=612–613 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AmA3AQAAMAAJ |access-date=26 March 2024}} He moved to Philadelphia and opened a law practice there in 1780. He participated in the trial to settle the Pennamite–Yankee War land dispute between Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

In 1784, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.{{cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Jonathan+Sergeant&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |website=search.amphilsoc.org |publisher=American Philosophical Society |access-date=27 March 2024}}

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.{{Cite web |title=A New Nation Votes |url=https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/h415p956r |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=elections.lib.tufts.edu}} 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 in 1878.{{cite web |title=Jonathan D Sergeant |url=https://www.remembermyjourney.com/Search/27?q=last:%20sergeant&searchCemeteryId=&birthYear=&deathYear=#deceased=1750891 |website=www.remembermyjourney.com |access-date=27 March 2024}}

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, in 1778.

His son John Sergeant later represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Congress. Another son, Thomas Sergeant, served as Pennsylvania secretary of state, attorney general and on the state Supreme Court.

References

External links

[https://npg.si.edu/object/npg%20EX589 Death mask of Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant at Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery]
[http://www.politicalfamilytree.com/samples%20content/members/vp_losing-cand/Sergeant-PA-1.pdf Sergeant family tree]

{{succession box

|title=Pennsylvania Attorney General

|before=John Morris, Jr.

|years=1777–1780

|after= William Bradford

}}

Category:1746 births

Category:1793 deaths

Category:18th-century American lawyers

Category:American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law

Category:Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia)

Category:Continental Congressmen from New Jersey