William Paterson (judge)

William Paterson was born December 24, 1745, in County Antrim, Ireland, to Richard Paterson, an Ulster Protestant.{{cite book|last=McCarthy|first=Joseph F. X.|editor-last=Glazier|editor-first=Michael|title=The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America|year=1999|chapter=The Constitution of the United States|place=Notre Dame, IN|publisher=University of Notre Dame Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofir0000unse/page/185 185]|isbn=978-0-268-02755-1|quote=[Thomas Fitzsimons] was one of the two Catholic delegates to the Convention (Daniel Carroll was the other).|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofir0000unse/page/185}} Paterson immigrated with his parents to New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1747.{{cite web|title=PATERSON, William - Biographical Information|work=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|publisher=United States Congress|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000102|access-date=July 28, 2019|archive-date=January 6, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106023222/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000102|url-status=live}} At 14, he began college at Princeton. After graduating, he read law with the prominent lawyer Richard Stockton and was admitted to the bar in 1768. He also stayed connected to his alma mater and helped found the Cliosophic Society with Aaron Burr.{{cite web |url=http://theprince.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/cgi-bin/princetonperiodicals?a=d&d=Princetonian19870727-01.2.95&srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-IN-----# |title=Daily Princetonian Special Class of 1991 Issue 27 July 1987 — Princeton Periodicals |work=princeton.edu |access-date=May 15, 2012 |archive-date=November 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104204633/https://theprince.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/cgi-bin/princetonperiodicals?a=d&d=Princetonian19870727-01.2.95&srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-IN----- |url-status=live }}

Paterson was selected as the Somerset County delegate for the first three provincial congresses of New Jersey, where, as secretary, he recorded the 1776 New Jersey State Constitution. Paterson was appointed as the first attorney general of New Jersey, serving from 1776 to 1783, establishing himself as one of the state's most prominent lawyers. He was sent to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, where he proposed the New Jersey Plan for a unicameral legislative body with equal representation from each state. The Constitution of the United States was ultimately signed with the Connecticut Compromise that created a bicameral Congress with a Senate that equally represented each state and a House of Representatives with population-based representation.{{cite book |last1=Vile |first1=John R. |title=The Men Who Made the Constitution: Lives of the Delegates to the Constitutional Convention |date=October 10, 2013 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-8865-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gf90AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA248 |access-date=February 21, 2017 |language=en}}

In 1775, Paterson was commissioned into the Somerset County Minutemen of the New Jersey militia and served on the Council of Safety, the body that developed and managed New Jersey's military forces for the American Revolutionary War.{{Cite web |title=William Paterson |url=https://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/paterson.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112101740/http://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/paterson.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 12, 2008 |access-date=2024-11-25 |website=www.history.army.mil}}{{Cite web |title=Paterson, William {{!}} Federal Judicial Center |url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/paterson-william |access-date=2024-11-29 |website=www.fjc.gov}}

Paterson, who was a strong nationalist who supported the Federalist Party, went on to become one of New Jersey's first U.S. senators (1789–90). As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he played an important role in drafting the Judiciary Act of 1789 that established the federal court system. The first nine sections of this very important law are in his handwriting.

In 1790, he became the first person to resign from the U.S. Senate, when he did so in order to succeed fellow signer William Livingston as governor of New Jersey. As governor, Paterson pursued his interest in legal matters by codifying the English statutes that had been in force in New Jersey before the Revolution in Laws of the State of New Jersey. He also published a revision of the rules of the chancery and common law courts in Paterson, later adopted by the New Jersey Legislature.Haskett, Richard C. (1950) William Paterson, Attorney General of New Jersey: Public Office and Private Profit in the American Revolution. William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd. Ser., 7 (January): pp. 26–38.

President George Washington nominated Paterson for the Supreme Court of the United States on February 27, 1793, to the seat vacated by Thomas Johnson. Washington withdrew the nomination the following day, having realized that since the Judiciary Act of 1789 (the law creating the Supreme Court) had been passed during Paterson's current term as a Senator, the nomination was a violation of the Ineligibility Clause (Article I, Section 6) of the Constitution. Washington re-nominated Paterson to the court on March 4, 1793, after his term as Senator had expired; Paterson was immediately confirmed by the Senate and received his commission.{{cite book |last1=Myers |first1=Gustavus |title=History of the Supreme Court of the United States |date=1912 |publisher=C. H. Kerr |url=https://archive.org/details/historysupremec00myergoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/historysupremec00myergoog/page/n153 149] |access-date=February 21, 2017 |language=en}}

He resigned from the governorship to become an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. On the circuit, he presided over the trials of individuals indicted for treason in the Whiskey Rebellion, a revolt by farmers in western Pennsylvania over the federal excise tax on whiskey, the principal product of their cash crop. Militia sent out by President Washington successfully quelled the uprising, and for the first time, the courts had to interpret the provisions of the Constitution concerning the use of troops in civil disturbances. Here, and, throughout his long career, Paterson extolled the primacy of law over governments, a principle embodied in the Constitution he helped write.{{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=Robert K. Jr. |last2=MacGregor |first2=Morris J. Jr. |title=Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution |date=1987 |publisher=U.S. Army Center of Military History |location=Washington, D.C. |page=166 |url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/paterson.htm |access-date=July 28, 2014 |lccn=87001353 |archive-date=January 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122195348/https://history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/paterson.htm |url-status=dead }} He declined an appointment as Secretary of State in 1795. Paterson was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1789.{{Cite web|title=William Paterson|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=William+Paterson|access-date=14 December 2020|website=American Philosophical Society Member History|publisher=American Philosophical Society}} He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1801.{{cite web |title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter P |url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterP.pdf |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=July 28, 2014 |archive-date=May 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515183157/http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterP.pdf |url-status=live }} Paterson served on the Supreme Court until he died in 1806.

File:Mrs. Stephen Van Rensselaer III (Cornelia Paterson) MET DP168948 (cropped).jpg, 1825]]File:Euphemia Van Rensselaer.jpg, 1842]]

In 1779, Paterson married Cornelia Bell (1755–1783), daughter of John Bell, a wealthy Somerset County landowner.{{cite book |last1=Epstein |first1=Lee |last2=Segal |first2=Jeffrey A. |last3=Spaeth |first3=Harold J. |last4=Walker |first4=Thomas G. |title=The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments |date=July 29, 2015 |publisher=CQ Press |isbn=978-1-4833-7663-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QEkdCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT335 |access-date=February 21, 2017 |language=en}} Together, they had three children, but she died in 1783 shortly after giving birth to their only son. Their children were:

• Cornelia Bell Paterson (1780–1844), who married Stephen Van Rensselaer (1764–1839) after the death of his first wife, Margaret "Peggy" Schuyler (1758–1801){{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Cuyler |date=1914 |title=Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York, Volume 3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iNIUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1341 |location=New York |publisher=Lewis Publishing Company |pages=1166, 1341 |access-date=February 21, 2017 |archive-date=August 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804002937/https://books.google.com/books?id=iNIUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1341 |url-status=live }}
• Frances Van Paterson (1781–1783), who died young
• William Bell Paterson (1783–1832), who married Jane Eliza NeilsonWood, Gertrude Sceery, William Paterson of New Jersey, 1745–1806 (Fair Lawn, N.J.: Fair Lawn Press, 1933), pp. 49, 199.O'Connor, John E., William Paterson: Lawyer and Statesman, 1745–1806 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1979), pp. 108, 117.

In 1785, he married Euphemia White (1746–1832), sister of Anthony Walton White (1750–1803), daughter of Anthony White (1717–1787), a New Jersey landholder and judge of the Somerset court, and the granddaughter of Lewis Morris (1671–1746), chief justice of New York from 1715 to 1733 and governor of New Jersey from 1738 to 1746.{{cite book |last1=Marcus |first1=Maeva |title=The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1800 |date=1985 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-08869-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PGP41K2qY2YC&pg=PA358 |access-date=February 21, 2017 |language=en}}Lefferts, Elizabeth Morris, comp., Descendants of Lewis Morris of Morrisania (New York: Tobias A. Wright, 1907).

On September 9, 1806, Paterson, aged 60, died from the lingering effects of a coach accident suffered in 1803 while on circuit court duty in New Jersey. He was on his way to the spa at Ballston Springs, New York, to "take the waters", when he died at the Van Rensselaer Manor home of his daughter, Cornelia, and son-in-law, Stephen Van Rensselaer, in Albany, New York. He was laid to rest in the Van Renssalaer family vault. When the city acquired the property, Paterson's remains were relocated to Albany Rural Cemetery Menands in Albany County, New York. Also buried there are Associate Justice Rufus W. Peckham and President Chester A. Arthur.{{cite journal| last=Christensen| first=George A.| title=Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices| journal=Yearbook 1983 Supreme Court Historical Society| issue=1983| url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html| pages=17–30| url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050903032026/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html |archive-date=September 3, 2005| publisher=Supreme Court Historical Society| location=Washington, D.C.|access-date=June 5, 2018| via=Internet Archive}}See also, {{cite journal| last=Christensen| first=George A.| title=Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited| journal=Journal of Supreme Court History| volume=33| issue=1| date=February 2008| pages=17–41| publisher=Blackwell Publishing| issn=1059-4329| eissn=1540-5818| doi=10.1111/j.1540-5818.2008.00177.x| s2cid=145227968}}

Through his eldest daughter, his grandchildren include Cortlandt Van Rensselaer (1808–1860), a noted Presbyterian clergyman, and Henry Bell Van Rensselaer (1810–1864), a politician and general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, who married Elizabeth Ray King, a granddaughter of U.S. Senator Rufus King.

Through his son, his grandchildren included twin brothers, William Paterson (1817–1899), who married Salvadora Meade, a Spanish-born woman living in Philadelphia,{{cite web |last1=Bond |first1=Gordon |title=To Cast A Freedman's Vote: How a Handyman from Perth Amboy Made Civil Rights History |url=http://www.metuchen-edisonhistsoc.org/resources/To+Cast+a+Freedmans+Vote+-+by+Gordon+Bond+-+for+MEHS+web.pdf |website=metuchen-edisonhistsoc.org |access-date=February 21, 2017 |archive-date=June 24, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624003636/http://www.metuchen-edisonhistsoc.org/resources/To+Cast+a+Freedmans+Vote+-+by+Gordon+Bond+-+for+MEHS+web.pdf |url-status=live }} and Stephen Van Rensselaer Paterson (1817–1872),{{cite web |title=Manuscript Group 718, William Paterson (1817–1899), Student and author |url=http://www.jerseyhistory.org/findingaid.php?aid=0718 |website=www.jerseyhistory.org |publisher=The New Jersey Historical Society |access-date=February 21, 2017 |language=en |archive-date=February 8, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170208145201/http://jerseyhistory.org/findingaid.php?aid=0718 |url-status=live }} who married Emily Sophia King (1823–1853), daughter of Charles King (1789–1867), the president of Columbia University, and the second son Rufus King. Both grandsons were members of the Princeton University class of 1835 and William was admitted to the bar in 1838. He later served as a member of the New Jersey Assembly from 1842 to 1843, Secretary of the New Jersey Constitutional Convention of 1844, a lay judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals, and mayor of Perth Amboy for ten years in between 1846 and 1878.

Both the city of Paterson, and the college, William Paterson University, are named after him.

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• {{cite book |last=Abraham |first=Henry J. |title=Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court |url=https://archive.org/details/justicespresiden0000abra |url-access=registration |edition=3rd |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-506557-3 }}
• [http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history-of-the-court/associate-justices/william-paterson-1793-1806/ Bibliography on William Patterson at] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915095903/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history-of-the-court/associate-justices/william-paterson-1793-1806/ |date=September 15, 2012 }} Supreme Court Historical Society.
• {{cite book |last=Cushman |first=Clare |title=The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 |edition=2nd |publisher=(Supreme Court Historical Society, Congressional Quarterly Books) |year=2001 |isbn=1-56802-126-7}}
• Flanders, Henry. [https://books.google.com/books?id=eEQEAAAAYAAJ The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617024102/https://books.google.com/books?id=eEQEAAAAYAAJ |date=June 17, 2016 }}. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1874 at Google Books.
• {{cite book |last=Frank |first=John P. |editor-last=Friedman |editor-first=Leon |editor2-last=Israel |editor2-first=Fred L. |title=The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |year=1995 |isbn=0-7910-1377-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/justicesofunited0000unse }}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Hall |editor-first=Kermit L. |title=The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-505835-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hall }}
• {{cite book |last=Martin |first=Fenton S. |author2=Goehlert, Robert U. |title=The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography |publisher=Congressional Quarterly Books |year=1990 |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0-87187-554-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/ussupremecourtbi0000mart }}
• {{cite book |last=Urofsky |first=Melvin I. |title=The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary |publisher=Garland Publishing |year=1994 |location=New York |pages=590 |isbn=0-8153-1176-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourtjust00melv |url-access=registration }}
• Warren, Charles. (1928) [https://books.google.com/books?id=pGUTAAAAYAAJ The Supreme Court in United States History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609173451/https://books.google.com/books?id=pGUTAAAAYAAJ |date=June 9, 2016 }}, 2 vols. at Google books.
• {{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/paterson.htm |title=Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution |chapter=William Paterson |url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/ss-fm.htm#cont |first1=Robert K. |last1=Wright |first2=Morris J. Jr. |last2=MacGregor |publisher=United States Army Center of Military History |id=CMH Pub 71-25 |year=1987 |access-date=July 20, 2010 |archive-date=October 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009074857/https://history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/ss-fm.htm#cont |url-status=dead }}

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{{Commons category|William Paterson (judge)}}

• {{Biographical Directory of Congress|P000102}}
• {{FJC Bio|1847|nid=1386141|name=William Paterson}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930041258/http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=3e7c1b5b3ff39010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD New Jersey Governor William Paterson], National Governors Association
• Oyez Project, [https://www.oyez.org/justices/william_paterson/ U.S. Supreme Court media, William Paterson.]
• [https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/founding-fathers-new-jersey?_ga=2.24632634.1402403986.1646555412-194849912.1646555412 Founding Fathers of New Jersey], National Archives and Records Administration

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