31 Facts About Benjamin Chew

Benjamin Chew was an American lawyer and judge who served as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Province of Pennsylvania and later the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Benjamin Chew was born in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, at his father's plantation, Maidstone.

The young Benjamin Chew took an interest in the field of law at an early age.

Benjamin Chew was strongly influenced by Hamilton's ideas about a free press, and the reading materials that Hamilton provided him, especially Sir Francis Bacon's Lawtracts.

Benjamin Chew began attending London theatre and read what friends recommended; his journal during these years shows his process of adopting aspects of English refinement expected of gentlemen, which he continued after his return to the American colonies.

Benjamin Chew was raised in a Quaker family, but he broke with Quaker tradition in 1741, when he agreed with his father, who had instructed a grand jury in New Castle, Delaware on the lawfulness of resistance to an armed force.

In 1747, at age 25, Benjamin Chew went against Quaker tradition when he took the Oath of Attorney in Pennsylvania.

In 1754, Benjamin Chew moved to Philadelphia, where he continued his legal responsibilities in both Delaware Colony and the Province of Pennsylvania for the rest of his life.

Benjamin Chew derived most of his income from that, managing his second wife's considerable estate, and collecting quit-rents from his various properties.

Benjamin Chew continued the family practice of investing in land in the Thirteen Colonies until the end of his life, expanding their holdings in the colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania, Province of Maryland, Delaware Colony, and Province of New Jersey.

Benjamin Chew was Speaker of the Lower House for the Delaware counties ; Attorney General and member of the Council of Pennsylvania ; Recorder of Philadelphia City ; Master of Rolls ; and Provincial Councillor of Pennsylvania.

Benjamin Chew was selected as a Philadelphia commissioner ; appointed as Register-General of Wills ; and as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Benjamin Chew was appointed a judge and president of the Pennsylvania High Court of Errors and Appeals, the court of last resort in the Commonwealth.

Benjamin Chew Franklin proposed the plan but, as it greatly exceeded the scope of the congress, it was strongly debated by attendees.

In 1768, Benjamin Chew was elected to the revived American Philosophical Society.

Benjamin Chew supported the Proprietary interests, opposed the Stamp Act and other English abuses, but opposed independence.

Benjamin Chew held the position until he retired in 1808.

Benjamin Chew received the highest compliment Pennsylvania could pay him: he was appointed by Governor Thomas Mifflin as President of the High Court, despite the fact that he was by then close to seventy.

Benjamin Chew maintained that position although he had left the Quakers and joined the Anglican Church in 1758.

Early in the conflict, both the British and colonial sides claimed his allegiance since Benjamin Chew had such a visible position in the colony and played so many important roles.

The Executive Council of the Continental Congress decided at the last minute against allowing Benjamin Chew to remain at Cliveden.

Benjamin Chew continued to participate in the meetings of the Tammany Society, to honor Tamanend, the Lenni-Lenape chief who first negotiated peace agreements with William Penn.

In 1771, Benjamin Chew purchased the former house of his client, Governor John Penn, on South Third Street in Philadelphia; Penn returned to England to settle his father Richard Penn Sr.

Margaret Benjamin Chew married Maryland Governor John Eager Howard in 1787.

Benjamin Chew sold Cliveden to Blair McClenahan because he was unable to afford the extensive repairs necessary after the Battle of Germantown.

Cannonballs from the Battle of Germantown were embedded in its walls until 1972, when Benjamin Chew's descendants donated the house to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

In 1758, Chew left the Quakers permanently and joined the Church of England; he and his wife had their son Benjamin baptized that year at Christ Church.

Benjamin Chew greatly increased both his wealth and property holdings when he married Elizabeth Oswald.

In 1760, on the Benjamin Chew's property "Whitehall" in Delaware, Richard Allen, was born into slavery.

In 1768, recognizing the boy's early genius, Benjamin Chew sold Allen, then eight years old, and all members of his immediate family to Stokley Sturgis, a known abolitionist and owner of a neighboring property in Delaware.

Benjamin Chew is buried at St Peter's Churchyard in Philadelphia.