Joseph Galloway was an American attorney and a leading political figure in the events immediately preceding the founding of the United States in the late 1700s.
24 Facts About Joseph Galloway
2.
The son of a wealthy landowner, Galloway became close friends with Benjamin Franklin through his law studies in the late 1740s.
3.
Joseph Galloway was elected to the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly in 1756 when he was just 25.
4.
Joseph Galloway would go on to serve for 18 years, eight of them as assembly speaker.
5.
In 1774, Joseph Galloway led the Pennsylvania delegation in the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, where as a conservative he proposed a plan for forming a union between the colonies and Great Britain.
6.
Three months after the Declaration's signing, Joseph Galloway fled to New York to join the British.
7.
Joseph Galloway was born near West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, the son of a landowner in the colony.
8.
Joseph Galloway moved with his father to Pennsylvania in 1740 where he received a liberal schooling.
9.
Joseph Galloway studied law, for a time alongside William Franklin, the son of Benjamin Franklin and later a fellow Loyalist, and he was admitted to the bar and began to practice law in Philadelphia.
10.
Joseph Galloway was a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly from 1756 to 1774 and served as speaker of the House from 1766 to 1774.
11.
Joseph Galloway was a prominent member of the faction which opposed Pennsylvania being a proprietary colony of the Penn family, and he called for it to be turned into a crown colony.
12.
Joseph Galloway was a Loyalist, believing that most Americans would prefer to remain loyal to the Crown if only they were given a legitimate and effective government that would inspire their loyalty.
13.
Joseph Galloway was a member of the Continental Congress in 1774, where he proposed a compromise plan for Union with Great Britain which would provide the colonies with their own parliament subject to the Crown.
14.
Joseph Galloway signed the Continental Association, while he was opposed to independence for the Thirteen Colonies and remained loyal to the king.
15.
Joseph Galloway was a resident of Philadelphia and an associate of Benjamin Franklin with whom he corresponded over the issues of American independence.
16.
Joseph Galloway urged reform of the imperial administration and was critical of the trade laws, the Stamp Act of 1765, and the Townshend Acts enacted in 1767, and he had a conciliatory plan to end the disputes between Britain and the colonies.
17.
Joseph Galloway believed that the British had the right to tax and govern the colonies, keep the peace, and help the colonies to survive and flourish.
18.
Joseph Galloway proposed a written constitution and joint legislature for the whole British Empire.
19.
In 1775, the Assembly rejected Joseph Galloway's urging that it abandon its struggle for independence from Britain, so Joseph Galloway left the Assembly and the Congress.
20.
Joseph Galloway efficiently organized the Loyalists in Philadelphia, but the British were driven out of the city in 1778 following France's entry into the war.
21.
The British retreated to New York, and Joseph Galloway went with them.
22.
When Joseph Galloway fled Philadelphia with the British, his wife Grace remained in the city with the hope of retaining the rights of their property.
23.
Joseph Galloway was influential in convincing the British that a vast reservoir of Loyalist support could be tapped by British initiatives, thus setting up the British invasion of the American South.
24.
Joseph Galloway died a widower in Watford, Hertfordshire on August 29,1803; his wife had died on February 6,1782.