Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/140

116 was a member of the legislature in 1869, and be- came known by his persistent opposition to the Tweed ring. With his brother he built the Lebanon Springs railroad.

TILGHMAN, James, lawyer, b.at the Hermit- age, his family-seat, on Chester river, Bid., 6 Dec, 1716; d. in Chestertown, Md., 24 Aug., 1793. He was the grandson of Richard Tilghman, an eminent surgeon of London, who was one of those that peti- tioned for the life of King Charles I. and who emi- grated to Maryland in 1660 and settled the Hermit- age, which has ever since remained in the posses- sion of his descendants. James studied law and entered on its practice at Annapolis, Md., whence he removed to Philadelphia about 1760. He was asked by John Penn in 1765 to become secretary of the land-office of Pennsylvania. Stipulating for a salary of £300 besides certain fees, he ac- cepted the post and held it until the Revolution. He was chosen a common councilman of Philadel- phia in 1764, and in 1767 became a member of the provincial council, which office he also held until the Revolution. At its beginning his views were liberal. He wished a repeal of the obnoxious acts of parliament, and thought the Boston port bill an outrage, but condemned the "Boston tea-party," and finally came to be regarded as a loyalist. On the approach of the British toward Philadelphia, he among others was placed under arrest by the authorities of the state and gave his parole. Per- mission was granted him, 31 Aug., 1777. to visit his family in Maryland and return within a month, before the end of which the British occupied Phila- delphia, so he remained in Maryland. On 16 May, 1778. he was discharged from parole. — James's brother, Matthew, patriot, b. at the Hermitage, Queen Anne county, Md., 17 Feb., 1718; d. there, 4 May, 1790, in 1741 married his cousin. Anne Lloyd, and was commissioned commander of a troop of horse for protecting the outlying settlements from the Indians, and also one " of the worshipful, the commissioners and justices of the peace for Talbot county." He was elected delegate to the general assembly of Maryland in 1751, and continued to be a member of the house of delegates until the pro- vincial government was superseded by the state organization. 5 Feb.. 1777. He was a member of the committee that was appointed in May, 1768, by the general assembly oi Maryland to draft an address to the king protesting against the stamp- act. He was speaker of the house of delegates in 773-'5 and presi- dent of the Revo- lutionary conven- tion which from 1774 till 1777 con- trolled the prov- ince and directed its government. He was the chair- man of the com- mittee on cor- respondence that was appointed in December, 1774, and of the coun- cil of safety of July, 1775, and was chairman of delegation that was sent by the convention of Maryland to the Continental congress. In June, 1776, he was summoned from his seat in congress to attend the convention at Annapolis, and was president of the convention that framed the first constitution for the new state of Maryland. This circumstance alone prevented him from attaching his name to the Declaration of Independence, which he advocated both at Philadelphia and at Annapolis. He continued to represent his state in congress until 1777. when he resigned to accept the post to which he had been elected as senator from Talbot county in the senate of Maryland. He was re-elected in 1781, but resigned before his term had expired. His wisdom, courage, purity of character, and ability won for him the name of the patriarch of Maryland, and his influence was second to that of no man in forming the in- stitutions and organizing the government of the new state. By his contemporaries he was consid- ered one of the firmest and ablest advocates of civil and religious liberty of his time. — James's son, William, jurist, b. in Talbot countv, Md., 12 Aug., 1756; d. in Philadelphia, 30 April*, 1827, studied law under Benjamin Chew, after the family had removed to Philadelphia, and was admitted to. the Maryland bar in 1783 and sat in the legislature for several years after 1788. He began to practise in Philadelphia in 1793. was appointed chief judge of the U. S. circuit court, 3 March, 1801, but resumed practice when the law establishing the office was repealed in the following year. In July, 1805, he was appointed president of the court of common pleas in the first district, and in February, 1806, he became chief justice of the state supreme court. He was elected president of the American philo- sophical society in 1824. By direction of the legis- lature he prepared in 1809 a report of the English statutes in force in Pennsylvania. He published " Eulogium in Commemoration of Dr. Caspar Wis- tar," delivered before the Philosophical society of Philadelphia (1818), and "Address before the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture " (1820). — Another son of James, Tench, soldier, b. in Talbot county, Md., 25 Dec, 1744; d. in Bal- timore, Md., 18 April, 1786, began life as a mer- chant in Philadelphia, but at the beginning of the Revolution became lieutenant in a company from Philadelphia that was known as the Ladies' light infantry. He was appointed secretary and treasurer to the commission that was sent by con- gress, 13 July, 1775, to treat with the Six Nations and other northern Indians, joined the army under Washington early in 1776 as captain of a company of infantry from Pennsylvania, and in August, 1776, became military secretary and aide upon the commander-in-chief's staff. He served in this post to the end of the war, participating in all the principal battles, in which the army was engaged. On 30 May, 1781, he was commissioned lieutenant- colonel, to take rank from 1 April, 1777, having, with great delicacy, declined to rank from an ear- lier date to which he was entitled, because he would thereby take precedence of his seniors in the service. On the surrender of Cornwallis he was selected by Washington to bear his despatch to congress announcing that event. Leaving York- town, 19 Oct., he reached Philadelphia at midnight on 23 Oct., when his news that "Cornwallis is taken " was immediately proclaimed by the watch- man. He was voted the thanks of congress, a sword, and a horse with accoutrements, for this service. After the war he became a merchant in Baltimore. He married Anna Maria, daughter of his uncle Matthew. — William's cousin, Edward, lawyer, b. in Wye, Md., 11 Dec, 1750; d. 1 Nov., 1815, was educated in Philadelphia and studied in the Mid- dle Temple, London, in 1772-'4. He was for many years a successful practitioner at the Philadelphia