Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/317

 SERGEANT

SERGEANT

congress and filled his entire term in the 3d con- gress. Seney was a presidential elector at large from Maryland, voting for Washington in 1793. He was married May 1, 1790, to Frances, daughter of Com. James Nicholson, a distinguished officer in the Revolutionary navy. He died Oct. 20, 1798.

SERGEANT, John, representative, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 5, 1779; son of Jona- than Dickinson Sergeant (q.v.) and Margaret (Spencer) Sergeant. Prepared at the schools of the University of Pennsylvania, he was graduated from the College of New Jersey, A.B., 1795, A.M., 1798 ; tried mercantile life, and then read law under Jared IngersoU, being admitted to the bar in December, 1799. In 1800 he was appointed de- puty attorney-general for Philadelphia and Ches- ter counties. President Jefferson appointed him commissioner of bankruptcy for Pennsylvania in 1801. In 1806 he declined appointment as city recorder. He was married, June 23, 1813, to Mar- garetta Watmough. He represented his district in the state legislature, 1808-10, and in the 14th- 17th, 20th, and 25th-27th congresses, 1815-23, 1827-29 and 1837-41. He was a trustee of the College of New Jersey, 1821-1826. He advocated and voted for the Missouri compromise ; was presi- dent of the Pennsylvania board of canal commis- sioners in 1825, was an envoy to the Panama con- gresses in 1826 ; president of the state constitu- tional convention in 1830 ; Whig candidate for Vice-President of the United States on the ticket with Henry Clay for President in 1832 ; president of the convention of 1838 to remodel the consti- tution of Pennsylvania ; declined the appoint- ment of U.S. minister to England in 1841, and was appointed by Seci'etary Macy to determine as to the o.vnersliip of Pea Patch Island, claimed by New Jersey and decided as the property of the United States and Delaware. He received the iionorar}' degree of LL.D. from Union college in 1822, from Dickinson in 1826, and Harvard in 1844. He publisl'.ed : Speec/t on the Missouri Question (1820) ; Speech on Bill to Establish Uni- form System of Banking (1822) ; Oration in Com- memoration of Hiomas Jefferson and John Adams (1826) ; Address before Citizens of Philadelphia (1828) ; Observations on Design and Effects of Punishment (1828) ; Address Delivered at Request of the Apprentices Library Company (1832); Ad- dress before the Alumni Association of Nassau Hall (1833) ; Address of Board of Managers of the Preston Retreat (183G) ; Speech on Judicial Tenure (1838) ; Lecture before the Mercantile Library Company {18S9.) He died in Philadel- phia, Pa.. Nov. 25, 1852.

SERGEANT, Jonathan Dickinson, delegate, was born in Newark, N.J., in 1746 ; son of Jona- than (treasurer of the College of New Jersey, 1750-77) and Abigail (Dickinson) Sergeant; IX. — 20

grandson of Jonathan Sergeant and of the Rev. Jonathan and Joanna (Melyn) Dickinson, and a descendant of Jonathan Sergeant who settled in Branford, Conn., about 1644, and in Newark, N.J., in 1667. He removed with his parents in 1758 to Princeton, N.J., where he prepared for college ; was graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1762 ; read law under Richard Stock- ton, and opened a law office. In June, 1774, he was secretary of the meeting of the people of New Jersey in convention at New Brunswick, to resolve on resistance to Great Britain ; and in November, 1774, after the Cohansey Tea Party, where suit was threatened against the members of that band of patriots, Sergeant was retained by the defendants. He was secretary of the Princeton committee of correspondence which on April 24, 1775, five days after Concord battle, called for a Provincial congress to deliberate on means of self protection. Sergeant was chosen secretary of this congress when it assembled in May, and resigned the office to become provincial treasurer. He received the formal thanks of the congress in October for his " constant and steady attendance to the public cause at these times of general calamity." He was twice married : first, March 14, 1775, to Margaret (1759-1787), daughter of the Rev. Elihu and Joanna (Eatton) Spencer of Trenton, and granddaughter of John and Joanna Eatton of Shrewsbury, N.J. ; and secondly, Dec. 20, 1788, to Elizabeth, daugliter of David (q.v.) and Eleanor (Colston) Rittenhouse. Being elected in February, 1776, to the Continental con- gress, he served until June, when he resigned voluntarily, deeming his services most needed in his own state and in the obscurer Piovincial con- gress at home. During the summer of 1776 he served on various committees, the most important being that which drew a constitution for New Jersey on the deposition of the royal governor. In November, 1776, he felt that he could again accept election to the Continental congress, and he served with much inconvenience and personal sacrifice until July, 1777, when he %vas appointed attorney-general of Pennsylvania. When the British took possession of Princeton in Decem- ber, 1776, they burned his new house to the ground. He was a member of the court-martial that tried Gen. Arthur St. Clair and other officers held responsible for the evacuation of Ticonderoga in 1788. He removed his law office to Philadelphia, 1780, and was one of the counsel for the state in the Wyoming Land controversy with Connecti- cut in 1782. In the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793, he distributed money, clothing and food and was active in carrying out sanitary measures, up to the time he fell a victim to the fever. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 8, 1793.