History of New Garden, (Chester County) Pennsylvania United States of America

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William Maclay, senator, was born in New Garden, Pa., July 20, 1737; son of Charles Eleanor (Query) Maclay, and grandson of John Maclay and of William Query. His father immigrated to America in 1734, lived at New Garden, Chester county, 1734-40, and in 1740 removed to Cumberland county. William was a pupil of the Rev, John Blair, at Big Spring, and served a lieutenant in Gen. John Forbes's expedition to Fort Duquesne in 1758, and in Gen. Henry Bouquet's march to Fort Pitt and engagement at Bushy Run in 1759. He was admitted to the bar in 1760, and was a surveyor of the land on the Susquehanna granted to officers of the army, and acquired a considerable grant. He visited the proprietors in England, and entered the service of the Penn family as deputy surveyor of Bucks county. He was married in 1769 to Mary, daughter of John Harris, the proprietor of Har risburg. In 1772, upon the organization of Northumberland county, he was made prothonotary and clerk of the courts, and assisted in laying out the town of Sunbury, Pa. He was active in raising and equipping troops for the Continental service, participated in the battles of Trenton and Princeton and served as commissary. He was elected a member of the provincial assembly in 1781; was Indian commissioner, judge of common pleas, and a member of the executive council. He was elected in January, 1789, with Robert Morris, to the U.S. senate, and in determining his term of service drew the short term ending March 3, 1791. He was a leader of the opposition to the administration of Washington, to the funding of the national debt and to the establishing of a U.S. bank, and was prominent in the movement that terminated in the establishment of the Anti-Federal party. At the expiration of his term he retired to his farm at Dauphin, Pa.; was a representative in the state legislature in 1795; a presidential elector for Thomas Jefferson in 1796; county judge, 1801-03, and a representative in the state legislature, 1803-04. He wrote: Sketches of Debate in the First Senate of the United States, 1789-91. His Journal was published by Edgar S. Maclay in 1889. He died in Dauphin, Pa., April 16, 1804.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of New Garden, (Chester County) Pennsylvania

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