John Adams Harper (November 2, 1779 – June 18, 1816) was an American politician and a

United States Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

Early life

Born in Derryfield, New Hampshire, Harper attended Phillips Exeter Academy in 1794. He studied law and was

admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

about 1802, commencing practice in Sanbornton.

Career

Harper was the first postmaster of Sanbornton, then moved to Meredith Bridge (now Laconia, Belknap County) in 1806. He served as clerk of the

New Hampshire Senate The New Hampshire Senate has been meeting since 1784. It is the upper house of the New Hampshire General Court, alongside the lower New Hampshire House of Representatives. It consists of 24 members representing Senate districts based on populatio ...

, 1805–1808, was a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1809 and 1810. He served in the State militia, 1809–1812. Elected as a

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...

to the Twelfth Congress, Harper served as United States Representative for the state of New Hampshire from (March 4, 1811 – March 3, 1813). He supported the Declaration of War in June 1812, and was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1812 to the

Thirteenth In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octa ...

Congress.

Death

Harper died at Meredith Bridge (now Laconia),

, on June 18, 1816, (age 36 years, 229 days). He is

interred Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

in Union Cemetery, Laconia, Belknap County, New Hampshire.

References

External links

John Adams Harper entry
at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations o ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, John Adams 1779 births 1816 deaths Members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New Hampshire People from Manchester, New Hampshire People from Sanbornton, New Hampshire People from Laconia, New Hampshire