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),
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 ...
, 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 entryat
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