William Anderson (1762December 16, 1829) was an American politician who served 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 ...

member of the

U.S. House of Representatives 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 ...

for

Pennsylvania's 1st congressional district Pennsylvania's first congressional district includes all of Bucks County and a sliver of Montgomery County in southeastern Pennsylvania. It has been represented by Brian Fitzpatrick since 2019. The state congressional district map was redrawn ...

from 1809 to 1815 and from 1817 to 1819. Major William Anderson Grave

Early life and military service

William Anderson was born in Accomack County in the

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...

in 1762. During the Revolutionary War, he joined the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

at the age of fifteen and served until the end of the war. He was a major on the staff of General

Lafayette Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to: People * Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette * House of La Fayette, a French noble family ** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757� ...

and distinguished himself at

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and Yorktown. He was married to Elizabeth Dixon. In 1796, Anderson became engaged in the hotel business through the purchase of the Columbia House in

Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, it is the only city in Delaware County and had a population of 32,605 as of the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1682, Chester is ...

Political career

He served as Delaware County auditor in 1804 and county director of the poor in 1805. He was a Jeffersonian democrat and held many public offices. Anderson was elected as a

to the

Eleventh In music or music theory, an eleventh is the note eleven scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the eleventh. The interval can be also described as a compound fourth, spanning an octave plus a f ...

, Twelfth, and

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 ...

Congresses. He was elected to the

Fifteenth In music, a fifteenth or double octave, abbreviated ''15ma'', is the interval between one musical note and another with one-quarter the wavelength or quadruple the frequency. It has also been referred to as the bisdiapason. The fourth harmonic, ...

Congress. He was appointed an associate judge of the county court on January 5, 1826, and resigned in 1828 to become an inspector of customs in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. He served until his death in

in 1829 and was interred in Old St. Paul's Church Cemetery.

Slaveholding

Under Pennsylvania gradual abolition law, enslavers had six months to register the children of women they held in bondage. On July 2, 1806, Anderson registered a nineteen-week-old "male mulatto bastard child" named Francis as his property for twenty-eight years with the Delaware County clerk of courts. Updated 12 April 2022 This registration reveals that Anderson owned Francis' mother, whom he held in either lifetime or term slavery.

References

Sources

The Political Graveyard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, William 1762 births 1829 deaths People from Accomack County, Virginia Virginia colonial people American people of Dutch descent Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania Pennsylvania state court judges American slave owners People from Chester, Pennsylvania 19th-century American politicians Continental Army officers from Pennsylvania Burials in Pennsylvania