Colonel Jacob Duché (1708–1788) was a

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

in the colonial province of Pennsylvania. Duché was born in Philadelphia, the son of Anthony Duché (d. 1762), a French

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

who came with his wife to America in the same ship as

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

in about 1700. He was appointed a colonel of the militia. He served as mayor of Philadelphia from 1761 to 1762. He became a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

through his election in 1768.Bell, Whitfield J., and Charles Greifenstein, Jr. Patriot-Improvers: Biographical Sketches of Members of the American Philosophical Society. 3 vols. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1997, 2:284–286. He was for many years a vestryman of Christ Church; when the congregation grew too large to be accommodated there, he headed the committee that oversaw the erection of its daughter church, St. Peter's.

Family

Duché married Mary Spence (d. June 5, 1747) on January 13, 1733–34. He later married a widow Bradley, née Esther Duffield. He was the father of

Jacob Duché The Reverend Jacob Duché (1737–1798) was a Rector of Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the first chaplain to the Continental Congress. Biography Duché was born in Philadelphia in 1737, the son of Colonel Jacob Duché, Sr., ...

, chaplain to Continental Congress. He died in Lambeth,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, in 1788.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duche, Jacob Sr. 1708 births 1788 deaths 18th-century mayors of places in Pennsylvania History of Philadelphia Mayors of Philadelphia People from colonial Pennsylvania