John Benton Sterigere (July 31, 1793 – October 13, 1852) was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as a

Jacksonian Democrat Jacksonian democracy was a 19th-century political philosophy in the United States that expanded suffrage to most white men over the age of 21, and restructured a number of federal institutions. Originating with the seventh U.S. president, Andr ...

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 5th congressional district from 1827 to 1831. Sterigere was born in Upper Dublin Township, Pennsylvania, near what is today Ambler, Pennsylvania, Ambler, to Peter Sterigere (1760–1806) and Ann Elizabeth Sterigere (née Haupt) (1770–1853). He worked on a farm and attended school. He was appointed justice of the peace in 1818 and was elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, serving from 1821 to 1824. He studied law, was admitted to State bar association, the bar on November 17, 1829, and commenced practice in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Sterigere was elected to the 20th United States Congress, Twentieth Congress and reelected as a Jacksonian democracy, Jacksonian to the 21st United States Congress, Twenty-first Congress. He served as the chairman of the United States House Committee on Private Land Claims during the Twenty-first Congress. He was a delegate to the Constitutional convention (political meeting), state convention to revise Pennsylvania Constitution, the constitution in 1838 and a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the Pennsylvania Senate, District 3, 3rd district in 1839 and for the Pennsylvania Senate, District 2, 2nd district from 1843 to 1846. At the 1838 PA Constitutional Convention, he proposed an amendment inserting the word "white" into the suffrage law, which passed, thus disenfranchising African Americans in Pennsylvania. He was a delegate to the 1852 Democratic National Convention. He edited the ''Register'' and was appointed by the State assembly as chairman of a commission to improve the town of Norristown. He died in Norristown in 1852. He is interred in Upper Dublin Lutheran Church Cemetery in Ambler, Pennsylvania.

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The Political Graveyard
1793 births 1852 deaths People from Upper Dublin Township, Pennsylvania American Lutherans Democratic Party Pennsylvania state senators Democratic Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania 19th-century American politicians {{Pennsylvania-Representative-stub