Statesman; born in West Nottingham, Pa., Dec. 5, 1735; graduated at the
University of
Pennsylvania in 1757; studied divinity; preached a while; and was
Professor of Mathematics in his alma mater (1760-63). He was one of the committee of the American Philosophical Society appointed to observe the transit of
Venus in 1769, of which he published an account; also an account of the transit of Mercury the same year.
Being in
England to solicit aid for an academy at
Newark, N. J., he was examined (1774) before the privy council concerning the destruction of the tea at
Boston.
He returned home in 1776, and engaged, with his brother, in mercantile pursuits in
Charleston, S. C. Afterwards he practised medicine at
Edenton, N. C.; served in the
North Carolina House of Commons; also as a surgeon in the North Carolina militia (1781-82). He was a delegate in Congress (1782-85 and 1787-88), and in the convention that framed the national Constitution.
He was again in Congress in 1790-93, and soon afterwards removed to New York, where he assisted in forming a literary and philosophical society in 1814.
In 1786 he published
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a series of essays on paper currency.
In 1812 he published a
History of North Carolina.
He died in New York, May 22, 1819.
