1745-1806

Governor Patterson was one of the most accomplished statesmen whom New Jersey has produced. He was born in that state in 1745. Receiving an excellent education, he graduated at Princeton College in 1763, and then turned his attention to the study of the law. During the Revolution, Mr. Patterson employed his eminent abilities in furthering thc cause of his country. After the struggle had ended, and the formation of a federal union was proposed, he was sent as a delegate to the convention which met at Philadelphia for that purpose. His course in that body increased his reputation as a statesman; and he was chosen senator from New Jersey into the first Congress after the adoption of the federal constitution. In 1790, Mr. Patterson was elected governor of New Jersey, and not long afterward he was appointed an associate judge of the supreme court of the United States. Mr. Patterson died in 1806, at the age of sixty-three years. He possessed a vigorous, comprehensive mind, and a large fund of knowledge in law and politics.

[During the convention which drafted the new constitution, Georgia delegate William Pierce, and others for various reasons, left the convention before September and did not sign the new constitution. However, while in attendance Pierce made private notes on each representative.]

Pierce's notes.