Benjamin Chew

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Benjamin Chew bigraphy, stories - Lawyers

Benjamin Chew : biography

November 19, 1722 – January 20, 1810

Benjamin Chew (November 19, 1722 – January 20, 1810) was a fifth-generation American, a Quaker-born legal scholar, a prominent and successful Philadelphia lawyer, head of the Pennsylvania Judiciary System under both Colony and Commonwealth, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Province of Pennsylvania. Chew was well known for his precision and brevity in making legal arguments as well as his excellent memory, judgment, and knowledge of statutory law. His primary allegiance was to the supremacy of law and constitution.

Trained in law at an early age by Andrew Hamilton, Benjamin Chew inherited his mentor’s clients, the descendants of William Penn, including Thomas Penn (1702–1775) and his brother Richard Penn, Sr. (1706–1771), and their sons Governor John Penn (1729–1795), Richard Penn, Jr. (1734–1811), and John Penn (1760–1834). The Penn family was the basis of his private practice, and he represented them for six decades.

He had a lifelong personal friendship with George Washington,Konkle, Burton Alva. (1932). Benjamin Chew 1722–1810: Head of the Pennsylvania Judiciary System under Colony and Commonwealth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 63. who is said to have treated Chew’s children “as if they were his own."McGarth, Francis Sims. (1950). Pillars of Maryland. Petersburg, VA: The Dietz Press, Inc. p. 150. Chew lived and practiced law in Philadelphia four blocks from Independence Hall, and provided pro bono his knowledge of substantive law to America’s Founding Fathers during the creation of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Residences

Third Street House

In 1771, Chew purchased the former house of his client, Governor John Penn, on South Third Street; Penn had returned to England to settle his father’s (Richard Penn, Sr.) estate.Richards, Nancy. (1996). The City Home of Benjamin Chew, Sr., and His Family: A Case Study of the Textures of Life. Philadelphia: Cliveden of the National Trust, Inc. pp. 5-6. For almost five decades, the household on Third Street was filled by Benjamin and Elizabeth Chew, their son Benjamin, and their daughters Anna Marie, Elizabeth, Sarah, Margaret (Peggy), Juliana, Henrietta, Sophia, Maria, Harriet, and Catherine, all of whom were actively engaged in the social, civic, and cultural life of the nation’s first capital. Three of the daughters retained ownership of the house until 1828.

The Chews entertained many visiting dignitaries, such as John Penn, Tench Francis, Jr., Robert, Thomas, and Samuel Wharton, Thomas Willing, John Cadwalader, Chief Justice William Allen and his wife Margaret, daughter of Andrew Hamilton, Dr. William Smith, Provost of the College of Philadelphia, botanist John Bartram, Edward Shippen, III, Edward Shippen, IV, and Peggy Shippen, Thomas Mifflin, later to become Governor of Pennsylvania, and Brigadier General Henry Bouquet, hero of the French and Indian War.Richards, 1996, p. 23-25.

Abigail Adams referred to Chews’ daughters as part of a “constellation of beauties” in Philadelphia.Richards, 1996, p. 60-61. Margaret Chew (1760–1824) married Maryland Governor John E. Howard in 1787. Sophia (1769–1841) was invited to attend Martha Washington’s first public event in Philadelphia.Griswold, Rufus W. (1885). The Republican Court, or, American Society in the Days of Washington. Boston: D. Appleton. p. 395. Harriet (1775–1861) was asked to entertain George Washington while his portrait was being painted.Griswold, 1885, p. 315, 339. In 1800, she married the only son of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, who built Homewood for them as a wedding gift.Perlman, Bernard B. (March 1955). "American Notes: Baltimore Mansion, 1801–1803", Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 14. p. 27. Throughout the Revolutionary War, George Washington aided the transfer of letters between Mr. and Mrs. Chew, during months when they were forced to live apart.Richards, 1996, p. 50, 55.