William Peartree Smith (199)

William Peartree Smith (1723–20 November 1801) was a literatus and public officeholder, and member of the American Philosophical Society by his election in 1768. Born in New York to a father who died soon thereafter, Smith inherited the fortune that allowed him to become a man of independent leisure. He graduated from Yale in 1742. He contributed short essays to the Independent Reflector, a series of essays aimed at literary and social uplift (1752–53) and was a founder/trustee in the New York Society Library. A devout Presbyterian, he unsuccessfully attempted to organize an early Bible society and was among the co-founders of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) and active, for forty-seven years, as a manager and booster, in tasks from trusteeship to lottery promotion. In addition to supporting the faith’s benevolent care of widows and orphans, he was for many years elected a trustee by fellow congregants and represented them at the Synod. Besides several terms as mayor of Elizabeth, NJ, he was a member of the Essex County Committee of Correspondence and later a delegate to the Provincial Convention and Provincial Congress in 1774. After the plunder of his home early in the hostilities, he played little role in the Revolution. Despite the peace, he expressed doubts about Americans’ capacity for self-government—while he celebrated George Washington’s virtue in turning away the Newburgh conspirators who would have enthroned him, Smith wondered “whether it would not have been best for us all, had he lain hold of the Helm: for I am counfoundedly afraid the Stupid Crew will sink the Ship, when escaped the Storm and got into safe Port.” A thoroughgoing Federalist and supporter of the new Constitution, he served as a judge in the Court of Common Pleas of Essex County beginning in 1785, but otherwise spent his twilight years with in the home of his daughter’s family. His brother-in-law, William Bryant, was also an APS member. (PI)