John Cadwalader (248)

John Cadwalader (10 January 1742–10 February 1786) was a merchant, slaveholder, and soldier, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born in Philadelphia, he was the eldest son of APS Member Dr. Thomas Cadwalader. He attended the Academy and College of Philadelphia but left before graduating, choosing instead to begin a mercantile business with his brother and future APS Member Lambert Cadwalader. In 1769, however, Cadwalader found himself catapulted into a new level of wealth when he married Elizabeth, a plantation heiress of the Lloyd family. Shortly after, he traded in his former life as a merchant for that of project manager, overseeing the renovation of his new mansion on Spruce Street. When not enjoying his afternoons of hunting, fishing, and other socializing, Cadwalader and his family spent time at Shrewsbury Farm, the family’s plantation in Kent County, Maryland. With the onset of the Revolutionary War, Cadwalader expanded his already ardent support for independence. He began by serving as a delegate to the Pennsylvania Provincial convention in 1775 followed by his time on the Committee of Safety from 1775-1776. His mansion, ever a center of gaiety for visitors, began hosting delegates from the First and Second Continental Congresses. That is, until the occupation of Philadelphia in the fall of 1777 when Sir William Howe chose the home as his new quarters. This time coincided with Cadwalader assuming increased military responsibilities. That same year Pennsylvania elected him Brigadier General but he chose instead to organize the militia on the Maryland’s Eastern Shore the following year. George Washington described him as a “military genius” when he recommended Cadwalader for Brigadier General for the army and a commander of cavalry for the Continental Army in 1778, which he again declined. Towards the end of the war he retired to Shrewsbury Farm where he continued to eschew elected positions in Kent County. Retired but by no means reclusive, Cadwalader spent much of his final years embroiled in fierce pamphlet wars, the first with Samuel Chase in 1782; the second was later that same year, with Joseph Reed. These spirited attacks over the place of the federal government in the new republic, however, all quickly came to naught: Cadwalader died in the winter of 1786 after a bout with pneumonia and a subsequent illness. He, and his considerable estate, was survived by his second wife, Williamina, daughter of APS Member Phineas Bond. (PI, ANB)