Jonathan Bayard Smith (99)

Jonathan Bayard Smith (21 February 1742–16 June 1812) was a merchant and politician, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born in Philadelphia, he graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1760 before starting a mercantile business. An active participant in the protests against imperial taxation during the lead-up to the American Revolution, he attended the Provincial Conference of 1774 and served as secretary of both the Provincial Convention of 1775 and the Provincial Congress of 1776. He also served on the Committee of Safety and the Council of Safety. Smith was elected to the Continental Congress in 1777 but resigned later in the year to assist with the defense of Philadelphia as British troops approached the city. He led a battalion of associators as a captain, colonel, and lieutenant-colonel in succession and saw combat in the Brandywine campaign. He was then re-elected to Congress for the 1778 session. That year he also served on the Board of War and helped to arrange for publication of the journals of Congress. Thereafter, he was named prothonotary and then justice of the Philadelphia court of common pleas. He also held the offices of alderman of Philadelphia in 1792 and auditor-general of Pennsylvania under Governor (and APS member) Thomas Mifflin. In addition to being an active APS member, Smith was a trustee of the University of the State of Pennsylvania and the College of New Jersey, a grand master of the Masons of Pennsylvania, and a member of the Sons of Washington and the Society of the Sons of St. Tammany. He contributed to the Pennsylvania Hospital and the Library Company of Philadelphia. He was known for his careful record-keeping but never wrote a proposed history of Pennsylvania. (PI, DAB)