Edward Shippen IV

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Edward Shippen (III)
)
Edward Shippen IV
Portrait of Shippen by Gilbert Stuart, 1796, National Gallery of Art
Born(1729-02-16)February 16, 1729
DiedApril 15, 1806(1806-04-15) (aged 77)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
EducationMiddle Temple
Occupations
  • lawyer
  • judge
  • politician
Spouse
Margaret Francis
(m. 1753; died 1794)
Children9, including Peggy
Parent(s)Edward Shippen III
Sarah Plumley
RelativesEdward Shippen (great-grandfather)

Edward Shippen (February 16, 1729 – April 15, 1806)[1] was an American lawyer, judge, government official, and prominent figure in colonial and post-revolutionary Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His fourth daughter, Margaret Shippen, was the second wife of Benedict Arnold.

Early life

Shippen was born in Philadelphia, the son of merchant

Tench Francis, Pennsylvania's attorney general. He married his mentor's daughter Margaret Francis in 1753, with whom he had nine children. In 1748 he went to London to complete his law studies at the Middle Temple, and, after returning to Philadelphia, was admitted to the bar.[3]

Career

Coat of Arms of Edward Shippen
Portrait of Edward Shippen IV, by Robert Feke, 1750.

He was appointed judge of the admiralty court in 1755. Three years later he was elected to the city's common council. In 1762 he was appointed prothonotary of the supreme court, a post retained till the Revolution. He became a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Council in 1770.[3]

Shippen attempted to stay neutral in the American Revolution, hoping that the colonies and the mother country would be reconciled. He did not support the extension of royal authority and was therefore not a Loyalist, but he also opposed the radically democratic Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, which sought to reduce the hold on government by powerful families like the Shippens.[1]

He received in 1790 an honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, of which he was a trustee from 1791 until his death. He was also a member of the American Philosophical Society.[3]

In 1791, he was appointed to the

Pennsylvania Senate in the vote held on January 28, 1805.[3]
[4] The next year the Pennsylvania Senate acquitted him and his associates. Shippen retired to private life and died soon thereafter.[3]

Personal life

On November 29, 1753, Shippen was married to Margaret Francis (1735–1794), a daughter of

Tench Francis and Elizabeth Turbutt, at Christ Church in Philadelphia.[5] Together, they were the parents of nine children:[6]

His wife died at Philadelphia on May 28, 1794. Shippen died in Philadelphia on April 15, 1806, at age 77.[3]

Notes

  1. ^
    American National Biography Online
    , Feb. 2000.
  2. ^ . Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Edward Shippen". archives.upenn.edu. University Archives and Records Center. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  4. ^ Multiple sources:
  5. . Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  6. ^ a b Whitmore, William Henry; Appleton, William Sumner (1867). The Heraldic Journal: Recording the Armorial Bearings and Genealogies of American Families. J.K. Wiggin, Publisher. pp. 15–17. Retrieved 15 April 2022.

References

  • Genealogy at RootsWeb
  • Randolph Shipley Klein, Portrait of an Early American Family: The Shippens of Pennsylvania Across Five Generations. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975.

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
1799–1806
Succeeded by