John Cadwalader (general)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
John Cadwalader
Philadelphia Museum of Art
John and Elizabeth Lloyd Cadwalader
and their Daughter Anne
(1772)
by Charles Willson Peale.
BornJanuary 10, 1742
Trenton, New Jersey
DiedFebruary 10, 1786 (aged 44)
OccupationMerchant
Spouses
  • Elizabeth Lloyd
  • Williamina Bond
ChildrenAnne, b: 1771
Elizabeth, b: 1774
Maria, b: 1776
Thomas, b: 1779
Frances, b: 1781
John, b: 1784
Parent(s)Thomas Cadwalader
Hannah Lambert

John Cadwalader (January 10, 1742 – February 10, 1786) was a commander of Pennsylvania troops during the American Revolutionary War and served under George Washington. He was with Washington at Valley Forge.

Early life

John Cadwalader was born in

Lambert Cadwalader
, his brother, were merchants.

In 1768 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[3]

Career

Coat of Arms of John Cadwalader
Plaque commemorating Gen. John Cadwalader

In 1776, Colonel John Cadwalader was elected senior officer of the

Hessian column, having marched from their garrison at Bordentown to Mount Holly where they were engaged in the Battle of Iron Works Hill, were no longer in position to defend Trenton. Washington was successful in his surprise attack on the morning of December 26 against the Hessian garrison in Trenton.[8]

Cadwalader and his column did cross the river the next day.

Lord Cornwallis
, to surrender the colony to the Americans.

After the Conway Cabal, he fought a duel with Thomas Conway in 1778 in which Cadwalader wounded his opponent with a shot in the mouth. Supposedly Cadawalader, a supporter of Washington throughout the cabal, boasted, "I have stopped that damned rascal's lying anyway" as he stood over the bleeding Conway.[10]

Post-war

Charles Wilson Peale
, circa 1788

In 1779, Cadwalader became a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and returned to his estate on the banks of the Sassafras River at Shrewsbury, Kent County, Maryland. He became a member of the Maryland State Assembly.[11]

Personal life

Gen. John Cadwalader's grave at Shrewsbury Chapel

On September 25, 1768, John Cadwalader married Elizabeth Lloyd (1742–1776), the daughter of Edward Lloyd, of

Edward Lloyd IV, was a delegate to the Continental Congress for Maryland.[12]
Among their children were:

After the death of his first wife, Cadwalader married Williamina Bond (1753–1837) in 1779. She was a daughter of Dr. Phineas Bond, of Philadelphia and niece of Thomas Bond.[11] Together, they were the parents of:

  • Thomas Cadwalader (1779–1841), who became a general of the Pennsylvania militia.
  • Frances Cadwalader (1781–1843), who married the Hon.
    British Ambassador to the United States from 1807 to 1809 before succeeding as the 2nd Baron Erskine
    in 1823.
  • John Cadwalader (b. 1784)

Cadwalader died February 10, 1786, of pneumonia.[11][13] He is buried at Shrewsbury Chapel, Kent County, Maryland.[14] Thomas Paine wrote his epitaph:

His early and inflexible patriotism will endear his memory to all true friends of the American Revolution. It may with strictest justice be said of him, that he possessed a heart incapable of deceiving. His manners were formed on the nicest sense of honor and the whole tenor of his life was governed by this principle. The companions of his youth were the companions of his manhood. He never lost a friend by insincerity nor made one by deception. His domestic virtues were truly exemplary and while they served to endear the remembrances they embitter the loss of him to all his numerous friends and connections.[2]

Descendants

Through his daughter Frances, he was a grandfather of Thomas Americus Erskine, 3rd Baron Erskine (1802–1877), and John Cadwalader Erskine, 4th Baron Erskine (1804–1882), Edward Morris Erskine (1817–1883), and James Stuart Erskine (1821–1904), who was created Graf Erskine by King Ludwig II of Bavaria.[15]

Slaveholding

The Cadwalader family papers at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania detail and contextualize Cadwalader's slaveholding. A personal estate inventory lists each of Cadwalader’s enslaved people by name and age, in total 107 women, children, and men.[16]

Legacy

John and Elizabeth Cadwalader built a city house on 2nd between Spruce & Union (now Delancey) Streets in Philadelphia in 1770, and they commissioned suites of furniture from cabinetmakers such as

Winterthur Museum, and other collections. A Cadwalader easy (wing) chair with hairy-paw feet by Affleck sold at Sotheby's New York for $2.75 million on January 31, 1987, setting a world record for the highest price ever paid for any piece of furniture at auction.[18]

Family tree

Notes

  1. ^ Historical Society of Pennsylvania
  2. ^ a b Kent, p. 15
  3. ^ Bell, Whitfield J., and Charles Greifenstein, Jr. Patriot-Improvers: Biographical Sketches of Members of the American Philosophical Society. 3 vols. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1997, 2:261–269.
  4. ^ Fischer, pp. 25-27
  5. ^ Fischer, pp. 191, 213
  6. ^ Fischer, p. 213: A detailed map of the battle plan.
  7. ^ Fischer, pp. 212-215
  8. ^ Fischer, pp. 229, 242
  9. ^ Fischer, p. 265
  10. .
  11. ^ a b c Jordan
  12. ^ Weeks, p. 68
  13. ^ Rodgers
  14. ^ Cadwalader Family Papers, Collection 1454, 2007, p. 3
  15. . Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  16. ^ "John Cadwalader Appendix · Slave Ownership".
  17. ^ Nicholas B. Wainwright,
  18. ^ Lita Solis-Cohen, "Phila.-made chair sold for record $2.75 million," The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 1987.

References

External links