American jurist, born in Philadelphia on the 16th of February 1729. He studied law in Philadelphia, and in the Middle Temple, London; was appointed judge of the Vice-Admiralty in 1752; prothonotary of the supreme court of the province in 1762; member of the provincial council in 1770. During the American Revolution he sympathized with the British, and consequently was put under parole not to aid them. In 1784 he was appointed president judge of the court of common pleas; in 1791 associate justice of the supreme court; chief justice of Pennsylvania (1799). He was a trustee of Pennsylvania University from 1791 until his death, in Philadelphia, on the 16th of April 1806.
