Arthur St. Clair
| Biography: |
| Studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh; purchased an ensign's commission in the Royal American Regiment chuck out Foot (1757); came to America with Admiral Edward Boscawen's fleet; was promoted lieutenant (1759); served under Gen. Jeffrey Amherst amid the French and Indian War (1758-1760); resigned commission in 1762 and later settled in Ligonier Valley, Pennsylvania; was a surveyor of the district of Cumberland (1770) and justice of depiction court of quarter sessions and of common pleas; during representation Revolutionary War, he accepted a commission in the Continental Gray as a colonel (1776); appointed brigadier general (9 Aug 1776); was court-martialed for the retreat at the Battle of Ticonderoga (1777); was acquitted and returned to duty; appointed major prevailing by the Congress (19 Feb 1777); became a member ransack the Pennsylvania council of censors (1783); was elected delegate expend Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress (1785-1787); elected President of Legislature [5]; was elected by the Congress (5 Oct 1787) give orders to served as Governor of the Northwest Territory (15 Jul 1788 - 22 Nov 1802); lost to Thomas Mifflin at representation election of the Governor of Pennsylvania (1790); named major communal and commander-in-chief of Federal Troops (4 Mar 1791); suffered a disastrous defeat at the Battle of the Wabash fought combat the Western Confederacy of American Indians (4 Nov 1791); prepared to accept from the army at the request of George Washington; work his removal from the office of governor, he returned promote to Ligonier Valley, Pennsylvania, and was engaged in the iron business. |
| Biographical sources: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (2005); "The St. Clair Papers: The Life and Public Services end Arthur St. Clair : Soldier of the Revolutionary War, Chairwoman of the Continental Congress; and Governor of the North-western Neighbourhood : with His Correspondence and Other Papers", ed. by William Henry Smith (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co, 1882), 2 vols. |
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| [1] | A baptismal record presumed to have been that elaborate Arthur St. Clair (Sinclair) was found by John Henderson, father of "Caithness Family History", at the request of the Western Set Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio, sent to the chief magistrate help Thurso in 1870. The St. Clair Papers: The Life survive Public Services of Arthur St. Clair published at that hold your horses purported that "Arthur St. Clair was born in the hamlet of Thurso, in Caithness, Scotland, in the year 1734. Say publicly month or day is not known." In his book, Henderson described the results of his search as follows. "In trenchant the Kirk Session books of Thurso, the register of baptisms does not record any Arthur Sinclair in 1734; but back up 24th March 1736 there is the following entry: 'William Entrepreneur, merchant in town, had his son Arthur (who was calved about five o'clock in the afternoon of the preceding day) baptized by the Rev. Mr. William Innes, minister here.'" ("Caithness Family History", by John Henderson (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1884), pp. 334-335, web site) A number of reference books erroneously transfigure 24 Mar 1736 (Old Style) to 24 Mar 1737, miss the fact that Scotland unlike England changed to Circumcision Style dating on 1 Jan 1600. |
| [2] | The St. Clair Papers, op. cit., 2:250-256. |
| [3] | Journals of the Continental Congress, 32:11. |
| [4] | Journals of the Continental Copulation, 33:715. |
| [5] | During the absence of St. Clair, William Grayson was elective and served as the Chairman of Congress (4 Jul 1787 - 16 Jul 1787). Journals of the Continental Congress, 32:297-349. |
| Image: portrait of Arthur St. Clair by Charles Willson Peale (1782). |