McKEAN
McKEAN
previous to the year 1752 ; was a representative
from Newcastle county to the general assembly,
1762-69; resided in Philadelphia, 1763-69; and
was one of the trustees of the loan office for New-
castle county, 1764-76. He was a delegate to
the stamp act congress which met in New York
in 1765, where he influenced the according of
one vote to each state ; was a member of the
committee which drew the memorial to the lords
and commons ; with Philip Livingston and Jolin
Rutledge, revised the minutes of the proceedings
and had an extraordinary debate with President
Ruggles, when the latter refused officially to
sign the memorial of rights and grievances. He
was appointed sole notary and tabellion public
for the lower counties on the Delaware, in July,
1765, and later in the year was commissioned
justice of the peace and of the court of quarter
sessions for the county of Newcastle, in which
capacity he issued the order for all officers of tlie
court to continue using unstamped paper. In
1769 he was appointed by the assembly as its
agent to proceed to New York and make copies
of all papers relating to titles of real estate held
in Delaware. He was appointed by the crown,
commissioner of customs, and collector of the
port of Newcastle in 1771 ; was a delegate to
the first Continental congress, and was the only
member of the national council to hold office
continuously from the opening to the closing act.
He conducted the negotiations of the secret com-
mittee which procured arms and munition from
abroad, and when the preliminary vote was taken,
July 2, 1776, and Delaware declared against the
Declaration of Independence, as the state had
three representatives and one was absent, Mc-
Kean sent a messenger at his own expense to
summon the absent member thus carrying the
state in its favor. He was chairman of the con-
vention of deputies held in Carpenter's Hall, Phil-
adelphia, Pa., in June, 1776; and chairman of
the committee of safety of Pennsylvania and of
the committee of inspection for the city of PJiil-
adelphia. He was colonel of a regiment of asso-
ciated militia and proceeded to Perth Amboy,
N.J., to support Washington, where he remained
until the flying camp was recruited wlien he re-
turned home, resumed his seat in congress, and
affixed his name to the parchment copy of the
Declaration of Independence which had been
signed, Aug. 2, 1776, during his absence in camp.
He was a member of the convention that framed
the constitution of the state of Delaware, adopted
Sept. 20, 1776, and drew up the document. He was
chief justice of Pennsylvania. 1776-98, and was
elected president of the state of Delaware in
1776, thus holding public offices in two states at
the same time. He resigned his seat in congress,
Dec. 25, 1780, on account of his inability to per-
form so many duties satisfactorily, but his resig-
nation was not accepted and he continued to
represent his state and on July 10, 1781, he was
elected president of congress, which office he re-
signed, Nov. 1, 1781. He was a member of the
Pennsylvania convention of Dec. 12, 1787, that
ratified the constitution of the United States,
was elected governor of the state of Delaware in
1799, and served till 1808, when he retired from
public life. He was twice married, first in July,
1762, to Mary, daughter of Joseph Borden of
Bordentown, N.J., who died in February, 1-773,
and secondly on Sept. 3, 1774, to Sarah Armitage
of Newcastle, Del. The honorary degree of
LL.D. was conferred on him by the College of
New Jersey in 1781, by Dartmouth in 1782, and by
the University of Pennsylvania, in 1785. He is
the joint author with James Wilson of : Com-
mentaries on the Constitution (1790). He died
in Philadelphia, Pa., June 24, 1817.
McKEAN, Thomas Jefferson, soldier, was born in Burlington, Pa., Aug. 21, 1810. He was graduated from the U.S. Military academy and brevetted 2d lieutenant, 4th infantry, July 1, 1831. He served in garrison in Louisiana, Missis- sippi and Missouri, 1831-34; was promoted 2d lieutenant, Sept. 15, 1833, and resigned. March 31, 1834. He engaged in civil engineering, 1834- 37 ; served in the Florida war, 1837-38, as adju- tant of the 1st Pennsylvania volunteers ; removed to Iowa Territory, where he was a delegate to the constitutional convention in 1846, and at the outbreak of the Mexican war he organized and drilled a company of volunteers, with which he enlisted as a private in 1847, and was sergeant- major in the 15th infantry, 1847-48. He was en- gaged in the battle of Contreras ; was wounded at Churubusco ; served at Molino del Rey ; at the storming of Chapultepec, and in the capture of Mexico. He declined the brevet of 2d lieutenant of the 1st dragoons, June 28, 1848, and was chief engineer of the Dubuque and Keokuk railroad, 1848-51 ; U.S. deputy surveyor and general assist- ant to the surveyor-general of Wisconsin, 1851- 55 ; commissioner to locate the seat of government of Iowa, in 1855 ; and sheriff of Linn county, Iowa, in 1859, where he engaged in farming, 1848-61. He was appointed additional pay- master of U.S. volunteers, June 1, 1861 ; was promoted brigadier-general of U.S. volunteers, Nov. 21, 1861 ; commanded Jefferson City and the central district of Missouri, December. 1861, to March, 1862, and served in the Mississippi cam- paign, April to July, 1862. He commanded Ben- ton barracks at St. Louis, Mo., July to Septem- ber, 1862 ; Corinth, Miss., September to October, 1862, and was engaged in the battle of Corinth, Oct. 3-4, 1862, where he commanded the 6th divi- sion. Army of West Tennessee. He commanded
