40 Fun Facts About William Paterson

In 1790 William Paterson became the first person ever to resign from which body, to govern New Jersey?

The US Senate was less than two years old when he walked away from it. His seat still had more than two years to run, but New Jersey had just elected him governor.

Which Treasury Secretary championed the New Jersey factory town named for Governor William Paterson?

Alexander Hamilton pictured a national manufacturing town there, and his society named it for the governor who signed its charter. It grew into one of America's first industrial centers.

Who urged President Adams to make William Paterson Chief Justice in 1801, then got the job himself?

John Marshall suggested the promotion, but Adams turned it down and told Marshall he believed he must nominate him instead. Marshall then led the Court until 1835.

William Paterson wrote the New Jersey Plan of 1787 as the small states' answer to which state's rival plan?

Virginia's plan, drafted by James Madison, tied seats in both houses of Congress to population, which alarmed the smaller states. Paterson's alternative was voted down four days after he presented it.

In which country was Founding Father William Paterson born, two years before his family sailed to America?

Ireland was his birthplace, in County Antrim, and the family came ashore at New Castle, Delaware, in 1747. They moved from place to place before settling in New Jersey.

Justice William Paterson never fully recovered from what mishap, suffered while traveling to hold court?

A coach accident on court business left him with injuries that lingered for years. He died in 1806, aged 60, still a sitting justice.

William Paterson's daughter Cornelia married Stephen Van Rensselaer, widower of which Schuyler sister?

Peggy Schuyler died in 1801, and her widower married Cornelia Paterson the following year. Known as the Good Patroon, he ran his family's manor in upstate New York.

William Paterson entered the College of New Jersey at 14; what is that university called today?

Princeton took its modern name in 1896, long after his time. Paterson earned his bachelor's degree there in 1763 and a master's three years later.

Justice William Paterson presided over treason trials after which 1794 uprising by Pennsylvania farmers?

The Whiskey Rebellion was a revolt against a federal excise tax on spirits. Only two men were convicted of treason and sentenced to hang, and the president pardoned both.

Which president appointed William Paterson to the Supreme Court in 1793, where he served until his death?

George Washington named him to the seat left empty by Thomas Johnson, and the confirmation came the same day. Paterson stayed on the Court for thirteen years.

Congressman Matthew Lyon, jailed by Justice William Paterson in 1798, managed what feat from his cell?

He won re-election from jail, nearly doubling his nearest rival's total. Paterson had given the Vermonter four months and a $1,000 fine for attacking President Adams in print.

Another William Paterson, a Scottish trader born in 1658, helped found which British institution?

The Bank of England, chartered in 1694, grew out of his proposal for a national bank. He also championed the disastrous Darien scheme to plant a Scottish colony in Panama.

William Paterson studied law under Richard Stockton, who later signed which founding document?

The Declaration of Independence carries Stockton's signature, and Loyalists seized him in the night months later and handed him to the British. Paterson joined the bar after training in his office.

Under the plan William Paterson offered in 1787, how would voting power in Congress be shared out?

Equal votes per state, one apiece, was how Congress already worked, and the smaller states wanted to keep it that way. Delegates rejected the plan on June 19, with only three states in favor.

In which city did William Paterson present his small-state plan to fellow delegates in June 1787?

Philadelphia hosted the convention from May to September 1787. Paterson took notes on the debates until late July, and introduced his own plan on June 15.

Paterson, New Jersey, named for William Paterson, was built to draw power from what natural feature?

A waterfall 77 feet high on the Passaic River drove the mills through a system of canals called raceways. The site is now a national historical park.

William Paterson University opened in 1855 as a New Jersey school training people for which profession?

Teachers were all it trained for more than a century, starting out as Paterson City Normal School. It took the Founding Father's full name in 1971.

William Paterson's 1787 plan aimed to amend, rather than replace, which existing American charter?

The Articles of Confederation were the first system of national government the states had agreed on. Paterson reminded delegates they had been sent to revise them, not to set up a new national government.

William Paterson's remains lie in a cemetery at Menands, New York, that also holds which American president?

Chester Arthur, the 21st president, was buried there in 1886. Paterson first lay in his son-in-law's family vault and was moved after the land changed hands.

Founding Father William Paterson, born in 1745, had a birthday that fell on which festive date?

Christmas Eve 1745 was the day he was born. He died in September 1806, a few months short of his 61st birthday.

Which state's delegates brokered the 1787 compromise blending William Paterson's plan with its big-state rival?

Connecticut's Roger Sherman steered the deal through, which is why it is still called the Connecticut Compromise. Delegates approved it on July 16, 1787.

Which office did William Paterson hold for the new state of New Jersey from 1776 to 1783?

Attorney general was his post for seven years, and he was the first to hold it for the independent state. He had already recorded the state's 1776 constitution as secretary of the Provincial Congress.

In Hylton v. United States (1796), Justice William Paterson voted to uphold a federal tax on which items?

Carriages could be taxed, the Court ruled, because the levy was indirect and need not be divided among the states by population. It was the first case to test an act of Congress against the Constitution.

William Paterson died in 1806 at his daughter's manor house in which city on the Hudson River?

Albany was home to the Van Rensselaer manor, where his daughter Cornelia lived. He was first laid to rest in the family vault there.

Paterson, New Jersey, the mill town named for William Paterson, earned which industrial nickname?

Silk City was the name it earned in the late 1800s, when silk weaving became its leading industry. Its mill workers staged the Paterson silk strike of 1913.

Which political party did Justice William Paterson, a strong nationalist, support in the 1790s?

Federalists backed a strong central government. On the bench Paterson enforced the party's Sedition Act, jailing a Vermont congressman for attacking President Adams in print.

Which cabinet post did Justice William Paterson turn down in 1795, choosing to stay on the Supreme Court?

Secretary of State was the post Timothy Pickering finally accepted later in 1795. Paterson stayed a judge instead and sat on the Court until he died.

William Paterson left the 1787 Convention in late July and apparently came back only to do what?

Sign the final document he did, on September 17, 1787. He then backed the campaign to have New Jersey ratify it.

William Paterson's 1787 plan for the national government proposed what kind of federal executive?

A panel of several people, chosen by Congress, would have run the government for a single term. State governors could have asked Congress to remove them.

In 1789 William Paterson joined the American Philosophical Society, founded by which fellow Founding Father?

Benjamin Franklin started the society in 1743 as an offshoot of his earlier club, the Junto. Paterson became a member in the year the first Congress met.

William Paterson's father Richard prospered in New Jersey making and selling goods in which metal?

Tin made the family's fortune: Richard Paterson is thought to have peddled tinware around the colonies before settling down to make and sell it. The profits paid for his son's schooling.

William Paterson shaped the Judiciary Act of 1789 alongside its chief author, which future Chief Justice?

Oliver Ellsworth was the bill's main author, and the first nine sections survive in Paterson's handwriting. The two had founded a student club together at college in the 1760s.

Why did the president withdraw William Paterson's first Supreme Court nomination in 1793 after a single day?

His unexpired legislative term was the snag: the Constitution bars lawmakers from taking posts created during their term, and his ran through March 3, 1793. The president simply renominated him on March 4.

William Paterson, his health failing, set out on a final journey in 1806 hoping to reach what?

A healing mineral spa made Ballston famous, and he hoped its waters would restore him. He got no farther than his daughter's home, where he died that September.

A week after Marbury v. Madison in 1803, Justice William Paterson wrote the ruling that let Congress do what?

Abolish lower federal courts is what Congress had just done, wiping out judgeships created in 1801. Paterson's opinion for a unanimous Court averted a showdown between the branches.

William Paterson's heavy workload in New Jersey made him refuse a seat in which national body in 1780?

The Continental Congress had to do without him because his state post filled his days. He stayed out of national office until the 1787 Convention.

Like every early Supreme Court justice, William Paterson spent months each year on which grueling duty?

Riding circuit meant months on the road to sit in far-flung trial courts, with justices left to find their own lodging. Congress finally ended the practice with a law passed in 1911.

William Paterson University, named for the New Jersey statesman, has its main campus in which township?

Wayne has been its home since 1951, when the college left the city where it was founded. Small corners of the campus spill into the neighboring boroughs of Haledon and North Haledon.

The sports teams of William Paterson University in New Jersey compete in NCAA Division III under which nickname?

Pioneers is the name its teams carry in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. The school itself began life in 1855, in the mill town that shares the Founding Father's name.

After the Revolutionary War, William Paterson practiced law from 1783 in which New Jersey city on the Raritan River?

New Brunswick was his base while he devoted himself to the law and stayed out of public life, until the 1787 Convention pulled him back in.