William Paterson
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40 free William Paterson trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
William Paterson is one of the less famous names on the Constitution, but his fingerprints are all over American government. He spoke for the small states at the 1787 Convention, helped write the law that set up the national court system, governed New Jersey, and spent his last thirteen years as a Supreme Court justice. This quiz collects the fun facts behind that career: where he came from, the plan that carries his state's name, the trials he presided over, the promotion he never got, and the strange way his first nomination to the Court fell apart. A few questions cover his legacy too, including the New Jersey mill town and university named after him and a famous namesake from another century. It suits students writing about the Founding Fathers, New Jersey history fans, and anyone who likes a founder with a good story. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In 1790 William Paterson became the first person ever to resign from which body, to govern New Jersey?
The US Senate
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.
Q 02Which Treasury Secretary championed the New Jersey factory town named for Governor William Paterson?
Alexander Hamilton
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.
Q 03Who urged President Adams to make William Paterson Chief Justice in 1801, then got the job himself?
John Marshall
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.
Q 04William Paterson wrote the New Jersey Plan of 1787 as the small states' answer to which state's rival plan?
Virginia
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.
Q 05In which country was Founding Father William Paterson born, two years before his family sailed to America?
Ireland
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.
Q 06Justice William Paterson never fully recovered from what mishap, suffered while traveling to hold court?
A coach accident
A coach accident on court business left him with injuries that lingered for years. He died in 1806, aged 60, still a sitting justice.
Q 07William Paterson's daughter Cornelia married Stephen Van Rensselaer, widower of which Schuyler sister?
Peggy
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.
Q 08William Paterson entered the College of New Jersey at 14; what is that university called today?
Princeton
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.
Q 09Justice William Paterson presided over treason trials after which 1794 uprising by Pennsylvania farmers?
Whiskey Rebellion
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.
Q 10Which president appointed William Paterson to the Supreme Court in 1793, where he served until his death?
George Washington
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.
Q 11Congressman Matthew Lyon, jailed by Justice William Paterson in 1798, managed what feat from his cell?
Won re-election
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.
Q 12Another William Paterson, a Scottish trader born in 1658, helped found which British institution?
The Bank of England
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.
Q 13William Paterson studied law under Richard Stockton, who later signed which founding document?
Q 21Which state's delegates brokered the 1787 compromise blending William Paterson's plan with its big-state rival?
Connecticut
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.
Q 22Which office did William Paterson hold for the new state of New Jersey from 1776 to 1783?
Attorney general
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.
Q 23In Hylton v. United States (1796), Justice William Paterson voted to uphold a federal tax on which items?
Carriages
The Declaration of Independence
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.
Q 14Under the plan William Paterson offered in 1787, how would voting power in Congress be shared out?
Equal votes per state
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.
Q 15In which city did William Paterson present his small-state plan to fellow delegates in June 1787?
Philadelphia
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.
Q 16Paterson, New Jersey, named for William Paterson, was built to draw power from what natural feature?
A waterfall
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.
Q 17William Paterson University opened in 1855 as a New Jersey school training people for which profession?
Teachers
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.
Q 18William Paterson's 1787 plan aimed to amend, rather than replace, which existing American charter?
The Articles of Confederation
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.
Q 19William Paterson's remains lie in a cemetery at Menands, New York, that also holds which American president?
Chester Arthur
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.
Q 20Founding Father William Paterson, born in 1745, had a birthday that fell on which festive date?
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve 1745 was the day he was born. He died in September 1806, a few months short of his 61st birthday.
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.
Q 24William Paterson died in 1806 at his daughter's manor house in which city on the Hudson River?
Albany
Albany was home to the Van Rensselaer manor, where his daughter Cornelia lived. He was first laid to rest in the family vault there.
Q 25Paterson, New Jersey, the mill town named for William Paterson, earned which industrial nickname?
Silk City
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.
Q 26Which political party did Justice William Paterson, a strong nationalist, support in the 1790s?
Federalists
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.
Q 27Which cabinet post did Justice William Paterson turn down in 1795, choosing to stay on the Supreme Court?
Secretary of State
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.
Q 28William Paterson left the 1787 Convention in late July and apparently came back only to do what?
Sign the final document
Sign the final document he did, on September 17, 1787. He then backed the campaign to have New Jersey ratify it.
Q 29William Paterson's 1787 plan for the national government proposed what kind of federal executive?
A panel of several people
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.
Q 30In 1789 William Paterson joined the American Philosophical Society, founded by which fellow Founding Father?
Benjamin Franklin
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.