PAGE History of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike. The First Long BOUND VOLUMES OF THE MAGAZINE. Copies of all the volumes of this MAGAZINE can be obtained at the Hall of The Historical Society, bound by Hyman Zucker, in the very best manner, in the style known as Roxburgh, half cloth, uncut edges, gilt top, for $3.75 each and the postage. They will be furnished to sub- scribers in exchange for unbound numbers, in good condition, on the CONTENTS OF VOLUME XLIII. Selections from the Correspondence of Col. Clement Biddle..53, 143, 193 Letter of Major Gen. Nathanael Greene to Dr. John Morgan, 1779. Inscriptions on the Tombstones of Americans buried in Père La Chaise Cemetery, Paris, France. By J. Rutgers LeRoy Extracts from an Old Account Book. By R. Ball Dodson. Some Delaware Genealogical Records. By Rev. C. H. B. Turner ... 273 Among the Sons of Delaware who were most noted for patriotism during the Revolutionary struggle, Cæsar Rodney and his brother Thomas stand in the front rank. Cæsar is so well known as one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence that no further mention of him is needed for the purposes of this paper. Thomas, his younger brother, was born in Sussex County, Delaware, on June 4, 1744. He received as good an education as could be had at that time in a small country town, and then prepared himself to enter the legal profession. He was a member of the Council of Safety of Delaware in 1775. On August 15, 1777, he was appointed clerk of the Supreme Court of Delaware. He was Colonel of the Militia of his native State during part of the Revolutionary War, and rendered valuable service. In 1778 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Kent County Court. He was one of Delaware's representatives in the Continental Congress from 1781 to 1783, and from 1785 to 1787; residing in Philadelphia VOL. XLIII.—1 1 during part of this time. In 1787, he was Speaker of the Assembly of Delaware. His son, Cæsar Augustus afterwards U. S. Senator from Delaware and Attorney-General of the U. S. in President Jefferson's cabinet-spent several years of his boyhood in Philadelphia as a member of the family of Rev. Dr. Samuel Magaw, a noted clergyman and teacher of that city, to whose care his education had been entrusted. On June 13, 1791, being unable to discharge certain debts due by him, he was arrested on a writ of Capias ad Satisfaciendum, and confined in the prison at Dover until August 30, 1792. Imprisonment for this cause meant nothing more than that the debtor was not allowed to leave the place of confinement: in other respects he enjoyed personal freedom. Rodney's friends visited him constantly; and he spent the greater part of his time in writing letters, papers on scientific and other subjects, and poetry. For the latter diversion he seems to have had a great fondness. In the year 1803 he received an appointment as U. S. Judge for the Mississippi Territory; an office that he held up to the time of his death on January 2, 1811, enjoying great popularity with the residents of this newly settled country. The town of Rodney was named in his honor. The contents of the letters which are transcribed either in whole or in part in this paper are very diversified. Most of them were written to his son Cæsar who, for many years, was thus regularly informed of the occurrences in which his father was an actor. They give us interesting details of his journey, by stage and boat, to what was then regarded as the far west; and a fund of information about life in the Mississippi Territory, the chief political events occurring there, and the men who were most prominent in them. |