Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum
   You are in: Museum of History >> Hall of North and South Americans >> Caesar Rodney





The Seven Flags of the New Orleans Tri-Centennial 1718-2018

For more information go to New Orleans 300th Birthday

 

Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889 and 1999. Virtualology.com warns that these 19th Century biographies contain errors and bias. We rely on volunteers to edit the historic biographies on a continual basis. If you would like to edit this biography please submit a rewritten biography in text form . If acceptable, the new biography will be published above the 19th Century Appleton's Cyclopedia Biography citing the volunteer editor




Virtual American Biographies

Over 30,000 personalities with thousands of 19th Century illustrations, signatures, and exceptional life stories. Virtualology.com welcomes editing and additions to the biographies. To become this site's editor or a contributor Click Here or e-mail Virtualology here.



A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 





Click on an image to view full-sized

Caesar Rodney

RODNEY, Caesar, signer of the Declaration of Independence, born in Dover, Delaware, 7 October, 1728; died there, 29 June, 1784. An oil family manuscript says: "It hath been a constant tradition that we came into England with Maud, the empress, from foreign parts; and that for service done by Rodney, in her wars against King Stephen, the usurper, she gave them land within this kingdom." A painted monument in the village of Rodney-Stoke, Somerset County, bears the arms of this family. His grandfather, William Rodney (1652-1708), came from Bristol, England, to Philadelphia soon after William Penn had settled Pennsylvania, located at Lewes on the Delaware, where in 1689 he was elected sheriff of Sussex county, and removed to Dover, Kent County, Delaware, where he held local offices. In 1698-'9 he was a member of the assembly and again in 1700-'4, serving as speaker in the last year, when he was made justice of the peace. In 1698-'9 he was a member of William Penn's council, and in 1707 was appointed justice of New Castle. Caesar inherited a large estate from his father, Caesar (1707-'45). In 1755-'8 he was high sheriff of Kent county, and at the expiration of his term he was made a justice of the peace and judge of all the lower courts In 1756 he was a captain in the county militia. In 1759 he was a superintendent for the printing of £27,000 of Delaware currency, and commissioner for the support of a company raised for the French and Indian war. In 1762-'3 he represented Kent county in the assembly, was recorder in 1764, and justice of the peace in 1764-'6. In 1765 he was sent as a delegate to the stamp act congress at New York, and on the repeal of that act he was one of three commissioners that were appointed by the legislature of Delaware to frame an address of thanks to the king. In 1766 he was made register of bills, and in 1767, when the tea-act was proposed by the British parliament, the Delaware assembly appointed him, with Thomas McKean and George Read, to formulate a second address to tile king, in which armed resistance to tyranny was foreshadowed. In 1769 he was superintendent of the loan office, and from 1769 till 1773 was an associate justice. In 1770 he was clerk of the peace, and in 1770-'4 Dedimus potestatimus. In 1772 he was a commissioner to erect the statehouse and other public buildings in Dover. A bill having been introduced into the colonial assembly for the better regulation of slaves, Mr. Rodney warmly supported a motion that the bill be so amended as to prohibit the importation of slaves into the province. The amendment was negatived by only two votes. When fresh aggressions of the British ministry disappointed the expectations of the colonists, Mr. Rodney and his former colleagues were assigned the task of presenting the complaints of the freemen of Delaware to the sovereign. These pacific measures failing to secure a redress of grievances, the colonies entered into a correspondence regarding their common defence. Mr. Rodney became chairman of the committee of safety of Delaware, and in 1774, meetings of the people having been held at New Castle and Dover to demand the assembling of a convention, he issued a call as speaker of the assembly for the representatives of the people to meet at New Castle on 1 August He was chosen chairman of the convention, and was elected a delegate to the Continental congress, in which he was a member of the general committee to make a statement of the rights and grievances of the colonists. In March, 1775, he was again elected to congress after the assembly, by a unanimous vote, had approved of his action, and that of his colleagues, at the 1st congress. In May he was appointed a colonel, and in September he became brigadier-general, of Delaware militia. In 1776 he was alternately in his seat in congress, and at work in Delaware, stimulating the patriots and repressing the royalists. When the question of independence was introduced in congress, Mr. Rodney, having obtained leave of absence, went through the southern part of Delaware preparing the people for a change of government. His colleagues, Thomas McKean and George Read, were divided on the question, and the former, knowing Rodney to be favorable to the declaration, urged him by special message to hasten his return. He did so, and by great exertion arrived just in season for the final discussion. His affirmative vote secured the consent of the Delaware delegation to the measure, and thus effected that unanimity among the colonies that was so essential to the cause of independence. The opposition of the royalists, who abounded in the lower counties, prevented his election the succeeding year; but as a member of the councils of safety and inspection he displayed great activity in collecting supplies for the troops of the state that were then with Washington in Morristown, New Jersey He went to Trenton, where Lord Stirling made him post commandant, and then to Morristown, but, by Washington's permission, he returned home in February, 1777. He refused the appointment as a judge of the supreme court, organized in February, 1777, and on 5 June, 1777, was chosen judge of admiralty, but retained his military office, suppressed an insurrection against the government in Sussex county, and when, in August, the British advanced into Delaware, he collected troops, and, by direction of General Washington, placed himself south of the main army to watch the movements of the British at the head of Elk river, Maryland, and, if possible, to cut them off from their fleet. During this period he was in correspondence with Gem Washington, with whom he had long been on terms of friendly intimacy. In September he became major-general of militia, and in December tie was again elected to congress ; but he did not take his seat, as in the mean time he had been elected president of Delaware, which office he held for four years, till January, 1782, when he declined re-election. He was then chosen to congress, and again in 1783, but did not take his seat. He had been suffering for many years from a cancer on the face, which ultimately caused his death. As a public man he displayed great integrity and elevation of character, and, though a firm Whig, never failed in the duties of humanity toward those that suffered for adhering to opinions that differed from his own.==His brother, Thomas, jurist, born in Sussex county, Delaware, 4 June, 1744 ; died in Rodney, Mississippi, 2 January, 1811, was a justice of the peace in 1770 and again in 1784, a member of the assembly in 1774 to elect delegates to the first Constitutional congress, and in 1775 a member of the council of safety. He was colonel of the Delaware militia and rendered important services to the Continental army during the Revolutionary war. In 1778 he was chief justice of Kent county court, in 1779 register of bills, and was a delegate from Delaware to the Continental congress in 1781-'3 and in 1785-'7. In 1787 he was made speaker of the assembly, and in 1802 was appointed superintendent of the Kent county almshouse and Dedimus potestatimus. He was appointed in 1803 United States judge for the territory of Mississippi, and became a land-owner in Jefferson county, where the town of Rodney was named in his honor.--Thomas's son, Caesar Augustus, statesman, born in Dover, Delaware, 4 January, 1772; died in Buenos Ayres, South America, 10 June, 1824, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1789, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1793, and practised at Wilmington, Delaware He was elected to congress from Delaware as a Democrat, serving from 17 October, 1803, till 3 March, 1805, was a member of the committee of ways and means, and one of the managers in the impeachment of Judge Samuel Chase. In 1807 he was appointed by President Jefferson attorney-general of the United States, which place he resigned in 1811. During the war with Great Britain in 1812 he commanded a rifle corps in Wilmington which was afterward changed to a light artillery company. which did good service on the frontiers of Canada, In 1813 he was a member of the Delaware committee of safety. He was defeated for congress and in 1815 was state senator from New Castle county. In 1817 he was sent to South America by President Monroe as one of the commissioners to investigate and report upon the propriety of recognizing the independence of the Spanish-American republics, which course he strongly advocated on his return to Washington. In 1820 he was re-elected to congress, and in 1822 he became a member of the United States senate, being the first Democrat that had a seat in that body from Delaware. He served till 27 January, 1823, when he was appointed minister to the United provinces of La Plata. With John Graham he published "Reports on the Present State of the United Provinces of South America" (London, 1819).

Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM

Start your search on Caesar Rodney.


 

 


 


Unauthorized Site: This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected, associated with or authorized by the individual, family, friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated sites that are related to this subject will be hyper linked below upon submission and Evisum, Inc. review.

Copyright© 2000 by Evisum Inc.TM. All rights reserved.
Evisum Inc.TM Privacy Policy

Search:

About Us

 

 

Image Use

Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of America by July 2, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday. , the United States of America: We The People Click Here

 

Historic Documents

Articles of Association

Articles of Confederation 1775

Articles of Confederation

Article the First

Coin Act

Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence

Emancipation Proclamation

Gettysburg Address

Monroe Doctrine

Northwest Ordinance

No Taxation Without Representation

Thanksgiving Proclamations

Mayflower Compact

Treaty of Paris 1763

Treaty of Paris 1783

Treaty of Versailles

United Nations Charter

United States In Congress Assembled

US Bill of Rights

United States Constitution

US Continental Congress

US Constitution of 1777

US Constitution of 1787

Virginia Declaration of Rights

 

Historic Events

Battle of New Orleans

Battle of Yorktown

Cabinet Room

Civil Rights Movement

Federalist Papers

Fort Duquesne

Fort Necessity

Fort Pitt

French and Indian War

Jumonville Glen

Manhattan Project

Stamp Act Congress

Underground Railroad

US Hospitality

US Presidency

Vietnam War

War of 1812

West Virginia Statehood

Woman Suffrage

World War I

World War II

 

Is it Real?



Declaration of
Independence

Digital Authentication
Click Here

 

America’s Four Republics
The More or Less United States

 
Continental Congress
U.C. Presidents

Peyton Randolph

Henry Middleton

Peyton Randolph

John Hancock

  

Continental Congress
U.S. Presidents

John Hancock

Henry Laurens

John Jay

Samuel Huntington

  

Constitution of 1777
U.S. Presidents

Samuel Huntington

Samuel Johnston
Elected but declined the office

Thomas McKean

John Hanson

Elias Boudinot

Thomas Mifflin

Richard Henry Lee

John Hancock
[
Chairman David Ramsay]

Nathaniel Gorham

Arthur St. Clair

Cyrus Griffin

  

Constitution of 1787
U.S. Presidents

George Washington 

John Adams
Federalist Party


Thomas Jefferson
Republican* Party

James Madison 
Republican* Party

James Monroe
Republican* Party

John Quincy Adams
Republican* Party
Whig Party

Andrew Jackson
Republican* Party
Democratic Party


Martin Van Buren
Democratic Party

William H. Harrison
Whig Party

John Tyler
Whig Party

James K. Polk
Democratic Party

David Atchison**
Democratic Party

Zachary Taylor
Whig Party

Millard Fillmore
Whig Party

Franklin Pierce
Democratic Party

James Buchanan
Democratic Party


Abraham Lincoln 
Republican Party

Jefferson Davis***
Democratic Party

Andrew Johnson
Republican Party

Ulysses S. Grant 
Republican Party

Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican Party

James A. Garfield
Republican Party

Chester Arthur 
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland
Democratic Party

Benjamin Harrison
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland 
Democratic Party

William McKinley
Republican Party

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican Party

William H. Taft 
Republican Party

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic Party

Warren G. Harding 
Republican Party

Calvin Coolidge
Republican Party

Herbert C. Hoover
Republican Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic Party

Harry S. Truman
Democratic Party

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican Party

John F. Kennedy
Democratic Party

Lyndon B. Johnson 
Democratic Party 

Richard M. Nixon 
Republican Party

Gerald R. Ford 
Republican Party

James Earl Carter, Jr. 
Democratic Party

Ronald Wilson Reagan 
Republican Party

George H. W. Bush
Republican Party 

William Jefferson Clinton
Democratic Party

George W. Bush 
Republican Party

Barack H. Obama
Democratic Party

Please Visit

Forgotten Founders
Norwich, CT

Annapolis Continental
Congress Society


U.S. Presidency
& Hospitality

© Stan Klos

 

 

 

 


Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum