Dates

• Existence: December 24, 1745 - September 9, 1806

Biography

William Paterson was born in Antrim in Northern Ireland on December 24, 1745. His father, Richard Paterson, brought the family to British America two years later, landing in Delaware. By 1750, the elder Paterson, a traveling peddler of household goods, was able to purchase a general store in Princeton, which was along the main road from New York to Philadelphia and across from Nassau Hall, which became the site of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1756.



Paterson entered the College of New Jersey in 1759 at age 14, where he studied the classics, history, political theory, and moral philosophy. Following his graduation in 1763, Paterson began the study of law in the office of Richard Stockton, a local attorney. In 1768 he was admitted to the bar and opened a law practice at New Bromley in Hunterdon County and later at Raritan in Somerset County.



After the death of his wife, Cornelia Bell Paterson in 1783, William Paterson remarried to Euphemia White in 1784. Elected to serve in the first Senate of the United States, Paterson worked with the group which wrote the Judiciary Act of 1789 which established a federal judiciary. Paterson was elected governor in 1790, winning the first of three consecutive one-year terms. During this time he oversaw the codification and revision of the state's entire legal system. Paterson died on September 9, 1806 at age 61.



Sources: Derived from the Biographical Notes for the Andrew Bell Collection at The New Jersey Historical Society in Newark, New Jersey and the Biographical Notes for William Paterson from William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey.

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