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Affiliation | Federalist |
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Name | Richard Bassett |
Address | , Delaware , United States |
Email | None |
Website | None |
Born |
April 02, 1745
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Died | August 15, 1815
(70 years)
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Contributor | Thomas Walker |
Last Modifed | Caprice May 15, 2018 01:01pm |
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Info | Born in New Castle County, Bassett, along with the rest of his family, was abandoned by his father, a tavener, shortly after Richard's birth. He was adopted and educated by Peter Lawson, heir to Bohemia Manor, a large estate in Delaware and Maryland. Upon Lawson's death, Bassett inherited the manor house and six thousand acres of land. After studying law with Judge Robert Goldsborough of Dorchester County, Maryland, Bassett was admitted to the bar and began to practice law around 1770. He moved to Dover, Kent County, Delaware, prior to the Revolution. In 1776 he was a member of the Delaware council of safety and a captain of the Dover Light Horse. He was elected to the state constitutional convention in 1776, and he continued military service as a militia captain from 1779 to 1781. Bassett was a member of the Legislative Council, 1776-1780 and 1782-1785, and he sat in the House of Assembly, 1781-1782 and 1786-1787. In 1786 the legislature elected him a delegate to the Annapolis Convention, and in 1787 he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Bassett did not take an active part in the Convention debates on the Constitution, but did sign the document. He was a delegate to the state Convention, which met in December 1787. Bassett drew a four-year Senate term and served from 1789-1793. He was also a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1791-1792. He was appointed chief justice of the state Court of Common Please and served from 1793 to 1799. In 1796 Bassett was a presidential Elector. In 1798 he was elected governor and took office in 1799. He resigned the governorship in 1801 to accept President John Adams's "midnight appointment" as United States circuit court judge for the Third Circuit (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware). He continued as judge of that court until Congress abolished it in 1802.
The First Federal Elections |
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