Gunning Bedford, Senior (1742-1797), a lawyer of New Castle Hundred, served in the House of Assembly in 1784, 1785 and 1786. In 1775 he was a Major in the Continental Army and in 1776 he became a Lieutenant-Colonel in Colonel John Haslet’s Regiment. In 1777 he served as the prothonotary of New Castle County. From 1784 to 1786 he was a member of the Continental Congress. He served as a member of the Delaware convention that ratified the constitution in 1787. In 1796 he was elected Governor of the state. His property for taxing purposes was assessed at £60. He is buried in the Immanuel Episcopal Churchyard in New Castle. Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1961 [Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1961), 534; Emerson Wilson, Forgotten Heroes of Delaware [Cambridge, Mass.: Deltos Publishing Company, 1969], 30-31; J. Thomas Scharf, History of Delaware, 1609-1888 [Philadelphia: L. J. Richards and Company, 1888], 1: 207, 236, 237, 238, 269; 2: 852]; J. M. Runk, ed., Biographical and Genealogical History of the State of Delaware [Chambersburg, Pa.: J.M. Runk and Company, 1899], 1: 114, 115.)

Gunning Bedford, Jr. (1747-1812), a lawyer of Christiana Hundred, was a member of the Delaware Convention that ratified the Constitution in 1787. To distinguish him from his cousin of the same name who was also active in politics, he was called “Jr.” A graduate of Princeton, class of 1771, he served in the Continental Congress from 1783 to 1785. He was the state’s Attorney-General from 1784 to 1789. He was chosen to be one of the delegates from Delaware to the Annapolis Convention in 1786, but did not attend. He served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and as a member of the Delaware convention that ratified the federal constitution in 1787. President George Washington selected him to become the first judge of the United States District Court of Delaware in 1789. In 1789 and 1793 he served as a presidential elector on the Federalist ticket. The value of his estate was $16,371. His body was first interred in the churchyard of the First Presbyterian Church of Wilmington and later reinterred at the Masonic Home near Wilmington. (Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1961, 534; Scharf, History of Delaware, 1: 525, 534, 554, 555; 2: 882, 902, 903; Runk, History of the State of Delaware, 1: 114, 115; NCC Probate Records, DSA.)

Dr. Nicholas Way (c. 1750-1797) of Christiana Hundred was a member of the Delaware convention that ratified the federal constitution in 1787. He was a graduate in medicine of the University of Pennsylvania in 1771. He was a Quaker and did not serve in the army. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 he entertained 100 residents of Philadelphia in his mansion at the corner of Third and Shipley Streets in Wilmington. He helped organize the Delaware Medical Society. In 1792, his property was assessed at £40. In 1795 through friendship with President Washington, he became President of the U.S. Mint. He died of yellow fever in Philadelphia. (Scharf, History of Delaware, 1: 471, 479, 480, 505; 2: 651; Wilson, Forgotten Heroes of Delaware, 99.)

Colonel Thomas Duff (d. 1807) of Mill Creek and Christiana Hundreds was a member of the House of Assembly in 1779, 1780, 1781,1782, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1789 and 1790. He served two terms as sheriff of New Castle County in the 1760’s. In 1776, he was a major in the militia and served on the Council of Safety. He led three companies of militia to New Jersey to assist General Washington in the fall of 1776. Colonel Duff and his troops participated in fighting at Princeton and in several skirmishes. He became a Speaker of the House of Assembly in 1784 and was a member of the convention that ratified the constitution in 1787. His property in Christiana Hundred was assessed at £30 in 1785. He was a member of St. James Episcopal Church in Newport. (Scharf, History of Delaware, 1: 141, 222, 250, 421; 2: 896; Wilson, Forgotten Heroes of Delaware, 38.)

Solomon Maxwell (d. 1795) of White Clay Creek Hundred was a member of the House of Assembly in 1791. In 1787 he was a member of the Delaware convention that ratified the federal constitution. A wealthy merchant of Christiana Bridge, he was Receiver of Supplies for New Castle County in 1781, gathering grain, flour and provisions for the Delaware Regiment. The inventory of his possessions totaled £1450, and his property was valued at £6,869. In 1791 his poundage rate amounted to £20 in White Clay Creek Hundred. (Scharf, History of Delaware, 2: 852, 853, 933, 941; NCC Probate Records; NCC Levy Court Assessment List, 1791, DSA; Governor’s Register, 1: 27.)

Kensey Johns, Sr., an attorney of New Castle Hundred, was a member of the House of Assembly in 1789 and 1790, of the Delaware convention that ratified the Constitution in 1787 and of the state Constitutional convention of 1791. He was President of the branch of the Farmers Bank in New Castle. He was a director of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company and the New Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike Company and also served as a trustee of the Commons in the town of New Castle. In 1794 he succeeded George Read as U. S. Senator. He became a judge in the Court of Common Pleas in 1796, Chief Justice in 1798 and Chancellor in 1830. In 1792 his property was assessed at £26 in New Castle Hundred and at £40 in St. George’s Hundred. (Scharf, History of Delaware, 1: 423, 549;)

Thomas Wattson (d 1795). Of Pencader Hundred was a member of the Delaware convention that ratified the federal constitution in 1787. A prosperous farmer, he owned property assessed at £16 in 1791. The inventory of his possessions totaled £534 and included eight slaves. In 1786 he was a justice of the peace. He served as a captain of a company in the Whig battalion in 1777. (Scharf, History of Delaware, 2: 742, 885; NCC Probate Records; NCC Levy Court Assessment List, 1786, DSA; Delaware Military Archives, 2: 1081.)

James Black (d. 1794) of Mill Creek Hundred served in the House of Assembly in 1777 and was a member of the Delaware convention that ratified the Constitution in 1787. He was a Captain of the Whig battalion in 1777. He served as a justice of the peace in 1778 and on the Privy Council in 1785. His property was assessed at £37 in 1778 and at £115 in 1786. In his will he bequeathed to his wife £200 per year, and to his son a grist mill and an adjacent farm. Another plantation, in Maryland, was bequeathed to his five daughters. The inventory of his personal possessions totaled £1,846. His total assets amounted to £13,390, including bank stock. He left a bequest to the White Clay Presbyterian Church. (Delaware Military Archives, II, 1081, 1195; Scharf, History of Delaware, 1: 262; NCC Levy Court Assessment List, 1778, 1786; NCC Probate Records, DSA.)