William Findley

William Findley
Personal details
Born	1741 Ireland
Died	April 4, 1821(1821-04-04) (aged 80) Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Political party	Anti-Administration Republican
Profession	politician, farmer

William Findley (c. 1741 – April 4, 1821) was an Irish-born farmer and politician from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. He served in both houses of the state legislature and represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House from 1791 until 1799 and from 1803 to 1817.

Early years

William Findley was born in Ulster, Ireland and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1763. He first settled in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, where he married and started a family. In the American Revolution he served on the Cumberland County Committee of Observation, and enlisted as a private in the local militia, and rose to the rank of captain of the Seventh Company of the Eighth Battalion of Cumberland County Associators. In 1783 he moved his family across the Allegheny Mountains to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

Public life

Upon arrival in Westmoreland County, Findley was almost immediately elected to the Council of Censors. On this Council, which was to decide whether the radical Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 needed revision, he established himself as an effective supporter of what the "best people" considered the radical position in state politics.^{[citation needed]}

In the following years Findley served in the Ninth through Twelfth General Assemblies and on the Supreme Executive Council. He was a major opposition voice in the Pennsylvania convention that ratified the federal Constitution and was a signer of the Minority Dissent. Findley was one of the leaders in the convention that, in 1789, wrote a new Constitution for Pennsylvania. As an Antifederalist, Findley wrote papers under the name of "An Officer of the Late Continental Army".

After serving in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, he was elected to the Second Congress from the district west of the mountains in 1791. William Findley served in the Second through the Fifth congresses. As a voice of reason, in 1794 he helped to calm the passions of the Whiskey Insurrection.

After declining nomination to the Sixth Congress, he was elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate because he allowed his name to be placed on the local ticket to rally western support for Thomas McKean's campaign for Governor.

Elected to the Eighth Congress, he served through the Fourteenth, the turbulent years of the Burr conspiracy, the embargo, and the War of 1812 as a strong supporter of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He was known as "The Venerable Findley," and because he was the senior representative in years of service, he was in 1811 designated "Father of the House" the first man to be awarded that honorary title. He died in his home along the Loyalhanna Creek on April 5, 1821, and is buried in Latrobe's Unity Cemetery.

Writings

• History of the Insurrection in the Four Western Counties of Pennsylvania in the Year M.DCC.XCIV (1794): With a Recital of the Circumstances Specially Connected Therewith, and an Historical Review of the Previous Situation of the Country. Philadelphia: Samuel Smith, 1796.
• Observations on the Two Sons of Oil. Pittsburgh: Engles, 1812.

Further reading

• Caldwell, John. William Findley: A Politician in Pennsylvania, 1783–1791. Gig Harbor, WA: Red Apple Publishing, 2000.
• Eicholz, Hans L. "A Closer Look at 'Modernity:' The Case of William Findley and Trans-Appalachian Political Thought". In W. Thomas Mainwaring, ed., The Whiskey Rebellion and the Trans-Appalachian Frontier. Washington, Pennsylvania: Washington and Jefferson College, 1994, 57–72.
• Ewing, Robert (1919). "Life and Times of William Findley". Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine 2: 240–251. 
• Schramm, Callista (1937). "William Findley in Pennsylvania Politics". Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine 20: 31–40. 

External links

• William Findley at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• The Political Graveyard
• Explore Pennsylvania History

Political offices
Preceded by John Proctor	Member, Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, representing Westmoreland County 25 November 1789—20 December 1790	Succeeded by position dissolved
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by At large on a General ticket: Muhlenberg, Clymer, Fitzsimons, Hartley, Scott, Wynkoop, Hiester & Muhlenberg	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's at-large congressional district 1791 - 1795 1791-1793 alongside: Fitzsimons, Hartley, Muhlenberg, Kittera, Hiester, Jacobs & Gregg 1793-1795 alongside: Fitzsimons, Muhlenberg, Kittera, Hartley, Scott, Armstrong, Muhlenberg, Gregg, Hiester, Irvine, Smilie & Montgomery	Succeeded by 1st: John Swanwick 2nd: Frederick Muhlenberg 3rd: Richard Thomas 4th: Samuel Sitgreaves & John Richards 5th: Daniel Hiester 6th: John Andre Hanna 7th: John W. Kittera 8th: Thomas Hartley 9th: Andrew Gregg 10th: David Bard & Samuel Maclay 11th: William Findley 12th: Albert Gallatin
Preceded by At large on a General ticket: Thomas Fitzsimons, Muhlenberg, Kittera, Hartley, Scott, Armstrong, Muhlenberg, Gregg, Hiester, Irvine, Smilie, Findley & Montgomery	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district 1795–1799	Succeeded by John Smilie
Preceded by John Stewart	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district 1803–1813	Succeeded by William Piper
Preceded by Abner Lacock	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district 1813–1817	Succeeded by David Marchand