Sergeant, John, 1779-1852

Pennsylvania congressman.

Congressman from Pennsylvania; gave important legal and political counsel to the Second Bank of the U.S.

Lawyer, public official, and U.S. representative from Pennyslvania.

Member of Congress and President of Pennsylvania Board of Canal Commissioners.

SERGEANT, John, (son of Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, grandfather of John Sergeant Wise and Richard Alsop Wise, and great-grandfather of John Crain Kunkel), a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Philadelphia, Pa., December 5, 1779; attended the common schools and the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia; was graduated from Princeton College in 1795; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1799 and practiced in Philadelphia for fifty years; deputy attorney general for Philadelphia in 1800; commissioner of bankruptcy for Pennsylvania in 1801; member of the state house of representatives 1808-1810; elected as a Federalist to the Fourteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Jonathan Williams; reelected to the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Congresses and served from October 10, 1815, to March 3, 1823; chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Congresses); was not a candidate for reelection; president of the Pennsylvania Board of Canal Commissioners in 1825; envoy to the Panama Congress in 1826; elected as an Adams candidate to the Twentieth Congress (March 4, 1827-March 3, 1829); unsuccessful candidate for reelection; unsuccessful National-Republican candidate for election as Vice President of the United States in 1832; president of the state constitutional convention in 1838; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Congresses and served from March 4, 1837, until his resignation on September 15, 1841; chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (Twenty-sixth Congress); died in Philadelphia, Pa., November 23, 1852; interment in Laurel Hill Cemetery. (Con. Bio. Dir.)

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000246