Frazer, R. (Robert)

Robert F. Frazer (1771-1821) was a lawyer, district attorney for Delaware County and a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1795.

Frazer was born on August 30, 1771 in Middletown, Pennsylvania to Persifor Frazer, an iron manufacturer and merchant, and his wife Mary Smith. Frazer entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1786. He graduated A.B. in 1789 and received a semi-honorary A.M. in 1792. After completing his bachelor’s degree, Frazer began to study law with Jared Ingersoll; in 1792 he was admitted to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. In 1795 he went on to serve in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives before becoming the District Attorney for Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Frazer married Mary Ball (1778-1798) in 1798, and after her death married Elizabeth Fries (1778-1815) in 1803. After Elizabeth’s death in 1815, he married Alice Pennel Yarnell (1778-1830). He had six children with his second wife: John, Jacob Taylor, Anne Fries, Persifor, John Fries, and Mary Worrall. His sons John and Jacob, and daughter Mary, died in infancy. Frazer also had a son with his third wife, Joseph Pennell. Robert Frazer died on January 20, 1821.

Frazer’s son John Fries Frazer (1812–1872, APS 1842), also a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, became a geologist and chemist. He was appointed to the first Pennsylvania Geological Survey in 1836 and in 1844 succeeded Alexander Dallas Bache as Professor of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. John Fries Frazer's son Persifor Frazer (1844–1909, APS 1872) was a geologist and handwriting expert.

Benjamin Franklin Bache, the grandson of Benjamin Franklin, worked as a printer and journalist.