Jenifer, Daniel of St. Thomas, 1723-1790

Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer (1723 – November 16, 1790) was a politician, a Founding Father of the United States, and a signer of the United States Constitution. He was a leader for many years in Maryland's colonial government, but when conflict arose with Great Britain Jenifer embraced the Patriot cause.

Born at Coates Retirement (now Ellerslie), an estate west of Port Tobacco in Charles County, Maryland, as a young man, he acted as a receiver general, the local financial agent for the last two proprietors of Maryland. Jenifer served as justice of the peace for Charles County and later for the western circuit of Maryland. He sat on a commission that settled a boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Delaware (1760) and on the Governor's Council, the upper house of the Maryland legislature that also served as the colony's court of appeals and as a board of senior advisers to the governor (1773–76).

Despite his close ties with the colonial government, Jenifer strongly resented what he and most of the colonial gentry saw as Parliament's arbitrary interference with the colonies' affairs, especially its laws concerning taxation and trade regulation. During and after the war, Jenifer became increasingly concerned about national affairs. He represented his state in the Continental Congress (1778–82) while simultaneously serving as president of Maryland's first senate (1777–80). As manager of his state's finances between 1782 and 1785, Jenifer drew on his experiences as a landholder to help the state survive the critical postwar economic depression. Jenifer attended the Mount Vernon Conference, a meeting that lead eventually to the Constitutional Convention.

Like his old friend Benjamin Franklin, Jenifer enjoyed the status of elder statesman at the Convention, which took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jenifer used his prestige (as well as humor and reputation as pleasant company) to work for a strong and permanent union of the states by reconciling opposing views and formulating the compromises that made the convention a success. After the convention, Jenifer retired to his plantation at Stepney near Annapolis, where he died in 1790. He was buried at Ellerslie, the place of his birth.