Bedford, Gunning, 1747-1812

<b>Gunning Bedford Jr.</b><br>
<b>BIRTH</b> 13 Apr 1747<br>
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA<br>
<b>DEATH</b> 30 Mar 1812 (aged 64)<br>
Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware, USA<br>
<b>BURIAL</b><br>
Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery<br>
Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware, USA

BEDFORD, Gunning, Jr., (Cousin of Gunning Bedford), a Delegate from Delaware; born in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1747; was graduated from Princeton College in 1771; studied law in Philadelphia; was admitted to the Delaware bar in 1779 and commenced practice in Dover, Del.; moved to Wilmington, Del.; Member of the Continental Congress 1783-1785; appointed attorney general of the State on April 26, 1784, and served until September 26, 1789; appointed a commissioner to the convention held at Annapolis, Md., in September 1786 but did not attend; member of the Federal constitutional convention at Philadelphia in 1787 and signed the Constitution; delegate to the State convention that ratified the Federal Constitution in 1787; member of the State senate in 1788; appointed United States judge for the district of Delaware September 26, 1789, which position he held until his death in Wilmington, Del., March 30, 1812; interment in First Presbyterian Churchyard; reinterment at the Masonic Home of Delaware, on Lancaster Pike, two miles west of Wilmington, Del.

<ul><b>RACES</b>
<li>09/26/1789 U.S. District Court Judge for Delaware Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1784 DE Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1783 DE Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1782 DE Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
</ul>

<p>Gunning Bedford Jr. (1747 – March 30, 1812) was an American Founding Father, delegate to the Congress of the Confederation (Continental Congress), Attorney General of Delaware, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 which drafted the United States Constitution, a signer of the United States Constitution, and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.</p>

<p>Bedford was born in 1747, in Philadelphia, Province of Pennsylvania, British America, the fifth of eleven children to a wealthy family. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) on September 25, 1771, with honors, as a classmate of James Madison. He was admitted to the Delaware bar and entered private practice in Dover from 1779 to 1783.</p>

<p>On July 17, 1775, the Second Continental Congress resolved to elect Bedford to deputy-muster-general for New York in the Continental Army, during the American Revolutionary War. On February 28, 1776, he was assigned to the northern army in Canada to muster troops there monthly. On June 18, 1776, he was promoted to muster-master-general and assigned to New York. He served briefly as an aide to General George Washington.</p>