Hazard, Jonathan J., 1731-1812

<p>Jonathan J. Hazard (1731–1812 or 1744 – after 1824) was an American statesman and anti-federalist who served as a delegate for Rhode Island in the Continental Congress.</p>

<p>Jonathan was born to a Quaker (Religious Society of Friends) family in Newport, Rhode Island. He was first elected to the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1776. In 1777 and early 1778 he served as paymaster of the Rhode Island regiment of the Continental Army. In 1778, he re-entered the Assembly, serving there until 1786. In 1786 and 1787, Rhode Island’s assembly appointed him as delegate to the Continental Congress. After that, he returned to assembly (serving until 1805), where he became a leader of the anti-federalist Country Party.</p>

<p>Hazard was a delegate to the state's ratifying convention that considered the U.S. Constitution in 1789. His active opposition was one of the reasons that the convention adjourned without a vote. By the following spring, he at least chose to remain silent as the Assembly voted in favor of ratification on May 29, 1790. That marked the start of a steady decline in his political influence.</p>

<ul><b>RACES</b>
<li> 12/31/1787 RI Continental Congress Won 68.76% (+37.52%)</li>
</ul>

<b>Jonathan J. Hazard</b><br>
<b>BIRTH</b> 1731<br>
<b>DEATH</b> 29 Jul 1812 (aged 80–81)<br>
<b>BURIAL</b><br>
City Hill Cemetery<br>
Penn Yan, Yates County, New York, USA

HAZARD, Jonathan J., a Delegate from Rhode Island; born in Newport, R.I., in 1744; completed preparatory studies; member of the State house of representatives in 1776; paymaster in the Continental Battalion from Rhode Island in 1777 and joined General Washington's Army in New Jersey that year; again elected a member of the State house of representatives and a member of the council of war in 1778; Member of the Continental Congress 1788; again a member of the State house of representatives 1790-1805; moved to New York in 1805 and located upon an estate in the Friends' settlement at Verona, Oneida County, N.Y., where he died later than 1824.