John Jennings

Background

Jennings was born c. 1738, in Pennsylvania, United States, and is believed to have been the son of Solomon Jennings.

Career

In 1761 Jennings was elected sheriff of Northampton County and was several times returned to the office, the last time in 1778. In 1766, with Captain Long and Major Smallman he journeyed from Fort Pitt to Fort Chartres, in the Illinois country, thence down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.

As sheriff of Northampton County Jennings was called upon to eject the Connecticut settlers from the lands in the Wyoming Valley which they had purchased from the Susquehanna Company of Connecticut and thus he became prominent in the Pennamite War. After the few Connecticut settlers fled from the territory in 1763, owing to the Indian attacks, two proprietary manors were laid out at Wyoming, and these, in 1768, were leased for seven years to three principal settlers - Charles Stewart, Amos Ogden, and John Jennings, In the following January, forty members of the Connecticut company started for the disputed territory. Both contestants erected forts, and Jennings, with only a posse, was expected to turn out the intruders, so he resorted to stratagem. Inviting three leaders of the Yankee party into his block house for a conference, he arrested them, having previously sent to the capital for processes in blank. The captured leaders were taken to Easton and for a time the civil power had triumphed. Subsequently, however, two of the Yankee leaders reëntered the settlement and began to burn the houses and to carry away goods and cattle. Once more Jennings dispersed the intruders.

On January 1, 1783, Jennings was listed as a private in the 3rd Regiment of the Continental Line, and in the following February he was elected quartermaster of the 1st Company, 2nd Battalion, of the Northampton County militia. Shortly after this he settled in Philadelphia, where he became secretary (or clerk) of the Mutual Assurance Company, one of the early fire insurance companies in America. In 1791 he was clerk to the commissioners of bankrupts and "register of sweeps" in Philadelphia and in 1794 he was made deputy United States marshal for the district of Pennsylvania. In 1796 he was elected an alderman in Philadelphia and in the same year he was appointed associate justice of the mayor's court. The latter office he held until his death in 1802.

Achievements

• Jennings is mostly known for his work as sheriff of Northampton County.

Connections

Father:

Solomon Jennings

References

• History of Wyoming: In a Series of Letters, from Charles Miner, to His Son William Penn Miner (Classic Reprint)
• History of Philadelphia 1609 - 1884, Volume I