(HardPress Classic Books Series)
HardPress Classic Books Series
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lawyer merchant military Soldier
Thomas Leaming was born in Cape May County, New Jersey, a descendant of Christopher Leaming, an Englishman, who moved from Southampton, L. I, to Cape May in 1692, and the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Leaming) Leaming, who owned extensive property in South Jersey.
He received his education and training in Philadelphia and was associated with that city during the greater part of his career.
Soon after completing his scholastic education Leaming was placed in the office of John Dickinson to study law and was admitted to the bar of Philadelphia. His association with Dickinson made him one of the most earnest of practical patriots. He gave his time and his money to the Revolutionary cause, and, by his ardent espousal of it, exposed his estate to confiscation by the British.
Early in the year 1776 he had detected the danger in which South Jersey lay from attack by the British forces, and at the expense of himself and some wealthy neighbors, he organized a battalion of militia in Cape May County. On April 15, 1776, he petitioned the Continental Congress to supply powder and lead to the battalion, a prayer that was granted with the addition of the clause, "he paying for the same. " Before the Cape May Battalion was actually called into action, the Provincial Assembly of the state of New Jersey opened its sessions, June 10, 1776, and Leaming was among the deputies sent to it from his county. A week later he resigned his office as adjutant of the battalion. He remained a member of the Assembly until its sessions for the year were ended, being present on July 2, 1776, when it voted for independence.
He had joined the troop of Light Horse of the City of Philadelphia, now known as the First City Troop of Philadelphia City Cavalry, in 1775, and as soon as he was relieved of his legislative duties he returned to this little command which was composed entirely of well-to-do young men who furnished their own horses and equipment. They acted as Washington's escort, and as scouts, throughout the campaigns from 1776 to 1779. Leaming was with the troop at the battles of Princeton, Trenton, Germantown, and Brandywine, and was elected to its honorary roll in 1787.
In 1777 Leaming founded the firm of Bunner, Murray & Company, which in 1780 subscribed heavily to the Pennsylvania Bank (in 1781 the Bank of North America). The firm of Thomas Leaming & Company, which may have been a branch of the same house, began in 1777 to fit out privateers, and between May of that year and 1780, eleven vessels, varying in size from eighteen-gun ships to a four-gun schooner, were put on the seas, their masters bearing letters of marque. Fifty prizes and 1, 000 prisoners were taken by these privateers. The schooner Mars, under Capt. Yelverton Taylor, took, in three vessels which it captured, 500 British and Hessian soldiers. At the close of the war, the firm was dissolved and Leaming returned to the practice of law in Philadelphia.
Leaming was a victim of the yellow-fever epidemic which devastated the city in 1797, dying from that disease on October 29. His remains were interred in the burial ground of Christ Church.
Leaming was remembered as patriot who fought in the Revolutionary war. He was a member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey. During the war he also engaged in mercantile pursuits, especially the importation of salt at both Cape May and Philadelphia, and privateering in support of the American cause in Philadelphia.
(HardPress Classic Books Series)
Leaming married Rebecca Fisher in Christ Church, in Philadelphia, August 19, 1779, and his two sons, Thomas Fisher Leaming and Jeremiah Fisher Leaming, became well-known merchants in Philadelphia.
