Constitution Signer

William Paterson

William Paterson was a New Jersey statesman, signer of the US Constitution, and Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, who served as the 2^nd governor of New Jersey, from 1790 to 1793. Patterson was born on 24 December 1745 in County Antrim, Ireland and immigrated to America at age 2. He entered the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) at age 14, graduating in 1763 having studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1768. 

During the Revolutionary War, Paterson became the leader of the Patriot cause in New Jersey following the French and Indian War when Parliament, which had realized significant financial losses, began to try to tax the colonies. He represented Somerset County as the secretary of New Jersey’s Provincial Congress, an extralegal legislature established by the Patriots to organize the transition from Royal colony to independent state (1775-76).

Participation’s important role in the Constitutional process began when he was sent to the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, where he proposed the New Jersey Plan for a “one chamber’ legislative body with equal representative for each state.  His unicameral plan ultimately became current bicameral legislature (House and Senate) and Paterson signed the Constitution at the time of its adoption by the Convention.

Soon after ratification of the Constitution by the individual States, Paterson became one of the first US senators from New Jersey (1789- 90).  He played an important role in drafting the Judiciary Act of 1789 that established the federal court system and the first nine sections of this law are in his handwriting.

Paterson resigned the US Senate in 1790 to succeed William Livingston as governor of New Jersey.  Later, he resigned the governorship to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court (1793-1806) until his death on 9 September 1806 in New York.eath: 9 September 1806, New York. associate justice of the Supreme Courth (1793-1806)rsey.  ral court system.