Edward Shippen | |
|---|---|
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| Second Mayor of Philadelphia | |
| In office 1701–1703 | |
| Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Philadelphia | |
| In office 1699 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1639 (1639) |
| Died | October 2, 1712(1712-10-02) (aged 72–73) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 11 |
| Relatives | William Shippen (grandson) Edward Shippen III (grandson) Mary Willing Byrd (great-granddaughter) Peggy Shippen (great-great-granddaughter) |
Edward Shippen (1639 – October 2, 1712) was the secondmayor of Philadelphia, although underWilliam Penn's charter of 1701, he was considered the first.[1]
Edward was born inMethley, West Yorkshire, to William and Mary, who were married there on July 16, 1626. Shippen's father was settled in the village of his birth,Monk Fryston, before he migrated to Methley. Monk Fryston is closely linked to the village ofHillam, which was where the Shippen family had hailed from, possibly as early as the thirteenth century according to family tradition.
Shippen was appointed to a one-year term byWilliam Penn in 1701. In 1702, he was elected to a second one-year term, making him the first elected mayor of Philadelphia. He was also a leader of theProvince of Pennsylvania, and served asChief Justice of theSupreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1699. He also served as the chief executive for the Province of Pennsylvania as the President of the Provincial Council between 1703 and 1704.[2]
Shippen first lived in Boston, where, according to family oral history, he was whipped for being a Quaker[3] before being invited by William Penn to move his merchant business to the new city of Philadelphia.
After the sudden death of Deputy GovernorAndrew Hamilton in 1703, Shippen, by virtue of being the president of the Provincial Council, became the chief executive of the Province of Pennsylvania. It was during his term that theLower Three Counties (modern dayDelaware) elected their own Assembly and acted in their own interests. These counties, however, remained under the Penn Proprietorship and their appointed Deputy Governors until 1776 when Delaware became an independent state.[2]
He married Elizabeth Lybrand, aQuaker, in 1671 and became a member of theReligious Society of Friends.[4] She died in Boston in 1688. Shippen married, secondly, atNewport, Rhode Island, on September 4, 1689, Rebecca, widow of Francis Richardson, of New York, and daughter of John Howard, of Yorkshire, England. She died in Philadelphia on February 26, 1704, or 1705. In 1706 he married Esther, widow of Philip James and daughter of John Wilcox, in Philadelphia. Esther died on August 7, 1724.[5]
Shippen had multiple children with his wives, with many dying at a young age: Frances (1672-1673), Edward (1674-1674), William (1675-1676), Eliza (born 1676 and died in infancy), Edward (1677-1714), Joseph (1678-1741), Mary (1681-1688), Anne (1684-1712), Elizabeth (1691-?), John (died in infancy), and William (?-1731).[6]
One of Shippen's grandsons wasContinental CongressmanWilliam Shippen. A granddaughter was the wife of Philadelphia MayorCharles Willing, whose daughter wasMary Willing Byrd. Another grandson,Edward Shippen III, was also a mayor of Philadelphia. Shippen's great-great-granddaughter wasPeggy Shippen, wife ofBenedict Arnold.
| Preceded by | Mayor of Philadelphia 1701–1703 | Succeeded by |
Mayors ofPhiladelphia (chronologically) | ||
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| Colonial era (1691–1776) |
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| Pre-Act of Consolidation (1789–1854) | ||
| Post-Consolidation (since 1854) | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
