James Wilson

James Wilson (September 14, 1742 – August 21, 1798) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A signer of the Declaration of Independence, Wilson was elected two times to the Continental Congress and was a major force in drafting the United States Constitution. He was a leading legal thinker and was one of the first six justices appointed by President George Washington to the Supreme Court. Wilson was born in Scotland but lived most of his life in Pennsylvania.

James Wilson was born in Carskerdo,^[1] near St Andrews, Scotland. His parents were William Wilson and Alison Landall.

Wilson attended a number of universities in Scotland without getting a degree. Imbued with the ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in British America in 1766 and carried valuable letters of introduction. They helped Wilson begin tutoring and then teaching at the Academy and College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania). He petitioned there for a degree and was awarded an honorary Master of Arts several months later.

Wilson started reading law at the office of John Dickinson a short time later. After two years of studying, he got the bar in Philadelphia, and in the following year (1767) set up his own practice in Reading, Pennsylvania. His office was very successful and he earned a small fortune in a few years. By then, he had a small farm near Carlisle, Pennsylvania; was handling cases in eight local counties; and was lecturing at the Academy and College of Philadelphia.

On 5 November 1771, he married Rachel Bird, the daughter of William Bird and Bridgette Hulingsl they had six children together.

In 1774, Wilson wrote a pamphlet that the British Parliament had no power in America. He was for the Declaration of Independence when he served in the Continental Congress. During the American Revolution, he served in the Pennsylvania State Militia. He was also attacked at his house by a mob during what became called called the Fort Wilson Riot for successfully defing Loyalists' property. He also continued his practice of law and was France's advocate general (lawyer) in the United States.

Wilson was one of the main political economists at the Constitutional Convention. He gave more speeches than anyone else except Gouverneur Morris. He also proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise and sat on the Committee of Detail.

Wilson served on the Supreme Court from 1789 to 1798. The first associate justice, he was nominated by President George Washington.

Wilson had problems with debts and so was briefly imprisoned. He got malaraia and then died of a stoke while he was visiting a friend in Edenton, North Carolina.