Husband Hon. William Maclay 1 2 3 4 5 6
Born: 20 Jul 1737 - New Garden Twp, Chester Co, PA 1 4 7
Christened:
Died: 16 Apr 1804 - Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA 4 7 8
Buried:
Father: Charles Maclay (1703-1753) 1 6 9 10
Mother: Eleanor Query (1707-1789) 1 9 10
Marriage: 16 Apr 1769 2
• Residence: : Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA.
Wife Mary McClure Harris 3 5 11 12
Born: 13 Apr 1750 - Harris' Ferry, Dauphin Co, PA 11
Christened:
Died: 20 Apr 1809 - Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA 2
Buried: - Paxtang Church
Father: John Harris (Abt 1726-1791) 8 13
Mother: Elizabeth McClure (1729-1764) 8 11
Children
1 M John Harris Maclay 7 12 14
Born: 5 Feb 1770 12 14
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
2 F Elizabeth Maclay 7 12 14
Born: 16 Feb 1772 12 14
Christened:
Died: 19 Apr 1794 12 14
Buried: - Paxtang Church
Spouse: Did Not Marry
3 F Eleanor Maclay 7 12 14 15
Born: 17 Jan 1774 12 14
Christened:
Died: 2 Jan 1823 - Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA 12
Buried: - Paxtang Church
Spouse: William Wallace (1768-1816) 7 12 14 15 16 17 18
Marr: 1806 12 15
4 F Mary Maclay 7 12 14
Born: 19 Mar 1776 12 14
Christened:
Died: 13 Aug 1823 12
Buried:
Spouse: Samuel Awl (1773-1842) 7 12 14
Marr: 27 Apr 1795 12
5 F Esther Harris Maclay 7 12 14
AKA: Hester Maclay 19 20
Born: 19 Sep 1778 12 14
Christened:
Died: 6 Sep 1819 - Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA 12
Buried:
Spouse: Dr. Henry Hall, M.D. (1772/1775-1808/1808) 7 12 14 19
Marr: 26 Apr 1800 12 19
6 F Sarah "Sallie" Maclay 12 14 21
Born: 5 Jan 1781 12 14
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Maj. John Irwin ( - ) 7 12 14
Marr: 10 Mar 1804 12
7 F Jean Maclay 7 12 14
AKA: Jane Maclay 22
Born: 19 Mar 1783 5 14
Christened:
Died: 30 Apr 1809 5
Buried: - Paxtang Cemetery, Paxtang, Lancaster Co, PA
Spouse: John Lyon (1782-1868) 7 22
Marr: 29 Apr 1808 - Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA 5
8 M William [1] Maclay 12 14
Born: 1784 14
Christened:
Died: 1785 14
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
9 M William [2] Maclay 14
Born: 5 May 1787 14
Christened:
Died: 22 Mar 1812 - Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA 14
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
General Notes: Husband - Hon. William Maclay
He was born in New Garden township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. In 1742 his father removed to what is now Lurgan township, Franklin County, where his boyhood days were spent upon the paternal farm. When the French and Indian war broke out he was at Rev. John Blair's classical school in Chester County, and desiring to enter the service of the Province his tutor gave him a recommendation "as a judicious young man and a scholar," which secured him the appointment of ensign in the Pennsylvania Battalion. He was promoted lieutenant in the Third Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Hugh Mercer, May 7, 1758; accompanied Gen. Forbes' expedition that year, and especially distinguished himself at the battle of Loyalhanna. In Bouquet's expedition of 1763, he was in the fight of Bushy Run, while in the subsequent campaign of that gallant officer he was stationed with the greater portion of the Second Pennsylvania on the line of the stockade forts on the route to Fort Pitt as lieutenant commanding the company. For these services he participated in the Provincial grant of land to the officers connected therewith, located on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and most of which he assisted in surveying. He studied law and was admitted to the York County bar April 28, 1760, but it is doubtful if he ever practiced his profession at that court, the continued Indian war, and his subsequent duties as surveyor, engrossing his entire time, although from a letter of John Penn's it would seem that he was afterwards admitted to the Cumberland County bar, and had acted for the prothonotary of that county. At the close of the French and Indian war he visited England, and had an interview with Thomas Penn, one of the Proprietaries, relative to the surveys in the middle and northern parts of the Province, and was the assistant of Surveyor Lukens on the frontiers.
In 1772 he laid out the town of Sunbury, and erected for himself a stone house, which was still standing a hundred years later. Upon the organization of the county of Northumberland he was appointed prothonotary and clerk of the courts. He also acted as the representative of the Penn family, and took a prominent part in the so-called Pennamite war. In writing to the Secretary of the Province in April, 1773, he says, "If hell is justly considered as the rendezvous of rascals, we cannot entertain a doubt of Wioming being the place;" but much as he was prejudiced against the Connecticut settlers he foresees the future value of the land in that valley, and advises Penn not to sell his reservation there.
At the outset of the Revolution, although an officer of the Proprietary government, William Maclay took a prominent and active part in favor of independence, not only assisting in equipping and forwarding troops to the Continental army, but marched with the associators participating in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. During the Revolution he held the position of assistant commissary of purchases. In 1781 he was elected to the Assembly, and from that time forward he filled the various offices of member of the Supreme Executive Council, judge of the Courts of Common Pleas, deputy surveyor, and one of the commissioners for carrying into effect the act respecting the navigation of the Susquehanna River. About this period he visited England in the interest of the Penn family.
In January, 1789, he was elected to the United States Senate, taking his seat there as the first senator from Pennsylvania. He drew the short term, and his position terminated March 3, 1791, his colleague, Robert Morris, securing the long term. His election to this body raised him to a higher plane of political activity, but contact with the Federal chiefs of the Senate only strengthened his political convictions, which, formed by long intercourse with the people of Middle Pennsylvania, were intensely Democratic. He began to differ with the opinions of President Washington very early in the session; he did not approve of the state and ceremony attendant upon the intercourse of the President with Congress, he flatly objected to the presence of the President in the Senate while business was being transacted, and in the Senate boldly spoke against his policy in the immediate presence of President Washington.
The New England historians, Hildreth and Goodrich, repute Thomas Jefferson as the "efficient promoter at the beginning and father and founder of the Democratic party." Contemporary records, however, show beyond the shadow of a doubt that this responsibility or honor, in whatever light it may be regarded, cannot be shifted from the shoulders or taken from the laurels of Pennsylvania statesmanship. Before Mr. Jefferson's return from Europe, William Maclay assumed an independent position, and in his short career of two years in the Senate propounded ideas and gathered about him elements to form the opposition which developed with the meeting of Congress at Philadelphia on the 24th of October, 1791, in a division of the people into two great parties, the Federalists and Democrats, when, for the first time, appeared an open and organized opposition to the administration.
The funding of the public debt, chartering the United States Bank, and other measures championed necessarily by the administration, whose duty it was to put the wheels of government in motion, engendered opposition. Mr. Maclay, to use his own language, "no one else presenting himself," fearlessly took the initiative, and with his blunt common sense (for he was not much of a speaker) and Democratic ideas took issue with the ablest advocate of the administration.
Notwithstanding the prestige of Gen. Washington, and the ability of the defenders of the administration on the floor of the Senate, such was the tact and resolution of Mr. Maclay that when, after his short service, he was retired from the Senate and succeeded by James Ross, a pronounced Federalist, their impress was left in the distinctive lines of an opposition party, a party which, taking advantage of the warm feeling of our people towards the French upon the occasion of Jay's treaty with Great Britain in 1794, and of the unpopularity of the alien and sedition laws passed under the administration of President John Adams, in 1798, compassed the final overthrow of the Federal party in 1800.
While in the Senate Mr. Maclay preserved notes of its discussions both in open and secret sessions, with observations upon the social customs of the first statesmen of the republic, which were published and edited by George Washington Harris. Upon his retirement, he resided permanently on his farm adjoining Harrisburg, where he erected the stone mansion for many years occupied by the Harrisburg Academy. In the year 1795 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and again elected in 1803. He was a Presidential elector in 1796, and from 1801 to 1803 one of the associate judges of the county of Dauphin. He died at Harrisburg in the sixty-seventh year of his age, and was interred in old Paxtang Church graveyard. Mr. Harris, who edited his journal, gives us this summary of Mr. Maclay's character: "He was a man of strict integrity, of positive opinions, having implicit confidence in his own honesty and judgment, he was inclined to be suspicious of the integrity of others, whose sentiments or action in matters of importance differed from his own, and the journal to which reference has been made is evidence of the strength of his intellect." "In personal appearance Mr. Maclay is said to have been six feet three inches in height, and stout and muscular. His complexion was light, and his hair in middle age appears to have been brown and was worn tied behind or clubbed."
Notes: Marriage
They were married April 11. [BAFC, 148]