John McDowell, LL.D.

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Husband John McDowell, LL.D. ^{1 2}

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           Born: 11 Feb 1751
     Christened: 
           Died: 22 Dec 1820 - Peters Twp, Franklin Co, PA 1 2
         Buried:  - Waddell Cemetery, near Mercersburg, Franklin Co, PA

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         Father: William McDowell (1720/1722-1812) 1 3
         Mother: Mary Maxwell (1728-1805) 1 2

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Wife

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           Born: 
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       Marriage: 

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - John McDowell, LL.D.

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He was graduated at the College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania) in 1771. He spoke the English oration at Commencement. He was a tutor in the college, 1769-82. Under the call of July 28, 1777, he served as a private in Capt. Samuel Patton's marching company. After leaving the university he went to Cambridge in Dorchester County, on the eastern shore of Maryland, where he engaged in teaching and studied law. Among his pupils was Charles Goldsborough, afterward a representative in Congress and Governor of Maryland. The teacher inspired his pupil with sentiments of esteem and affection so marked and so lasting that a life-long friendship resulted, and found expression in an interchange of letters covering a period of thirty-five years. Many of the Goldsborough letters were preserved by the recipient and are still [1905] in existence. The first of the series was written from Philadelphia, Jan. 19, 1784, and it shows that Mr. McDowell had just come to the Bar of Dorchester County, Maryland, but was uncertain whether he would engage in practice at Cambridge. He does not seem to have fully made up his mind at the close of the year, for he was admitted to practice in the Franklin county courts at the first trial term in December, 1784. He finally returned to Cambridge and entered upon the practice there. Legal memoranda that were preserved with the Goldsborough letters prove that he was in full practice in Dorchester in 1789. Among his clients were his friends, Charles Goldsborough and John Henry, the latter one of the first Senators in Congress from Maryland. In 1790 he was elected principal of St. John's College at Annapolis by a unanimous vote. He had previously filled the professorship of Mathematics in the college for a short time. He filled this office until 1806, when he resigned to become professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Pennsylvania. McDowell Hall, in which the centennial anniversary of the college was celebrated in 1890, is the monument to his service in behalf of the institution. He was in Philadelphia only a few months when he was elected provost of the university. He resigned in 1810, because of ill health, but again performed the duties of the office for his successor, Dr. Andrews, in 1812. He subsequently returned to Annapolis, and was again elected principal of St. John's, in 1815, but declined. His last years were spent at the home of his sister, Mrs. Maris, in Peters township, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, where he died. In his will he bequeathed his Latin, Greek, Mathematical and Philosophical books to the University of Pennsylvania. He never married, but the Goldsborough letters show that he was on terms of the closest intimacy with that distinguished Maryland family from his early manhood. He received the degree of LL. D. from his Alma Mater.

1 Editor, Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 82.

2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 370.

3 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 369.