William Sanford Pennington
William Sanford Pennington (1757-
September 27,
1826) was the sixth
Governor of New Jersey, serving from 1813-1815.
The Pennington Family of New Jersey is descended from Ephraim Pennington II, one of the first settlers of
Newark, New Jersey, whose father, also Ephraim Pennington I, immigrated to
New Haven, Connecticut around 1643.
William Sanford Pennington was the sixth of the nine children of Mary Sanford (1725-1805) and Samuel Pennington (1725-1791). he was born in 1757 in
Newark, New Jersey. He was most likely trained as a hatter, but at the outbreak of the Revolution joined the
Continental Army at the start of the
American Revolutionary War, and became, in 1777, a sergeant in the Second Regiment of Artillery under Colonel
John Lamb and Major General
Henry Knox. He advanced to the rank of second lieutenant in 1780, and at the end of the war was
brevetted captain by a special act of Congress.
Pennington married Phoebe Wheeler (c1760-1804), the daughter of Rhoda Lyon and Captain
James Wheeler (c1740-1777), around 1786. They had ten children together, one of whom,
William Pennington (1796-1862), also became a governor of New Jersey. After Phoebe's death, William Sandford Pennington married Elizabeth Pierson (c1765-1840) on
July 13,
1805.
After leaving the army, William studied law in the Newark office of
Elias Boudinot, in addition to serving in the
New Jersey General Assembly in 1797, 1798, and 1799. He was elected to the
New Jersey Senate in 1801 and reelected in 1802, the same year he was admitted to the bar as an attorney. During the next two years he served as the clerk of
Essex County, New Jersey and was elected to fill a vacancy in the
New Jersey Supreme Court, where he remained on the bench until 1813. For the majority of that time, he was also the Supreme Court's reporter. In 1812, Pennington was the Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey and the following year won the gubernatorial election, becoming New Jersey's governor from 1813-1814. The year after he left office, President
James Madison appointed him a judge of the
United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, a position that he kept until his death eleven years later.
His papers are archived with The
New Jersey Historical Society in
Newark, New Jersey.
*
List of Governors of New Jersey*
New Jersey State Library biography for William Sanford Pennington (PDF)*
Virtual American Biography for William Sanford Pennington
