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Second Lieutenant Thomas Ryerson


Propositus

Second Lieutenant Thomas Ryerson

Born 12 Nov, 1753 at South Branch, Somerset County, New Jersey. Died 2 Oct, 1835 at Chester, Pennsylvania. Began his service in the Revolutionary War as 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment New Jersey Line. He had also received an appointment to the same position in a Pennsylvania regiment, but he preferred that of his native state. He continued in the army, and as a prisoner of war, for about four years. He was at the siege of Quebec under Montgomery. Later he was taken prisoner by the Hessians, at the battle of Ft. Washington, 18 Nov, 1776 and after serving some time in the military prison was sent to the Jersey prison ships, where he suffered greatly. He was finally paroled and permitted to engage in clerical employment, obtaining a clerkship in the Commissary-General’s Office, General Irvine, while the headquarters of the army were at Morristown, New Jersey.

After the war he remained some time in business in New York, and later he became associated with Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, and went to Western Pennsylvania, Washington County, locating and settling lands on joint account, remaining there some years at a place called Ryerson’s Station. President Washington sent him a company of soldiers for the protection of his settlement against the Indians. In 1790 Mr. Ryerson was elected to the Pennsylvania legislature from Washington County. Subsequently he wound up his interests in Western Pennsylvania and moved to Easton, in the same state, from there to Bethlehem, thence to a farm in Delaware County, and finally to the old Turner homestead, 370 South Second Street, Philadelphia, where he died in his eighty-third year.

Lieut. Thomas Ryerson was forty years of age when he married Miss Mary Turner, whom he met while attending a session of the Legislature in Philadelphia. She was a daughter of the Rev. Joseph Turner, of Philadelphia, and sister of Rev. Dr. Turner, of New York, a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church. She was 22 years of age when married,
July 19, 1794. The marriage is recorded in the Parish register of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Philadelphia. In the rear of this church he interred, in a private vault, the bodies of Thomas and Mary (Turner) Ryerson, and their daughter Elizabeth.

The keen sense of honor and high moral character manifest throughout the life of this man left a heritage honored and remembered by his descendants — a permanent monument to his memory.

Successors

Arthur Larned Ryerson Esq.
Grandson
(1851 — 1912)
Admitted 1883
Private
Admitted 1924
Private
Admitted 2019