Joseph Pearson
Encyclopedia
Joseph Pearson was a Congressional Representative
from North Carolina
; born in Rowan County, North Carolina
, in 1776; completed preparatory studies; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Salisbury, North Carolina
; member of the State house of commons
from Rowan county in 1804 and 1805; elected as a Federalist
to the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Congresses (March 4, 1809-March 3, 1815); while in Congress fought a duel
with John G. Jackson
, of Virginia, and on the second fire wounded his opponent in the hip; died in Salisbury, N.C., October 27, 1834.
The following is reported in a History of Western North Carolina, condensed from "Wheeler's 'Historical Sketches:'" Joseph Pearson's father was Richmond Pearson, born in Dinwiddie county, Va., who at the age of nineteen years came to North Carolina and settled in the forks of the Yadkin river, late of Davie county when a part of Rowan county. When the war of the Revolution broke out he was a Lieutenant in Captain Bryan's company (afterward the celebrated Colonel Bryan, of Tory memory). After the Declaration of Independence, at the first muster which occurred, he requested some on whom he could rely to load their guns. When Captain Bryan came on the ground he ordered all the men into ranks. Pearson refused, and tendered his commission to Bryan, whereupon he ordered him under arrest. This was resisted, and he was told that the men had their guns loaded. They then came to a parley, and it was agreed by the crowd, as matters stood, that Bryan and Pearson, on a fixed day, should settle this national affair by a fair fist fight, and whichever whipped, the company should belong to the side of the conqueror, whether Whig or Tory. At the appointed time and place the parties met, and the Lieutenant proved to be the victor. From this time the Fork company was for liberty, and Bryan's crowd, on Dutchman's creek, were Loyalists. The anecdote illustrates by what slight circumstances events of this period were affected. When Cornwallis came south, Pearson, with his company, endeavored to harass his advance. He was present at Cowan's Ford on the 1st of February, 1781, where General Davidson fell in attempting to resist the passage of the British. Captain Pearson was a successful merchant and an enterprising planter. He died in 1819, leaving three sons and one daughter: 1st, Jesse A.; 2d, Joseph (the subject of this entry); 3d, Richmond; and 4th, Elizabeth Pearson.
According to this History of Western North Carolina, Joseph Pearson was thrice married. By his first wife, Miss McLinn, he had no issue. By the second, Miss Ellen Brent, daughter of Robert Brent the first mayor of Washington, D.C., he had two daughters—one, the wife of Robert Walsh, Esqr., of Philadelphia—the other, the wife of Lieutenant Farley, of the U.S. Navy. Miss Brent brought to the marriage the mansion and property known as Brentwood, Washington, D.C.
, which, shen she died, remained with Pearson. By the third wife (Miss Catherine Worthington, of Georgetown), he left four children. One of these, Elizabeth, married Carlile Pollock Patterson
(see below). Another, Josephine, married Peter Augustus Jay, Jr., a grandson of Supreme Court Justice John Jay
(see below).
Pearson's last wife, Catherine, who survived him by 34 years and lived to 1868, was a daughter of Dr. Charles Worthington, a descendant of Capt. John Worthington of Annapolis (1650–1701). Dr. Worthington, who participated with the Maryland Militia in the Revolution as a doctor or medic, was born in Georgetown prior to the creation of the District of Columbia, and is said to have been so enamored of Revolutionary-era-18th century clothing styles that he eccentrically continued to wear clothes in that style into the early 19th century, long after they had become old-fashioned. He raised his family in Worthington House, built circa 1798, a historic and gracious Federal-style Georgetown manse that still stands at 3425 Prospect Street, N.W., Washington D.C., (it was the long-time Washington residence of Rhode Island senator Claiborne Pell (served 1961-1997)). Dr. Charles Worthington purchased the home in 1810 and named the estate “Quality Hill,” but it soon came to be called Worthington House. Reflecting the cultural history of Georgetown from its earliest origins as a prosperous port city, the house has eight bedrooms, two bathrooms, expansive public rooms, and a large garden. It was listed in 1972 on the National Register of Historical Places. Senator Pell sold Worthington House in 2004 for almost $4 million.
Shortly after the end of the Civil War, in response to requests from newly-emancipated African-Americans for establishment of a new Episcopal Church, Catherine Pearson, a member of St. John's Episcopal, Lafayette Square, donated some of her inherited Worthington land—a lot on 23rd Street, NW, between G and H -- for a new church. Secretary of War Stanton directed that the Union Army Chapel at Kalorama Hospital be moved to the site and refurbished, and St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Foggy Bottom, Washington D.C., came into existence. See http://www.stmarysfoggybottom.org/about.php. Catherine Pearson died a year after making the donation.
A daughter of Joseph Pearson and Catherine Worthington, Elizabeth Pearson, married Carlile Pollock Patterson
, and Mr. & Mrs. Patterson hosted many social events in Washington at the Brentwood Mansion during the Administration of President Grant. A descendant (Edward Sisson) of the family that owned the mansion throughout its existence has posted a collection of paintings, drawings, photos, and histories of the mansion on-line in an "album" titled "Worthington House and Brentwood Mansion" on a Mac Web Gallery site: http://gallery.mac.com/sissoed#gallery. The Frick Art Reference Library (http://www.frick.org/) has drawings, paintings, and perhaps photographs (although none appear to be accessible on-line as of late 2007). Catherine Worthington Pearson, her father, her daughter Eliza Patterson and son-in-law C.P. Patterson, and many members of her family (but not her husband, who died while on a trip to North Carolina and was buried there) are buried in the Worthington vault at Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington D.C..
According to noted genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts (http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/gary_boyd_roberts/next_page_659_46901.asp), Joseph Pearson and Catherine Worthington are ancestors of noted American author Susan Mary Alsop (born Susan Mary Jay) (obituary at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13830-2004Aug18.html). Susan Mary Jay's parents were Peter Augustus Jay (III) & Susan Alexander McCook; her paternal grandparents Augustus Jay & Emily Astor Kane; Augustus Jay's parents were Peter Augustus Jay (II) and Josephine Pearson, daughter of Joseph Pearson and Catherine Worthington (Roberts mistakenly inserts the name Elizabeth instead of Catherine). Susan Mary Jay married, first, William Patten; after his 1960 death, she married Joseph Alsop
V.
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
from North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
; born in Rowan County, North Carolina
Rowan County, North Carolina
-Demographics and economics:As of the census of 2010, there were 138,428 people, 53,140 households, and 37,058 families residing in the county. The population density was 270.7 people per square mile . There were 60,211 housing units at an average density of 117.7 per square mile...
, in 1776; completed preparatory studies; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Salisbury, North Carolina
Salisbury, North Carolina
Salisbury is a city in Rowan County in North Carolina, a state of the United States of America. The population was 33,663 in the 2010 Census . It is the county seat of Rowan County...
; member of the State house of commons
North Carolina General Assembly
The North Carolina General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of North Carolina. The General Assembly drafts and legislates the state laws of North Carolina, also known as the General Statutes...
from Rowan county in 1804 and 1805; elected as a Federalist
Federalist Party (United States)
The Federalist Party was the first American political party, from the early 1790s to 1816, the era of the First Party System, with remnants lasting into the 1820s. The Federalists controlled the federal government until 1801...
to the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Congresses (March 4, 1809-March 3, 1815); while in Congress fought a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
with John G. Jackson
John G. Jackson (politician)
John George Jackson was a U.S. Representative and federal judge from Virginia, the son of George Jackson, brother of Edward B...
, of Virginia, and on the second fire wounded his opponent in the hip; died in Salisbury, N.C., October 27, 1834.
The following is reported in a History of Western North Carolina, condensed from "Wheeler's 'Historical Sketches:'" Joseph Pearson's father was Richmond Pearson, born in Dinwiddie county, Va., who at the age of nineteen years came to North Carolina and settled in the forks of the Yadkin river, late of Davie county when a part of Rowan county. When the war of the Revolution broke out he was a Lieutenant in Captain Bryan's company (afterward the celebrated Colonel Bryan, of Tory memory). After the Declaration of Independence, at the first muster which occurred, he requested some on whom he could rely to load their guns. When Captain Bryan came on the ground he ordered all the men into ranks. Pearson refused, and tendered his commission to Bryan, whereupon he ordered him under arrest. This was resisted, and he was told that the men had their guns loaded. They then came to a parley, and it was agreed by the crowd, as matters stood, that Bryan and Pearson, on a fixed day, should settle this national affair by a fair fist fight, and whichever whipped, the company should belong to the side of the conqueror, whether Whig or Tory. At the appointed time and place the parties met, and the Lieutenant proved to be the victor. From this time the Fork company was for liberty, and Bryan's crowd, on Dutchman's creek, were Loyalists. The anecdote illustrates by what slight circumstances events of this period were affected. When Cornwallis came south, Pearson, with his company, endeavored to harass his advance. He was present at Cowan's Ford on the 1st of February, 1781, where General Davidson fell in attempting to resist the passage of the British. Captain Pearson was a successful merchant and an enterprising planter. He died in 1819, leaving three sons and one daughter: 1st, Jesse A.; 2d, Joseph (the subject of this entry); 3d, Richmond; and 4th, Elizabeth Pearson.
According to this History of Western North Carolina, Joseph Pearson was thrice married. By his first wife, Miss McLinn, he had no issue. By the second, Miss Ellen Brent, daughter of Robert Brent the first mayor of Washington, D.C., he had two daughters—one, the wife of Robert Walsh, Esqr., of Philadelphia—the other, the wife of Lieutenant Farley, of the U.S. Navy. Miss Brent brought to the marriage the mansion and property known as Brentwood, Washington, D.C.
Brentwood, Washington, D.C.
Brentwood is a neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C. and is named after the Brentwood Mansion built at Florida Avenue and 6th Street NE in 1817 by Robert Brent, the first mayor of Washington City. He built it as a wedding present for his daughter Eleanor on her marriage as second wife to...
, which, shen she died, remained with Pearson. By the third wife (Miss Catherine Worthington, of Georgetown), he left four children. One of these, Elizabeth, married Carlile Pollock Patterson
Carlile Pollock Patterson
Carlile Pollock Patterson was an American civil engineer, superintendent of the United States Coast Survey...
(see below). Another, Josephine, married Peter Augustus Jay, Jr., a grandson of Supreme Court Justice John Jay
John Jay
John Jay was an American politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat, a Founding Father of the United States, and the first Chief Justice of the United States ....
(see below).
Pearson's last wife, Catherine, who survived him by 34 years and lived to 1868, was a daughter of Dr. Charles Worthington, a descendant of Capt. John Worthington of Annapolis (1650–1701). Dr. Worthington, who participated with the Maryland Militia in the Revolution as a doctor or medic, was born in Georgetown prior to the creation of the District of Columbia, and is said to have been so enamored of Revolutionary-era-18th century clothing styles that he eccentrically continued to wear clothes in that style into the early 19th century, long after they had become old-fashioned. He raised his family in Worthington House, built circa 1798, a historic and gracious Federal-style Georgetown manse that still stands at 3425 Prospect Street, N.W., Washington D.C., (it was the long-time Washington residence of Rhode Island senator Claiborne Pell (served 1961-1997)). Dr. Charles Worthington purchased the home in 1810 and named the estate “Quality Hill,” but it soon came to be called Worthington House. Reflecting the cultural history of Georgetown from its earliest origins as a prosperous port city, the house has eight bedrooms, two bathrooms, expansive public rooms, and a large garden. It was listed in 1972 on the National Register of Historical Places. Senator Pell sold Worthington House in 2004 for almost $4 million.
Shortly after the end of the Civil War, in response to requests from newly-emancipated African-Americans for establishment of a new Episcopal Church, Catherine Pearson, a member of St. John's Episcopal, Lafayette Square, donated some of her inherited Worthington land—a lot on 23rd Street, NW, between G and H -- for a new church. Secretary of War Stanton directed that the Union Army Chapel at Kalorama Hospital be moved to the site and refurbished, and St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Foggy Bottom, Washington D.C., came into existence. See http://www.stmarysfoggybottom.org/about.php. Catherine Pearson died a year after making the donation.
A daughter of Joseph Pearson and Catherine Worthington, Elizabeth Pearson, married Carlile Pollock Patterson
Carlile Pollock Patterson
Carlile Pollock Patterson was an American civil engineer, superintendent of the United States Coast Survey...
, and Mr. & Mrs. Patterson hosted many social events in Washington at the Brentwood Mansion during the Administration of President Grant. A descendant (Edward Sisson) of the family that owned the mansion throughout its existence has posted a collection of paintings, drawings, photos, and histories of the mansion on-line in an "album" titled "Worthington House and Brentwood Mansion" on a Mac Web Gallery site: http://gallery.mac.com/sissoed#gallery. The Frick Art Reference Library (http://www.frick.org/) has drawings, paintings, and perhaps photographs (although none appear to be accessible on-line as of late 2007). Catherine Worthington Pearson, her father, her daughter Eliza Patterson and son-in-law C.P. Patterson, and many members of her family (but not her husband, who died while on a trip to North Carolina and was buried there) are buried in the Worthington vault at Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington D.C..
According to noted genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts (http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/gary_boyd_roberts/next_page_659_46901.asp), Joseph Pearson and Catherine Worthington are ancestors of noted American author Susan Mary Alsop (born Susan Mary Jay) (obituary at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13830-2004Aug18.html). Susan Mary Jay's parents were Peter Augustus Jay (III) & Susan Alexander McCook; her paternal grandparents Augustus Jay & Emily Astor Kane; Augustus Jay's parents were Peter Augustus Jay (II) and Josephine Pearson, daughter of Joseph Pearson and Catherine Worthington (Roberts mistakenly inserts the name Elizabeth instead of Catherine). Susan Mary Jay married, first, William Patten; after his 1960 death, she married Joseph Alsop
Joseph Alsop
Joseph Wright Alsop V was an American journalist and syndicated newspaper columnist from the 1930s through the 1970s.-Early years:...
V.
See also
- Eleventh United States Congress
- Twelfth United States Congress
- Thirteenth United States Congress
- U.S. Congress Biographical Directory entry
- Brown, Stephen W. “Satisfaction at Bladensburg: The Pearson-Jackson Duel of 1809.” North Carolina Historical Review 58 (Winter 1981): 23-43.