{{short description|American politician}} {{About|the American soldier and politician|the American botanist|Thomas Gordon Hartley|the British diplomat|Thomas Hartley (diplomat)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Thomas Hartley | image = Thomas Hartley 1748-1800.png | caption = | state = Pennsylvania | constituency = {{ushr|PA|AL|C}} (1789–1795)<br>{{ushr|PA|8|C}} (1795–1800) | term_start = March 4, 1789 | term_end = December 21, 1800 | preceded = ''District created'' | succeeded = John Stewart | birth_date = {{birth date|1748|09|07}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1800|12|21|1748|09|07}} | birth_place = Colebrookdale Township, Province of Pennsylvania, British America | death_place = York, Pennsylvania, U.S. | party = Pro-Administration<br/>Federalist | allegiance = {{flag|United States|1777}} | branch = {{flagicon image|Betsy Ross flag.svg}} Continental Army | battles = American Revolutionary War }} '''Thomas Hartley''' (September 7, 1748{{spnd}}December 21, 1800) was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician from York, Pennsylvania.
==Early life and education== Hartley was born in Colebrookdale Township in the Province of Pennsylvania.<!-- <ref name="Prowell 1914"/> --> At 18 years of age, he moved to York, where he studied law under Samuel Johnson and was admitted to practice law in York County, Pennsylvania, and the courts in Philadelphia in 1769.<ref name="Prowell 1914"/><ref name="Jordan 1901"/> He owned slaves.<ref>{{Citation|title=Congress slaveowners|date=2022-01-19|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2022/congress-slaveowners-names-list/|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2022-07-11}}</ref>
==Career== In 1774, Hartley was appointed first lieutenant of a company of soldiers in York and the following summer was appointed lieutenant colonel of the First Battalion of York County Associators.<!-- <ref name="Prowell 1914"/> --> In the fall of 1775, he served on an expedition to Canada and upon return was chosen as lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment.<ref name="Prowell 1914"/> He served as a member of the 1775 provincial convention at Philadelphia and commanded a 1778 Indian expedition. During the American Revolutionary War Hartley was second in command of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment in the Continental Army. Beginning in January 1777, he raised and commanded Hartley's Additional Continental Regiment and commanded it as colonel during the major battles of the Philadelphia campaign, including Brandywine, Paoli, and Germantown. In 1778 the unit guarded the Pennsylvania frontier and, on September 24, 1778, mounted a two-week foray against hostile Indians, including the destruction of Queen Esther's Town on September 27.<ref>Murray, Louise Welles 2015 [1907] History of Old Tioga Point and Early Athens, Pennsylvania (Classic Reprint). Forgotten Books, London. </ref> The regiment merged with other units in January 1779 to become the "new" 11th Pennsylvania Regiment and went with the Sullivan Expedition that summer. However, Harley was elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in October 1778 and resigned from his military in February 1779.<ref name="Jordan 1901"/>
Hartley served in the Pennsylvania legislature in 1779 and returned to practice law in York.<ref name="Prowell 1914"/> Hartley was a member of the Pennsylvania convention that ratified the federal constitution in 1787.<ref name="Jordan 1901"/> He then represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House from 1789 until his death in 1800. On February 5, 1791, Hartley became the first Pennsylvanian to join the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States when he took the oath in New York, where the court was then located.<ref name="Jordan 1901"/> Hartley frequently attended social and official functions of President Washington and the First Lady. On July 2, 1791, Hartley greeted President Washington on the President's journey through York and hosted tea for the President at his house.<ref name="Jordan 1901"/>
Hartley was among the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati and a trustee of Dickinson College.<ref name="Jordan 1901"/> On April 28, 1800, he was appointed by Governor McKean as Major General of the Fifth Division of the state militia.<ref name="Prowell 1914"/> Hartley was also a land prospector and purchased land in present-day Union County, Pennsylvania, which was previously part of Northumberland County. He helped lay out a town, now Hartleton, Pennsylvania, and adjoining Hartley Township was named for him.
==Death== Hartley died December 21, 1800, in York, Pennsylvania, shortly before the end of his sixth term in Congress,<ref name="Prowell 1914"/> and was buried in St. John’s churchyard in York.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000299|title=HARTLEY, Thomas - Biographical Information|website=bioguide.congress.gov|access-date=May 9, 2016}}</ref>
==See also== * List of members of the United States Congress who died in office (1790–1899)
==References== {{reflist|30em|refs= *<ref name="Prowell 1914">{{cite book|last1=Prowell|first1=George|title=Continental Congress at York, Pennsylvania and York County in the Revolution|url=https://archive.org/details/continentalcongr00prow|date=1914|publisher=York Printing Company|location=York County, Pennsylvania|pages=[https://archive.org/details/continentalcongr00prow/page/212 212]–213}}</ref> *<ref name="Jordan 1901">{{cite journal|last1=Jordan|first1=John|title=Biographical Sketch of Colonel Thomas Hartley, of the Pennsylvania Line|journal=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography|date=1901|volume=25|pages=303–306|url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-20085978|format=PDF}}</ref>}}
==External links== * [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12628917 Find A Grave Memorial] - includes a portrait from the York County (Pa.) Heritage Society dating from 1927 and thus not in the public domain.
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state = Pennsylvania | district = AL | before = ''District created'' | after = ''District eliminated'' | years = March 4, 1789 – March 3, 1791 | alongside = George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg, Thomas Scott, Henry Wynkoop, Daniel Hiester, and Peter G. Muhlenberg }} {{US House succession box | state = Pennsylvania | district = 7 | before = ''District created'' | after = ''District eliminated'' | years = March 4, 1791 – March 3, 1793 }} {{US House succession box | state = Pennsylvania | district = AL | before = ''District created'' | after = ''District eliminated'' | years = March 4, 1793 – March 3, 1795 | alongside= Thomas Fitzsimons, John W. Kittera, Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg, Thomas Scott, James Armstrong, Peter G. Muhlenberg, Andrew Gregg, Daniel Hiester, William Irvine, William Findley, John Smilie, and William Montgomery }} {{US House succession box | state=Pennsylvania | district=8 | before = ''District created'' | after=John Stewart | years = March 4, 1795 – December 21, 1800 }} {{s-end}}
{{US House Deans}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartley, Thomas}} Category:1748 births Category:1800 deaths Category:Politicians from Reading, Pennsylvania Category:Lawyers from colonial Pennsylvania Category:Pro-Administration Party United States representatives from Pennsylvania Category:Federalist Party United States representatives from Pennsylvania Category:Deans of the United States House of Representatives Category:Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Category:Politicians from York, Pennsylvania Category:Continental Army officers from Pennsylvania Category:United States representatives who owned slaves Category:18th-century United States representatives