{{short description|American politician (1744–1811)}} {{More footnotes needed|date=April 2010}} {{use mdy dates|date=June 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Thomas Rodney | office = Chief Justice of Mississippi | term_start = August 1, 1803 | term_end = January 2, 1811 | office2 = Associate Justice<br>Delaware Supreme Court | term_start2 = December 17, 1802 | term_end2 = August 1, 1803 | office3 = Continental Congressman<br>from Delaware | term_start3 = November 4, 1785 | term_end3 = February 3, 1787 | predecessor3 = | successor3 = | term_start4 = April 8, 1784 | term_end4 = October 26, 1784 | predecessor4 = | successor4 = | term_start5 = February 10, 1781 | term_end5 = February 2, 1782 | predecessor5 = | successor5 = | birth_date = {{birth date|1744|6|4}} | birth_place = Kent County, Delaware Colony | death_date = {{death date and age|1811|1|2|1744|6|4}} | death_place = Natchez, Mississippi | party = Democratic-Republican | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = }}
'''Thomas Rodney''' (June 4, 1744 – January 2, 1811) was an American lawyer and politician from Jones Neck in St. Jones Hundred, Kent County, Delaware, and Natchez, Mississippi. He was a Continental Congressman from Delaware, and a member of the Democratic-Republican Party who served in the Delaware General Assembly, as Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, and as federal judge for the Mississippi Territory. He was the younger brother of Caesar Rodney, Revolutionary President of Delaware.
==Family and early life== {{See also|Rodney family of Delaware}} Rodney was born June 4, 1744, at Byfield, his family's farm at Jones Neck, in Dover Hundred, Kent County, Delaware. It is just north of John Dickinson's mansion, Poplar Hall. He was the son of Caesar and Mary Crawford Rodney, and grandson of William Rodney, who came to America in the 1680s and had been Speaker of the Colonial Assembly of the Lower Counties in 1704. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Crawford, Anglican priest at Dover. Byfield was an {{convert|800|acre|km2|adj=on}} farm where the work was done by enslaved people, and with the addition of other adjacent properties, the Rodneys were, by the standards of the day, wealthy members of the local gentry. Sufficient income was earned from the sale of wheat and barley to the Philadelphia and West Indies market to provide enough cash and leisure to allow members of the family to participate in the social and political life of Kent County. Rodney's father died in 1745, when he was an infant, and his much older brother, Caesar Rodney, became much involved in his rearing and education.
==Political career== Rodney was very active in local politics, as well as the broader range of those elements affecting Delaware as whole. As early as 1770 he was a Justice of the Peace for Kent County and through the years he held many other local offices. He was a Colonel in the county's militia, and was involved in a number of actions during the American Revolutionary War.
In 1774 Thomas was a delegate to the state convention that elected his brother Caesar to be their delegate to the Continental Congress. Caesar went on to sign the Declaration of Independence. Meanwhile, Thomas was named to the state's ''Committee of Safety''. Thomas in turn was sent as a delegate to the Congress in 1781 and 1782. He was elected to the Congress annually from 1785 to 1787, but attended sessions only in 1786. Through these same years Thomas was also a member in Delaware's state Assembly, and served as its Speaker of the House in 1787.
On December 17, 1802, Rodney became an associate justice of Delaware's Supreme Court. He would serve only until August 1803. He resigned since President Jefferson appointed him as the chief justice for the Mississippi Territory where he doubled as a land commissioner of the district west of Pearl River.<ref>Gratz, Simon, and Thomas Rodney. “Thomas Rodney.” ''The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'', vol. 44, no. 1, 1920, p. 47. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/20086402 JSTOR website] Retrieved 26 Mar. 2025.</ref> He bought land in what was then Jefferson County, Mississippi, and moved to Natchez to assume his new duties as the senior federal judge for the Mississippi Territory from 1803 to 1811. Writing to his son, Caesar, he lamented in 1806 that the presidential appointments to the nascent government across the river in Louisiana had been disappointing as some of them were 'sots'.<ref>Gratz, Simon, and Thomas Rodney. “Thomas Rodney (Continued).” ''The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'', vol. 44, no. 3, 1920, p. 282. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/20086419 JSTOR website] Retrieved 26 Mar. 2025.</ref> A Mississippi Territoy grand jury failed to indict Aaron Burr and received a stern rebuke from Judge Rodney on February 3, 1807 due to its partisan action.<ref>J.F.H. Claiborne. (1880). ''Mississippi, as a province, territory, and state, with biographical notices of eminent citizens : Vol. 1''. Jackson, Mississippi.: Power and Barksdale, Publishers and Printers. p. 284. [https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/556699313 HathiTrust website] Retrieved 27 March 2025.</ref>
==Death and legacy== Thomas Rodney died January 2, 1811, at Natchez, Mississippi. The community of Rodney, in Jefferson County, Mississippi, is named in his honor. His son, Caesar A. Rodney, served as the U.S. representative from Delaware, U.S. senator from Delaware, U.S. attorney general and U.S. minister to Argentina.
==Public offices== At this time Delaware elections were held the first of October. Members of the House of Assembly took office on the twentieth day of October for a term of one year. Seven Assemblymen were elected, at large, from each county. The General Assembly chose the Continental Congressmen for a term of one year.
{| class=wikitable style="width:94%" style="text-align: center;" align="center" |- bgcolor=#cccccc ! Office ! Type ! Location ! Elected ! Took office ! Left office ! Notes |-{{Party shading/Anti-Administration}} | Kent County Courts | Judiciary | New Castle | | 1770 | | Justice of the Peace |-{{Party shading/Anti-Jacksonian}} | State House | Legislature | Dover | October 1, 1781 | October 20, 1781 | October 20, 1782 | |-{{Party shading/Anti-Masonic}} | Continental Congress | Legislature | Philadelphia | February 10, 1781 | February 10, 1781 | February 2, 1782 | |-{{Party shading/Anti-Masonic}} | Continental Congress | Legislature | Annapolis | April 8, 1784 | April 8, 1784 | June 3, 1784 | never attended |-{{Party shading/Anti-Masonic}} | Continental Congress | Legislature | New York | November 4, 1785 | November 7, 1785 | November 3, 1786 | |-{{Party shading/Anti-Jacksonian}} | State House | Legislature | Dover | October 1, 1786 | October 20, 1786 | October 20, 1787 | |-{{Party shading/Anti-Masonic}} | Continental Congress | Legislature | New York | October 27, 1786 | November 6, 1786 | October 30, 1787 | never attended |-{{Party shading/Anti-Jacksonian}} | State House | Legislature | Dover | October 1, 1787 | October 20, 1787 | October 20, 1788 | Speaker |-{{Party shading/Anti-Masonic}} | U.S. Judge | Judiciary | Natchez | | 1803 | 1811 | Mississippi Territory |-{{Party shading/Anti-Masonic}} | Land commissioner | Judiciary | Natchez | | 1802 | 1811 | Mississippi Territory |- |}
== See also == * List of Mississippi Territory judges
==Citations== {{reflist|2}}
==References== *{{cite book |last=Barthelmas |first=D. G. |year=1977 |title=The Signers of the Declaration of Independence: A Biographical and Genealogical Record |publisher=McFarland Press |location=Jefferson, NC}} *{{cite book |last=Coleman |first=John M. |year=1984 |title=Thomas McKean, Forgotten Leader of the Revolution |publisher=American Faculty Press |location=Rockaway, NJ |isbn=0-912834-07-2}} *{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Roger A. |year=1995 |title=Memoirs of the Senate |publisher=Roger A. Martin |location=Newark, DE }} *{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Roger A. |year=1984 |title=A History of Delaware Through its Governors |publisher=McClafferty Press |location=Wilmington, DE }} *{{cite book |last=Munroe |first=John A. |year=2004 |title=The Philadelawareans |publisher=University of Delaware Press |location=Newark, DE |isbn=0-87413-872-8}} *{{cite book |last=Munroe |first=John A. |year=1954 |title=Federalist Delaware 1775-1815 |publisher=Rutgers University |location=New Brunswick, NJ}} *{{cite book |last=Rowe |first=G. S. |year=1984 |title=Thomas McKean, The Shaping of an American Republicanism |publisher=Colorado Associated University Press |location=Boulder, CO |isbn=0-87081-100-2}} *{{cite book |last=Scott |first=Jane Harrington |year=2000 |title=A Gentleman as Well as a Whig |publisher=University of Delaware Press |location=Newark, DE |isbn=0-87413-700-4}} *{{cite book |last=Ward |first=Christopher L. |year=1941 |title=The Delaware Continentals, 1776-1783 |publisher=Historical Society of Delaware |location=Wilmington, DE |isbn=0-924117-21-4}}
==External links== *{{cite web |last=Goodrich |first=The Rev. Charles A. |year=1856 |url=http://www.colonialhall.com/rodney/rodney.php |title=Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence |publisher=Colonial Hall |access-date=2006-06-01 }} *{{cite web |last=Kestenbaum |first=Lawrence |year=2005 |url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/rodgers-rodriguez.html#RAQ0LI4VG |title=The Political Graveyard |access-date=2006-06-01 }} *{{cite web |last=Scharf |first=John Thomas |year=1888 |url=http://www.accessible.com/amcnty/DE/Delaware/titlepage.htm |title=History of Delaware 1609-1888 |publisher=Accessible Archives, Inc |access-date= 2006-06-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060510061559/http://www.accessible.com/amcnty/DE/Delaware/titlepage.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=2006-05-10}} *{{cite web |last=U.S. Congress |year=2005 |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000380 |title=Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress |access-date= 2006-06-01 }}
===Places with more information=== *Delaware Historical Society [http://www.hsd.org/ website], 505 Market St., Wilmington, Delaware (302) 655-7161 *University of Delaware [http://www.lib.udel.edu/ Library website], 181 South College Ave., Newark, Delaware (302) 831-2965 *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060821124212/http://www.co.new-castle.de.us/libraries/newark/library1.asp Newark Free Library] 750 Library Ave., Newark Delaware (302) 731-7550. *[http://www.corbitlibrary.org/ Corbit-Calloway Memorial Library] 2nd and High St. Odessa, Delaware (302) 378-8838. *Rodney, Mississippi [http://www.southpoint.com/states/ms/rodney.htm Rodney, Mississippi] Mississippi town named after Thomas Rodney
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodney, Thomas}} Category:1744 births Category:1811 deaths Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:Continental Congressmen from Delaware Category:Delaware lawyers Category:Mississippi Territory judges Category:People from Kent County, Delaware Category:Politicians from Natchez, Mississippi Category:Speakers of the Delaware House of Representatives Thomas Category:State public land commissioners of the United States