Colonel Jonathan Bayard Smith

Jonathan Smith was born in 1742, in Philadelphia, the second of three sons born to Samuel & Mary (Harrison) Smith. He graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1760 (renamed Princeton in the 1880’s) then joined his father’s successful mercantile business. In 1768, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society, the United States’ oldest learned society, started by Benjamin Franklin and others in 1743. Jonathan married Susannah Bayard and adopted her maiden name as his middle name to distinguish himself from other Jonathan Smiths in Philadelphia. They had one child, Samuel Harrison Smith born in 1772 and lived just north of Philadelphia, on 22 acres, in Northern Liberties Township.

The revolution was beginning to heat up, especially in Boston, where the Sons of Liberty met on August 14, 1765, at the Tree of Liberty to discuss the Stamp Act. From the beginning, Jonathan played a prominent role in the protests against the measures of the mother country. A Presbyterian, he advocated for taking up arms against the tyranny of King George III despite living in a largely Quaker area. He joined the militia and served as a captain, a lieutenant colonel, and then a colonel. Jonathan was part of the Provincial Conference of Committees in 1774, 1775 and 1776. In the latter two years he served as secretary. He worked with Dr. Benjamin Rush and others including his wife’s cousin, Major John Bayard, to document the course of action to be pursued by those desiring liberty.

On December 1, 1776, he participated in a “real Whigs”, or Patriots, meeting as Gen. Howe’s army approached Philadelphia. They passed a resolution recommending that every man between 16 and 50 be ordered under arms for the defense of the state until the assembly should pass a militia law.

On June 3, at the request of George Washington, it was resolved that a “flying camp” be established in the middle colonies. A flying camp was a mobile reserve of troops. On July 4, delegations from 53 battalions were in Lancaster choosing 6,000 troops for the flying camp. Five days later the Continental Congress elected Jonathan as the Deputy Muster Master-General of the flying camp.

Jonathan knew many now famous Revolutionary era Americans. For example, on August 28, 1776, he wrote to John Adams regarding Christopher Ludwick, a Hessian baker who provided bread for the flying camp. Ludwick also entered Hessen camps in disguise and encouraged Hessian troops to desert, with some success. On September 25, 1776, Jonathan sent his resignation from the Gying camp to John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress. Two days later it was accepted.

Jonathan likely resigned from the flying camp because he was chosen to be part of a citizens’ meeting to formulate a state constitution. He was the secretary of the meeting on November 2, 1776. He was also elected to congress and in 1777 served in the Fourth Battalion as a Lt. Col. under his wife’s cousin, Colonel John Bayard. By years end, he had his own battalion.

While Jonathan both served and commanded, the only major battle in which he was known to be engaged was on September 11, 1777, the Battle of Brandywine. This was the longest single-day battle in the war, lasting 11 hours of continuous fighting. It also included the most troops in any battle of the war and was the Marquis de Lafayette’s first battle of the American Revolution.

Jonathan’s contributions to the war and independence were more prominent off the battlefield than on it. After Brandywine, he resigned from Congress on September 13, 1777, to defend Philadelphia as the British moved in. He was re-elected to Congress three months later, in December. In January, he became a member of the Board of War. During 1778, he served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. The Articles of Confederation were adopted on November 15, 1777, before Jonathan became a member. However, states did not start ratifying it until July 9, 1778. Jonathan, along with 4 others, were among the first to sign the Articles, ratifying it for Pennsylvania and earning him the designation of a Founding Father.

As the war continued, Jonathan took other positions. For a year and a half, he was the chief clerk of the court of common pleas. During that time, three days before signing the Articles of Confederation, he was appointed a justice of the court of common pleas. Because of this appointment, he again resigned from Congress.

The following year, he was a founder of the University of the State of Pennsylvania and a member of the board of trustees. In 1791 the university merged with the College of Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin and others in 1749, and became the University of Pennsylvania, America’s oldest university. Smith was a trustee until his death and a trustee for the College of New Jersey, his alma mater, for 29 years.

Jonathan Bayard Smith was a chief council for The Society of the Sons of Saint Tammany of Philadelphia, a group that celebrated the collaboration between the natives and the Pennsylvania Quakers. He was an alderman, or council member, for Philadelphia huge honor at the time. He was Auditor General of Pennsylvania, a grand master of the Masons, and the vice president of the Sons of Washington.

Jonathan, a strong supporter of the Articles of Confederation, believed in a small government. He rejected the Constitutional Convention fearing it would advocate for a stronger and larger federal government. He met with George Bryan several times in August of 1787 regarding the Convention. Their efforts forced the Congress to produce the Bill of Rights which limited the government’s authority and reach.

The feud between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, is well known and was not resolved until the later years of their lives. However, the story that fueled that fire involves our Patriot. In response to Edmund Burke’s criticism of the Revolution in France, Thomas Paine wrote “Rights of Man”. John Beckley received a copy published in London and gave it to Thomas Jefferson apparently with a request that he forward it to the printer. That printer was Jonathan’s 19-year-old son, Samuel Harrison Smith, who was four years out of college and already known as a printer.  Jefferson hastily composed a note to Jonathan Bayard Smith thinking he was the brother of Samuel, not his father. Samuel printed “Rights of Man” with part of Jefferson’s letter as a preface, crediting the “Secretary of State” instead of “Thomas Jefferson” as the author of the comments. It became an embarrassing moment for Jefferson as it looked like an endorsed position from a government official instead of an individual’s opinion. With the Secretary’s unofficial commendation, Paine’s pamphlet, the First American edition of “Rights of Man,” went directly and publicly in the face of Vice-President Adams and forced Jefferson into the political light, which he never wanted. It brought their private differences to the public eye. However, if it had not happened, Jefferson and Adams may not have been pitted against each other. It was this disagreement that led Jefferson to run against Adams in 1796 & again in 1800, when he won the presidency.

Jonathan died on June 16, 1812. He was buried next to his wife in the Second Presbyterian Church graveyard. In 1867, it was closed, and 2,500 graves were moved to Mount Vernon Cemetery, including those of the Smiths.

Written by Pamela Jean Adams, Colonel Jonathan Bayard Smith, NSDAR Chapter member.