159 



Independence began, he took up arms in the cause of his country; 

 and, rising rapidly to a prominent military position, was so fortunate 

 as to win the regard ot^the Commander in Chief. He was present at 

 the battle of Brandy wine; and, in the gloomy winter of 1777-8, 

 when the American army was quartered at Valley Forge, was ac- 

 tively engaged in procuring subsistence for our suffering troops. 

 Many letters from General Washington, written at this period, and 

 now in the possession of his descendants, attest his activity in 

 the Commissariat department, the urgency of the service he was en- 

 gaged in, and the confidence reposed in him by the Father of his 

 country. At the termination of the war of the revolution, he en- 

 gaged in business, as a Notary Public; and became well known in 

 commercial circles for his ability in adjusting marine losses. He pre- 

 served the friendship, and enjoyed the intimacy, of General Wash- 

 ington, until the close of the life of this great man ; and maintained 

 with him a familiar epistolary correspondence until within a few 

 weeks of the General's decease. By his wife, whose maiden name 

 was Rebecca Cornell, he had a numerous family, of which the sub- 

 ject of our obituary was the third son. 



Clement C. Biddle was born in this city on the 24th of October, 

 1784. His early education was received at the Academy of the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania, then under the superintendence of the Rev. 

 James Davidson. His scholastic training was not of long duration, 

 for, in February, ISOO, obtaining a midshipman's warrant, he v*ent 

 to sea, under the command of the elder Commodore Decatur. During 

 a cruise in the Mediterranean he was placed in charge of a prize, 

 which he brought successfully into port. After remaining about three 

 years in the navy, he quitted the service, and shortly afterwards vi- 

 sited England. This was a remarkable epoch, as Pitt and his emi- 

 nent rival were still living. — Mrs. Siddons and her gifted brother had 

 not yet retired from the stage. Flis reminiscences of the events of 

 this visit were always fresh; and were the source of much pleasure 

 to himself, and the friends to whom they were occasionally imparted. 

 On his return home he commenced the study of the law, under the 

 instruction of the late John Sergeant, who, although but a Cew years 

 his senior, was already known as a distinguished practitioner. Though 

 Mr. Biddle was regularly called to the bar, he never engaged in prac- 

 tice; for the insult offered to the United States, by the attack upon the 

 Chesapeake frigate occurring about this time, the whole nation was 

 aroused to an assertion of its rights against the pretensions of Great 



