DAVID RITTENHOUSE. 

 1732-1796. 



" As a citizen of Pennsylvania," says William Barton, in 

 the preface to his Memoirs of the Life of David Ritten- 

 house; "as an inestimable public and private character; as 

 a distinguished son of science, of great probity and extensive 

 usefulness in society in all these points of view, the history 

 of Dr. Rittenhouse may be contemplated as holding a rela- 

 tionship with almost every object connected with science and 

 art in his day that could in any way contribute to the well- 

 being of mankind in general and his native country in particu- 

 lar." He, in fact, acquired a fame in the period of the infancy 

 of American science, the nature and extent of which can 

 hardly be realized in this day ; and his gifts, then regarded as 

 extraordinary, were always freely placed at the service of the 

 public. 



David Rittenhouse was born in Roxborough Township, 

 near Germantown, Pa., April 8, 1732, and died in Philadelphia, 

 June 26, 1796. He was descended from a family of paper- 

 makers residing at Arnheim, Guelderland. His great-grand- 

 father, Wilhelm Rittinghuysen, came from Holland with his 

 family in i687-'88; he was the first Mennonite minister in 

 Pennsylvania ; and established the first paper mill in this coun- 

 try, at the spot where David was born. David's grandfather, 

 Nicholas, continued in the hereditary industry of his family, 

 and his father, Matthias, was brought up in it. Matthias Rit- 

 tenhouse, in 1727, married Elizabeth, daughter of Evan Wil- 

 liam, a native of Wales. Barton, who was her grandson, 

 credits her with " a cheerful temper," and " a mind uncom- 

 monly vigorous and comprehensive," but states she had re- 

 ceived very little education, owing to her having been left an 

 orphan at an early age. 



David was the third child and the eldest of four sons in a 



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