DelaWho?Gunning Bedford, Jr.
1747-1812

 

Gunning Bedford, Jr., was born in Philadelphia to Gunning and Susannah (Jacquett) Bedford.  He graduated from Princeton in 1771.  Bedford then studied law in Philadelphia and became a member of the bar. About the same time he married Jane Ballareau Parker.  Bedford moved to Delaware, first to Dover, then to Wilmington, and much later to a farm on the Brandywine.  He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1783 – 1785, and served as Delaware's attorney general from 1784 to 1789.  He was a delegate to the Annapolis Convention in 1786,  but did not attend the meeting. In 1787 Bedford became a very outspoken member of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.  During the convention Bedford was an ardent proponent of the rights of the small states, even suggesting at one point that the small states might seek foreign alliances if they did not receive protection in the new Constitution.  Bedford was a delegate to Delaware's ratification convention. President George Washington appointed him as a judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, where he served until his death.