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TILGHMAN, James, lawyer, born at the Hermitage, his family-seat, on Chester river, Maryland, 6 December, 1716; died in Chestertown, Maryland, 24 August, 1793. He was the grandson of Richard Tilghman, an eminent surgeon of London, who was one of those that petitioned for the life of King Charles I, and who emigrated to Maryland in 1660 and settled the Hermitage, which has ever since remained in the possession of his descendants. James studied law and entered on its practice at Annapolis, Maryland, whence he removed to Philadelphia about 1760. He was asked by John Penn in 1765 to become secretary of the land-office of Pennsylvania. Stipulating for a salary of £300 besides certain fees, he accepted the post and held it until the Revolution. He was chosen a common councilman of Philadelphia in 1764, and in 1767 became a member of the provincial council, which office he also held until the Revolution. At its beginning his views were liberal. He wished a repeal of the obnoxious acts of parliament, and thought the Boston port bill an outrage, but condemned the "Boston tea-party," and finally came to be regarded as a loyalist. On the approach of the British toward Philadelphia, he among others was placed under arrest by the authorities of the state and gave his parole. Permission was granted him, 31 August, 1777, to visit his family in Maryland and return within a month, before the end of which the British occupied Philadelphia, so he remained in Maryland. On 16 May, 1778, he was discharged from parole.-

 TILGHMAN, Matthew, patriot, -James's brother, born at the Hermitage, Queen Anne county, Maryland, 17 February, 1718 ; died there, 4 May, 1790, in 1741 married his cousin, Anne Lloyd, and was commissioned commander of a troop of horse for protecting the outlying settlements from the Indians, and also one "of the worshipful, the commissioners and justices of the peace for Talbot county." He was elected delegate to the general assembly of Maryland in 1751, and continued to be a member of the house of delegates until the provincial government was superseded by the state organization, 5 February, 1777. He was a member of the committee that was appointed in May, 1768, by the general assembly of Maryland to draft an address to the king protesting against the stamp-act. He was speaker of the house of delegates in 1773-'5 and president of the Revolutionary convention which from 1774 till 1777 controlled the province and directed its government. He was the chairman of the committee on correspondence that, was appointed in December, 1774, and of the counsel of safety of July, 1775, and was chairman of every delegation that was sent by the convention of Maryland to the Continental congress. In June, 1776, he was summoned from his seat in congress to attend the convention at Annapolis, and was president of the convention that framed the first constitution for the new state of Maryland. This circumstance alone prevented him from attaching his name to the Declaration of Independence, which he advocated both at Philadelphia and at Annapolis. He continued to represent his state in congress until 1777, when he resigned to accept the post to which he had been elected as senator from Talbot county in the senate of Maryland. He was re-elected in 1781, but resigned before his term had expired. His wisdom, courage, purity of character, and ability won for him the name of the patriarch of Maryland, and his influence was second to that of no man in forming the institutions and organizing the government of the new state. By his contemporaries he was considered one of the firmest and ablest advocates of civil and religious liberty of his time.

--James's son, William, jurist, born in Talbot county, Maryland, 12 August, 1756; died in Philadelphia, 30 April, 1827, studied law under Benjamin Chew, after the family had removed to Philadelphia, and was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1783 and sat in the legislature for several years after 1788. He began to practice in Philadelphia in 1793, was appointed chief judge of the United States circuit court, 3 March, 1801, but resumed practice when the law establishing the office was repealed in the following year. In July, 1805, he was appointed president of the court of common pleas in the first district, and in February, 1806, he became chief justice of the state supreme court. He was elected president of the American philosophical society in 1824. By direction of the legislature he prepared in 1809 a report of the English statutes in force in Pennsylvania. He published "Eulogium in Commemoration of Dr. Caspar Wistar," delivered before the Philosophical society of Philadelphia (1818), and "Address before the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture" (1820).

--Another son of James, Teneh, soldier, born in Talbot county, Maryland, 25 December, 1744; died in Baltimore, Maryland. 18 April, 1786, began life as a merchant in Philadelphia, but at the beginning of the Revolution became lieutenant in a company from Philadelphia that was known as the Ladies' light infantry. He was appointed secretary and treasurer to the commission that was sent by congress, 13 July, 1775, to treat with the Six Nations and other northern Indians, joined the army under Washington early in 1776 as captain of a company of infantry from Pennsylvania, and in August, 1776, became military secretary and aide upon the commander-in-chief's staff. He served in this post to the end of the war, participating in all the principal battles in which the army was engaged. On 30 May, 1781, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, to take rank from 1 April, 1777, having, -with great delicacy, declined to rank from an earlier date to which he was entitled, because he would thereby take precedence of his seniors in the service. On the surrender of Cornwallis he was selected by Washington to bear his despatch to congress announcing that event. Leaving Yorktown, 19 October, he reached Philadelphia at midnight on 23 October, when his news that "Cornwallis is taken " was immediately proclaimed by the watchman. He was voted the thanks of congress, a sword, and a horse with accoutrements, for this service. After the war he became a merchant in Baltimore. He married Anna Maria, daughter of his uncle Matthew.--William's cousin, Edward, lawyer, born in Wye, Maryland, 11 December, 1750; died 1 November, 1815, was educated in Philadelphia and studied in the Middle Temple, London, in 1772-'4. He was for many years a successful practitioner at the Philadelphia bar, and on the death of Chief-Justice Edward Shippen the office was tendered to him. He declined it, but recommended for the office his kinsman, William.--Matthew's great-grandson, Lloyd, soldier, born in Talbot county, Maryland, in 1816; died near Vicksburg, Mississippi, 16 May, 1863, entered the United States military academy, was graduated in 1836, and assigned to the 1st dragoons. He became full 2d lieutenant, 4 July, 1836, but resigned on 30 September and entered on the business of a civil engineer. He was division engineer of the Baltimore and Susquehanna railroad in 1836-'7, of the Norfolk and Wilmington canal in 1837-'8, the Eastern Shore railroad of Maryland in 1838-'9, and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad in 1839-'40. He served in the war with Mexico as volunteer aide to General David E. Twiggs at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and was captain of the Maryland and District of Columbia battalion of volunteers from 14 August, 1847, until it was disbanded, 13 July, 1848. He then served as principal assistant engineer of the Panama division of the Isthmus railroad, and was engineer on southern railroads till 1859. He joined the Confederate army in 1861, was commissioned brigadier-general in 1862, and surrendered at Fort Henry in February of that year. He was exchanged in July, and killed at the battle of Champion Hill.--Tench, soldier, great-grandson of James's brother Richard, born in Plimhimmon, Talbot County, Maryland, 25 March, 1810: died in Baltimore, Maryland, 22 December, 1874, was graduated at the United States military academy in 1832, and was assigned to the 4th artillery, but resigned, 30 November, 1833, and was a farmer at Oxford, Maryland, till his death. He was brigadier-general of Maryland militia in 1837-'60 and major-general in 1860-'1, state commissioner of public works in 1841-'51, and superintendent of the military department of the Maryland military academy, Oxford, in 1847-'57. In 1849-'50 he was United States consul at Mayaguez, Porto Rico. He projected the Maryland and Delaware railroad, was unwearied in his efforts to build it, and served as its president in 1855-'61. In 1858-'60 he was president or the National agricultural society. General Tilghman was for many years at the head of the Maryland Society of the Cincinnati, and at his death he was also treasurer-general of the order in the United States. From 1857 till 1860 he was collector of customs for the port of Oxford, Maryland--His kinsman, Richard Lloyd, naval officer, great-grandson of James's brother. William, born in Kent county, Maryland, 20 April, 1810; died in 1867, entered the United States navy as a midshipman, 27 October, 1830, promoted to lieutenant, 8 September, 1841, and during the Mexican war served with Commander Robert P. Stockton in the Pacific in the "Congress" and " Cyane," and participating in the conquest of California, the capture of Mazathm, Guaymas, and La Paz, and in the operations incident to these victories. He commanded the brig "Perry" on the Brazil station from 1857 till 1860, during the Paraguayan war. He returned home during the excitement before the civil war, on 23 April, 1861, resigned from the navy, and died soon after the close of the war.

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