Career
Benjamin Chew was Speaker of the Lower House for the Delaware counties (1753–1758); Attorney General and member of the Council of Pennsylvania (1754–1769); Recorder of Philadelphia City (1755–1774); Master of Rolls (1755–1774); and Provincial Councillor of Pennsylvania (1755).
In 1757 he began private practice, which was his chief pursuit for years, somewhat reducing his political appointments in the Quaker government. That year, he was also elected a trustee of The Academy and College of Philadelphia (the origins of the University of Pennsylvania) and continued as such until 1791. He also taught numerous law students. Foremost among Benjamin Chew's law students were Brigade Major Edward Tilghman and Judge William Tilghman. "These Tilghmans were so successful in the law that they were both offered the post of State Chief Justice in 1805."
He was selected as a Commissioner of Philadelphia (1761); appointed as Register-General of Wills (1765–1777); and as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (1774–1777). During the American Revolutionary War, the Executive Council governing the new state removed him from office in 1777 and kept him in preventive detention in New Jersey until after the British forces left the Philadelphia region.
After the war, Chew resumed a position of influence in the new society and, eventually, its government. He was appointed as Judge and President of the High Court of Errors and Appeals (1791–1808).
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