William Montgomery

Who was William Montgomery?

William Montgomery was an American jurist and politician from Chester County, Pennsylvania. He represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives from 1793 until 1795.

Born in Mill Creek Hundred, Delaware, Montgomery served during the American Revolutionary War as a Pennsylvania provincial delegate in 1775 and 1776 and as Colonel of the Fourth Battalion of Chester County Militia and of the First Pennsylvania Regiment of Washington's Flying Camp. He moved to Northumberland County in 1776 and became a member of the state assembly beginning in 1779. Montgomery was called upon to settle boundary disputes in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, in 1783. Although elected to the Continental Congress in 1784, Montgomery did not serve.

Montgomery was appointed presiding judge of Northumberland and Luzerne Counties in 1785 and deputy surveyor of parts of Northumberland County in 1783. He became a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate in 1790, Northumberland associate judge in 1791, and Anti-Administration representative to the United States Congress from 1793 to 1795. Montgomery served as a major general in the Pennsylvania militia for fourteen years, beginning in 1793.