John Goodman (1763–1851), public official, was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and educated at the Germantown Academy. He was present with the Continental army at the Battle of Trenton in 1776. From 1803–06 Goodman sat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Governor Thomas McKean appointed him a justice of the peace for Philadelphia County on the termination of his term as representative, and he served in this position until about 1833. Goodman became a notary public for Philadelphia County in 1809, working in this capacity until about 1842, and he was appointed prothonotary of the district court in 1822. During the War of 1812 he served as a colonel commanding a militia unit and as secretary of Philadelphia’s Committee of Defence. Between 1835–37 Goodman was an alderman. He retired from business about 1843, and he owned real estate valued at $22,000 seven years later. Goodman died in Philadelphia (Henry Simpson, The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians [1859], 428–31; Philadelphia city directories; Philadelphia Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 29 Aug. 1814; DNA: RG 29, CS, Philadelphia, 1850; Philadelphia North American and United States Gazette, 25 Mar. 1851).

Joseph Reed (1772–1846), attorney and public official, was born in Philadelphia, studied briefly at the Moravian School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1792 from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University). Soon after that he began practicing law in Philadelphia, and he was appointed clerk of the city’s court of quarter sessions in 1796. Reed served as prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania beginning about 1806, Philadelphia city solicitor in 1810, state attorney general, 1810–11, and city recorder, 1810–29. He retired from the law about 1829. Reed edited volumes 6–10 of The Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1822–44), covering the statutes of the legislative sessions between 1812–13 and 1829–30. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1816. Reed died in Philadelphia (Princetonians description begins James McLachlan and others, eds., Princetonians: A Biographical Dictionary, 1976–90, 5 vols. description ends , 1791–94, pp. 211–7; Philadelphia Minerva, 12 Nov. 1796; John Hill Martin, Martin’s Bench and Bar of Philadelphia [1883], 83, 88, 97, 188–9, 305; APS description begins American Philosophical Society description ends , Minutes, 9 Jan. 1816 [MS in PPAmP]; Philadelphia North American, 6 Mar. 1846).

Isaac Boyer (ca. 1773–1821), merchant, was working as a grocer in Philadelphia by 1799 as a partner in the firm of Boyer & Morton. After this company dissolved in 1800, Boyer continued to operate a grocery business and in 1809 was a partner in the firm of Boyer & Wilt. He continued as a merchant for the remainder of his life. Boyer commanded a militia regiment in 1815–16, ran unsuccessfully for state senator in 1815, and served on Philadelphia’s Select Council, 1819–20. He died in Philadelphia (Cornelius William Stafford, The Philadelphia Directory, for 1799 [Philadelphia, 1799], 24; Philadelphia Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser, 29 Aug. 1800; Philadelphia Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 11 Feb. 1806, 29 Aug. 1809, 2 Feb. 1811, 12 Oct. 1815; James Robinson, The Philadelphia Directory for 1807 [Philadelphia, 1807]; Philadelphia Tickler, 18 Sept. 1811; Philadelphia Weekly Aurora, 10 Oct. 1815, 21 Sept. 1816; Journal of the twenty fifth House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania [Harrisburg, 1814], 374 [13 Feb. 1815]; Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania [Harrisburg, 1816], 221; John Bioren, Bioren’s Pennsylvania Pocket Remembrancer, for the year 1819 [Philadelphia, (1818)]; Bioren, Bioren’s Pennsylvania Pocket Remembrancer for the year 1820 [Philadelphia, (1819)]; The Philadelphia Directory and Register, for 1821 [Philadelphia, 1821]; Robert Desilver, The Philadelphia Index, or Directory, for 1823 [Philadelphia, 1823]; Boston Commercial Gazette, 28 June 1821).

William John Duane (1780–1865), attorney and public official, was the son of the publisher and TJ correspondent William Duane. The younger Duane was born in Clonmel, Ireland, and grew up there and in London. The Duane family moved to Philadelphia in 1796, where Duane worked in his father’s various printing concerns there until 1806. He then became a paper merchant. Duane served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1809, 1812, and 1819. He began to study law in 1812 and was admitted to the bar three years later. From 1820–23 he served as prosecuting attorney for the mayor’s court of Philadelphia, and in 1829 he was elected to the city’s Select Council. In 1831 President Andrew Jackson appointed Duane a commissioner under a treaty with Denmark, and in 1833 he served briefly as secretary of the treasury before Jackson dismissed him for refusing to withdraw government deposits from the Second Bank of the United States without congressional consent. He died in Philadelphia (DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ; Biographical Memoir of William J. Duane [1868]; Martin, Martin’s Bench and Bar of Philadelphia, 264; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 4:170, 172 [2, 3 Mar. 1831]; Philadelphia North American and United States Gazette, 27 Sept. 1865; gravestone inscription in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia).

An “Independent Republican Convention” in Carlisle nominated Hiester for governor of Pennsylvania on 4 Mar. 1817. Goodman, Reed, Boyer, Duane, and John W. Thompson were chosen to represent the city and county of Philadelphia on a statewide “grand committee of correspondence” to advance his cause (Philadelphia Weekly Aurora, 10 Mar. 1817).