Editing Caesar Rodney (section)

==Professional and political career==
[[Thomas Rodney]] described his brother at this time as having a "great fund of wit and humor of the pleasing kind, so that his conversation was always bright and strong and conducted by wisdom..."<ref name="Deck">{{cite book|last1=Decker|first1=Ann|title=The coalition of the two brothers : Caesar and Thomas Rodney and the making of the American Revolution in Delaware|date=7 December 2005|publisher= Theses and Dissertations. Paper 918.|location=Lehigh University|page=19}}</ref> He lived as a bachelor, was generally esteemed and was indeed very popular. He had professed his love and affection for several Delaware ladies at various times but was never a successful suitor.<ref name="Dssi" />  Accordingly, he easily moved into the political world formerly occupied by his father and guardian.

At age twenty-seven in 1755, he was elected sheriff of Kent County and served the maximum three years allowed.<ref name=Dssi /> This was a powerful and financially rewarding position, in that it supervised elections and chose the grand jurors who set the county tax rate. After serving his three years, he was appointed to a series of positions including Register of Wills, Recorder of Deeds, Clerk of the Orphan's Court, Justice of the Peace, and judge in the lower courts. During the French and Indian War, he was commissioned captain of the [[Dover Hundred]] company in Col. John Vining's regiment of the Delaware militia.<ref name=Mar>{{cite book|last1=Marchi|first1=Daniel H|title=Past Future Power Belongs to the Reserved Power Clause|date=30 October 2013|publisher=AuthorHouse|page=364}}</ref> They never saw active service. From 1769 through 1777, he was an associate justice of the [[Delaware Supreme Court|Supreme Court of the Lower Counties]].

Eighteenth-century Delaware was politically divided into loose factions known as the "Court Party" and the "Country Party."<ref name=Mar /> The majority Court Party was generally Anglican, strongest in Kent and [[Sussex County, Delaware|Sussex]] Counties, worked well with the colonial proprietary government, and was in favor of reconciliation with the British government. The minority Country Party was largely [[Ulster Scots people|Ulster-Scot]], centered in [[New Castle County, Delaware|New Castle County]], and quickly advocated independence from the British. In spite of being members of the Anglican Kent County gentry, Rodney and his brother Thomas increasingly aligned themselves with the Country Party, a distinct minority in Kent County.<ref name=Mar /> As such, he generally worked in partnership with [[Thomas McKean]] from New Castle County and in opposition to [[George Read (American politician, born 1733)|George Read]].