Editing William Paterson (judge)

{{Short description|US Supreme Court justice from 1793 to 1806}}
{{redirect|Justice Paterson|other similarly named justices|Justice Patterson (disambiguation){{!}}Justice Patterson}}
{{redirect|Senator Paterson}}
{{other people||William Paterson (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2012}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = William Paterson
| image               = William Paterson copy.jpg
| office              = [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
| nominator           = [[George Washington]]
| term_start          = March 11, 1793<!--Term start date as per www.supremecourt.gov, reflects date tenure began-->
| term_end            = September 9, 1806<ref name=SCOTUSjustices>{{cite web| url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx| title= Justices 1789 to Present| publisher=Supreme Court of the United States| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 15, 2022}}</ref>
| predecessor         = [[Thomas Johnson (jurist)|Thomas Johnson]]
| successor           = [[Henry Brockholst Livingston|Henry Livingston]]
| office1             = 2nd [[List of Governors of New Jersey|Governor of New Jersey]]
| term_start1         = October 29, 1790
| term_end1           = March 30, 1793
| predecessor1        = [[Elisha Lawrence]] {{small|(acting)}}
| successor1          = [[Thomas Henderson (New Jersey politician)|Thomas Henderson]] {{small|(acting)}}
| jr/sr2              = United States Senator
| state2              = [[New Jersey]]
| term_start2         = March 4, 1789
| term_end2           = November 13, 1790
| predecessor2        = Seat established
| successor2          = [[Philemon Dickinson]]
| office3             = [[New Jersey Attorney General|Attorney General of New Jersey]]
| governor3           = [[William Livingston]]
| term_start3         = 1776
| term_end3           = 1783
| predecessor3        = Position established
| successor3          = [[Joseph Bloomfield]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1745|12|24}}
| birth_place         = [[County Antrim]], [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]]
| death_date          = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|1806|9|9|1745|12|24}}}}
| death_place         = [[Albany, New York|Albany]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
| party               = [[Federalist Party|Federalist]]
| spouse              = {{plainlist|
*{{marriage|Cornelia Bell|1779|1783|end=died}}
*{{marriage|Euphemia White|1785}}
}}
| children            = 3
| education           = [[Princeton University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Master of Arts|MA]])
| signature           = Signature of William Paterson (1745–1806).png
| allegiance          = [[File:Flag of the United States (1776–1777).svg|23px]] [[United Colonies of North America]]
| branch              = [[File:Seal of the United States Board of War and Ordnance.svg|23px]] [[Continental Army]]
| unit                = [[File:Flag of New Jersey.svg|23px]] [[2nd New Jersey Regiment|Somerset County Battalion of 2nd New Jersey Regiment]]
| battles             = [[American Revolutionary War]]
| rank                = [[Officer (armed forces)|Commissioned Officer]]
}}
'''William Paterson''' (December 24, 1745 – September 9, 1806) was an American statesman, lawyer, jurist, and signer of the [[Constitution of the United States|United States Constitution]]. He was an [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|Associate Justice]] of the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]], the second [[governor of New Jersey]], and a [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Father of the United States]].

Born in [[County Antrim]], Ireland, Paterson moved to the North American British colonies at a young age. After graduating from the College of New Jersey (now [[Princeton University]]) and studying law under [[Richard Stockton (Continental Congressman)|Richard Stockton]], he was admitted to the bar in 1768. He helped write the 1776 [[Constitution of New Jersey]] and served as the [[New Jersey Attorney General]] from 1776 to 1783. He represented New Jersey at the 1787 [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Philadelphia Convention]], where he proposed the [[New Jersey Plan]], which would have provided for equal representation among the states in [[United States Congress|Congress]].

After the ratification of the Constitution, Paterson served in the [[United States Senate]] from 1789 to 1790, helping to draft the [[Judiciary Act of 1789]]. He resigned from the Senate to take office as governor of New Jersey. In 1793, he accepted appointment by President [[George Washington]] to serve as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. He served on the court until his death in 1806.

==Early life==
William Paterson was born December 24, 1745, in County Antrim, Ireland, to Richard Paterson, an [[Ulster Protestants|Ulster Protestant]].<ref name="Glazier 1999 p. 185">{{cite book|last=McCarthy|first=Joseph F. X.|editor-last=Glazier|editor-first=Michael|title=The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America|year=1999|chapter=The Constitution of the United States|place=[[Notre Dame, Indiana|Notre Dame, IN]]|publisher=[[University of Notre Dame Press]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofir0000unse/page/185 185]|isbn=978-0-268-02755-1|quote=[Thomas Fitzsimons] was one of the two Catholic delegates to the Convention (Daniel Carroll was the other).|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofir0000unse/page/185}}</ref> Paterson immigrated with his parents to [[New Castle, Pennsylvania]], in 1747.<ref name="U.S. Congress Bio Directory">{{cite web|title=PATERSON, William - Biographical Information|work=[[Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]]|publisher=[[United States Congress]]|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000102|access-date=July 28, 2019|archive-date=January 6, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106023222/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000102|url-status=live}}</ref> At 14, he began college at Princeton. After graduating, he [[Reading law|read law]] with the prominent lawyer [[Richard Stockton (Continental Congressman)|Richard Stockton]] and was admitted to the bar in 1768. He also stayed connected to his alma mater and helped found the [[American Whig–Cliosophic Society|Cliosophic Society]] with [[Aaron Burr]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://theprince.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/cgi-bin/princetonperiodicals?a=d&d=Princetonian19870727-01.2.95&srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-IN-----# |title=Daily Princetonian Special Class of 1991 Issue 27 July 1987 — Princeton Periodicals |work=princeton.edu |access-date=May 15, 2012 |archive-date=November 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104204633/https://theprince.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/cgi-bin/princetonperiodicals?a=d&d=Princetonian19870727-01.2.95&srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-IN----- |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Career==

===Early career===
Paterson was selected as the [[Somerset County, New Jersey|Somerset County]] delegate for the first three provincial congresses of New Jersey, where, as secretary, he recorded the 1776 New Jersey State Constitution.<ref name="Vile" /> Paterson was appointed as the first [[New Jersey attorney general|attorney general of New Jersey]], serving from 1776 to 1783, establishing himself as one of the state's most prominent lawyers.<ref name="Haskett" /> He was sent to the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|1787 Philadelphia Convention]], where he proposed the [[New Jersey Plan]] for a [[Unicameralism|unicameral]] legislative body with equal representation from each state. The [[Constitution of the United States]] was ultimately signed with the [[Connecticut Compromise]] that created a bicameral Congress with a [[United States Senate|Senate]] that equally represented each state and a [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] with population-based representation.<ref name="Vile">{{cite book |last1=Vile |first1=John R. |title=The Men Who Made the Constitution: Lives of the Delegates to the Constitutional Convention |date=October 10, 2013 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-8865-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gf90AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA248 |access-date=February 21, 2017 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Military Service ===
In 1775, Paterson was commissioned into the [[2nd New Jersey Regiment|Somerset County Minutemen]] of the [[New Jersey Line|New Jersey militia]] and served on the [[Committee of safety (American Revolution)|Council of Safety]], the body that developed and managed New Jersey's military forces for the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=William Paterson |url=https://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/paterson.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112101740/http://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/paterson.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 12, 2008 |access-date=2024-11-25 |website=www.history.army.mil}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Paterson, William {{!}} Federal Judicial Center |url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/paterson-william |access-date=2024-11-29 |website=www.fjc.gov}}</ref>

=== United States Senator ===
Paterson, who was a strong nationalist who supported the [[Federalist Party]], went on to become one of New Jersey's first U.S. senators (1789–90).<ref name="Vile" /> As a member of the [[United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary|Senate Judiciary Committee]], he played an important role in drafting the [[Judiciary Act of 1789]] that established the federal court system.<ref name="Vile" /> The first nine sections of this very important law are in his handwriting.<ref name="O'Connor" />

===Governor of New Jersey===
In 1790, he became the first person to [[resignation from the United States Senate|resign from the U.S. Senate]], when he did so in order to succeed fellow signer [[William Livingston]] as governor of New Jersey.<ref name="Vile" /> As governor, Paterson pursued his interest in legal matters by codifying the English statutes that had been in force in New Jersey before the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolution]] in ''Laws of the State of New Jersey''. He also published a revision of the rules of the [[Court of equity|chancery]] and [[common law]] courts in Paterson, later adopted by the [[New Jersey Legislature]].<ref name="O'Connor" /><ref name="Haskett">Haskett, Richard C. (1950) ''William Paterson, Attorney General of New Jersey: Public Office and Private Profit in the American Revolution.'' ''[[William and Mary Quarterly]]'', 3rd. Ser., 7 (January): pp. 26–38.</ref>

===United States Supreme Court===
President George Washington nominated Paterson for the Supreme Court of the United States on February 27, 1793, to the seat vacated by [[Thomas Johnson (jurist)|Thomas Johnson]]. Washington withdrew the nomination the following day, having realized that since the Judiciary Act of 1789 (the law creating the Supreme Court) had been passed during Paterson's current term as a Senator, the nomination was a violation of the [[Ineligibility Clause]] (Article I, Section 6) of the Constitution. Washington re-nominated Paterson to the court on March 4, 1793, after his term as Senator had expired; Paterson was immediately confirmed by the Senate and received his commission.<ref name="Myers">{{cite book |last1=Myers |first1=Gustavus |title=History of the Supreme Court of the United States |date=1912 |publisher=C. H. Kerr |url=https://archive.org/details/historysupremec00myergoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/historysupremec00myergoog/page/n153 149] |access-date=February 21, 2017 |language=en}}</ref>

He resigned from the governorship to become an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. On the circuit, he presided over the trials of individuals indicted for treason in the [[Whiskey Rebellion]], a revolt by farmers in western Pennsylvania over the federal excise tax on whiskey, the principal product of their [[cash crop]]. Militia sent out by President Washington successfully quelled the uprising, and for the first time, the courts had to interpret the provisions of the Constitution concerning the use of troops in civil disturbances. Here, and, throughout his long career, Paterson extolled the primacy of law over governments, a principle embodied in the Constitution he helped write.<ref name=Soldier>{{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=Robert K. Jr. |last2=MacGregor |first2=Morris J. Jr. |title=Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution |date=1987 |publisher=U.S. Army Center of Military History |location=Washington, D.C. |page=166 |url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/paterson.htm |access-date=July 28, 2014 |lccn=87001353 |archive-date=January 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122195348/https://history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/paterson.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> He declined an appointment as Secretary of State in 1795. Paterson was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1789.<ref>{{Cite web|title=William Paterson|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=William+Paterson|access-date=14 December 2020|website=American Philosophical Society Member History|publisher=[[American Philosophical Society]]}}</ref> He was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1801.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web |title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter P |url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterP.pdf |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=July 28, 2014 |archive-date=May 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515183157/http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterP.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Paterson served on the Supreme Court until he died in 1806.<ref name="Vile" />

==Personal life==
[[File:Mrs. Stephen Van Rensselaer III (Cornelia Paterson) MET DP168948 (cropped).jpg|right|thumb|Paterson's eldest daughter, Cornelia Bell Paterson Van Rensselaer (1780–1844), painted by [[Nathaniel Rogers (painter)|Nathaniel Rogers]], 1825]][[File:Euphemia Van Rensselaer.jpg|thumb|right|Paterson's granddaughter, Euphemia White Van Rensselaer (1816–1888), painted by [[George Peter Alexander Healy|George P. A. Healy]], 1842]]
In 1779, Paterson married Cornelia Bell (1755–1783), daughter of John Bell, a wealthy Somerset County landowner.<ref name="Epstein">{{cite book |last1=Epstein |first1=Lee |last2=Segal |first2=Jeffrey A. |last3=Spaeth |first3=Harold J. |last4=Walker |first4=Thomas G. |title=The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments |date=July 29, 2015 |publisher=CQ Press |isbn=978-1-4833-7663-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QEkdCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT335 |access-date=February 21, 2017 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Vile" /> Together, they had three children, but she died in 1783 shortly after giving birth to their only son. Their children were:

* Cornelia Bell Paterson (1780–1844), who married [[Stephen Van Rensselaer]] (1764–1839) after the death of his first wife, [[Peggy Schuyler|Margaret "Peggy" Schuyler]] (1758–1801)<ref name="Reynolds">{{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Cuyler |date=1914 |title=Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York, Volume 3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iNIUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1341 |location=New York |publisher=Lewis Publishing Company |pages=1166, 1341 |access-date=February 21, 2017 |archive-date=August 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804002937/https://books.google.com/books?id=iNIUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1341 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* Frances Van Paterson (1781–1783), who died young<ref name="Wood" />
* William Bell Paterson (1783–1832), who married Jane Eliza Neilson<ref name="Wood">Wood, Gertrude Sceery, ''William Paterson of New Jersey, 1745–1806'' (Fair Lawn, N.J.: Fair Lawn Press, 1933), pp. 49, 199.</ref><ref name="O'Connor">O'Connor, John E., ''William Paterson: Lawyer and Statesman, 1745–1806'' (New Brunswick, N.J.: [[Rutgers University Press]], 1979), pp. 108, 117.</ref>

In 1785, he married Euphemia White (1746–1832),<ref name="Epstein" /> sister of [[Anthony Walton White]] (1750–1803), daughter of Anthony White (1717–1787), a New Jersey landholder and judge of the Somerset court, and the granddaughter of [[Lewis Morris (governor)|Lewis Morris]] (1671–1746), chief justice of New York from 1715 to 1733 and governor of New Jersey from 1738 to 1746.<ref name="Marcus">{{cite book |last1=Marcus |first1=Maeva |title=The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1800 |date=1985 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-08869-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PGP41K2qY2YC&pg=PA358 |access-date=February 21, 2017 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Lefferts">Lefferts, Elizabeth Morris, comp., ''Descendants of Lewis Morris of Morrisania'' (New York: Tobias A. Wright, 1907).</ref>

===Death and interment===
On September 9, 1806, Paterson, aged 60, died from the lingering effects of a coach accident suffered in 1803 while on circuit court duty in New Jersey. He was on his way to the spa at [[Ballston Spa, New York|Ballston Springs, New York]], to "take the waters", when he died at the [[Manor of Rensselaerswyck|Van Rensselaer Manor home]] of his daughter, Cornelia, and son-in-law, Stephen Van Rensselaer, in [[Albany, New York]]. He was laid to rest in the Van Renssalaer family vault. When the city acquired the property, Paterson's remains were relocated to [[Albany Rural Cemetery]] Menands in [[Albany County, New York]]. Also buried there are Associate Justice [[Rufus W. Peckham]] and President [[Chester A. Arthur]].<ref>{{cite journal| last=Christensen| first=George A.| title=Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices| journal=Yearbook 1983 Supreme Court Historical Society| issue=1983| url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html| pages=17–30| url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050903032026/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html |archive-date=September 3, 2005| publisher=[[Supreme Court Historical Society]]| location=Washington, D.C.|access-date=June 5, 2018| via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref><ref>''See also'', {{cite journal| last=Christensen| first=George A.| title=Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited| journal=Journal of Supreme Court History| volume=33| issue=1| date=February 2008| pages=17–41| publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]]| issn=1059-4329| eissn=1540-5818| doi=10.1111/j.1540-5818.2008.00177.x| s2cid=145227968}}</ref>

===Descendants===
Through his eldest daughter, his grandchildren include [[Cortlandt Van Rensselaer]] (1808–1860), a noted [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] clergyman,<ref name="Reynolds" /> and [[Henry Bell Van Rensselaer]] (1810–1864), a politician and general in the [[Union Army]] during the [[American Civil War]], who married Elizabeth Ray King, a granddaughter of U.S. Senator [[Rufus King]].<ref name="Reynolds" />

Through his son, his grandchildren included twin brothers, William Paterson (1817–1899), who married Salvadora Meade, a Spanish-born woman living in Philadelphia,<ref name="Bond">{{cite web |last1=Bond |first1=Gordon |title=To Cast A Freedman's Vote: How a Handyman from Perth Amboy Made Civil Rights History |url=http://www.metuchen-edisonhistsoc.org/resources/To+Cast+a+Freedmans+Vote+-+by+Gordon+Bond+-+for+MEHS+web.pdf |website=metuchen-edisonhistsoc.org |access-date=February 21, 2017 |archive-date=June 24, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624003636/http://www.metuchen-edisonhistsoc.org/resources/To+Cast+a+Freedmans+Vote+-+by+Gordon+Bond+-+for+MEHS+web.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and Stephen Van Rensselaer Paterson (1817–1872),<ref name="jerseyhistory">{{cite web |title=Manuscript Group 718, William Paterson (1817–1899), Student and author |url=http://www.jerseyhistory.org/findingaid.php?aid=0718 |website=www.jerseyhistory.org |publisher=The New Jersey Historical Society |access-date=February 21, 2017 |language=en |archive-date=February 8, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170208145201/http://jerseyhistory.org/findingaid.php?aid=0718 |url-status=live }}</ref> who married Emily Sophia King (1823–1853), daughter of [[Charles King (Columbia University president)|Charles King]] (1789–1867), the president of [[Columbia University]], and the second son [[Rufus King]]. Both grandsons were members of the Princeton University class of 1835 and William was admitted to the bar in 1838. He later served as a member of the New Jersey Assembly from 1842 to 1843, Secretary of the [[Constitution of New Jersey|New Jersey Constitutional Convention of 1844]], a lay judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals, and mayor of [[Perth Amboy, New Jersey|Perth Amboy]] for ten years in between 1846 and 1878.<ref name="jerseyhistory" />

===Honors===
Both the city of [[Paterson, New Jersey|Paterson]], and the college, [[William Paterson University]], are named after him.<ref name="Vile" />

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{colbegin}}
* [[Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
* [[List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court cases prior to the Marshall Court|United States Supreme Court cases during the Jay, Rutledge and Ellsworth Courts]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Marshall Court|United States Supreme Court cases during the Marshall Court]]
* [[U.S. Constitution#Sessions of the "House"|U.S. Constitution]], floor leader in Convention.
* [[List of United States senators born outside the United States]]
* [[List of U.S. state governors born outside the United States]]
{{colend}}

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|35em}}
* {{cite book |last=Abraham |first=Henry J. |title=Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court |url=https://archive.org/details/justicespresiden0000abra |url-access=registration |edition=3rd |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-506557-3 }}
* [http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history-of-the-court/associate-justices/william-paterson-1793-1806/ Bibliography on William Patterson at] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915095903/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history-of-the-court/associate-justices/william-paterson-1793-1806/ |date=September 15, 2012 }} [[Supreme Court Historical Society]].
* {{cite book |last=Cushman |first=Clare |title=The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 |edition=2nd |publisher=(Supreme Court Historical Society, [[Congressional Quarterly]] Books) |year=2001 |isbn=1-56802-126-7}}
* Flanders, Henry. [https://books.google.com/books?id=eEQEAAAAYAAJ ''The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617024102/https://books.google.com/books?id=eEQEAAAAYAAJ |date=June 17, 2016 }}. Philadelphia: [[J. B. Lippincott & Co.]], 1874 at [[Google Books]].
* {{cite book |last=Frank |first=John P. |editor-last=Friedman |editor-first=Leon |editor2-last=Israel |editor2-first=Fred L. |title=The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions |publisher=[[Chelsea House]] Publishers |year=1995 |isbn=0-7910-1377-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/justicesofunited0000unse }}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Hall |editor-first=Kermit L. |title=The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-505835-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hall }}
* {{cite book |last=Martin |first=Fenton S. |author2=Goehlert, Robert U. |title=The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography |publisher=Congressional Quarterly Books |year=1990 |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0-87187-554-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/ussupremecourtbi0000mart }}
* {{cite book |last=Urofsky |first=Melvin I. |title=The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary |publisher=[[Garland Publishing]] |year=1994 |location=New York |pages=590 |isbn=0-8153-1176-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourtjust00melv |url-access=registration }}
* Warren, Charles. (1928) [https://books.google.com/books?id=pGUTAAAAYAAJ ''The Supreme Court in United States History''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609173451/https://books.google.com/books?id=pGUTAAAAYAAJ |date=June 9, 2016 }}, 2 vols. at [[Google books]].
* {{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/paterson.htm |title=Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution |chapter=William Paterson |url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/ss-fm.htm#cont |first1=Robert K. |last1=Wright |first2=Morris J. Jr. |last2=MacGregor |publisher=[[United States Army Center of Military History]] |id=CMH Pub 71-25 |year=1987 |access-date=July 20, 2010 |archive-date=October 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009074857/https://history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/ss-fm.htm#cont |url-status=dead }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|William Paterson (judge)}}
* {{Biographical Directory of Congress|P000102}}
* {{FJC Bio|1847|nid=1386141|name=William Paterson<!--(1745–1806)-->}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930041258/http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=3e7c1b5b3ff39010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD New Jersey Governor William Paterson], [[National Governors Association]]
* [[Oyez.org|Oyez Project]], [https://www.oyez.org/justices/william_paterson/ U.S. Supreme Court media, William Paterson.]
* [https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/founding-fathers-new-jersey?_ga=2.24632634.1402403986.1646555412-194849912.1646555412 Founding Fathers of New Jersey], [[National Archives and Records Administration]]

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[[Category:1745 births]]
[[Category:1806 deaths]]
[[Category:Lawyers from County Antrim]]
[[Category:Irish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:People from colonial New Jersey]]
[[Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent]]
[[Category:American Presbyterians]]
[[Category:Signers of the United States Constitution]]
[[Category:Pro-Administration Party United States senators from New Jersey]]
[[Category:Governors of New Jersey]]
[[Category:Pro-Administration Party state governors of the United States]]
[[Category:New Jersey Federalists]]
[[Category:New Jersey state senators]]
[[Category:New Jersey attorneys general]]
[[Category:Politicians from Albany, New York]]
[[Category:Politicians from Somerset County, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
[[Category:United States federal judges appointed by George Washington]]
[[Category:United States federal judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law]]
[[Category:19th-century American judges]]
[[Category:Lawyers from Albany, New York]]
[[Category:Princeton University alumni]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Burials at Albany Rural Cemetery]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Founding Fathers of the United States]]
[[Category:Politicians from County Antrim]]
[[Category:18th-century United States senators]]