Wilson, James

(1742-1798), an American statesman, was born in Scotland, received a university education, and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1766. He became an able lawyer, and was a delegate to the Continental Congre . He signed the Declaration of Independence, and was one of the signers who also sat in the Federal Convention of 1787. Of this body he was one of the foremost members, and was on the Committee which drafted the Constitution. On him fell the burden of its defense in the ensuing ratifying convention of Pennsylvania. In 1789 he was appointed by Washington an A ociate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. 387