William Bradford (434)

William Bradford (14 September 1755–23 August 1795) was a military officer, attorney, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1785. Born in Philadelphia, to the printer and Benjamin-Franklin-rival William Bradford, the junior Bradford studied at the Academy of Philadelphia (1762-1765), before studying at Princeton college. He graduated with his A.B. in 1772, and then with his A.M. in 1775. Thereafter, he studied law under prominent lawyer Edward Shippen before volunteering as a private upon the onset of the Revolutionary War. Bradford served at Valley Forge, White Plains, Fredericksburough, and Raritan, attaining the rank of Colonel in the process. Despite resigning in 1779 due to poor health, the following year Bradford became Pennsylvania’s Attorney General and Register of the High Court of Appeals. He held those offices until 1791, when he became a Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In 1784, President George Washington appointed him Attorney General of the United States. Unfortunately, he died the following year.