History of Our Chapter

On October 31, 1740, William Paca was born near Abingdon, Harford County, Maryland. He was educated in Philadelphia, prior to entering law school in London, England on 1762. He then entered the law profession in Annapolis, Maryland.

In 1765 William Paca married Mary Chew, a "wealthy beauty" of Annapolis. Part of her wealth helped to bankroll the building of their five-part Georgian mansion in Annapolis. Today the Paca mansion, with its elaborately restored gardens, is a prime tourist attraction in Annapolis. Mary Chew inherited half of Wye Island and died in 1774. Three years later, Paca married Ann Harrison, a Philadelphia heiress who died in 1780.

On the political front, Paca and Samuel Chase formed a group in Annapolis to protest the Stamp Act. Paca served as a delegate to the Maryland General Assembly.

Paca was a member of the First and Second Continental Congress of 1774 and 1775. On July 4, 1776, Paca signed the Declaration of Independence. During the Revolutionary War, he spent his own money to provision Maryland troops. He served as the Governor of Maryland from 1782 to 1785. In 1778, he was appointed chief judge of the Superior Court of Maryland. In 1788, at the Maryland Convention, Paca helped to ratify the Constitution of the United States. In 1789, President George Washington appointed him as a federal district judge, where he served until his death in 1799. Governor Paca died at his estate on Wye Island.

National Society DAR

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