John Edwards (Pennsylvania politician)

John Edwards (1786 – June 26, 1843) was an Anti-Masonic and Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

Biography

John Edwards (granduncle of John E. Leonard) was born in Ivy Mills, Pennsylvania. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1807 and commenced practice in Chester, Pennsylvania. He was deputy attorney general for Delaware County, Pennsylvania, in 1811. He moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1825 and shortly thereafter engaged in the manufacture of iron and later of nails near Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.

Edwards was elected as an Anti-Masonic candidate to the Twenty-sixth Congress and reelected as a Whig to the Twenty-seventh Congress. After his time in congress, he resumed his former manufacturing pursuits, and died on his estate near Glen Mills in 1843. Interment in the Friends’ (Hicksite) Cemetery of the Middletown Meeting House in Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

Sources

• John Edwards at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• The Political Graveyard