 Few
was born in 1748. His father's family had emigrated from England to
Pennsylvania in the 1680s, but the father had subsequently moved to
Maryland, where he married and settled on a farm near Baltimore.
William was born there. He encountered much hardship and received
minimal schooling. When he was 10 years of age, his father, seeking
better opportunity, moved his family to North Carolina.
In 1771 Few, his father, and a brother associated
themselves with the "Regulators," a group of frontiersmen who
opposed the royal governor. As a result, the brother was hanged, the
Few family farm was destroyed, and the father was forced to move
once again, this time to Georgia. William remained behind, helping
to settle his father's affairs, until 1776 when he joined his family
near Wrightsboro, Ga. About this time, he won admittance to the bar,
based on earlier informal study, and set up practice in Augusta.
When the War for Independence began, Few
enthusiastically aligned himself with the Whig cause. Although
largely self-educated, he soon proved his capacity for leadership
and won a lieutenant-colonelcy in the dragoons. In addition, he
entered politics. He was elected to the Georgia provincial congress
of 1776 and during the war twice served in the assembly, in 1777 and
1779. During the same period, he also sat on the state executive
council besides holding the positions of surveyor-general and Indian
commissioner. He also served in the Continental Congress (1780-88),
during which time he was reelected to the Georgia Assembly (1783).
Four years later, Few was appointed as one of
six state delegates to the Constitutional Convention, two of whom
never attended and two others of whom did not stay for the duration.
Few himself missed large segments of the proceedings, being absent
during all of July and part of August because of congressional
service, and never made a speech. Nonetheless, he contributed
nationalist votes at critical times. Furthermore, as a delegate to
the last sessions of the Continental Congress, he helped steer the
Constitution past its first obstacle, approval by Congress. And he
attended the state ratifying convention.
Few became one of his state's first U.S.
senators (1789-93). When his term ended, he headed back home and
served again in the assembly. In 1796 he received an appointment as
a federal judge for the Georgia circuit. For reasons unknown, he
resigned his judgeship in 1799 at the age of 52 and moved to New
York City.
Few's career continued to blossom. He served 4
years in the legislature (1802-5) and then as inspector of prisons
(1802-10), alderman (1813-14), and U.S. commissioner of loans
(1804). From 1804 to 1814 he held a directorship at the Manhattan
Bank and later the presidency of City Bank. A devout Methodist, he
also donated generously to philanthropic causes.
When Few died in 1828 at the age of 80 in
Fishkill-on-the-Hudson (present Beacon), he was survived by his wife
(born Catherine Nicholson) and three daughters. Originally buried in
the yard of the local Reformed Dutch Church, his body was later
reinterred at St. Paul's Church, Augusta, GA. |
