Wallace Family

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John Wallace (1717–1783) was a merchant and civic leader of Philadelphia. Born in 1717 at his father’s manse in Drumelzier on the River Tweed in Tweeddale, Scotland, he was the son of the Reverend John Wallace and Christian Murray, daughter of William Murray of Cardone. In 1742 he emigrated to Newport, Rhode Island, where he helped establish the town’s public library, later known as the Redwood Library.

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Wallace later settled in Philadelphia, where he became a prominent merchant and community figure. In 1749 he was among the founders of the St. Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia, and from 1755 until the end of royal government in 1776 he served as a councilman of the city.

He died on September 26, 1783, at Hope Farm, his estate on the Raritan River in Somerset County, New Jersey, at the age of 65.

 

Mary Maddox Wallace (1732–1784) was the wife of Philadelphia merchant and civic leader John Wallace and a member of a prominent colonial New Jersey family. She was born in Philadelphia in 1732, the only child of Joshua Maddox, Esq., who served as one of the justices of the province, and his wife Mary, the daughter of John Rudderow of Chester Township in Burlington County, New Jersey.

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Mary married John Wallace and lived with him during his years as a merchant and public figure connected with Philadelphia. After his death in 1783, she survived him only briefly. Mary Maddox Wallace died on January 9, 1784, at her husband’s estate in New Jersey, at the age of 53.  

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John and Mary Wallace are buried in St. Peter's Episcopal Churchyard, Philadelphia, Pa..

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