Editing Nathaniel Gorham (section)

== Life ==
Starting at 15, Gorham served an apprenticeship with a merchant in [[New London, Connecticut]], after which he opened a merchant house in [[Charlestown, Boston|Charlestown, Massachusetts]], in 1759.<ref>{{Cite ANB|title=Gorham, Nathaniel|first=Ronald J. |last=Lettieri |id=0100334}}</ref> He took part in public affairs at the beginning of the [[American Revolution]]: he was a member of the [[Massachusetts General Court]] (legislature) from 1771 until 1775, a delegate to the Provincial congress from 1774 until 1775, and a member of the [[Board of War]] from 1778 until its dissolution in 1781. In 1779, he served in the state constitutional convention. He was a delegate to the [[Congress of the Confederation]] from 1782 until 1783, and also from 1785 until 1787, serving as its president for five months from June 6 to November 5, 1786, after the resignation of [[John Hancock]]. Gorham also served a term as judge of the [[Middlesex County, Massachusetts|Middlesex County]] Court of Common Pleas,<ref name="Morton118B">Morton, p. 118.</ref> was a candidate for the [[Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district|3rd congressional district]] in both [[1788–1789 United States House of Representatives elections in Massachusetts|1788]] and [[1790–1792 United States House of Representatives elections in Massachusetts|1790]], in the former election winning on the first ballot but losing on the second,<ref>{{Cite web |title=A New Nation Votes |url=https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/8049g542w |access-date=2024-12-21 |website=elections.lib.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A New Nation Votes |url=https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/dv13zv65g |access-date=2024-12-21 |website=elections.lib.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A New Nation Votes |url=https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/fx719n94x |access-date=2024-12-21 |website=elections.lib.tufts.edu}}</ref> and was the runner-up in the [[1790–91 United States Senate elections#Massachusetts|1790 election]] for the U.S. Senate.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A New Nation Votes |url=https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/tufts:ma.ussenate.ballot3.1790 |access-date=2021-03-10 |website=elections.lib.tufts.edu}}</ref>

Gorham married Rebecca Call (May 14, 1744 – November 18, 1812), who was descended from [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] [[vicar]] and the first minister of [[Dorchester, Boston|Dorchester, Massachusetts]], [[John Maverick]], and his royally descended wife, Mary Gye Maverick. Rebecca was the daughter of Caleb Call and Rebecca Stimson.<ref>Waters, p. 366.</ref> They were the parents of nine children.<ref name="Morton117">Morton, p. 117.</ref>

In 1786, it might have been Gorham [[Prussian scheme|who suggested]] to [[Alexander Hamilton]] that [[Prince Henry of Prussia (1726–1802)|Prince Henry of Prussia]] would become [[Stadtholder|president]]<ref>{{cite journal |first=Richard |last=Krauel |title=Prince Henry of Prussia and the Regency of the United States, 1786 |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=17 |issue=1 |year=1911 |pages=44–51 |doi=10.2307/1832837 |jstor=1832837 }}</ref> or king of the United States. However, the offer was revoked before the prince could make a reply.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9vpS7DEKrsUC&pg=PA72|title=The Founders: The 39 Stories Behind the U.S. Constitution|last=Fradin|first=Dennis Brindell|date=2005|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|isbn=9780802789723|language=en}}</ref>

For several months in 1787, Gorham served as one of the Massachusetts delegates to the United States Constitutional Convention.<ref name="Morton118B">Morton, p. 118.</ref> Gorham frequently served as chairman of the Convention's [[Committee of the whole]], meaning that he (rather than the president of the Convention, [[George Washington]]) presided over convention sessions during the delegates' first deliberations on the structure of the new government in late May and June 1787. After the convention, he worked hard to see that the Constitution was approved in his home state.

In connection with [[Oliver Phelps (politician)|Oliver Phelps]], he [[Phelps and Gorham Purchase|purchased from the state of Massachusetts]] in 1788 pre-emption rights to an immense tract of land in western New York State which straddled the [[Genesee River]], all for the sum of $1,000,000 (about ${{Formatprice|{{inflation|US|1000000|1800|r=2}}}} today).<ref name="Morton120">Morton, p. 120.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=McKeveley |first=Blake |date=January 1939 |title=Historic Aspects of the Phelps and Gorham Treaty of July 4–8, 1788 |journal=Rochester History |volume=1 |issue=1 |publisher=Rochester Public Library |issn=0035-7413 |url=http://www.rochester.lib.ny.us/~rochhist/v1_1939/v1i1.pdf |access-date=29 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071203025006/http://www.rochester.lib.ny.us/~rochhist/v1_1939/v1i1.pdf |archive-date=December 3, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The land in question had been previously ceded to Massachusetts from the state of New York under the 1786 [[Treaty of Hartford (1786)|Treaty of Hartford]]. The pre-emption right gave them the first or preemptive right to obtain clear title to this land from the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]]. They soon extinguished the Native American title to the portion of the land east of the Genesee River, as well as a {{convert|185000|acre|km2}} tract west of the Genesee, the Mill Yard Tract, surveyed all of it, laid out townships, and sold large parts to speculators and settlers. His son Nathaniel Gorham Jr. was a pioneer settler of this tract, having been placed in charge of his father's interests there.<ref>{{Cite Appletons' |inline=1 |wstitle=Gorham, Nathaniel |year=1900}}</ref> In 1790, after Gorham and Phelps defaulted in payment, they sold nearly all of their remaining lands east of the Genesee to [[Robert Morris (financier)|Robert Morris]], who eventually resold those lands to [[The Pulteney Association]]. Phelps and Gorham were unable to fulfill their contract in full to Massachusetts, so in 1790, they surrendered back to Massachusetts that portion of the lands which remained under the Native American title, namely, the land west of the Genesee. It also was eventually acquired by Robert Morris, who resold most of it to the [[Holland Land Company]].