John Wales

Wales was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale College in 1801. He was admitted to the Connecticut Bar in 1801 and began practicing law in New Haven, and later, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After two years in Baltimore, Maryland, he moved to Wilmington, Delaware, in 1815.

In 1814, Wales became a secretary for the Society for the Promotion of American Manufacturers, which was designed to promote and encourage Delaware's manufacturing industry. Wales drafted the by-laws of the Savings Bank in 1832, then served as the president of the Bank of Wilmington and Brandywine from 1824 to 1829.

Wales served as the Secretary of State for Delaware from 1845 to 1849, and was elected as a Whig to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy left when John M. Clayton resigned. Taking office on February 23, 1849, he served until March 3, 1851, having failed in his reelection bid.

An abolitionist, Wales served as a Delaware representative to the First National Convention of the Abolition of Slavery along with famous abolitionist Thomas Garrett. When Garrett was tried in 1848 for aiding the escape of a slave family, Wales served as his lawyer. He was also one of the founders of Newark College in Newark, Delaware, now the University of Delaware.

Wales died in Wilmington and is buried in the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery.

The General Assembly chose the U.S. Senators, who took office March 4, for a six-year term. In this case he was completing the existing term, the vacancy caused by the resignation of John M. Clayton.

• Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress
• Delaware's Members of Congress
• The Political Graveyard
• The Underground Railroad

• Delaware Historical Society; website; 505 North Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware 19801; (302) 655-7161.
• University of Delaware; Library website; 181 South College Avenue, Newark, Delaware 19717; (302) 831-2965.