Thomas Hartley
Major General, Pennsylvania State Militia

Thomas Hartley was born on 7 September 1748 in Reading, PA.

Hartley was admitted to the bar in York and set up a law practice there in 1769, later opening a second office in Philadelphia. He was a member of the Provincial Convention in 1775.

As a Colonel of the Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment during the Revolutionary War, Hartley participated in the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown (both 1777), helped lead a campaign to drive Tory and Indian forces out of Bradford County (1778), and became a lifelong personal friend of George Washington. He resigned his commission in 1779 upon election to the State House of Representatives.

After the war he resumed his law practice and was a member of the State Convention which adopted the U.S. Constitution in 1787. Hartley was elected as a Pro-Administration candidate to the First, Second, and Third U.S. Congresses, representing Pennsylvania At-Large, and as a Federalist from the State's 8th District to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Congresses; he served from 1789 until the end of his life.

Shortly before his death in York from a lingering illness, Hartley was commissioned a Major General of the Fifth Division, Pennsylvania State Militia.

Death and Burial

Thomas Hartley died on 21 December 1800. He is buried at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC.