Pennsylvania lawyer and legislator.

Practiced law in Dover, Delaware. Member of the Delaware Assembly (then under the same government as Pennsylvania) (1750); Speaker (1753-57). Secretary of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Albany Congress (1754). Attorney general of Pennsylvania and Delaware (1755-69). Register general for Pennsylvania and Delaware (1765-77). Arrested as a suspected Loyalist (1777-78); Chew’s home, Cliveden, was badly damaged in the battle of Germantown (October 1777). Judge of Pennsylvania court of errors and appeals (1791-1806). Federalist.

Son of Samuel and Mary (Galloway) Chew of Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Quaker; later Anglican. Married (1) his cousin Mary Galloway (1747); five children. Married (2) Elizabeth Oswald (1757); eight children.

iii, 13n; xii, 94n; DAB; John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, American National Biography (24 vols., New York, 1999).