Delaware Congressman and judge.

Managed his brother Caesar’s farms; intermittently employed as a merchant in Philadelphia and Wilmington. Delaware assemblyman and member of the Kent County Council of Safety (1775). Colonel in the Delaware militia. Judge of the Delaware Admiralty Court (1778-85). Member of the Continental Congress (1781-87, intermittently). Associate justice of the Delaware Supreme Court (1802-03). Federal judge for Mississippi Territory (1803-11).

Son of Caesar and Elizabeth (Crawford) Rodney of Kent County, Delaware; brother of Caesar Rodney (1728-84), a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Married Elizabeth Fisher (1771), daughter of Jabez Maud Fisher; two children.

First letter in correspondence: November 27, 1785; DAB; Smith, Letters of Delegates, xxvi, x.