David Brearley (often spelled
Brearly) (June 11, 1745 – August 16, 1790) was a delegate to the
U.S. Constitutional Convention and signed the
U.S. Constitution on behalf of
New Jersey.
With the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Brearley was at first a captain in the Monmouth County militia, and rose to the rank of colonel in Nathaniel Heard's New Jersey militia brigade. From 1776 to 1779 he served in the New Jersey Line of the Continental Army, seeing action at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth.
Brearley resigned from the army in 1779 to serve as the New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice. He decided on the famous Holmes v. Walton case where he ruled that the judiciary had the authority to declare whether laws were unconstitutional or not. He held the seat until 1789.
While at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, he chaired the Committee on Unfinished Parts, where the Electoral College system for choosing the presidency was born.[1] After signing the Constitution in 1787, he headed up the New Jersey committee that approved the Constitution. In 1789, he was a Presidential elector and on September 25, 1789 he was nominated by President George Washington to be the first federal district judge for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, a new seat created by 1 Stat. 73. He was confirmed by the Senate on September 25, 1789, and received his commission the following day. He died in that office a few months later.
