Biography

07/02/1789 - 09/12/1834

Philip Swenk Markley (D7) Montgomery County, 1819-1822 (D3) Montgomery County, 1822-1823. 

Early Life:

Philip Swenk Markley, born July 2, 1789, Skippack, near Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; son of John and Elizabeth Schwenk Markley; educated in Norristown schools; studied law; admitted, bar, 1810; commenced practice, Norristown, Pennsylvania; deputy State's attorney for Pennsylvania, 1819-1820; elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate 1820-1823, Speaker, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1821; elected, Jackson Republican, United States House of Representatives, Eighteenth Congress, reelected, Adams, United States House of Representatives, Nineteenth Congress, 1823-1827; resumed law practice; appointed naval officer, Philadelphia; appointed, attorney general, Pennsylvania, 1829-1830; married, Anna Helena Amelia Plumstead; died, September 12, 1834, (age 45), apoplexy, representing a client during an arbitration hearing, Spang’s Hotel, Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; interment, Saint John's Episcopal Church Cemetery, Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Professional titles; business ownership; board memberships; local government; club memberships:

Founder, Saint John Episcopal Church, member, church's first vestry.

Pennsylvania Politics:

Deputy State's attorney for Pennsylvania, 1819-1820; resigned, elected, Pennsylvania State Senate.

Elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 7th district, Montgomery County, 1819-1822, chair, Judiciary Committee; Speaker, Pennsylvania State Senate, March 1821; elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 3rd district, Montgomery County, 1822-1823. 

Appointed, naval officer, Philadelphia, President Andrew Jackson, 1826-1829.

Appointed, attorney general, Pennsylvania, Governor John Andrew Shulze, 1829-1830.

Continued Government Service/National Politics:

Elected, Jackson Republican, United States House of Representatives, 5th district, Eighteenth Congress; reelected, Adams, United States House of Representatives Nineteenth Congress, (March 4, 1823-March 3, 1827); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1826, Twentieth Congress. 

Cited:

Cox, Harold. "Senate Members M". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University.

History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, volume I, edited Theodore W. Bean (Philadelphia: Everts and Peck, 1884), pages 507-509; Ibid., “Correspondence between distinguished politicians of Montgomery County,” September, 15, 1817; Kehl, Ill Feeling, 199; John Bassett Moore, The Works of James Buchanan, volume I; pages 1813-1830 (New York: Antiquarian Press, 1960), 264; Portrait: Photo edited by Doug Gross, Senate of Pennsylvania, after “Philip Markley, 1824” by Jacob Eichholtz, damaged portrait in possession of the Montgomery County Historical Society.

A New Nation Votes (tufts.edu)

Philip Swenk Markley (1789-1834) - Find a Grave Memorial