The convention began work in Philadelphia on July 15, 1776, less than two weeks following adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
The document included both A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth and a Plan or Frame of Government.
Seats were added for Washington, Fayette, Franklin, Montgomery, Dauphin, Luzerne, Huntingdon, and Allegheny as those counties were established.
(One, George Bryan, was never elected to the position, but today is considered by the Commonwealth to have been a full-fledged governor of Pennsylvania, perhaps due to the length of his term as acting president.)
Thomas Wharton Jr. George Bryan Joseph Reed William Moore John Dickinson Benjamin Franklin Thomas Mifflin The neighborhood of South Philadelphia contains a series of east-west streets named in honor of Pennsylvania's presidents and early governors.
[4] At least one source credits four vice-presidents with having served as acting presidents: With the exception of Bryan, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania makes no such distinction, and its listing of the state's early governors includes neither Potter, Biddle, nor Redick.
At over seven months, Bryan's tenure was such that today he is considered a full-fledged governor by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
For example, Redick's supposed acting presidency spanned the final three weeks of Dr. Franklin's presidential term.
Franklin, for instance, was succeeded as counsellor for the City of Philadelphia by Samuel Miles on October 20, but his presidency officially did not end until November 5.
The official minutes of the Council contain no indication that the president in any of these situations (Moore, Dickinson and Franklin, respectively) had formally left, relinquished or been removed from office; nonetheless during these periods the president was absent from council meetings, which were thus overseen by the vice-president.
Reed was succeeded as counsellor from Philadelphia County by John Bayard on October 16, 1781 but ostensibly remained president until William Moore took office on November 15.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania reports that Biddle's vice-presidential term extended to October 31, 1787, at which time Peter Muhlenberg succeeded him in that office.
[4] However, Biddle's term as counsellor from Berks County ended eighteen days earlier, on October 13, when he was succeeded in that office by James Read.
[7] The first election of a president and vice-president of Pennsylvania took place March 5, 1777, the day after the Council first convened.
Several other elections were held to fill vacancies resulting from resignation; these involved only a vote by the Council rather than a joint ballot with the Assembly.
More often than not, records do not list contenders (other than the winners) or vote tallies, saying simply that a particular gentleman was duly elected president and another vice-president.
There were other instances that involved reelections of men who had already been sworn into office at the start of their previous term and which thus caused no delay.
The Council sat year-round and there was no specific date set for the start of a session or of any counsellor's term.
Some counsellors simply sat out the last several months of their terms, their names disappearing from the Minutes by late summer or early autumn.
With the Council set to be dissolved in December 1790, a provision of the new state constitution allowed counsellors and council officers whose terms would have expired that autumn to remain in office until December 21, rather than hold elections for new counsellors who would sit for only one or two months.
(The title of governor had been used during the Colonial era, although it referred to the appointed representative of the monarch or the Proprietor, rather than to an elected official.)