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4 unusual facts about Thomas McKean


Carlos Martínez de Irujo, Duke of Sotomayor

He was son of the diplomat Carlos Martínez de Irujo y Erice, 1st Marquis of Casa Irujo, and his wife Sarah MacKean, daughter of the Pennsylvania governor Thomas McKean.

New London Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania

It was the birthplace of U.S. Founding Father Thomas McKean.

Thomas McKean

Sarah's son, Carlos Martínez de Irujo, 2nd Marquis of Casa Irujo, would later become Prime Minister of Spain.

McKean County, Pennsylvania is named in his honor, as is Thomas McKean High School in New Castle County, also McKean Street in Philadelphia, and the McKean Hall dormitory at the University of Delaware.


William Findley

At one point, Constitutional Convention delegate James Wilson and Pennsylvania Chief Justice Thomas McKean disputed one of Findley's statements about jury trials in Sweden; Findley returned two days later with William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England and demonstrated that his reference had been correct.


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