Patriot Name: John Banning
Type of Service Provided: Committee of Correspondence
Cemetery Name: Christ Church
Text of the Grave Marker:
"In memory of John Banning, Esquire who departed this Life February 15th 1791, in the 52nd year of his Age Leaving a Widow and Infant Son and Daughter to deplore their loss. Blessed with a humane and charitable temper he was the patron and protector of the poor. An indulgent Husband an Affectionate Parent and a kind Master. His punctuality and fidelity in the discharge of the duties of the several important Offices To which his Country appointed him from Time To Time, met with universal approbation. In a word his many public as well as private virtues rendered him highly beloved and esteemed, by all who knew him, and now greatly Lamented."
Grave Marker Type: Original tablet marker
Historical Background:
John Banning (1739-1791) was a Revolutionary War Patriot from Delaware who served his state and nation as a Justice of the Peace and as a member of the Joint Committee of Accounts, the Committee of Correspondence, and the Council of Safety. Banning also served in the 1st Delaware General Assembly and in the Legislative Council (State Senate). In addition to the original stone marker, the Daughter's of the American Revolution (DAR) placed a bronze marker acknowledging Banning's contributions to the cause.
Manning cast Delaware's first vote for President of the United States, choosing George Washington. According to "The Button Box: A Daughter's Loving Memoir of Mrs. George S. Patton" (Patton's wife was a Banning descendant), when conscripts of the returning Continental Army were to be paid in scrips, John Banning "stood on the steps of the Delaware Academy and paid the men in hard money from his own fortune."
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