Wiltbank was born on December 10, 1731, in Lewes, Delaware.[1] He was born on a 344-acre farm that had been given to his great-grandfather and was the son of Cornelius Wiltbank.[2] He grew up and was educated in Lewes.[2] On March 12, 1750 or 1751, he married Mary Stockley, the daughter of Woodman Stockley, on her 14th birthday.[2][3] They had a total of six children together, the first of which being born in 1751.[3]
On March 20, 1767, Wiltbank was appointed a justice of the peace for Sussex County.[2][3] He was recommissioned in 1774 for a second term,[2] for a third term in 1779,[4] and for a fourth term in February 1788,[4] eventually being replaced in January 1791.[4]
Shortly afterwards, Wiltbank was elected to the Legislative Council, now known as the State Senate, in the 1st Delaware General Assembly.[2] He received a total of 542 votes in the election, the highest number for any candidate in his county.[6] On February 21, 1777, Wiltbank was appointed chief justice of the Sussex County Court of Common Pleas and Orphans' Court,[3][6] and resigned his position in the Legislative Council to serve on the court,[2][5] taking his oath of office on March 8.[3] He served in that position until his death,[3] being known as an "astute judge and a man of wide interests," according to The Morning News.[2] Wiltbank remained as the military treasurer of Sussex County throughout the remaining years of the war, and was described as having "aided greatly in the war effort."[2]
Throughout his life, Wiltbank had an interest in education, and he once donated some of his property for a school to be built.[2] He was for a time an Episcopalian, serving as a trustee at St. Peter's Church, before converting to Methodism and serving the same position with the Bethel Methodist Protestant Church.[2] Wiltbank was wealthy and had two estates by the time of his death, including the 344-acre "Tower Hill" and one called "Dover."[2]
On March 21, 1791, Wiltbank wrote a will, while "in the health of body."[3] On July 3, 1792, he added a codicil, being "weak in body, but of sound and perfect disposing mind memory and judgement."[3] The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine wrote that his will and codicil were "drawn with the meticulous care one would expect to be exercised by so eminent a jurist."[3] Included in his will was the distribution of his Negro slaves, each of which he said was to be set free upon reaching the age of 34 and 1/2.[3] Wiltbank died on July 10, 1792, at the age of 60, while residing at his "Dover" estate.[3] Wiltbank was later described in an article by the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine as a man "so filled with honors that we must merely enumerate rather than discuss them."[3]
References
^Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970. Louisville, Kentucky: National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
^ abcdefghijklmnGenealogies of Pennsylvania Families from the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine. Vol. 3. Stauffer-Zerbe. pp. 351–355.
^ abcScharf, John Thomas (1888). History of Delaware: 1609–1888: Local history. Vol. 2. L. J. Richards & Co. p. 1,212.
^ abcManthorpe, William (January 5, 2021). "The Battle to Control the Delaware Assembly: The Sussex County Delaware Elections of 1776-1778". Journal of the Lewes Historical Society. XXIII: 65, 70, 73, 75, 77.
^ abScharf, John Thomas (1888). History of Delaware: 1609–1888: General History. Vol. 1. L. J. Richards & Co. pp. 240, 563.