# List of members of the United States House of Representatives in the 1st Congress by seniority

This is a complete list of members of the United States House of Representatives during the 1st United States Congress listed by seniority. As a historical article, the districts and party affiliations listed reflect those during the 1st Congress (March 4, 1789 DO NOT change this date; although the House convened for the first time with a quorum on April 1, 1789, the legal start date for the 1st Congress was March 4, 1789. Thank you. – March 3, 1791). Current seats and party affiliations on the List of current members of the United States House of Representatives by seniority will be different for certain members.
Seniority depends on the date on which members were sworn into office. Congressmen, in early Congresses, were often elected after the legal start of the Congress. Such representatives are attributed with unbroken seniority, from the legal start of the congressional term, if they were the first person elected to a seat in a Congress. The date of the election is indicated in a note.
The seniority date is normally taken from the members entry in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, except where the date given is the legal start of the Congress and the actual election (for someone who was not the first person elected to the seat in that Congress) was later. The date of election is taken from United States Congressional Elections 1788-1997. In a few instances the latter work provides dates, for the start and end of terms, which correct those in the Biographical Directory.
The Biographical Directory normally uses the date of a special election, as the seniority date. However, mostly in early Congresses, the date of the member taking his seat can be the one given. The date of the special election is mentioned in a note to the list below, when that date is not used as the seniority date by the Biographical Directory.
In the 1st Congress the only formal leader was the Speaker of the House. This congress had only one standing committee, the Committee on Elections, created on April 13, 1789. There was also a Ways and Means Committee for part of the 1st session. Although the Ways and Means Committee was not formally added to the list of standing committees until 1802, the present-day committee considers the one established in 1789 to be its forerunner. Committees, in this period, were appointed for a session at a time and not necessarily for every one in a Congress. Apart from the members of the Elections Committee in the 1st session (who were selected by balloting the House), the Speaker appointed the members. The office of speaker and other party or committee leadership positions in the House are often associated with seniority. However, leadership is typically not associated with seniority.

## U.S. House seniority list

A numerical rank is assigned to each of the 65 members initially elected to the 1st Congress. Other members, who were not the first person elected to a seat but who joined the House during the Congress, are not assigned a number (apart from the Representatives from the two states, admitted after ratifying the constitution during the Congress, who are numbered 60-65). One Representative-elect was not sworn in, as he declined to serve. The list below includes that Representative-elect (with name in italics), with the seniority he would have held if he had been sworn in.
| Rank | Representative | Party | District | Seniority date | Notes |
| 1 | Fisher Ames | Pro-Administration | Massachusetts 1 | March 4, 1789 | Chairman: Elections (1790) |
| 2 | Abraham Baldwin | Anti-Administration | Georgia 2 | March 4, 1789 |
| 3 | Egbert Benson | Pro-Administration | New York 3 | March 4, 1789 | Elected March 3–5, 1789 |
| 4 | Theodorick Bland | Anti-Administration | Virginia 9 | March 4, 1789 | Died June 1, 1790 |
| 5 | Elias Boudinot | Pro-Administration | New Jersey at-large | March 4, 1789 | Elected February 11-April 27, 1789 |
| 6 | John Brown | Anti-Administration | Virginia 2 | March 4, 1789 |
| 7 | Aedanus Burke | Anti-Administration | South Carolina 2 | March 4, 1789 |
| 8 | Lambert Cadwalader | Pro-Administration | New Jersey at-large | March 4, 1789 |
| 9 | Daniel Carroll | Pro-Administration | Maryland 6 | March 4, 1789 |
| 10 | George Clymer | Pro-Administration | Pennsylvania at-large | March 4, 1789 |
| 11 | Isaac Coles | Anti-Administration | Virginia 6 | March 4, 1789 |
| 12 | Benjamin Contee | Anti-Administration | Maryland 3 | March 4, 1789 |
| 13 | Thomas Fitzsimons | Pro-Administration | Pennsylvania at-large | March 4, 1789 | Chairman: Ways and Means (July 24-September 17, 1789) |
| 14 | William Floyd | Anti-Administration | New York 1 | March 4, 1789 |
| 15 | George Gale | Pro-Administration | Maryland 5 | March 4, 1789 |
| 16 | Elbridge Gerry | Anti-Administration | Massachusetts 3 | March 4, 1789 | |
| 17 | Nicholas Gilman | Pro-Administration | New Hampshire at-large | March 4, 1789 | |
| 18 | Benjamin Goodhue | Pro-Administration | Massachusetts 2 | March 4, 1789 | |
| 19 | Samuel Griffin | Pro-Administration | Virginia 10 | March 4, 1789 | |
| 20 | Jonathan Grout | Anti-Administration | Massachusetts 8 | March 4, 1789 |
| 21 | Thomas Hartley | Pro-Administration | Pennsylvania at-large | March 4, 1789 |
| 22 | John Hathorn | Anti-Administration | New York 4 | March 4, 1789 |
| 23 | Daniel Hiester | Anti-Administration | Pennsylvania at-large | March 4, 1789 | |
| 24 | Daniel Huger | Pro-Administration | South Carolina 3 | March 4, 1789 | |
| 25 | Benjamin Huntington | Pro-Administration | Connecticut at-large | March 4, 1789 |
| 26 | James Jackson | Anti-Administration | Georgia 1 | March 4, 1789 |
| 27 | John Laurance | Pro-Administration | New York 2 | March 4, 1789 | Elected March 3–5, 1789 |
| 28 | Richard B. Lee | Pro-Administration | Virginia 4 | March 4, 1789 | |
| 29 | George Leonard | Pro-Administration | Massachusetts 7 | March 4, 1789 | |
| 30 | Samuel Livermore | Anti-Administration | New Hampshire at-large | March 4, 1789 | |
| 31 | James Madison | Anti-Administration | Virginia 5 | March 4, 1789 | |
| 32 | George Mathews | Anti-Administration | Georgia 3 | March 4, 1789 |
| 33 | Andrew Moore | Anti-Administration | Virginia 3 | March 4, 1789 |
| 34 | Frederick Muhlenberg | Pro-Administration | Pennsylvania at-large | March 4, 1789 | Speaker of the House, elected April 1, 1789 |
| 35 | Peter Muhlenberg | Anti-Administration | Pennsylvania at-large | March 4, 1789 |
| 36 | John Page | Anti-Administration | Virginia 7 | March 4, 1789 | |
| 37 | Josiah Parker | Anti-Administration | Virginia 8 | March 4, 1789 | |
| 38 | George Partridge | Pro-Administration | Massachusetts 5 | March 4, 1789 | Resigned August 14, 1790 |
| 39 | James Schureman | Pro-Administration | New Jersey at-large | March 4, 1789 |
| 40 | Thomas Scott | Pro-Administration | Pennsylvania at-large | March 4, 1789 |
| 41 | Theodore Sedgwick | Pro-Administration | Massachusetts 4 | March 4, 1789 | Elected May 11, 1789 |
| 42 | Joshua Seney | Anti-Administration | Maryland 2 | March 4, 1789 |
| 43 | Roger Sherman | Pro-Administration | Connecticut at-large | March 4, 1789 |
| 44 | Peter Silvester | Pro-Administration | New York 5 | March 4, 1789 | Elected March 3–5, 1789 |
| 45 | Thomas Sinnickson | Pro-Administration | New Jersey at-large | March 4, 1789 |
| 46 | William Smith | Anti-Administration | Maryland 4 | March 4, 1789 |
| 47 | William L. Smith | Pro-Administration | South Carolina 1 | March 4, 1789 |
| 48 | Michael J. Stone | Anti-Administration | Maryland 1 | March 4, 1789 |
| 49 | Jonathan Sturges | Pro-Administration | Connecticut at-large | March 4, 1789 | |
| 50 | Thomas Sumter | Anti-Administration | South Carolina 4 | March 4, 1789 | |
| 51 | George Thatcher | Pro-Administration | Massachusetts 6 | March 4, 1789 | |
| 52 | Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. | Pro-Administration | Connecticut at-large | March 4, 1789 | |
| 53 | Thomas T. Tucker | Anti-Administration | South Carolina 5 | March 4, 1789 | |
| 54 | Jeremiah Van Rensselaer | Anti-Administration | New York 6 | March 4, 1789 |
| 55 | John M. Vining | Pro-Administration | Delaware at-large | March 4, 1789 | |
| 56 | Jeremiah Wadsworth | Pro-Administration | Connecticut at-large | March 4, 1789 | |
| 57 | Benjamin West | n/a | New Hampshire at-large | March 4, 1789 | Representative-elect, who declined to serve, probably in May 1789 |
| 58 | Alexander White | Pro-Administration | Virginia 1 | March 4, 1789 |
| 59 | Henry Wynkoop | Pro-Administration | Pennsylvania at-large | March 4, 1789 |
| Members joining the House, after the start of the Congress ||||||
| ... | Abiel Foster | Pro-Administration | New Hampshire at-large | June 22, 1789 |
| 60 | Hugh Williamson | Anti-Administration | North Carolina 2 | March 19, 1790 | Took seat from newly represented state |
| 61 | John B. Ashe | Anti-Administration | North Carolina 1 | March 24, 1790 | Took seat from newly represented state |
| 62 | Timothy Bloodworth | Anti-Administration | North Carolina 3 | April 6, 1790 |
| 63 | John Steele | Pro-Administration | North Carolina 4 | April 19, 1790 | Took seat from newly represented state |
| 64 | John Sevier | Pro-Administration | North Carolina 5 | June 16, 1790 |
| ... | William B. Giles | Anti-Administration | Virginia 9 | December 7, 1790 | Special election |
| 65 | Benjamin Bourne | Pro-Administration | Rhode Island at-large | December 17, 1790 | Elected August 31, 1790. Took seat from newly represented state. |