Roger C. Weightman
| Roger Chew Weightman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
June 15, 1787 Alexandria, Virginia |
| Died | February 2, 1876 (aged 88) Washington DC |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Printer/Publisher/Reporter National Intelligencer, Mayor of Washington D.C |
| Known for | Soldier, Mayor of Washington D.C., Founder St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square |
Roger Chew Weightman (1787; February 2, 1876) was an American politician, civic leader, and printer. He was the eighth mayor of Washington, D.C. from 1824 to 1827.
Weightman was born in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1787, moving into the new capital in 1800 and taking an apprenticeship with a local printer. Weightman bought the printing business in 1807, making him a congressional printer. He maintained a number of shops on Pennsylvania Avenue, about ten blocks from the White House, from about 1813 onward. In August 1814, Weightman (by now a First Lieutenant in D.C.'s Light Horse Cavalry) was apprehended by the British troops descending on the White House during the Siege of Washington, a battle in the War of 1812, and made to march with them to the Executive Mansion. Admiral George Cockburn taunted the upstanding Washingtonian, forcing him to choose a souvenir (albeit one of no monetary value) to remember the day the American capital was defeated.
After serving seven one-year terms as an alderman on Washington's city council, the council elected Weightman in 1824 to serve out the remainder of the late mayor Samuel N. Smallwood's term. In 1826 he ran against former mayor Thomas Carbery; four years prior, Weightman had run against Carbery for mayor and lost by a narrow margin, but had then pressed the matter in court in a legal battle that lasted until the end of Carbery's term. In 1824, Weightman won more decisively by the use of blustery promises and insults against his opponent. One handbill from the era reads,
NOTICE EXTRAORDINARY. R.C. Weightman, a man of known liberal principles; all those who vote for this gentleman at tomorrow's election, will have general permission to sleep on the Benches in the Market House, this intense warm weather. May the curse of Dr. Slop light on all those who vote for Tom Carberry.
During his time as mayor, Weightman headed the 1825 committee for the inauguration of John Quincy Adams, then the following year chaired the national memorial committee for the president's deceased father and his successor Thomas Jefferson.
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