John Van Lear Findlay
American politician
title: "John Van Lear Findlay" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1839-births", "1907-deaths", "princeton-university-alumni", "maryland-lawyers", "democratic-party-members-of-the-maryland-house-of-delegates", "democratic-party-united-states-representatives-from-maryland", "19th-century-united-states-representatives", "19th-century-members-of-the-maryland-general-assembly"] description: "American politician" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Van_Lear_Findlay" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American politician ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | John Van Lear Findlay |
| state | Maryland |
| district | |
| term_start | March 4, 1883 |
| term_end | March 3, 1887 |
| predecessor | Robert Milligan McLane |
| successor | Isidor Rayner |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Williamsport Maryland, U.S. |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Baltimore Maryland |
| restingplace | Greenmount Cemetery |
| party | Democratic |
| education | Princeton University |
| :: |
::callout[type=note] the U.S. Representative from Maryland ::
|name =John Van Lear Findlay |image = |state = Maryland |district = |term_start = March 4, 1883 |term_end = March 3, 1887 |predecessor =Robert Milligan McLane |successor = Isidor Rayner | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Williamsport Maryland, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Baltimore Maryland | restingplace = Greenmount Cemetery | party = Democratic | spouse = | children = | education =Princeton University | signature = John Van Lear Findlay (December 21, 1839 – April 19, 1907) was a U.S. Representative from Maryland.
Biography
Born at Mount Tammany, near Williamsport, Maryland, Findlay was privately tutored, pursued classical studies, and graduated from Princeton College in 1858. He served as member of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1861 and 1862. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1869. He served as collector of internal revenue for the third district of Maryland at Baltimore in 1865 and 1866, and was appointed city solicitor for Baltimore in 1876 and served two years. He was orator for Maryland on "Maryland Day" at the United States Centennial Exhibition of 1876.
Findlay was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1887). He resumed the practice of law, and was appointed a member of the Venezuelan Claims Commission in 1889, and nominated as arbitrator on the Chilean Claims Commission in 1893, but the Senate rejected the nomination. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, April 19, 1907, and was interred in Greenmount Cemetery.
Family
Findlay was a nephew of U.S. Senator William Findlay's son John King Findlay.
References
state=Maryland| district=4 | before=Robert Milligan McLane | after=Isidor Rayner| years=1883–1887
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::