Philemon Charles Wederstrandt (March 7, 1776 – March 12, 1857) was the second student to enroll in Georgetown College, the first being North Carolinian William Gaston.
Born in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, he was related to Georgetown’s founder, John Carroll, through his grandmother, Sarah Darnall. He arrived on campus on December 20, 1791, aged 16, and left in August 1793.1
In 1798, he joined the U.S. Navy and was appointed as a midshipman to the Constellation, one of the original six frigates whose construction was authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. He resigned from the Navy in 1810 while commander of the flotilla at New Orleans for health reasons and retired to Baltimore. During the War of 1812, he was one of two Georgetown students known to have helped defend the city against the British, the other being Joseph Judik. Wederstrandt moved to Louisiana where he purchased a sugar plantation and died in 1857. Two of his grandsons also enrolled at Georgetown College.2
- 1Georgetown University in the District of Columbia, 1789-1907, its founders, benefactors, officers, instructors and alumni. James Stanislaus Easby-Smith. New York : Lewis, 1907
- 2Memorial of the first centenary of Georgetown College, D.C., comprising a history of Georgetown University. John Gilmary Shea. Washington, D.C., New York, Pub. for the College by P.F. Collier, 1891
