Ralph Isaacs, a son of Ralph and Mary [née Perret] Isaacs, was born in the bounds of Branford, Connecticut on the 6th of December 1767. His father, a graduate of Yale College, was a prominent merchant in New Haven.

Like his father, Ralph graduated from Yale in 1784, receiving the Berkeley Scholarship. He spent part of the years 1786 and 1787 in South Carolina and Georgia, and was reported to have killed a Charleston physician, Dr. Joseph Brown Ladd, in a duel. In 1788, he returned to New Haven and studied law.

Ralph Isaacs married Miss Elizabeth Sebor on September 2nd 1789 in Middletown, Connecticut. This union had the following known children:
Mary Esther Malbone {m. Sanford}(1790-1816)
Elizabeth Sebor {Smedes}(1793-1888)
Charlotte Woodward (1794-1809)
Ralph (1794)
Lieut. George W. (1797-1822)*

Around 1805, Ralph and his family moved to Augusta, Georgia; where he practiced law. Here his wife, Elizabeth and daughter Charlotte died in 1809. Ralph then moved to Philadelphia; where his daughter, Mary, married Nathan Sanford, a future U.S. Senator from New York. His surviving son, George attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Ralph Isaacs departed this life on the 8th of August 1815 in Philadelphia at the age of 47 years. Per his Pennsylvania death certificate, he was buried in Frankford Presbyterian graveyard. On August 14th 1815, his death in Philadelphia was reported in The New Haven Columbian Record, New Haven, Connecticut.

* son George died of Yellow Fever, aboard the USS Macedonia in August 1822

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In 1786, a duel occurred after Dr. Joseph Brown Ladd, a son of New England pacifists, exchanged hateful words in a Charleston newspaper with his close friend Ralph Isaacs. Ladd's sister, Elizabeth Haskins, later wrote that her brother was "averse to dueling in principle," but that "the tyranny of public sentiment was such that to decline [the challenge] would have made him the mark of public scorn." When the day of the duel finally came, Ladd fired into the air rather than harm his friend, but Ralph Isaacs fired into Dr. Ladd’s leg, intending only on a slight wound to embarrass the doctor, but the pistol ball fired erratically and struck Dr. Ladd in the knee. The physician was taken by gurney to his boarding house at 59 Church Street where Dr. Ladd died of the wound ten days later.

Ralph Isaacs, a son of Ralph and Mary [née Perret] Isaacs, was born in the bounds of Branford, Connecticut on the 6th of December 1767. His father, a graduate of Yale College, was a prominent merchant in New Haven.

Like his father, Ralph graduated from Yale in 1784, receiving the Berkeley Scholarship. He spent part of the years 1786 and 1787 in South Carolina and Georgia, and was reported to have killed a Charleston physician, Dr. Joseph Brown Ladd, in a duel. In 1788, he returned to New Haven and studied law.

Ralph Isaacs married Miss Elizabeth Sebor on September 2nd 1789 in Middletown, Connecticut. This union had the following known children:
Mary Esther Malbone {m. Sanford}(1790-1816)
Elizabeth Sebor {Smedes}(1793-1888)
Charlotte Woodward (1794-1809)
Ralph (1794)
Lieut. George W. (1797-1822)*

Around 1805, Ralph and his family moved to Augusta, Georgia; where he practiced law. Here his wife, Elizabeth and daughter Charlotte died in 1809. Ralph then moved to Philadelphia; where his daughter, Mary, married Nathan Sanford, a future U.S. Senator from New York. His surviving son, George attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Ralph Isaacs departed this life on the 8th of August 1815 in Philadelphia at the age of 47 years. Per his Pennsylvania death certificate, he was buried in Frankford Presbyterian graveyard. On August 14th 1815, his death in Philadelphia was reported in The New Haven Columbian Record, New Haven, Connecticut.

* son George died of Yellow Fever, aboard the USS Macedonia in August 1822

════════════════════
In 1786, a duel occurred after Dr. Joseph Brown Ladd, a son of New England pacifists, exchanged hateful words in a Charleston newspaper with his close friend Ralph Isaacs. Ladd's sister, Elizabeth Haskins, later wrote that her brother was "averse to dueling in principle," but that "the tyranny of public sentiment was such that to decline [the challenge] would have made him the mark of public scorn." When the day of the duel finally came, Ladd fired into the air rather than harm his friend, but Ralph Isaacs fired into Dr. Ladd’s leg, intending only on a slight wound to embarrass the doctor, but the pistol ball fired erratically and struck Dr. Ladd in the knee. The physician was taken by gurney to his boarding house at 59 Church Street where Dr. Ladd died of the wound ten days later.