Although no doubt can be entertained, that, in the early part of the year 1772, Mr. Rittenhouse had it very seriously in contemplation to visit England, as soon, to use his own words, as his business would permit, his intention in that particular was eventually frustrated: but it is now uncertain, to what cause was owing a change of his views or the disappointment of his plan.[168] He married, however, in the month of December following, Miss Hannah Jacobs, of the city of Philadelphia.[169] ----- Footnote 168: It is not improbable, that about the time of writing the letter of the 3d of Feb. 1772, from which extracts are given in the text, he began to think seriously of marrying again. Both his natural disposition and his habits endeared to him the comforts of domestic society; and these he could not enjoy in a single state, his two only children being infants. He therefore married, in December 1772; at which time he was only in the forty-first year of his age. The lady he chose as his companion, was a sensible, prudent and valuable woman; whose family were members of the religious society of Friends, and with whose brothers Mr. Rittenhouse had long been intimately acquainted. By that marriage there was but one child, a daughter, who died in her infancy. Mrs. Rittenhouse survived her husband little more than three years. She died in October, 1799. Footnote 169: See the preceding note. ----- By an act of the legislature of Pennsylvania, passed the 26th of February, 1773, Mr. Rittenhouse was appointed one of the Commissioners for making the river Schuylkill navigable;[170] and by two subsequent laws, passed on the 24th of March, 1781, and the 15th of March, 1784, he was again appointed a Commissioner, at those two periods, for the same purpose. And by a list of the incidental expences of the government, for the first mentioned of those years, it appears that he received 41_l._ 15_s._ 11_d._ for his services in that business. In these several appointments of commissioners, during a term of eleven years, Mr. Rittenhouse was uniformly first-named; and, consequently, became president of their board. ----- Footnote 170: The first law of Pennsylvania, for removing rocks, sandbars and gravel, from the bed of the river Schuylkill, so as to render it passable with rafts, boats, and other small river-craft, was passed the 14th of March 1761. ----- The last important business of a public nature, in which Mr. Rittenhouse was engaged, prior to the American war, was in fixing, jointly with a Commissioner on the part of New-York, the beginning of the 43° of North latitude, and to establish a Line, thence Westward, as the Boundary between Pennsylvania and New-York.