Benjamin Chew was a fifth-generation American, a Quaker-born legal scholar, prominent and successful Philadelphia lawyer, slaveowner, and chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Province of Pennsylvania and later the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Chew was known for precision and brevity in his legal arguments and his excellent memory, judgment, and knowledge of statutory law. His primary allegiance was to the supremacy of law and the constitution.

The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from "Penn's Woods", referring to William Penn's father Admiral Sir William Penn.