Abraham Ogden (December 30, 1743 – January 31, 1798) was an American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1791 to 1798 and negotiated the Treaty of New York (1796).
Ogden was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1743. He was the third son of David Ogden and Gertrude (née Gouverneur) Ogden. [1] His father was a noted jurist and a member of the supreme court for the royal province of New Jersey before the Revolutionary War. [2]
His sister, Sarah Ogden (1742–1821), married Nicholas Hoffman (1736–1800), and were the parents of Josiah Ogden Hoffman (1766–1837). [2] His brother, Samuel Ogden (1746–1810), served as a Colonel of the New Jersey Militia during the Revolutionary War, and was later prominent in the iron business. Samuel married Euphemia Morris (1754–1818), a sister of Gouverneur Morris, in 1775. [1]
Ogden trained as a lawyer, establishing his practice in Morristown, New Jersey. He was appointed Surrogate of Morris County in 1768. [3]
Among those who studied law at his Morristown office were Richard Stockton (later United States Senator from New Jersey) and his nephew, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, later the New York State Attorney General. [2]
During the Revolutionary War, Ogden and his brother Samuel sided with the Patriots, while their father David and brothers Isaac, Nicholas and Peter sided with the Loyalists. [3]
Ogden befriended George Washington, who often visited his family residence while the Continental Army was quartered in Morristown. During that time, his young son, Thomas Ludlow Ogden, wounded Washington's hand in a fencing bout. This is believed to be the only injury that Washington suffered in the course of the war. [1] [2]
After the war, Ogden settled in Newark. He represented Essex County in the New Jersey General Assembly in 1790. [4] In 1791 President Washington appointed him U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, [5] a position he served until his death.
Washington also appointed Ogden as Commissioner to the Indians in Northern New York. He led the delegation that negotiated the Treaty of New York (1796) with the Seven Nations of Canada. [1] They had been allies of the British during the Revolutionary War. Aware that the Iroquois and other tribes were being forced to cede most of their lands in New York State, which wanted to sell the property for development, Ogden, his brother Samuel, Gouverneur Morris and others purchased a large tract of land in New York, south of the Saint Lawrence River. They intended to plat and sell it to new settlers; many migrants were entering the state from New England, and some men made fortunes in land speculation. The town of Ogdensburg, New York was named after his brother, Samuel Ogden. [1]
On December 22, 1767, Ogden married Sarah F. Ludlow (1744–1823), the daughter of Catherine (née Le Roux) Ludlow and Thomas Ludlow, merchant of New York. Together, they had 13 children: [1]
Ogden died in 1798 in Newark. [2]
His grandson, William D. Waddington (1811–1886), who married Mary Elizabeth Ogden (1810–1867), were the parents of George Waddington (1840–1915), [6] who married Elizabeth Van Rensselaer (1845–1911), the daughter of Henry Bell Van Rensselaer, a U.S. Representative and the son of New York's Lt. Gov. Stephen Van Rensselaer. [8]
St. Lawrence County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 108,505. The county seat is Canton. The county is named for the Saint Lawrence River. This was as named by early French explorer Jacques Cartier for the Christian saint Lawrence of Rome, as he visited the river on the saint's feast day. The county is part of the North Country region of the state.
John Bubenheim Bayard was a merchant, soldier, and statesman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He achieved the rank of colonel while serving with the Continental Army, and was a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Congress of the Confederation in 1785 and 1786. Later he was elected as mayor of New Brunswick, New Jersey.
The Biddle family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is an Old Philadelphian family descended from English immigrants William Biddle (1630–1712) and Sarah Kempe (1634–1709), who arrived in the Province of New Jersey in 1681. Quakers, they had emigrated from England in part to escape religious persecution. Having acquired extensive rights to more than 43,000 acres (170 km2) of lands in West Jersey, they settled first at Burlington, a city which developed along the east side of the Delaware River.
Lewis Morris was an American Founding Father, landowner, and developer from Morrisania, New York, presently part of Bronx County. He signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence as a delegate to the Continental Congress from New York.
Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, from the prominent Van Rensselaer family, was the lieutenant governor of New York and a member of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing New York in the 1st United States Congress.
Lewis Morris, chief justice of New York and British governor of New Jersey, was the first lord of the manor of Morrisania in New York City.
Jonathan Nicoll Havens was a politician from New York.
Lewis Richard Morris was an American lawyer and politician. He served as a United States representative from Vermont.
David Aaron Ogden was a U.S. Representative from New York and a member of the prominent Ogden family.
The Schuyler family was a prominent Dutch family in New York and New Jersey in the 18th and 19th centuries, whose descendants played a critical role in the formation of the United States, in leading government and business in North America and served as leaders in business, military, politics, and society. The other two most influential New York dynasties of the 18th and 19th centuries were the Livingston family and the Clinton family.
The Livingston family of New York is a prominent family that migrated from Scotland to the Dutch Republic, and then to the Province of New York in the 17th century. Descended from the 4th Lord Livingston, its members included signers of the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Several members were Lords of Livingston Manor and Clermont Manor, located along the Hudson River in 18th-century eastern New York.
Josiah Ogden Hoffman was an American lawyer and politician.
John Ten Eyck Lansing Jr., a Founding Father of the United States, was an attorney, jurist, and politician.
Colonel Samuel Ogden was a colonial businessman in New Jersey who had an iron works. He fought on the winning side during the American Revolutionary War. Afterward, he became a developer and land speculator for a large tract of land in upstate New York.
Joshua Waddington was a British-American who was one of the founders of the Saint George's Society, the Bank of New York, and was the defendant in the case Rutgers v. Waddington before New York City Mayor's Court.
Richard Morris was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was chief justice of the New York Supreme Court from 1779 to 1790.
Uzal Ogden was an American clergyman, at first a member of the Episcopal Church and later as a minister of the Presbyterian Church.
Lewis Morris Jr. was an American judge, politician and landowner who served as speaker of the New York General Assembly from 1737 to 1738.
Dr. Jabez Campfield was a colonial-era doctor, one of the earliest to set up practice in Morristown, New Jersey. He served as a surgeon in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. During the Continental Army's winter encampment in Morristown in 1777, Dr. Campfield helped inoculate soldiers against a smallpox outbreak that spread through the army and the area that winter. Dr. Campfield was a surgeon on the Sullivan Expedition in upstate New York in the summer and autumn of 1779, during which he kept a detailed diary which has been preserved and published. During the winter encampment of 1779-1780, surgeon general Dr. John Cochran stayed in Dr. Campfield's home, and his home served as a "flying hospital". Dr. Cochran's niece, Elizabeth Schuyler, came to stay in Dr. Campfield's home, and while there fell in love and became engaged to Founding Father Alexander Hamilton.
Jacob Arnold's Tavern, also known as the OldArnold Tavern and the Duncan House, was a "famous" historic tavern established by Samuel Arnold circa 1740. Until 1886, it was located in Morristown Green in Morristown, New Jersey. In 1777 it served as George Washington's headquarters during the Revolutionary War, and it was the site of Benedict Arnold's first trial in 1780. The National Park Service claims "Much of [Morris]town's social, political, and business life was conducted at Arnold's Tavern" during the Revolutionary era.