Abraham Ogden

Abraham Ogden
U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey
In office
1791–1798
Preceded by Richard Stockton
Succeeded by Lucius Horatio Stockton
Personal details
Born (1743-12-30)December 30, 1743
Newark, New Jersey
Died January 31, 1798(1798-01-31)
Residence Morristown, New Jersey

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 in 1796.

Biography

Ogden was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1743. He was the third son of David Ogden and Gertrude (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] The younger Ogden also 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 Josiah Ogden Hoffman (later New York State Attorney General). The latter was his nephew, the son of his sister Sarah Ogden (1742–1821) and her husband Nicholas Hoffman (1736–1800).[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 with the Seven Nations of Canada in 1796.[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 ending at the St. 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.

Ogden died in 1798 in Newark.[2]

Family

Ogden married Sarah Frances Ludlow (1744–1823), daughter of Thomas Ludlow, merchant of New York, and Catherine Le Roux, on December 22, 1767. They had 13 children:[1]

Ogden's 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. In 1775, he married Euphemia Morris (1754–1818), a sister of Gouverneur Morris. After Abraham Ogden served as Commissioner to the Indians in Northern New York, he and Samuel Ogden, along with Gouverneur Morris and others, purchased a large tract of land in New York south of the Saint Lawrence River. The town of Ogdensburg, New York was named after Samuel Ogden.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Wheeler, William Ogden (1907). The Ogden Family in America. pp. 103–4.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 4. 1900. p. 560.
  3. 1 2 History of Morris County, New Jersey with Illustrations, and Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens and Pioneers, 1739–1882. New York: Munsell & Co. 1882.
  4. ↑ DenBoer, Gordon (1987). The Documentary History of the First Federal Elections 1788–1790. 3. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 23. ISBN 0-299-10650-0.
  5. ↑ Cite as: The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, ed. Theodore J. Crackel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008. Canonic URL: http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN-05-07-02-0096 [accessed 15 Nov 2015] Original source: Presidential Series (24 September 1788 – 31 March 1795), Volume 7 (1 December 1790 – 21 March 1791)
Legal offices
Preceded by
Richard Stockton		 United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey
1791 – 1798 		Succeeded by
Lucius Horatio Stockton
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