Theodore Sedgwick
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Theodore Sedgwick | |
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Portrait by Gilbert Stuart c1808 (Museum Fine Arts Boston)
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4th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives | |
In office December 2, 1799 – March 4, 1801 |
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President | John Adams |
Preceded by | Jonathan Dayton |
Succeeded by | Nathaniel Macon |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 1st district |
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In office March 4, 1795 – June 1796 |
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Preceded by | Samuel Holten |
Succeeded by | Thomson J. Skinner |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 4th district |
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In office March 4, 1799 – March 3, 1801 |
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Preceded by | Thomson J. Skinner |
Succeeded by | John Bacon |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 2nd district |
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In office March 4, 1793 – March 3, 1795 |
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Preceded by | Dwight Foster |
Succeeded by | Artemas Ward |
In office March 4, 1789 – March 3, 1793 |
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Preceded by | District created |
Succeeded by | Henry Dearborn |
United States Senator from Massachusetts |
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In office June 11, 1796 – March 4, 1799 |
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Preceded by | Caleb Strong |
Succeeded by | Samuel Dexter |
President pro tempore of the United States Senate | |
In office June 27, 1798 – December 5, 1798 |
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President | John Adams |
Preceded by | Jacob Read |
Succeeded by | John Laurance |
Personal details | |
Born | West Hartford, Connecticut, U.S. |
May 9, 1746
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Boston, Massachusetts |
Nationality | American, U.S. |
Political party | Federalist |
Spouse(s) | Elizabeth "Eliza" Mason (m. 1767; d. 1771) Pamela Dwight (m. 1774; d. 1807) Penelope Russell (m. 1808–13) |
Children | 10 |
Alma mater | Yale College |
Occupation | Attorney, politician and jurist |
Profession | Law |
Religion | Unitarianism |
Military service | |
Service/branch | Continental Army |
Rank | Major |
Battles/wars | American Revolutionary War |
Theodore Sedgwick (May 9, 1746 – January 24, 1813) was an American attorney, politician and jurist, who served in elected state government and as a Delegate to the Continental Congress, a U.S. Representative, and a United States Senator from Massachusetts. He served as the fourth Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1802 and served there the rest of his life.
Contents
Early life and education
Born in West Hartford, Connecticut, Sedgwick was the son of Benjaman Sedgwick (1716-1755). His paternal immigrant ancestor Major General Robert Sedgwick arrived in 1636 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, as part of the Great Migration.[1]
Sedgwick attended Yale College,[2] where he studied theology and law. He did not graduate, but went on to study law ("read law") under the attorney Mark Hopkins of Great Barrington (He was the grandfather of the Mark Hopkins who later became president of Williams College.)
Early career
Sedgwick was admitted to the bar in 1766 and commenced practice in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He moved to Sheffield. During the American Revolutionary War, he served in the Continental Army as a major, and took part in the expedition to Canada and the Battle of White Plains in 1776.[3]
Freedom suit
As a relatively young lawyer, Sedgwick and Tapping Reeve pled the case of Brom and Bett vs. Ashley (1781), an early "freedom suit", in county court for the slaves Elizabeth Freeman (known as Bett) and Brom. Bett was a black slave who had fled from her master, Colonel John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts, because of cruel treatment by his wife. Brom joined her in suing for freedom from the Ashleys. The attorneys challenged their enslavement under the new state constitution of 1780, which held that "all men are born free and equal." The jury agreed and ruled that Bett and Brom were free. The decision was upheld on appeal by the state Supreme Court.
Bett marked her freedom by taking the name of Elizabeth Freeman, and she chose to work for wages at the Sedgwick household, where she helped rear their several children. She worked there for much of the rest of her life, buying a separate house for her and her daughter after the Sedgwick children were grown. After Freeman's death, the Sedgwicks buried her at Stockbridge Cemetery in the Sedgwick Pie, the family plot. The family marked Freeman's grave with an inscribed monument, and it is beside that of their fourth child, writer Catharine Maria.[4]
Political career
A Federalist, Sedgwick began his political career in 1780 as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was elected as representative to the state house, and then as state senator. He was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780.[5]
In 1789 Sedgwick was elected as Representative to Congress from Massachusetts' first congressional district, and over time also represented the Massachusetts' second district, serving until 1796. That year he was elected to the United States Senate, and served until 1799. In 1799 he was re-elected as a Representative, this time from the fourth district, and was elected the fifth Speaker of the House, serving until March 1801.
In 1802, Sedgwick was appointed a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. He held this position until his death.
Marriages and family
Around 1767, Sedgwick married Elizabeth "Eliza" Mason, the daughter of a deacon from Franklin, Connecticut. In 1771, Sedgwick contracted smallpox which he passed on to his wife who was then pregnant with the couple's first child.[6] She died of the disease on April 12, 1771 while eight months pregnant.[2]
Sedgwick married a second time on April 17, 1774 to Pamela Dwight of the New England Dwight family. She was the daughter of Brigadier General Joseph Dwight of Great Barrington and his second wife, the widow Abigail Williams Sargent. Abigail was the daughter of Colonel Ephraim Williams, and half-sister of Ephraim Williams, Jr. the founder of Williams College.[1]
The Sedgwicks had ten children, three of which died within a year of birth, reflecting the high infant mortality of the time. They were:[1][7]
- Elizabeth Mason Sedgwick (April 30, 1775 – October 15, 1827)
- A child died at birth on March 27, 1777.
- Frances Pamela Sedgwick (May 6, 1778 – October 15, 1827)
- Theodore Sedgwick II (December 9, 1780 – 1839), he married children's book author Susan Anne Livingston. Their son Theodore Sedgwick was a lawyer and author.
- Catherine Sedgwick (July 11, 1782 – March 4, 1783)
- Henry Dwight Sedgwick (April 18, 1784 – March 1, 1785)
- Henry Dwight Sedgwick (September 22, 1785 – December 23, 1831), his grandson was lawyer and author Henry Dwight Sedgwick III.
- Catharine Maria Sedgwick (December 28, 1789 – July 31, 1876), became one of the first noted female writers in the United States
- Charles Sedgwick (December 15, 1791 – August 3, 1856), became clerk of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. His grandson was anatomist Charles Sedgwick Minot.
During the marriage, Sedgwick frequently left his wife and children at their home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts while he focused on building his political career. His frequent absences coupled with the death of three children and the strain of caring for numerous children (albeit with the help of her mother and many servants and slaves) caused Pamela physical health to decline.[8] After Pamela's mother died in February 1791, she developed depression and began exhibiting signs of hypomania.[9] She was institutionalized for a time in December 1795 but her physical and mental health continued to decline in the years following her release. she committed suicide by consuming poison on September 20, 1807.[10][11]
After Pamela's death, Sedgwick married his third wife Penelope Russell on November 7, 1808. The two remained married until Sedgwick's death in 1813.[12]
Death
While on his death bed, Sedgwick converted to Unitarianism with his daughter Catharine Maria and William Ellery Channing in attendance.[13] On January 24, 1813, Sedgwick died in Boston, Massachusetts at the age of 66. He was buried in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. His grave is at the center of the "Sedgwick Pie".[4]
Modern-day relatives
Theodore Sedgwick is the fourth great-grandfather of actress Kyra Sedgwick.[14]
See also
References
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Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 (Dwight 1874, pp. 735–739)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 (Kenslea 2006, p. 14)
- ↑ Banner, James M., Jr. "Sedgwick, Theodore"; American National Biography Online, February 2000.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Sedgwick Pie - Listing of Graves, Stockbridge, Massachusetts Cemetery", Sedgwick Website
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ (Sedgwick 2008, pp. 40-41)
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- ↑ (Kenslea 2006, pp. 20-24)
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ (Sedgwick 2008, p. 138)
- ↑ (Kenslea 2006, p. 27)
- ↑ (Kenslea 2006, p. 1386)
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External links
- Theodore Sedgwick at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Theodore Sedgwick at Find a Grave
- Theodore SEDGWICK II / Susan Anne Livingston RIDLEY
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- 1746 births
- 1813 deaths
- American people of English descent
- Continental Army officers from Massachusetts
- Continental Congressmen from Massachusetts
- Converts to Unitarianism
- Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Massachusetts Federalists
- Massachusetts State Senators
- Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justices
- Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
- Members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts
- People from Stockbridge, Massachusetts
- People from West Hartford, Connecticut
- Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate
- Sedgwick family
- Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
- Speakers of the United States House of Representatives
- Freedom suits in the United States
- United States Senators from Massachusetts
- United States slavery case law
- Federalist Party members of the United States House of Representatives
- Yale University alumni
- People of colonial Connecticut