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Cadwallader D. Colden | |
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| New York State Senate (1st District) | |
| In office 1825–1827 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives from New York's1st district | |
| In office December 12, 1821 – March 3, 1823 | |
| Preceded by | James Guyon, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Silas Wood |
| 55thMayor of New York City | |
| In office 1818–1821 | |
| Governor | DeWitt Clinton |
| Preceded by | Jacob Radcliff |
| Succeeded by | Stephen Allen |
| New York State Assembly | |
| In office 1818 | |
| District attorney (1st District) | |
| In office 1810–1811 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Cadwallader David Colden (1769-04-04)April 4, 1769 Flushing, Province of New York, British America |
| Died | February 7, 1834(1834-02-07) (aged 64) Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Party | Federalist |
| Spouse | |
| Relations | Cadwallader Colden (grandfather) |
Cadwallader David Colden (April 4, 1769 – February 7, 1834) was an American politician who served as the 55thMayor of New York City and a U.S. Representative from New York.[1]
Colden was born atSpring Hill inFlushing, the family home, on April 4, 1769, in theProvince of New York.[1] He was the son of David Colden and Ann Alice (née Willett) Colden. He was the brother of Alice Christy Colden, Maria Colden, who marriedJosiah Ogden Hoffman, Elizabeth Colden, who married Edward Laight, and Catherine Colden, who married Thomas Cooper.
He was the grandson of Alice (née Chrystie) Colden andCadwallader Colden, who served as theGovernor of the province of New York several times in the 1760s.[2]
He was taught by a private tutor and then provided a classical education inJamaica, New York and inLondon. After returning to the United States in 1785, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1791.[1]
Colden first practiced law inNew York City, then moved toPoughkeepsie, New York in 1793. He returned to New York in 1796 and from 1798 to 1801, he was Assistant Attorney General for the First District, comprisingSuffolk,Queens,Kings,Richmond andWestchester counties. From 1810 to 1811, he wasDistrict Attorney of the First District, comprising the above-mentioned counties andNew York County.[1] In his time as an attorney, Colden argued for the defendant in the seminal property casePierson v. Post.[3]
Colden was an activeFreemason. He was theSenior Grand Warden of theGrand Lodge of New York in 1801-1805 and 1810–1819.[4]
He became a Colonel of Volunteers in theWar of 1812. Despite having owned slaves, in 1815 he became president of theNew York Manumission Society, established in 1785 to promote theabolition of slavery in the state.[5] He oversaw the rebuilding of the Society's African Free School in New York City. Later historians cited the energetic aid of Colden,Peter A. Jay,William Jay, GovernorDaniel D. Tompkins, and others in influencing the New York legislature to set the date of July 4, 1827, for the abolition of slavery in the state.
Colden was also a member of theNew York State Assembly in 1818, and the 55th Mayor of New York City from 1818 to 1821, appointed by GovernorDeWitt Clinton. He successfully contested theelection ofPeter Sharpe to the17th United States Congress and served from December 12, 1821, to March 3, 1823. He was a member of theNew York State Senate (1st District) from 1825 to 1827, when he resigned.[2]
After his resignation from the State Senate, he moved toJersey City, New Jersey, where he devoted much of his time to the completion of theMorris Canal.[1]
A proponent of a national canal system, in 1825 Colden was commissioned by the Common Council of New York City, during the last days of the construction of the Erie Canal,[6] to write hisMemoir, Prepared at the Request of a Committee of the Common Council of the City of New York, and Presented to the Mayor of the City, at the Celebration of the Completion of the New York Canals. The work and its Appendix contain period lithographs of the canal construction and highlights of the "Grand Canal Celebration" in New York City.[7]
On April 8, 1793,[8][9] Colden was married to Maria Provoost (1770–1837), the daughter of Rt. Rev. Dr.Samuel Provoost, 1stBishop of New York and Maria Bousefield Provoost.[10][11] Together, they were the parents of:
Colden died inJersey City, New Jersey, in 1834. His body was removed in 1843 from interment inNew Jersey and moved to a receiving vault inTrinity Church Cemetery inUpper Manhattan in New York City.[1] The vault was removed in 1845 and relocated to a prominent spot in the cemetery's Easterly Division, where it overlooks a rural intersection atBroadway and West 153rd Street. By 1869, preparations to widen Broadway, where the road cut through the cemetery caused Colden to be removed to another plot in the cemetery's Westerly Division that was essentially forgotten until a local historian rediscovered it in July 2011.
| Legal offices | ||
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| Preceded by | District Attorney of the First District Kings,New York,Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, and Westchester counties 1810–1811 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Mayor of New York City 1818–1821 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromNew York's 1st congressional district 1821–1823 withSilas Wood | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
