Barnabas Bidwell
This article includes a improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2024) ) |
Barnabas Bidwell | |
---|---|
Attorney General of Massachusetts | |
In office June 15, 1807 – August 30, 1810 | |
Governor | James Sullivan Levi Lincoln Sr. Christopher Gore Elbridge Gerry |
Preceded by | James Sullivan |
Succeeded by | Perez Morton |
Member of the Massachusetts State Senate | |
In office 1801–1804 | |
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
In office 1805–1807 | |
Treasurer of Berkshire County, Massachusetts | |
In office September, 1791 – August, 1810 | |
Personal details | |
Born | August 23, 1763 Democratic-Republican |
Children | Marshall Spring Bidwell |
Alma mater | Yale College class of 1785, Brown University |
Profession | Attorney |
Barnabas Bidwell (August 23, 1763 – July 27, 1833) was an author, teacher and politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, active in Massachusetts and Upper Canada (now Ontario). Educated at Yale, he practised law in western Massachusetts and served as treasurer of Berkshire County. He served in the state legislature as representative and senator, as well as in the United States Congress as spokesman for the administration of Thomas Jefferson. He was effective in defending the administration's positions and passing important legislation. He resigned his seat in Congress in July 1807.
He was the Massachusetts Attorney General from 1807 to 1810, when exaggerated press accounts of irregularities in the Berkshire County books halted his political career and prompted his flight to Upper Canada. Bidwell later paid the $63.18, plus fines, which he attributed to an error by a Berkshire County clerk while Bidwell had been away on duties in Boston. Nonetheless, the controversy, exaggerated in the press by his Federalist Party enemies, effectively scuppered his potential appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Upper Canada, he won a seat in the provincial Legislative Assembly but his political opponents managed to expel him on charges of having his American citizenship, being a fugitive and having immoral character. He remained in Upper Canada for the rest of his life.
Early life
Bidwell was son of American Revolutionary War Patriot Adonijah Bidwell, Yale 1740, and Jemima Devotion in Township No. 1 (now Monterey, Massachusetts), and he graduated from Yale College in 1785. Through his mother, he was descended from John Haynes, 5th Governor of Massachusetts and 1st Governor of Connecticut, and George Wyllys, 4th Governor of Connecticut. He later attended the college in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (now known as Brown University) in Providence, Rhode Island. He studied law under judge Theodore Sedgwick of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Sedgwick, a prominent member of the House of Representatives and later a senator, was an important spokesman for the Federalist Party. Bidwell was admitted to the Massachusetts state bar in 1805 and commenced practice in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Barnabas was married to Mary Gray Bidwell and lived a very happy life with his wife. While he was traveling the couple kept in touch and sent each other very meaningful and extensive letters. Mary died around the age of 43 due to an illness.
US political career
Bidwell was a
Bidwell broke with the Federalists and became the leading spokesman of the Democratic-Republican administration of President
Accused of embezzling money while he was Berkshire County treasurer, he and his family fled to
Exile
Bidwell won a seat in the
Bidwell remained in Upper Canada until his death at
Legacy
His son, Marshall Spring Bidwell, successfully sat in the same seat from 1824 to 1836. Marshall Spring Bidwell later left for the United States. Bidwell's sister, Theodosia Bidwell Brewer, was the grandmother of U.S. Supreme Court Justice David J. Brewer, who sat on the court from 1889 to 1910 with his uncle, Stephen J. Field.
Footnotes
- ^ Dexter, Franklin Bowditch (1907), Biographical sketches of the graduates of Yale college with annals of the College History Volume IV, New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, p. 388
- ^ McMullen, John Mercier (1891), The history of Canada: from its first discovery to the present time, Volume 1, Brockville, Ont.: McMullen & Co., p. 450
- ISBN 978-0-9696418-0-3.
- ^ McMullen, John Mercier (1891), The History of Canada: from its first discovery to the present time, Volume 1, Brockville, Ont.: McMullen & Co., p. 451
External links
- United States Congress. "Barnabas Bidwell (id: B000446)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Marshall Spring Bidwell family fonds, Archives of Ontario