Theodore Sedgwick

Infobox Officeholder
name =Theodore Sedgwick


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order =5th
office =Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
term_start =December 2, 1799
term_end =March 4, 1801
president =John Adams
predecessor =Jonathan Dayton
successor =Nathaniel Macon
order2 =Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Massachusetts's 4th district
term_start2 =March 4, 1789
term_end2 =March 3, 1793
predecessor2 =None
successor2 =Henry Dearborn, George Thatcher, Peleg Wadsworth (General ticket)
order3 =Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Massachusetts's 2nd district
term_start3 =March 4, 1793
term_end3 =March 3, 1795
predecessor3 =Benjamin Goodhue
successor3 =William Lyman
order4 =Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Massachusetts's 1st district
term_start4 =March 4, 1795
term_end4 =June 1796
March 4, 1799 – March 4, 1801
predecessor4 =Fisher Ames, Samuel Dexter, Benjamin Goodhue, Samuel Holten (General ticket)
Thomson J. Skinner
successor4 =Thomson J. Skinner
John Bacon
order5 =United States Senator
from Massachusetts
term_start5 =June 11, 1796
term_end5 =March 4, 1799
predecessor5 =Caleb Strong
successor5 =Samuel Dexter
order6 =10th President pro tempore of the United States Senate
term_start6 =June 27 1798
term_end6 =December 5, 1798
president6 =John Adams
predecessor6 =Jacob Read
successor6 =John Laurance
birth_date =May 9, 1746
birth_place =West Hartford, Connecticut
death_date =January 24, 1813 (aged 66)
death_place =Boston, Massachusetts
nationality =
party =Federalist
otherparty =
spouse =
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =Yale College
occupation =
profession =Law
net worth =
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footnotes =

Theodore Sedgwick (May 9, 1746-January 24, 1813), a Delegate, a Representative, and a United States Senator from Massachusetts and the fifth Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, was born in West Hartford, Connecticut.

Sedgwick attended Yale College, where he studied theology and law. He did not graduate, but went on to study law under Mark Hopkins of Great Barrington, the grandfather of Mark Hopkins, the distinguished later president of Williams College. He was admitted to the bar in 1766 and commenced practice in Great Barrington, Massachusetts; moved to Sheffield, Massachusetts; during the American Revolution served in the expedition against Canada in 1776.

Sedgwick married, April 17, 1774 (his second), Pamela Dwight, born June 26, 1753, died September 20, 1807, daughter of Brigadier General Joseph Dwight of Great Barrington and his second wife and her second husband, Abigail Williams (Sargent) Dwight. Pamela was the granddaughter of Colonel Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams College. They had ten children of whom three died within a year of birth. [New Haven Colony Historical Society]

A Federalist, Sedgwick's political career began in 1780 and lasted until he became a judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in 1802, a position he held until his death in Boston, Massachusetts in 1813. He was buried in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and his grave is at the center of the "Sedgwick Pie" [ [http://www.sedgwick.org/na/library/cemetery/ma.berkshire.stockbridge/SedgwickStockbridgePlot.html Sedgwick Pie - Listing of Graves, Stockbridge, MA Cemetery ] ] .

He is an ancestor of Kyra Sedgwick, the American actress.

Mum Bett

As lawyers he and Tapping Reeve pled the case of "Brom and Bett vs. Ashley" for Mum Bett, a black slave who had fled from her master on account of cruel treatment. The jury ruled that she was free, thus making this case the earliest application of the declaration of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 that "all men are born free and equal." This decision was later upheld by the state Supreme Court after Sedgwick became a justice thereof. Mum Bett, who changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman, chose to work for the Sedgwick household for much of the rest of her life and is buried in the family plot. Her grave (also in the "Sedgwick Pie") is marked by a monument beside the grave of his daughter Catharine Maria Sedgwick, one of the first noted female writers in the United States. [New Haven Colony Historical Society]

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Persondata
NAME= Sedgwick, Theodore
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Delegate, Representative, and United States Senator from Massachusetts
DATE OF BIRTH=May 9, 1746
PLACE OF BIRTH=West Hartford, Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH=January 24, 1813
PLACE OF DEATH=Boston, Massachusetts