Benjamin Huntington

Benjamin Huntington (April 19, 1736 – October 16, 1800) was an American lawyer, jurist and politician from Norwich, Connecticut. He served in the Revolutionary War with the rank of General. He later served Connecticut as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the First United States Congress.

Benjamin was born on April 19, 1736 at Norwich, Connecticut, the only child of Daniel Huntington and his second wife Rachel Wolcott. He married Anne Huntington, of Windham, Connecticut, on May 5, 1765. She died on October 6, 1790 at Norwich. He graduated from Yale in 1761, and soon after, he entered upon the practice of law in his native town, and rose rapidly to the front rank of his profession. He seems to have been unusually devoted to his profession, being at once a severe student, and an active and successful advocate and business man. Though rather shunning than courting public life, he was not allowed to excuse himself from its claims; nor, when called to meet them, did he shrink either from public duties or dangers. In 1775 he was appointed, by the legislature of his native State, on the committee of safety, appointed to advise with the Governor of the State during the recess of the legislature. Only the ablest men and truest patriots of that trying day, would have been put upon that important committee. Again, in 1778, on the recommendation of George Washington, he was appointed by the legislature, one of the delegates to the convention to be held in New Haven, for the regulation of the army. From 1780 to 1784, and again in 1787 and 1788, he was a member of the Continental Congress; and when the new government went into operation, in 1789, he was chosen to represent Connecticut in the First Congress of the United States.

From 1781 to 1790, and also from 1791 to 1793 he was also a member of the upper house of the Connecticut Legislature. On the incorporation of Norwich, Connecticut, in 1784, he was chosen, for an indefinite period, its first Mayor, in which office he served until his formal resignation, in 1796. He was also appointed in 1793, a judge of the superior court of Connecticut, holding this office until 1798. Thus, for more than twenty years, during the most eventful period of United States history, he was continually serving his constituents in offices always onerous, and often hazardous. How well he discharged these trusts, their own recurrence will unequivocally evince. A word on this point, however, is due both to his memory and to the truth of American revolutionary history.

External links

* [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000995 Huntington's biographic sketch at the U.S. Congress website]
* [http://www.huntington.tierranet.com/bios/ben.htm Biography of Benjamin Huntington by the Huntington Family Association]